Community Engagement

Telling the Stories of Georgia

WRITTEN BY Jessica Kiger

A team performing in the 2015 showcase at Theatrical Outfit from the 24-Hour Opera Project.

JEFF ROFFMAN

Long-time fans of The Atlanta Opera may remember the company’s 24-Hour Opera Project, which brought artistic teams together to create and perform an original opera scene in twenty-four hours. This season, we are bringing the concept back with a bold new vision.

Over four days in June, teams of composers and librettists from historically underrepresented communities, will craft compelling, completely new 10-minute operas. The operas will focus on stories from Atlanta and Georgia’s diverse communities, which have rarely been featured on operatic stages. The winning team will be awarded a future opera commission with The Atlanta Opera and $10,000. We’re calling it the 96-Hour Opera Project.

Atlanta native and international opera star bass Morris Robinson will serve as an artistic advisor on the project and will also join the judging panel which includes Priti Gandhi, Artistic Director of Portland Opera; librettist

and writer Andrea Davis Pinkney; choreographer and stage director Donald Byrd; composer Kevin Puts; and Khori Dastoor, General Director of Houston Grand Opera.

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, We Love Buford Highway, the Fulton County Library System, the Japan American Society of Georgia, and The Atlanta History Center will assist the opera in providing compelling local story prompts and creative briefs for the participating librettists and composers. The creative teams will be paired with story partner organizations and given their story briefs in advance of the competition with time to engage in collaborative discussion and exploration.

The four-day competition runs from June 17 to June 20. The showcase will be hosted in partnership with Morehouse College School fo Music and held at the Ray Charles Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, June 20, 2022 at 7pm. Admission will be free and open to the public.

For more information about the 96-Hour Opera Project, please visit: www.atlantaopera.org/ competition

presents

Judges & Advisors

Clockwise from top left: Donald Byrd, judge; Khori Dastoor, judge; Priti Gandhi, judge; Morris Robinson, judge and artistic advisor; Kevin Puts, judge; Andrea Davis Pinkney, judge