History

Ventura College has produced musicals and operas for the past 30 years. When school budgets were cut, the funding for the music department was drastically reduced and for a period of 10+ years, there were very few productions. In 1998, the Music Department added Opera Workshop to its curriculum and Linda Ottsen, music faculty member, took on the leadership of it, along with support from Dr. Burns Taft, Robert Lawson, and the music department.

Every semester has produced a production of some kind. Opera and musical productions have included Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Tender Land, Noye s Fludde, Oedipus Tex, The Impresario, Susannah and Kiss Me, Kate. In addition, two world premiers were produced John Biggs Ernest Worthing and Hobson s Choice.

Numerous excerpts programs from operas and musicals have been performed. Many of these were for school children in Ventura, Oxnard, and Ojai. Grants for bussing youth to the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the Ventura College Theater were secured and thousands of elementary school children attended these performances. The Opera Workshop was the chosen outreach for the Oxnard Community Concert Association and the Ojai Festivals.

Mission

--Educate students from Ventura College and the community at large in opera and musical theater

--Contribute to the cultural enhancement of the City by exposing audiences to these art-forms through performance-oriented programs of opera and musical theater

--Establish a high standard of artistic excellence, by featuring professional artists and staff in direct collaboration with the students

--Provide program material which encourages multi-cultural themes and diversity for the students and for the community audience

--Provide school outreach programs of opera and musical theater for youth