Ohio Light Opera provides unique, traditional theater experience for patrons

Looking for a night (or maybe an afternoon) at the opera? Ohio Light Opera’s (OLO) got you covered. Beginning on June 8th, 2024, OLO premiered their 2024 festival season, “These Are a Few of my Favorite Things,” featuring six traditional lyric theater productions, produced in Wooster, OH.

Steven Daigle, Artistic Director, has been with the company since 1990. He has served as part of the artistic staff for more than 300 lyric theater productions, along with calling over 400 professional operatic performances as a production stage manager. Starting out as stage manager, Daigle was mentored by James Stuart, founder of OLO.

“We ended up finding out that we were raised very close together, in the same area of South Louisiana,” Daigle said.

Stuart, through his mentorship and common thread, became an integral part of Daigle’s artistic life, as well as Laura Neill’s, current executive director of OLO, holding the position since 1998. 

Neill received her Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster in 1989 and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, while working as the Business and Box Office Manager of OLO. Her sister, Sarah, performed in the company through the mid-eighties.

“While I was in high school, my sister was performing and my mother said, ‘Laura, why don’t you look for a job in the box office?’ I contacted the then box office manager because I was attending the College of Wooster, and I worked my first summer in 1986,” Neill said.

“I got my master’s degree in Scandinavian Studies in 1991, but came back and worked summers at Ohio Light Opera. I was hired in November of ‘92 as the business manager, and then I became Executive Director. My first season as Executive Director was in ‘98, and Steve’s first year as artistic director was in ‘99, but we’d known each other since 1990, so it kind of had a logical flow to it,” Neill said.

Interested in a show? Click the image to find the full description, show dates, and previews of the music!

With Daigle and Neill on board, Ohio Light Opera is celebrating its 45th summer season. The season features six traditional lyric theater productions. OLO’s overarching vision is “to preserve the tradition of operetta and musical theater with engaging and accessible productions that uplift, educate, and entertain a diverse present-day audience.”

History is important to those at OLO, and musicals and musical styles are constantly evolving. Broadway revivals are becoming more rare, but it’s not necessarily lack of interest, but more so a pressure to adhere to the current pop culture.

“I don’t think there’s a place in the world where within one summer you can see three golden age or early American musicals. That’s something that is a big interest to a lot of patrons, especially in recent years. We’re getting more people from New York, we have people from Los Angeles coming in because they know that there’s an opportunity to see these musicals that aren’t being done…” Daigle said.

OLO is serving patrons that are wanting to look back on traditional musicals, as well as those intrigued by the world of historical operettas, an increasingly rare production to be found. Crowds of diehard lyric theater fans travel to Wooster to see these shows, and with OLO’s unique revolving schedule, it’s perfect for those traveling out of their way. By the end of the season, someone could see all six of the shows in just four days.

“If we didn’t do those rarer works, or those less frequent works, we wouldn’t get a very strong portion of committed patrons here,” Neill said.

Though questions have been raised of what Ohio Light Opera would be like if they moved to a bigger area, Neill believes it’s perfect where it is.

“The Ohio Light Opera and The College of Wooster being together is the perfect synergy. Outside of what we’ve described artistically, the economic impact is huge. Local residents will often go to to Cleveland and watch a Broadway tour show with minimal pit orchestras and very few production values. You come here, you see the fully staged, fully orchestrated production in its traditional way,” Neill said.

To learn more about The Ohio Light Opera, or to get involved in the shows, visit their website. Their 2024 Season Brochure showcases their 45th summer season, “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.”