Sabra Stockebrand is doing more than ringing in the new year with a tribute performance to music superstar Lady Gaga.
Stockebrand’s two-night performance, “A Very Gaga New Year with Sabra,” runs next Wednesday, Dec. 30, and Friday, Jan. 2, at the Iola Community Theatre Warehouse.
It also marks Stockebrand’s first full-fledged concert since 2019, prior to the COVID 19 pandemic.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” Stockebrand told the Register in a telephone interview. “I’ve been practicing since this summer, trying to pin down how it would work.
“It’s basically just an acoustic show — piano and voice,” Stockebrand said. “I’ll use some instrumental music to fill in at times.”
STOCKEBRAND began performing before she was a kindergartner.
“I started in church like everyone does,” she recalled with a chuckle. “My mom kind of threw me on stage when she knew I could hold a tune.”
Sabra was 4.
But aside from church, or a school program, Stockebrand had relatively few outlets in which she could perform.
Her native Yates Center had no formal drama program, “and our choir had maybe six people in it,” she recalled.
But Sabra’s mother, Pam Tressler, knew her daughter had a gift, so she convinced her to attend Iola’s Children’s Summer Theatre Workshop program.
“I was a bit reluctant,” Stockebrand recalled.
But not for long.
She quickly bonded with her fellow performers, and unleashed her considerable vocal skills that summer.
“It really opened the door for me,” she said.
Stockebrand soon found herself clamoring for opportunities to perform, first with CSTW, then with Iola Community Theatre performances.
