When Linda Mack Berven makes an entrance, it’s an ENTRANCE.
The popular Music in the Mountains pre-concert lectures resume Sunday, one hour before the Festival Orchestra performs in the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Three more of Mack Berven’s talks will follow on July 22, 24 and 30. All are free.
Mack Berven’s fans expect to see her in layers of costumes, changes occurring as she discusses different composers or musical offerings. She’s been known to enter as a gas-masked haz-mat inspector and end up as a Spanish dancer. In surprising ways, she performs what’s known in the trade as an on-stage costume change in order to create a memorable image.
“Most people are visual learners,” she said. “And that’s why I dress up and bring props to illustrate a point. It’s amazing what people remember. People come up to me after a concert or later at City Market and say because of that costume or that prop, I really noticed something in the concert.”
Mack Berven always brings a box brimming with props. It is as much anticipated as the costumes. Standard items include an umbrella, various hats, puppets, flower pots, whiskey or vodka bottles if the composer had a drinking problem, and an unforgettable rubber chicken. He’s the prop with whom Mack Berven has imaginary conversations. Whatever helps to tell a story, she said.
Ten years ago, Mack Berven was invited to join the Music in the Mountains team and present pre-concert talks. The goal, from the beginning, was to make Festival Orchestra concerts more accessible to the public.
“I’ve used the same format more or less, since, and it seems to be effective,” she said. “I start with something about the composer, usually a little bio. Then I discuss the circumstances surrounding the composition of a particular piece of music. And I conclude with musical tidbits to watch or listen for.”
Sounds simple, but it takes months to think through each musical offering, research biographies, focus on each work and then develop a creative story line. Her process begins as soon the overall program has been selected, a general schedule formed and soloists confirmed. Over the last few years, that initial process has usually been settled by mid-winter.
if you go
WHAT: Music in the Mountains Pre-concert Lectures by Linda Mack Berven.
WHEN: One hour before concert July 17, 22, 24 and 30.
WHERE: Lyceum, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, 1000 RimDrive.
TICKETS: Free.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.musicinthemountains.com or call 385-6820.
“February,” Mack Berven said, is when her creative juices really start bubbling.
“It’s fun,” she said, “a challenge. I start with what I think people need to know about the composer, the music itself and some specific details. These are the anchors. And, I want to make all that memorable.
“I find treasures everywhere, especially in the toy bin at the Methodist Thrift Shop,” she said. “And, of course, there is good old Amazon.com.”
Friends also help out. For 2022, Mack Berven said she will wear a costume that came from the Middle East, “Abu Dhabi, in fact,” she said. “I was helping Dene Thomas move. We were clearing out a closet, and I saw this outfit. I knew I could use it.”
A cautionary note to fans: Two favorite props will not appear in 2022.
“I won’t be featuring my rubber chicken or my pig puppet,” she said. “But I will be featuring a bridal veil, a laurel wreath, a bowl of spaghetti, a teddy bear, lots of Mardi Gras beads, a tiara or two, a wooden bucket and a gypsy outfit.”
And, lest anyone wonder, Mack Berven’s signature question: “What a guy” will definitely be part of every presentation.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
