On your mark, get set, date

“Speed Dating Tonight!” by Michael Ching, will be performed by the UTRGV Opera Theater next month in Brownsville and on the Edinburg campus.

Michael Ching is “an opera composer/librettist, conductor, and songwriter” who has produced nearly “one hundred productions since” the premiere of “Speed Dating Tonight!” in 2013, according to the Savannah Voice Festival website. He is also the music director of Amarillo Opera, composer-in-residence at Savannah Voice Festival and opera consultant at E.C. Schirmer Music Company.

At 7 p.m. April 2, “Speed Dating Tonight!” will be performed in the Texas Southmost College Performing Arts Center in Brownsville and at 3 p.m. April 3 in the Performing Arts Complex on the Edinburg campus.

Rebecca Coberly, a co-director and professor of voice, said students are working hard to learn theater-language skills in addition to dramatic skills. 

“So, opera is something that really encompasses and can encompass not only all of the musical arts but a lot of theatrical and dramatic and visual as well,” Coberly said.  

The performance, also co-directed by Shayna Tayloe, assistant professor of voice and lyric diction at UTRGV, is about an evening of speed dating and the characters creating their own story after that.

She said the production is written in a modular format. 

“So, you have certain pieces that happen at certain places in the show,” Coberly said. “But, otherwise, there are a lot of different scenes and arias to choose from. So, it’s kind of great that the basic plotline is a group of speed daters who are getting together. … So, you have lots of different characters. … You have a lot of different kinds of interactions going on there. There are three set characters. There’s the waitress and the bartender and then also the coordinator, and they’re interacting throughout.”

She advises the public that the play will include adult language. 

Jonathan Gutierrez-Lozano, a voice performance senior, plays a combat photographer and is one of the speed daters. 

“Essentially, I talk about going out to war and taking pictures and how one of my handlers died,” Gutierrez-Lozano said. “But, you know, I could just be lying to try and get a date. You know, I guess you have to come find out.”  

He encourages students and the public to attend because it is a fun production with “cool music.” 

“So, just personally, because I enjoy music so much, I think it’s just a great time,” Gutierrez-Lozano said. “It is not entirely family friendly, but I would definitely just recommend people come and take time away from whatever you’re doing and focus on something more fun.”

Ramon Curzio, a voice education sophomore, plays the lead role of a bartender named Quint. 

Curzio said the UTRGV Opera Theater is putting a lot of work into the production. 

“It’s very different. It’s very unique,” he said. “It’s your local theater, so why not just go show your support and get to see something that your community put effort into?”

The event is part of the Patron of the Arts Student Performance Series. Admission is $5 per person. Tickets can be purchased online at UTRGV Opera Theater (Edinburg).