Squonk Opera uses New Kensington digs to prepare a 'Brouhaha'

New Kensington has a new claim to fame: home of the first “Squonkcordion.”

The device — described as “an enormous musical instrument powered by behemoth bellows topped with towering tuba bells” — will make its public debut at the Kickoff and Rib Festival on Sunday and Monday outside Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.

Squonk Opera has been building it and rehearsing its new show, “Brouhaha,” in a building at AK Valley Park off Freeport Road since November.

“The entire stage is a giant musical instrument,” said Steve O’Hearn, 65, of West Deer, who founded Squonk Opera 30 years ago with Jackie Dempsey, 56, of Forest Hills.

A group of musicians, artists, technicians and designers, Squonk Opera has toured nationally and internationally. It has focused on outdoor shows for the past 10 to 15 years, O’Hearn said.

They named themselves Squonk because “we just thought it was a funny word,” O’Hearn said.

It was later, he said, that they learned a “squonk” is a mythical creature said to live in northern Pennsylvania forests.

Johnstown celebrates the squonk at its annual “Squonkapalooza,” which was held Saturday.

Dempsey said this is the first time they’ve used AK Valley Park to prepare for a show. The building is a former Alcoa research facility.

“We have rare needs,” O’Hearn said. “It’s hard to find a 30-foot ceiling.”

Rick Kemp is the staging director for Squonk Opera. Originally from London, he lives outside Butler and is a theater professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Kemp said in many ways the set itself is the show, animated by the music Dempsey composes, which she described as progressive rock.

While the roughly 30-minute show has no words or plot, the stage is kinetic, changing and growing as it progresses. Parts that are hidden at first come out later.

Dempsey plays keyboards and accordion; O’Hearn plays flute, saxophone and electronic bagpipes.

While their past shows have included audience participation, O’Hearn said Brouhaha is the first where the audience will make the music with them by pulling on ropes at the front of the stage.

“The public can get involved in doing the show by playing a huge instrument that is the set,” Kemp said.

O’Hearn hopes to see the division and polarization so prevalent in today’s society disappear as people have fun together.

“It’s fun and strange,” he said of the show.

“And free,” Dempsey said. “And there will be ribs right there!”

After Rib Fest, Squonk Opera will take the show to the opening of ArtPrize on Sept. 14 in Grand Rapids, Mich., before returning to perform for students at Westinghouse Arts Academy on Sept. 26. They’ll be in Colorado for the Colorado Springs Community Cultural Collective on Oct. 27 and 28.

Dempsey said they expect to tour with “Brouhaha” for five years.