Sean C. Morgan
SHOCASE will present a gala concert featuring Broadway baritone Douglas Webster next week to celebrate what the organization has accomplished in the past few years.
The performances start at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 in the high school auditorium, 1641 Long St., but those purchasing VIP tickets will experience a pre-concert meet-and- and greet with hors d’oeuvres catered by Denim and Pearls at 6 p.m., along with VIP seating.
General admission is $12. Admission for students and seniors is $8. VIP tickets are $30. Tickets can be purchased at the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce and The New Era or online at sweethomecoc.com and Event Brite. Tickets will be available at the door.
SHOCASE, an acronym for Sweet Home Oregon Coalition for Artistic and Scholastic Enrichment, is a community group dedicated to advancing the arts in the Sweet Home community and schools.
“It’s a celebration of what SHOCASE stands for and has accomplished, the results of SHOCASE’s efforts,” said Shirley Austin, SHOCASE board member and event organizer.
“It’s something where people can have fun dressing up if they want. This is a formal gala type performance event. We searched for local talented people and found several in the Sweet Home and Lebanon communities.”
The show will feature a variety of east Linn County singers and instrumentalists, as well as ballet dancers.
Webster will headline the event, Austin said. “He’s done everything. He’s done Broadway and is an international vocalist. To me, he’s the ultimate entertainer. He has performed around the world, and he’s an all-around nice guy.”
Webster performs with symphony orchestras, in opera and as a solo recitalist. He has acted on Broadway, on national tours and in regional theater. He has received the Portland Drammy Award for Best Actor in a Musical for “Les Miserables” and the Phoenix Theater Encore Award for Best Actor for “Les Miserables” and Best Supporting Actor for “The Light in the Piazza.”
Winner of the Joy in Singing and Concert Artists Guild International Awards, his recordings include erudite chamber music interpretations of high-camp Disney tunes.
His first recording job was singing Prince Charming on the Grammy-nominated “A Disney Spectacular” with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops. He has numerous classical recordings, covering the gamut from Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” and Ravel’s “Chansons Madecasses” to Paul Shoenfield’s “Klezmer Rondos” and John Philip Sousa’s “El Capitan.”
Webster has appeared with the Boston Pops, the National Symphony and others across the United States and Europe. As the celebrant in Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” he has led more than 20 productions, appearing at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and festivals. To support a growing number of requests for advice regarding the production of “Mass,” he created Carousel Concerts, LLC, a production company, which has included productions of “Mass” at the Vatican.
Webster was interim director for the opera program at the University of Oregon. He has served on the faculty of the University of Memphis and was director of performing arts at South Park High School in Colorado.
He shares homes with his wife, cellist Liz Byrd, and pet dogs in Portland and South Park, Colo.
“It’ll be fun,” Webster said this week. “It’ll be Broadway music and maybe a little classical. I don’t k ow what I’m singing quite yet.”
There’s a bunch of talent on stage before him, he said, and he’ll tailor his performance to it, like a chef who creates something out of the best he has that day.
“It’s me standing and singing and telling jokes,” Webster said. “I’m a standup comedian, masquerading as a singer.”
He can’t earn money as a comedian, though he joked. “I’m not funny.”
But he can earn a living singing, he said, and he’s looking forward to doing it in Sweet Home next week.
“I think the fact there’s so much local talent, it’s going to be fun,” Webster said. “Shirley’s really excited about it. It gets people out to use the space and realize, there’s art here.
“We’ll serve up a lot of laughs and music and have fun.”
In addition to Webster, other performers are Tad Attrell, Stefani Brown, Cathy Cheshire, David Dominy, Jenni Grove, the Helland Family, Allison Hurst, Mac McNulty, Brom Sherwood, Scott Swanson, Maren Weld, Moriah Winn and Willamette Apprentice Ballet’s Camilla Robertson, Lillian Wu and Sophia Mathison.
“This concert will appeal to all ages,” Austin predicted.
SHOCASE grew out of an ad hoc committee created by Sweet Home Elks Lodge members, Austin said. That group, the Sweet Home Auditorium Remodeling Committee, formed in 2014 with the goal of repairing the high school auditorium stage, replacing the lighting and sound and update the auditorium, making it a place schools and the community could use.
“When I got asked to do the (Sportsman’s Holiday) Chips ‘n’ Splinters show, that’s when I noticed how terrible the condition of the auditorium was, particularly the stage,” Austin said. Tthat’s when she took the project to the Elks Lodge.
The group started raising funds, and volunteers completed a variety of work projects on the stage and in the auditorium, including painting. SHARC paid for a new stage curtain. In 2018, members of the community joined forces with SHARC and formed SHOCASE, which supports and promotes arts and music throughout the community.
SHOCASE donated $10,000 to the School District to help pay for new lighting and sound equipment, and a SHOCASE subcommittee began managing art shows in the lobby of the new City Hall, 3225 Main St.
“I think it’s fabulous what they’re doing there,” Austin said.
The auditorium project isn’t quite finished, Austin said. SHOCASE still wants to purchase new background curtains. Chips ‘n’ Splinters has raised $3,000 toward the project, and SHOCASE plans to contribute an additional $4,000.
SHOCASE members also want to continue bringing in programming like the gala, with great headliners like Webster, Austin said. “I’m looking forward to doing other concerts, bringing other people in.”
A new SHOCASE subcommittee is in the early stages of developing a local civic theater program.