Sunday May 19 , 7:00pm / Monday, May 20, 8:00 pm
The Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher St., Upstairs
May 19 & 20: Age 21+; 2 drink minimum.
These four brand-new 30-minute operas are written and composed by alums of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, as part of the Advanced Opera Lab led by Randall Eng, Associate Arts Professor of GMTW, and Sam Helfrich, Associate Arts Professor of Design for Stage & Film at Tisch. The operas are designed by Tisch students from the Design Department and choreographed by students from the Dance Department, directed by students from The New School's College of Performing Arts, and performed by professional opera singers from American Opera Projects. Some of the works are set on the night of the Stonewall uprising; others focus on Stonewall’s impact on societies as disparate as contemporary Ukraine and a post-apocalyptic 2418.
Performances by
Errin Duane Brooks, Brandon Coleman, Sara Couden, Amy Justman, Kathryn Krasovec, Jordan Rutter, Hans Tashjian, Clayton Williams
Music Direction
Kelly Horsted and Jillian Zack
FEATURING
Outside
Music by Bryan Blaskie; Libretto by Seth Christenfeld
Directed by Francisco Rivera Rodriguez
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, in another bar somewhere else in the Village, a young man struggles with a pair of intertwined decisions: how to live as his authentic self and whether or not to go outside and join a revolution that has been drawing ever closer.
The Pomada Inn
Music by Brian Cavanagh-Strong; Libretto by Ben Bonnema
Directed by Sam Helfrich
2019. In Kiev, Igor wants to go to the bathhouse but Alek fears a police raid; in New York, Holly and Tara don't have to worry about such things. The Pomada Inn throws these couples together across time and space to explore the global legacy of Stonewall and the work that still needs to be done.
Nightlife
Music by TJ Rubin; Libretto by Deepali Gupta
Directed by Nina Fry
On June 28, 1969, a jazz quartet finish a gig at the Village Vanguard and embark on an odyssey around the corner to arrive at Stonewall Inn. In a sonic landscape awash with Lynchian blue notes and surreal motives, four musicians strive for self-acceptance among the dissonance.
The Community
Music by Kevin Cummines; Libretto by Shoshana Greenberg
Directed by I-Chen Wang
It's 400 years in the future, and humanity has rebuilt itself after an apocalyptic event that sent the survivors into another dark age. The only artifact they have from the previous civilization is a book on the history of the Stonewall Uprising. A madcap dystopian comedy that asks, what happens when a society is built on the story of Stonewall and what happens when someone wants to deviate from the norms?
A collaborative project of NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, Department of Design for Stage and Film, and Department of Dance; The New School's College of Performing Arts; American Opera Projects and the Stonewall Inn; co-sponsored by the NYU Grey Art Gallery.
AOP's training programs are supported in part through a multi-year grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and OPERA America’s Innovation Grant funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.