The What Cheer Art Company

The What Cheer Art Company is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing support for Rhode Island artists, helping them bring their projects to fruition with production advice and financial assistance. Since its founding in 1994, the What Cheer Art Company has been involved in producing and presenting a wide variety of performing arts events in Rhode Island.

We maintain a presence in the physical world, through work with Rhode Island artists, helping to produce new work. However, this means we scant our efforts in the virtual world. This site is therefore slight by the standards of the 21st century, but is a useful service to some of our projects. Just call us a little old-fashioned. Actually, call us whatever you like, but come see some of our projects out there in the real world.

Major Current Projects

  • Bright Night Providence, a fabulous New Year's Eve spectacle of local performing arts.

  • PRONK!, also known as "Providence HONK," is a celebration of street bands. A one-day orgy of brass and percussion, it includes afternoon concerts at India Point Park, a parade down Wickenden Street, and music until the wee hours at the hurricane barrier.

  • Othello and The RI Shakespeare Theatre Two projects involving outdoor Shakespeare.

  • The Legend of the Fairy Melusine, Rhode Island-based composer Steven Jobe is creating a new opera, "The Legend of the Fairy Melusine." A supernatural story filled with romance and mystery, "Melusine" is an ideal vehicle for Jobe's music. To enhance the narrative of the story, Jobe is working in collaboration with director/dramaturge Vanessa Gilbert, who is merging a video component with Jobe's music.

    Jobe and Gilbert collaborated on a work in progress program, Selections from "The Legend of the Fairy Melusine," performed May 2011 at Blackstone River Theatre. In the video clips on this page, Soprano Julia Steinbok sings the role of Melusine with tenor Fredric Scheff sings the role of the male lead, Raimondin. Soprano Kara Lund introduces the proceedings, singing the aria "As If It Were All Quite True." For video clips of the performance, see www.melusineopera.com.

    Highlights from Past Projects:

  • Jelly Fishers, a video animation by Steven Subotnick. A family of hungry mole-creatures is saved by the generosity of jellyfish. A hand drawn and painted animation digitally layered and composited; inspired by a traditional lullaby from Guernsey. music by Igor Ballereau, Kenneth Kirschner, Aidan Baker, QQQ

  • Joan of Arc: An Opera in Three Acts "Joan of Arc," an opera by Rhode Island composer Steven Jobe, was produced the first time as a fully-staged opera in May, 2010 at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, RI.

    Tess Wakim, who enjoys an internationally successful career as soloist in the opera, oratorio and chamber music, played Joan of Arc. Jason McStoots, a renowned vocalist from the Boston area, played the Dauphin.

    The opera's composition is a compelling blend of old and new -- medieval melodies and harmonies in a context of modern tones and instrumentation. Two exotic instruments are included in the score: ' Cloud Chamber Bowls' (unpitched glass bells) developed by composer Harry Partch, and the Drone-Machine, a 7-foot long hurdy-gurdy type instrument developed by Steven Jobe.

    Channing Gray reviewed the performance: (Providence Journal, Thursday, May 20th, 2011) "The music is fresh and tuneful, with catchy melodies and more than a few exotic colors." The review continues, "Boston-area tenor Jason McStoots took on the role of the Dauphin, the crown prince of France, and sang wonderfully. And soprano Teresa Wakim, the opera's Joan, sang sweetly at the end of the first act, in one of the more touching arias of the show."

    For video and audio clips of the performance, see www.joanofarcopera.com.

  • Music for Three Hurdy-Gurdies was an ambitious multidisciplinary project performed in Providence in October 2007 as part of the First Works Festival. The production featured new music by Rhode Island composer Steven Jobe, and showcased performances on all three of the hurdy-gurdies that Jobe either plays or has developed, two of which are large-scale, one-of-a-kind instruments — 7-foot and 10-foot versions of the normally lap-sized instrument. The Minneapolis-based dance company, Three Dances provided original choreography and movement for the event.

  • The Pan-Twilight Circus, a modern, no-animal tent show that toured Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1995 and 1997

  • The Great Gilly Hopkins, the premiere of a musical adaptation of Katherine Patterson's children's novel, produced in the Fall of 1998

  • Sally Mayo's Wild West, a dance concert by Sally Mayo inspired by stories Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

  • Other past projects include documentary videos, animated films, and even more theatre. Watch for us!

       Contact: info@whatcheer.org


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