AOP First Chance presents a free libretto reading of the new opera JADE STAR HOTEL. Join Stephanie Chou (Creator & Composer) and Susan Kander (Librettist).as they hear for the first time the words of their searing new drama read aloud by a group of professional actors and learn their process for adding music in this rare peek into how operas are created. In English. Directed and moderated by AOP General Director Matt Gray.
FREE WITH REGISTRATION
JADE STAR HOTEL is the story of a Chinese ‘comfort woman’, a cruel euphemism for the women who were abducted and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army in the 1930s and ‘40s. In 1939, sixteen-year-old Lian is kidnapped by Japanese soldiers from her own wedding in a rural village in Manchuria and kept at a military ‘comfort station’ with other women. Though she survives, she is rejected by her family as a “cursed one,” and relegated to the edges of society. Sixty-five years later, a letter arrives from America to the extremely modest apartment she shares with her daughter and granddaughter, causing Old Lian to finally share her story with her only family. JADE STAR HOTEL is a tribute to the more than 200,000 comfort women, and to their courage in finally telling their stories.
COVID POLICY : Masks are required. Performers will be distanced but unmasked when performing. Performers are fully-vaccinated and tested prior to participation.
Please consider seeing AOP's world premiere production of Letters That You Will Not Get : Women's Voices from The Great War at 7:30pm at The Space at Irondale!
AOP's First Chance series selects projects to receive funding and resources within a customized development process. Workshops gather feedback from general and professional audiences while creating opportunities that will advance the project toward a world premiere.