Opera Commissioned by Hopkins Center Heads to New York City
Lincoln Center’s “Summer for the City” Program
You may think performing arts productions are always born in Big Cities and then eventually meander their way to stages in Small Towns. Not necessarily. Theater productions have been created right here in the Upper Valley, and we’ve watched them—more than once—migrate to larger, urban stages in New York City.
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
The Hopkins Center, along with Stanford Live, commissioned The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist. It premiered at the Hop in 2022. “An opera in seven movements,” it will now be performed in New York City under the auspices of Lincoln Center.
This summer, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts brings to New York City The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist, an interdisciplinary opera that employs vibrant music, uplifting dance and a community choir to respond to the ongoing loss of Black life at the hands of police on the tenth anniversary of Eric Garner’s [2014] murder. . . The New York premiere of the opera will be presented for free on July 19 in Damrosch Park, as part of the center’s third annual Summer for the City festival.
Dartmouth College’s Gospel Choir will join Sing Harlem as part of the opera’s 75-member chorus. Numerous other Dartmouth-connected artists have created and shaped the production.
Ritual of Breath was created by Enrico Riley, Dartmouth alumnus and professor of Studio Arts, whose captivating paintings and drawings of Black life provide the backdrop for the opera; Jonathan Berger, professor of Music at Stanford, who composed the evocative score; and Vievee Francis, a poet and Dartmouth professor of English and Creative Writing, who crafted the powerful libretto. [Francis was recently named a recipient of a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship]. “It is so meaningful that Ritual of Breath has a chance to connect with a wider audience this summer at Lincoln Center in the Park,” says Riley. “The project started as an idea between two people eight years ago and has grown to possess a family of amazing collaborators.
Additional information is available on the project’s website.
JAG Productions and Northern Stage: Other local theater companies have proven that they too can incubate and export productions to venues in New York. JAG Productions, originally of White River Junction VT, started billing itself as “a White River Junction and New York City-based theater company” as it developed a foothold there, including some time in residency at the New York Theatre Works in 2022. In 2019, Trick or Treat, starring UV resident and Emmy Award -winning actor Gordon Clapp, was produced off-Broadway at 59E59. Trick or Treat was developed and first seen at Northern Stage in 2016/17. Similarly, Northern Stage’s Carol Dunne directed a production of Only Yesterday (it had premiered at Northern Stage in White River Junction) at the same New York City theater.
Dorset Theatre Festival: There appears to be a pipeline that delivers theater from southern Vermont to New York City and it begins in Dorset, VT. As we speak . . . Still, starring Tim Daly and Jayne Atkinson, had its world premiere in the summer of 2023 at Dorset Theatre Festival. Later this week (May 23), the play will be finishing a month-long off-Broadway run, coming on the heels of two other Dorset Theatre productions. Dig, written and directed by the Festival’s resident playwright, Theresa Rebeck, had its World Premiere in Dorset’s 2019 Season and debuted Off-Broadway at Primary Stages this past August, and "I Need That," also by Rebeck and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, ran on Broadway this past December at the Roundabout Theatre Company starring Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas.”
(Block quotes from Hopkins Center press release)
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word..