News

REVIEW: Carmen “Glows” This Summer Season

By Catherine Sesler, contributor

Glow’s company did an admirable job executing this vision. The vocal talent of the cast was staggering, without any considerable weak links. As the lead, Shanelle Valerie Woods’ rich, emotive mezzo tones and her expressive features and physicality gave her command of the stage.

REVIEW: Glow’s Carmen

Dennis Tavernetti, editor Greenville Arts Today

The talented Glow cast and orchestra delivered a virtually flawless musical performance…Shanelle Woods as Carmen presented not only a beautiful, desirable presence, but a wonderful mezzo soprano with excellent phrasing. At the conclusion, it was evident that the audience also loved the performance and enjoyed experiencing live opera in Greenville.

Glow Lyric Theatre shows woman’s fight for freedom in timeless ‘Carmen’

Melody Cuenca for Greenville Journal, July 2019

French opera “Carmen” gets a fresh take in Glow Lyric Theatre’s production. Away from the Spanish bullfights, Glow tells Carmen’s story of surviving a difficult world.

Portraying the cigar factory worker Carmen, [S]hanelle Woods says her character fights against the systems of society that try to keep women bound. 

REVIEW: Glow Lyric Theatre’s Electrifying ‘Hair” is Anything But Static after 50 Years

Sandy Staggs for Carolina Curtain Call, July 2017

Fortunately for Glow audiences, Artistic Director Jenna Tamisiea has crafted this “HAIR” experience with a thrilling and audacious slickness, and with an outstanding group of young artists who prove the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The tribe executes one extraordinary composition after another: the monster acid-pop hit “Aquarius” (lead by the splendidly commanding Shanelle Woods, the accomplished mezzo soprano who also sings the pivotal role of Tituba in “The Crucible,” the bubble-gum clarity of “Good Morning Starshine,” and the joyful scat singing in “The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In” as this ebullient ensemble files out triumphantly in the finale.

Press Release: THE GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL TO TOUR WORLD-PREMIERE HIP-HOP OPERA

POSTED APRIL 27, 2017

As part of its 2017 season, The Glimmerglass Festival will present the world-premiere hip-hop opera Stomping Grounds, a show written entirely in verse blending hip-hop, spoken word and opera. In May, the production will travel to 11 regional community venues throughout New York State and three in New York City, in performance workshops and discussions hosted by librettist, director and choreographer Paige Hernandez an acclaimed performer, director, and playwright known for her effective fusion of theater, hip-hop, dance and education.

Written by Hernandez and composed by Victor Simonson Stomping Grounds offers positive affirmation about cultural identity, diversity, and connection to home in an hour-long piece.

To view a video from the first reading, click here.

‘Afram’ a light, fun, political piece

JONATHAN NEUFEL, special to the Post and Courier, June 2016

The performance of “Afram ou la Belle Swita” at the Spoleto Festival exemplifies some of the core characteristics of Charleston.

It is a piece of history brought to life by artists with one eye on the past and the other on the future, and with both feet planted firmly in the present. It is of local interest — the composer, Edmund Thornton Jenkins played a central role in local music as he grew up playing in his father’s Jenkins Orphanage Band. The jazz of the early 1920s in which Jenkins took part is part of the foundation of American music.

The constant shift between operetta-like melodies, witty commentary and good jazzy tunes kept things lively…Shanelle Woods’s song as “Kentucky Kate” was regrettably short.