Kitchen/Wedding/Murder (Workshop)

CAST

Lara: Kari Courtney
​Quinn: Jacqueline Shoda-Iswasaki
Shelby Mae: Chelsea Janzen
Aunt Mandy: Lindsey Rae Johnson
Stef: Lisa Neher
Priest: Kate Strohecker
Colton: Dan Gibbs
Uncle Eddie: Brandon Michael
Uncle Dylan: Patrick Scofield

Pianist: Claire Forstman

CREATIVE TEAM

Lisa Neher, composer
Basil Considine, librettist

July, 2026

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ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

New Wave Opera and Really Spicy Opera combine forces to workshop Act 1 of Kitchen/Wedding/ Murder, a new murder mystery opera by composer Lisa Neher and librettist Basil Considine.

It’s just an old-fashioned wedding weekend in a little town somewhere where fishing and hunting are more ways of life than hobbies, where people get their hands dirty a lot, and just about everyone's a first or second cousin to everyone else. Pretty much all-y’all get in all-y’all’s business, which is just the sort of thing that has our more well-read and genderqueer protagonist Stef packing her bags to leave town and not return, maybe ever. Stef has plans!
  
The morning Stef plans to leave, her ex Lara calls with a desperate same-day request to bake her a wedding cake. After surviving various family's efforts to “help” in the kitchen, Stef decides to crash the wedding and ask Lara to run away with her…only for the groom to drop dead right before the wedding vows. The police open a murder investigation, the mob gets involved, and skeletons start popping out of closets. As fingers go pointing, and more bodies start dropping, guess who ends up as Prime Suspect? 
 
Kitchen/Wedding/Murder is an opera murder mystery comedy that’s equal parts Clue and Abbott & Costello, with a bit of P.G. Wodehouse-style situational comedy thrown in for extra flavor. It is specifically designed to be a highly accessible first opera for people who don’t normally listen to classical music, especially true crime fans and those looking for a unique and hilarious date night. 

Lisa Neher, Composer

Multi-talented mezzo-soprano, composer, and actor Lisa Neher delivers “intensity, power, and vocal prowess” (Oregon ArtsWatch), captivating audiences with richly attuned musical fluency and heartfelt performance. “A supremely talented artist,” (Willamette Week), Neher channels a signature combination of high intelligence, deep passion, fierce tenacity, and an ever-youthful spirit, offering a rare degree of excellence and versatility alongside the ability to “sincerely convey… joy and wonder” (Oregon ArtsWatch). Her wide-ranging experience across genres informs gutsy character portrayals integrated with vivid storytelling through musical performance, making her a magnetic presence onstage known for a voice that is “especially alive… full and rich” (Oregon ArtsWatch).

Alongside her flourishing vocal career, Neher is an award-winning composer whose music has earned recognition from the Oregon Music Teachers Association (Composer of the Year 2025), the Flute New Music Consortium, ICDA/ICF, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and the Celebris Ensemble. Commissioning ensembles and organizations include the National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Harp Society, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and Opera Santa Barbara. Her interdisciplinary training and Doctor of Musical Arts degree inform not only her compositional craft but also her interpretive depth as a performer, giving her singing an uncommon level of clarity, intention, and emotional resonance. A visionary creator and leader, Neher is the Founder and President of New Wave Opera, a company that shares fresh, relatable stories by living composers through the medium of opera. Through all facets of her work, Neher champions contemporary storytelling that embraces both the wildness of the natural world and the intimate complexities of human experience.​

Bio by Aligned Artistry

Basil Considine, Librettist

Really Spicy Opera has been led since its inception by founder and artistic director Basil Considine. A biracial opera scholar and conductor, Basil produces each season and directs several of the mainstage works performed by RSO. He is also a composer and playwright, having studied playwriting with the nationally recognized playwright Lydia Diamond and opera composition with the noted composer Samuel Headrick.

A lifelong musician and a Boston-area native, having graduated from the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School in Cambridge (now the St. Paul’s Choir School) and attended the Suzuki School of Newton, the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School, and the Coronado School for the Arts. He is an alumnus of the University of San Diego, where he studied music and theatre, and holds a master’s degree and a PhD from Boston University, where he studied music, theology, history, and drama. An expert choral musician, he has also directed numerous church choirs and concert ensembles in San Diego and the Boston area. He has sung in Boston’s Symphony Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall, and counts as one of his finest performances a soloist engagement with the BSO and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. In Really Spicy Opera productions, he rotates through different creative roles as producer, stage director, and musical director, while also serving as the resident scenes coach for musical theatre and opera performances.

Basil is a passionate advocate for new music, for using theatre in socially and educationally relevant ways, and in the power of the arts to inspire and engage youth. He was the founder and musicianship instructor in the community music program Vie Musique, providing musical entertainment and instruction to at-risk youth living in Roche Bois, the largest urban slum on the island of Mauritius. He was named to Musical America‘s Top 30: Movers & Shapers list in 2017 for his work in music and theatre education.