Meet Your Neighbors update: A new rock opera from Mark Baughman

by Laura Baughman

You might wonder if encouragement is a good thing… Last year Forest Hills resident Mark Baughman was busy performing his first rock opera, “99” at various locales around Washington, DC, includinga six-night run at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre last July. Well, too many people told him to keep up the good work.

So he wrote another rock opera, “Release,” which he and a troupe of nearly 20 are debuting at the Capital Fringe Festival in July. Mark wrote the original rock opera (and all the music), and Steve Organ adapted the story (and wrote the script) to the much shorter performance time allotted by Fringe.

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One of the songs from “Release.”

It tells the story of three people, each alienated from their own, very different worlds, who discover each other and, in the process, find they are the keys to setting each other free. Mark and his band, Working Theory, perform the music; a cast of seven amazing singers tells the story.

“Release: A Rock Opera” is presented as a part of the 2017 Capital Fringe Festival, a program of the Washington, DC non-profit Capital Fringe. It is playing at the Elstad Auditorium at Gallaudet University July 15, 19, 22 and 23 at various times.

Further information can be found at capitalfringe.org. A taste of some of the songs can be found at the opera’s Facebook page.