Venice Theatre Cabaret Festival: Sisterly Love

The Venice Theatre Summer Cabaret Festival is now in full swing and one of the most hotly anticipated performances is this weekend – Sisterly Love. Hot off the stage from their starring roles as sisters in "Side Show," local actresses Alana Opie and Danae DeShazer bring to the Venice Theatre a cabaret of contemporary duets, jazzy show-stoppers, and songs of love, family, friendship, and everything in between.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune raved about these tour-de-force performers in SideShow, "Opie and DeShazer pour their hearts into the big ballads Who Will Love Me As I Am? and I Will Never Leave You. They make you fall in love with them, and you can’t ask much more from a performer."

It’ll be a treat for audiences to catch them once more on the Pinky Cabaret stage at the Venice Theatre. The intimate setting will feature the relationship and chemistry between Alana and Danae – you can be sure to expect tight vocal harmonies and great story telling. They’ve also crafted a set-list that includes a lot of contemporary musical theatre pieces rarely performed and may be brand new to the audience’s ears. You’ll also hear a lot of great female duets from many beautiful stories from old Broadway favorites – with some surprising arrangements.

I spoke with Danae DeShazer about their upcoming show and she shared details the audience may want to know about – from other current performance projects (Les Mis anyone?) to how there act will benefit the Teeja Fund for a three-year-old fighting Stage 3 Neuroblastoma.

What are the dates of your performances?

Saturday July 27 at 8PM & Sunday July 28 at 2PM

Tell us about your performance background:

Danae DeShazer has only lived in Sarasota for four years, but feels like she’s done a great job of making this beautiful town her home! She’s graced the area stages as Janet Van De Graaf in “Drowsy Chaperone,” Hedy LaRue in “How to Succeed,” Brooke/Vicki in “Noises Off,” Pippi in “Trailer Park Musical,” and most recently, Violet in “Side Show.”

Alana Opie was born and raised in Venice, FL and after living in Germany and Colorado, she has planted her feet back in the area! She has been doing musicals non-stop since joining the cast of “Kiss Me, Kate” in 2011, including Doralee in “9 to 5,” Miss Sandra in “All Shook Up,” Daisy in “Side Show,” “Full Monty,” “Moonlight and Magnolias,” “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” and more.

Who are the musicians we can expect to here during the cabaret?

Bobby Brader, piano

John Januskewski, drums

Tony DeNiro, acoustic guitar

What are you most excited about sharing with an audience?

We are most excited about presenting this Cabaret because of the good cause we’ve put behind it. A portion of each ticket sale to Sisterly Love will go to The Teeja Fund. Teeja is a three-year-old fighting Stage 3 Neuroblastoma. She flies to New York City every month for treatments. It just so happens that Teeja is the granddaughter of local actress and dancer, Kay Siebold. Kay and Alana have worked closely together in a couple of shows at The Sarasota Players, and it seemed like the perfect way to raise a little money for this beautiful young child who is fighting valiantly against cancer.

You can find more information on The Teeja Fund or make a donation today by going here: http://www.gofundme.com/2imlnc

What does it mean for you to have Venice Theatre providing this platform?

Cabaret is an art form that is ultimately revealing, personal, and entertaining. Putting one together—from concept, script, music arrangements, vocal harmonies, staging, costumes, etc.—has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences we’ve had as artists. Venice Theatre is giving local artists the chance to create something of their own and share it with an audience. What more could you want as a performer?

Which cabarets (other then your own) are you most excited to attend?

Danae will be taking the stage in Les Miserables at Manatee Players right after the closing of Sisterly Love, so she won’t be able to make many of the other Cabarets. But, go see Alana in the Random Acts Cabaret directed by Kelly Wynn Woodland! All of them look absolutely fantastic though… we’ve worked with some of the performers before and would love to see them on stage again—including Kim Kollar and Bobbi Eschenbach, Kristofer Geddie, Melissa Cripps, and the ladies of Vocal Vixens.

For more information and to purchase tickets for Sisterly Love, visit the Venice Theatre website.