american opera projects ANd NYU Tisch School of the Arts’
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program & DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN FOR STAGE & FILM
present
The woodlawn operas
The Woodlawn Operas - AOP/NYU-Tisch Opera Lab 2025
Three 30-minute operas inspired by the lives and histories of residents at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY.
These operas will be performed at the African Grove Theatre in New York University’s Paulson Center on Friday, May 16, and Saturday, May 17.
Additionally, a concert version will be presented at Woodlawn Cemetery to honor the spirits depicted in these operas.
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”The Woodlawn Operas”
visions of drag
Music by ziyan Yang
Libretto by andi lee carter
The Queen of Liberation / Gileann Tan, Soprano
Angie Xtravaganza/ Ilene Pabon, Mezzo-soprano
RuPaul / Lindell O. Carter, Tenor
Bert Savoy / Eliam Ramos, Bass-baritone
Bert Savoy is the Queen of Vaudeville, but he is about to get fatally zapped by a bolt of lightning. In the seconds before his death, he receives a vision from three fabulous queens who show him the future of drag. Bert sees the work of his own life reflected through the three different queens as each vision builds on the last, drawing Bert--and the audience--toward the realization that the struggle for visibility and acceptance is evolving but ongoing.
Ziyan Yang (Composer)
Andi Lee Carter (Librettist)
styx & stones
MUSIC BY Kat Cartusciello
LIBRETTO BY Jessie Field
Donna / Kelly Glyptis, Soprano
Penelope/ Gileann Tan, Soprano
Charon / Yoojin Lee, Mezzo-soprano
Brandon / Lindell O. Carter, Tenor
Every day is the same for Charon, who ferries newly deceased souls across the River Styx (if they can pay, that is). Until Penelope and Donna, an old married couple, wash up on the shore of the Styx together. When they realize only Donna is able to pay the fare to cross, they attempt to move death itself with their love so that they may cross together. Inspired by Patricia Cronin's Woodlawn Cemetery monument "Memorial to a Marriage," "Styx & Stones" mourns time, celebrates love & marriage equality, and existentially investigates death.
Kat Cartusciello (Composer)
Jessie Field (Librettist)
What do you see?
MUSIC BY Andy Li
LIBRETTO BY Sravya Saraswatula
Anna Hyatt Huntington / Kelly Glyptis, Soprano
Human/Greyhound 1 / Ilene Pabon, Mezzo-soprano
Human/Greyhound 2 / Yoojin Lee, Mezzo-soprano
Alexander Archipenko / Eliam Ramos, Bass-baritone
Woodlawn Cemetery. A day away from now. Restless spirits stirring in sculptures of Anna Huntington and Alexander Archipenko find each other awake in the middle of the journey to eternal sleep. They talk to each other about their art and their beliefs. They argue about and criticize each other's aesthetic.
Andy Li (Composer)
Sravya Saraswatula (Librettist)
CAST OF SINGERS
Lindell O. Carter — Tenor
Ilene Pabon — Mezzo-Soprano
Kelly Glyptis — Soprano
Eliam Ramos — Bass-Baritone
Yoojin Lee — Mezzo-Soprano
Gileann Tan — Soprano
STAGE DIRECTORS
MUSIC DIRECTOR
DESIGNERS
RJ Craig — Lighting Design
Xorlali Plange — Costume Design
Farideh Didehvar — Scenic Design
Genevieve McCormick — Costume Design
Dani Draper — Lighting Design
Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez — Scenic Design
Alex Nuñez Caba — Scenic Design
Steven Smith — Costume Designer
AOP STAFF
Charles Jarden — Interim General Director
Joel Kalow — General Manager
Ziyan Yang — Program Associate
NYU FACULTY
Randall Eng founded and leads the NYU/Tisch Opera Lab with Sam Helfrich. Under their guidance, students from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program have created more than 30 short operas. As a composer, Randall's music lies at the intersection of opera, music-theatre, and jazz. 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, American Opera Projects, Town Hall, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Center for Contemporary Opera, and Manhattan School of Music. His choral work Remain (a setting of an immigration rights pamphlet) premiered in 2018 by the MasterVoices Chorus. Other dramatic works include The Dangers of Electric Lighting (Luna Stage), Usher, Falling (Opera Vindaloo Festival), and the video opera The Woman in the Green Coat (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); non-theatrical works include commissions for Albany Symphony Orchestra's Dogs of Desire, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and Composer's Voice. 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 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. Recent opera highlights include the west coast premiere of Elizabeth Cree, by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell, at West Edge Opera, the world premiere of Permadeath, a CGI- based opera about video gaming with White Snake Productions in Boston, the world premiere of Jeffrey Smith's Why is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me at Urban Arias in Washington DC, Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Indianapolis Symphony, a staging of Haydn’s Creation with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York premiere of Angels in America at New York City Opera, the world premiere of Dan Sonenberg's The Summer King at Pittsburgh Opera (and, recently, at Michigan Opera Theater), Bach's St. John Passion with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek at Boston Lyric Opera, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at Virginia Opera, the world premiere of Enemies: A Love Story, by Ben Moore, at Palm Beach Opera, Embedded, by composer Patrick Soluri, at Fargo-Moorhead Opera and Ft. Worth Opera, Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at Virginia Opera, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Eugene Opera, Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at Virginia Opera, the American premiere of Philip Glass' Kepler at Spoleto Festival/USA, Adams' Nixon in China at Eugene Opera, a fully staged Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the world premiere of Michael Dellaira's The Secret Agent at Center for Contemporary Opera in New York, the Armel Opera Festival in Hungary, and Opera Avignon, The Turn of the Screw at Boston Lyric Opera, Philip Glass' Orphée at Pittsburgh Opera, Virginia Opera, Portland Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, and Anthony Davis’ Amistad at Spoleto Festival/USA. Recent theater credits include Neil LaBute’s In a Dark Dark House with Knife Edge Productions, off-Broadway productions of Owned, a world premier play by Julian Sheppard, and Tape, by Stephen Belber, a double bill of plays by Shaw and De Musset at the Franklin Stage Company, and Arthur Miller’s After The Fall at NYU/Tisch Grad Acting.
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.
Performances by
Lindell O. Carter, Kelly Glyptis, Yoojin Lee, Ilene Pabon, Eliam Ramos, and Gileann Tan
Music Direction
Chérie Roe, Assistant Music Direction by Andrea DeVito
Stage Direction
Kathleen Capdesuñer, Fernando Parra Bortí, and Martavius Parrish
Designers
RJ Craig, Farideh Didehvar, Dani Draper, Rodrigo Hernandez Martinez, Xorlali Plange, Genevieve McCormick, Alex Nuñez Caba, and Steven Smith
Stage Managers
W. Wilson Jones and Katie Cherven
2025 Opera Lab led by
Randall Eng, Associate Arts Professor of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
Sam Helfrich, Associate Arts Professor of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Design for Stage & Film
Written by alums from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program
Designed by students from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Design for Stage & Film
A collaborative project of NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, Department of Design for Stage and Film, and American Opera Projects.
