THE WALT WHITMANS OF FORT GREENE PARK

Music by zachary catron
Libretto by PEYTON MARION

SET DESIGN by Joyce He
COSTUME DESIGN by Camille Charara
LIGHTING by Andre Segar
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Jeremy Chan     

THURSDAY / MaKayla McDonald, Soprano
TUESDAY / Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Countertenor
MONDAY / Nathaniel Sullivan, Baritone
WEDNESDAY / Eliam Ramos, Bass-Baritone

This piece is a contemporary opera buffa that explores Walt Whitman's legacy, hero worship, and what lengths people are willing to go to for an extra buck.

WEST LOVE ‘89

MUSIC BY SEAN HAVRILLA
LIBRETTO BY TROY DEFOUR

SET DESIGN by Charlotte Shi
COSTUME DESIGN by Camille Charara
LIGHTING by Andre Segar
Music Director: Jeremy Chan   

MAYA / MaKayla McDonald, Soprano
HARA / Gileann Tan, Soprano
BAHARNABÉ / Patrice Eaton, Mezzo-soprano
QUEEN OMATZ & NAMELESSLUV / Shafiq Hicks, Baritone

In 1989, West Berlin, A Black-German woman named Baharnabé discovers Audre Lorde's ADEFRA activist group and her self identity through writing poetry. But, Baharnabé feels she is no writer or poet. In learning how to write her own story, she travels through time and memory while losing love and falling in love. But, ultimately she discovers her identity in what Audre Lorde has called 'Afro-German'.

THE PEOPLE VS. AMERICAN CHEESE

MUSIC BY DURRA LEUNG
LIBRETTO BY CLARE FUYUKO BIERMAN

SET DESIGN BY BRIAN BERNHARD
COSTUME DESIGN BY SIENA ZOË ALLEN
LIGHTING DESIGN BY ANDRE SEGAR
Music Director: Jeremy Chan   

CLARE / Gileann Tan, Soprano
AUDRE LORDE / Patrice Eaton, Mezzo-soprano
DURRA / Jordan Rutter-Covatto, Countertenor
WALT WHITMAN / Nathaniel Sullivan, Baritone

Audre, Walt, Durra, and Clare wake up surrounded by rubble, their gay cruise under attack. The culprit? The greatest danger of all— heteronormativity (in the form of American Cheese). As our unlikely heroes battle cheese slices, they must also battle one another for cultural relevance and icon status. Chaos reigns in this gay fantasia on gayer themes.

Randall Eng (Lab Co-Director) founded and leads the AOP - NYU/Tisch Opera Lab with Sam Helfrich. Under their guidance, students from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program have created more than 50 short operas. As a composer, Randall’s music lies at the intersection of opera, music-theatre, and jazz. His short opera Norfolk premiered in April with White Snake Projects, alongside his Fractured Mosaics Interludes. His operas Florida, Before the Night Sky, and Henry’s Wife have been performed at UrbanArias, Lyric Opera Cleveland, New York City Opera’s VOX Festival, the American Opera Project, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Center for Contemporary Opera, and Manhattan School of Music. Recent non-theatrical compositions include Harbor for the Boston Pops, Miracles for Mirror Visions Ensemble, and the choral work Remain for MasterVoices. Randall is a graduate of Harvard University, Cambridge University, and NYU/ Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he is now an Associate Arts Professor.

Sam Helfrich (Director and Lab Co-Director) BA (Russian Literature), M.F.A. (Theatre Arts) Columbia University. Sam Helfrich is an opera and theater director based in New York. He has directed opera productions at New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto Festival/USA, Virginia Opera, Opera Boston, Pittsburgh Opera, and Wolf Trap, among others. Theater credits include various off-broadway and regional productions. His recent production of Péter Eötvös’ operatic adaptation of Angels in America for New York City Opera was recently remounted at the Salzburg Landestheater.

TJ Rubin (Production Manager) is a composer and music educator who tells stories onstage that reflect the wide variety of queer experiences and narratives the world holds. TJ’s music lives at the intersection of opera and musical theater, with melodies that are “torquing, and probing, quizzical and wonderstruck” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Recent works include Ten Minutes in the Life or Death of… (libretto by Marella Martin Koch), How To Create A Young Girl (book and lyrics by Laura Barati), Back to the Shore: A Jersey Short Opera (libretto by Mika Kauffman) and Nightlife (libretto by Deepali Gupta), which premiered at the Stonewall Inn as part of a collaboration between NYU and AOP for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. He is on faculty at Montclair State University and William Paterson University. He is also a composer in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. MFA: New York University, Musical Theatre Writing.