Help Wanted: Peasants Apply Within

Dallas Opera needs walk-on performers

How about a little vocabulary quiz? Define “supernumerary.”

I learned the meaning of the word just a bit earlier today during a phone conversation with The Dallas Opera’s PR lady.

It means “walk-on, non-singing, non-speaking, perhaps uttering or otherwise exclaiming performer,” what non-operatic commoners might call an “extra.”

Anyway, The Dallas Opera needs “supers,” as they call them for short, for productions of “Romeo & Juliet,” “Rigoletto,” and “Boris Godunov” to play minor roles such as servants, priests, guards, soldiers, maids, villagers, waiter No. 5, man … ya know, extras.

Speaking French, Italian, or Russian is not required, but is a plus.

Performances, of course, take place at the Winspear Opera House, so it’d be pretty cool to see that place for free. The super-extras also receive a minimum stipend for their time and acting chops, and two free tickets to the final dress rehearsal.

Men, women, and children of all ages can contract production assistant Tai Renfrow via e-mail for more information. Don’t call her, she’ll call you.

Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He has been to exactly zero operas in his life, and that streak likely will stay alive.

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