Orbit Arts Festival
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
April 26, 2025
If your glory days involved baring your adolescent soul as Emily from Our Town in a high school auditorium, if your heart still thrills when you hear a fight song and your fingers play your imaginary clarinet and your feet want to march onto the football field at half time, if playing bassoon in your college orchestra was the the time you felt most authentically you—in other words, if you’re a former theatre kid or band nerd—Tulsa has a place for you.
I realized this on Saturday at the Orbit Arts Festival, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s annual one-day showcase of local talent, which featured more than 30 performances across the TPAC complex, all free to the public. Blake Rowden-Stripe, TPAC’s Director of Development and the head honcho of the festival, calls it a “creative explosion,” and that’s exactly what it delivered, from a flamenco group in the Williams Theatre and Native dancers in the 3rd Street lobby to an accordion band and a Karl Jones / Hot Toast puppet party.
Amid the flurry of activity throughout the day, I stopped to take in a few of the “onstage” performances. The first was Life Senior Services “Broadway Senior” group’s abridged version of The Music Man, my absolute favorite musical. As an added bonus, my big sister, who moved to Tulsa a couple of years ago just after I did, played Marian the Librarian.
The sheer joy of seeing Mimi and Pawpaw out there, belting it out and sashaying around in their Broadway finery, dancing enthusiastically but cautiously enough not to pull something, entertained me like nothing else has lately. Special props to Marian, who still hits the high notes; Mrs. Paroo, with her superb Irish accent; Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn, with her comic timing; and Harold Hill, who mastered Robert Preston’s singy-talky style. The actors who portrayed the children and teenagers were appropriately twitchy and energetic, and the costumes and props were simple yet accurate (the Wells Fargo wagon was an actual kid’s wagon). The audience ate it up, clapping along with the rousing music, laughing at the funny parts, and standing to applaud while the cast took their bows.
Were there dropped lines and a few awkward pauses? Yes. Did someone lose control of a clarinet, which rolled under some chairs and had to be retrieved? Again, yes. Did anyone care? Absolutely not. These players covered for each other with the life experience that comes from decades of doing your job and helping your neighbor, and the little foibles only added to the joy of people getting to do something they’ve always loved, no matter the limitations. These seniors are living large.