Stadium Theatre Vets Release First Album

Open To Interpretation is an album of original music by veterans Derek Doura and Hannah MacDonald. It is the first professionally mastered and released recording by the pair, who met a decade ago while performing in the Woonsocket theater.

Classically-trained pianist, composer, and producer Doura grew up in Burrillville and resides in Providence. He has been a musical director at Stadium Theatre since 2002, working on a production of A Chorus Line. He remains the musical director for the Encore Repertory Company and the Rhode Island Stage Ensemble, and an ambitious composer and songwriter. Doura is thirty-one years old.

Twenty-year-old Hannah MacDonald is living in Brooklyn, New York, and auditioning for roles on Broadway. The Bellingham, Massachusetts native grew up in the theatre, performing for Stadium Theatre crowds for the first time at the age of ten. She has performed extensively at the Stadium Theatre and elsewhere, appearing in, among others, local productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, in which she played Mary, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which she played Puck. The Stoneham Theater debuted MacDonald as a professional in their production of 42nd Street. She worked over the summer at the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield, Iowa, landing roles in Jesus Christ Superstar and Hairspray.

Doura and MacDonald started working together on Doura’s songs when, six years ago, Doura asked MacDonald to contribute a lead vocal to an original composition. That collaboration grew into a number of demonstration recordings, culled together into a pair of collections, all recorded in Doura’s home studio with Doura producing. For Open to Interpretation, they took it to the next level, preparing an album of thirteen Doura originals, and having the record professionally mastered and duplicated for distribution and a proper independent release through New York’s Oasis Disc Manufacturing.

Doura describes the music on Open to Interpretation as mutable. “The style changes as the album progresses,” he said. “It begins with dance, pop, then moves to a blues feel. The middle of the album becomes very Broadway, musical-theatre-esque, and then ends with some adult-contemporary ballads.”

There are no immediate plans for live performances in support of the project. “Hannah and I work together often but we also have many things going on in our lives,” says Doura. “She currently is living in Brooklyn, auditioning on Broadway.” Doura is working on getting his songs published. “So we will tour loosely if our schedules allow for it.”

Open to Interpretation was officially released in September, and is available on iTunes and Amazon.com. The pair has produced a series of music videos that are posted to YouTube, www.youtube.com/user/djdmusic24, and accessible on their Reverbnation Artist Page, http://www.reverbnation.com/derekdourahannahmacdonald.