We are hanging out with the flash opera crowd at the Urban Dreams Gala! pianist Karen Lee-Morlang, Todd Wong, Urban Ink artistic director Diane Roberts, tenors Phillip Grant and Joel Klein, and Deb Martin.

We had lots of fun at the inaugural gala for Urban Ink Productions.  I have enjoyed a few productions over the years starting such as the manga inspired “Hunted”, the Tricia Collins one person play “Gravity” and most recently Valerie Sing Turner’s “Confessions of the Other Woman”

The evening was hosted by Hosted by Omari Newton, series actor in Continuum, Blue Mountain State and Maxx Steele, and local multi-talented performer Mutya Macatumpag.  There were lots of silent and live auction prizes, and of course, lots of food!  Entertainment included some hip hop, a flash of opera, and more!

It was fun to watch the flash opera unfold… as Phillip and Joel had pretended they were catering staff that suddenly burst into song, singing “The Drinking Song” from “La Traviata”.  Pianist Karen Lee-Morlang joined in, after initially pretending to be background piano music.  Next they led the audience in a singalong of a traditional Neopolitan song “Funiculi Funicula” – which is in my accordion repertoire.  After their little performance, Karen who is a friend of mine, said to me “Too bad you didn’t have your accordion, you could have joined in with us!”

I joined in on some of the live auction bidding for vacation getaways, but bailed when it got too high for me.  However I did walk out with a silent auction prize for the upcoming Arts Club musical production of  “Xanadu”, which had been one of my guilty Olivia Newton-John pleasures while growing up in the 80’s.

I made new friends with actor/stunt performer Patrick Sabongui, actor Daren Herbert, and Dimi Alansari (marketing and outreach for Urban Ink).  We discovered the four of us were a real United Nations: Egypt, Bermuda, Lebanon and Canada (me).