By Rich Fisher
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-976424.mp3
Tulsa, Oklahoma – On today's show, we speak with the fine pianist and singer (and Tulsa native) Cathy Venable, who's been based in New York City since 2003 --- but who's now in town to serve as the pianist/accompanist for Light Opera Oklahoma (or LOOK), which will conclude its summertime run of shows this coming weekend. (For more about LOOK and its 2011 season, please go to looktheatre.org.) One of the musicals that LOOK is now staging is "The Light in the Piazza," which Venable actually worked on in 2005, when that show was appearing at Lincoln Center as a bona-fide Broadway sensation. As she tells us on today's program, since moving to the Big Apple several years ago, in addition to working as a music teacher and singer, Venable has been the rehearsal pianist or accompanist for such notable Broadway musicals as "Curtains," "Wonderful Town," "Beauty and the Beast," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and "Les Miserables" --- and she still makes a point of returning to Tulsa every summer, to work as LOOK's accompanist. (Venable's a musician with deep Tulsa roots, actually; she's played in the past with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Council Oak Chamber Ensemble, and so forth.) Also on today's StudioTulsa, we are pleased to inaugurate an ongoing collaboration between Public Radio Tulsa and This Land Press --- in doing so, we offer a piece created by audio producer Abby Wendle and writer Joshua Kline (both of whom are This Land staffers). Their piece profiles a club in East Tulsa known as "the Gluedobbers." You'll find other such outstanding audio profiles at thislandpress.com.