WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED Saturday, September 29, 2018 6:00 p.m. pre-show | 7:00 p.m. broadcast Independence National Historical Park
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Welcome Welcome to Opera on the Mall, an annual event that more than 30,000 Philadelphians have enjoyed since 2011. Tonight’s broadcast exemplifies the spirit of Opera Philadelphia’s annual Festival O. We Shall Not Be Moved, by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and director Bill T. Jones, was met with popular and critical acclaim when it premiered last year at Festival O17. A blend of spoken word, contemporary dance, classical, R&B, and jazz singing, this opera embodies our company’s mission to – in addition to performing beloved traditional repertoire – bring exciting, relevant new works to our audiences and provide artists with the opportunity to create that work. We Shall Not Be Moved had seven sold-out performances at the Wilma Theater during O17, leaving many unable to get a ticket. We felt it was important that more people see this opera through a free broadcast in the shadow of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. This setting, in the birthplace of our nation, magnifies one of the central questions posed by We Shall Not Be Moved: “For whom America the beautiful?” This free event was also made possible by our community. Hundreds of generous individuals supported this event with gifts ranging from $10 to $5,000, joining major support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, PNC Arts Alive, and PECO. I thank all of you who helped make Opera on the Mall: We Shall Not Be Moved a reality.
David B. Devan General Director & President Opera Philadelphia
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Photo by: Dominic M. Mercier
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PRE-SHOW ACTIVITIES
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Market Street
B
President’s House Site
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Independence Hall
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5th Street
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6th Street
5:30 6:00 7:00 7:55 9:10
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I N D E P E N D E N C E N AT I O N A L H I S TO R I C A L PA R K A visit to Independence National Historical
internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage
Park is an opportunity to celebrate and
Site because of the world-changing events that
explore our nation’s past. Stand in the shadow
occurred inside this building.
of Independence Hall or read the famous inscription on the Liberty Bell. Stop for a moment in the President’s House Site and consider the promises and paradoxes of the liberty our founders envisioned. The ideas of liberty and self-government tested here still echo through our lives today.
Constitution over the years. This is a great opportunity to #FindYourPark.
There is so much more history to explore,
Every visit should start at the Independence
from the Georgian architecture, to the
Visitor Center. Learn more about
Portrait Gallery of the Second Bank, to an
Independence National Historical Park
18th century print office. The park’s museum
and the founding of our nation on the
collection contains 4 million historic artifacts
free mobile app, NPSIndependence,
associated with events, people and places
and by following
relevant to the park’s mission. The Benjamin
#FindYourPark.
This national park preserves and interprets
Franklin Museum showcases the creativity,
many of the most important resources
ambition, and genius of one of our greatest
associated with the founding of our country.
founding fathers. Exhibits at the National
Independence Hall has been recognized
Constitution Center trace the impact of our
WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED P L AY E R S A N D S Y N O P S I S OGs: who are spirits and thus can both move fiercely and sing like angels. The ones in the stained glass of the black church. They undoubtedly have memories of what happened here, but they *remember* much more than one historical time or place and express themselves as such. Their job is to teach those histories through movement and conjuring. They are the faculty of 62nd and Osage University. UN/SUNG: 15 yrs. The Tubman of this railroad. The one who misses mom and dad the most. Expresses primarily through spoken speech. GLENDA: An officer from North Philadelphia, working in West Philadelphia. A “not a patriot, not a saint ” but still genuinely good person. Who may or may not be playing on the right side. JOHN LITTLE: 17 yrs. Named for the label that Malcolm refused. The thrown away fruit that became the seed that fed the next. JOHN MACK: 18 yrs. A jazzman armed with a secret stash of quotes from old bluegrass records. The preacher. JOHN HENRY: 17 yrs. Would rather lift you physically than lift his voice. A BBoy. JOHN BLUE: 16 yrs. A trans boy who expresses in falsetto and upper register. The brother most likely to steal your things and cut you for good measure.
ACT 1 On the run after a series of tragic incidents, five North Philly teens ( John Henry, John Blue, John Little, John Mack, and Un/Sung) find refuge in an abandoned, condemned house in West Philadelphia. The home sits at the exact location of the headquarters of the MOVE organization before it was infamously burned to the ground in a 1985 police confrontation that left 11 people dead and no government officials indicted or meaningfully reprimanded. The teens are assuaged and even inspired by the ghosts who inhabit this home (who we refer to as the OGs), and begin to see their squatting in the home as a matter of destiny and resistance rather than urgent fear or precarious circumstance. Into this mix enters Glenda, a North Philly native turned West Philly cop who patrols
this quiet stretch of Osage Avenue on her regular beat. Glenda observes that the young people have taken over the home and are “hanging out” there when they are supposed to be in school. She moves determinedly to sweep the kids out of the home, threatening them with arrest and ridiculing their intentions. But in a chaotic accident, she moves too far and mistakenly discharges her firearm, injuring one of the teens. In her temporary shock, Glenda is overrun by the other young people, who turn the tables on the situation by pointing Glenda’s own gun at her and subsequently handcuffing her to a chair in the center of the house.
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Broadcast Equipment provided by PRG
Photo by: Dave DiRentis
ACT 2 John Henry lays bleeding in a pool of sorrow, confronted at a desperately young age with his own mortality. All parties are now frightened, disoriented, and vulnerable, and the only sense of empowerment in this bleak moment comes from the OGs who infuse the home with a spirituality that is palpably felt by the young people in particular. Glenda challenges the validity of this ‘movement of holy ghosts,’ but cannot deny that whatever the origins, the young people, led by the sole female-identified teen, Un/Sung, are clearly operating from a place of conviction. Still suspicious and driven by her vulnerable position, Glenda probes this conviction, intimating that the teens are not motivated by principle alone. Finally the teens succumb to the reality of the moment: their brother has been wounded and is in need of help, and the most expedient way to help him is to leave the house. They decide to reveal to Glenda the circumstances that drove them to squat in the house on Osage. They think Glenda has something to hide (firing at an unarmed teen) and so do they, and if they come clean w ith their story, the combination of transparency and quid pro quo may grant them safe, unreported passage out of the house. However, in revealing the origins of their plight, they also realize that a young man who John Blue has killed is Glenda’s own brother, Manny.
ACT 3 The family confers feverishly about the increasingly limited options for their next move, concluding that the best “survival ” tactic is to “ disappear” from Glenda altogether. Un/Sung commits to completing the task, instructing her brothers to leave quickly for a predetermined location to avoid any further witnesses while she does “something awful.” A confrontation between the young girl and Glenda ensues, concluding with silence, complete darkness in the theater, and the assumption of injury. When the lights come all the way up, the family has vanished, and the house on Osage Avenue has burned to the ground. Glenda tells an interviewer the story of her waning moments with the family from a plane above the action, but we watch a different story unfolding at eye level. All the players are setting the house on “ fire,” not with kerosene or grand flames, but with small, glass-framed candles. The image is not of arson, but of ritual. The Family is turning the home into an altar, perhaps an instrument of forgiving, of letting go, of release, and of renewal. As the lights come down for the final time, the last remaining image on stage is of the skeleton of a house, lit up like a shrine, while the OGs move around it in holy rites.
MEET THE CAST OF WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED
LAUREN WHITEHEAD* UN/SUNG Spoken Word
KIRSTIN CHÁVEZ GLENDA Mezzo-Soprano
ADAM RICHARDSON* JOHN MACK Baritone
MICHAEL BISHOP* OG Dancer
J O H N H O L I DAY * JOHN BLUE Countertenor
AUBREY ALLICOCK* JOHN HENRY Bass-Baritone
DUANE LEE HOLLAND* OG Dancer
DANIEL SHIRLEY* JOHN LITTLE Tenor
T E N DAY I KU U M B A * OG Dancer
VOICE OF THE REPORTER / Pat Ciarrocchi*
CACI COLE PRITCHETT* OG Dancer
CALLER / Mike J. Dees*
C R E AT I V E T E A M
COMPOSER / Daniel Bernard Roumain*
STAGE MANAGER / Mike Janney*
LIBRETTIST / Marc Bamuthi Joseph*
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER / Megan Coutts*
DIRECTOR-CHOREOGRAPHER / Bill T. Jones*
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER / Anna Reetz*
CONDUCTOR / Viswa Subbaraman*
BROADCAST DIRECTOR-EDITOR / Michael Dennis
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / Seth Hoff
ASSISTANT BROADCAST DIRECTOR / Melody Wong
ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER / Raphael Xavier*
SUPERTITLES AUTHOR / Julia Bumke
SOUND DESIGN / Robert Kaplowitz*
SUPERTITLES OPERATOR / Aurelien Eulert
COSTUME DESIGN / Liz Prince
CAMERAPERSONS / Michael Dennis, Phillip Todd, Les Rivera
SET DESIGN / Matt Saunders*
CINEMATOGRAPHER / Phillip Todd
LIGHTING DESIGN / Robert Wierzel*
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS / Kala J. West, Stormy Kelsey
PROJECTION DESIGN / Jorge Cousineau *Opera Philadelphia debut
Thank You, Philadelphia Last June, Opera Philadelphia launched its first ever crowd-funding campaign to support Opera on the Mall: We Shall Not Be Moved. While space does not allow for us to recognize the more than 200 individuals who contributed to our successful campaign, we express our deep appreciation to you all for helping us share this free broadcast with the city. Opera on the Mall is presented through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and PNC Arts Alive and made possible by PECO, the Mazzotti/Kelly Fund-BBH of the Philadelphia Foundation, Drs. Beverly Lange and Renato Baserga, the Virginia Brown Martin Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust, and Ms. Robin Angly and Mr. Miles Smith. Additional funding received from: Carol and Howard Lidz Rachel McCausland and Robert McClung Abigail and Mark Nestlehutt Jane G. Pepper Helen Pettit Louise and Alan Reed Drs. Richard and Rhonda Soricelli Lise Suino Vince Tseng & Geoff Mainland RJ Wallner Donna and Andy Wechsler
Photo by: Dominic M. Mercier
Anonymous (2) Mr. John R. Alchin and Mr. Hal Marryatt Marita Altman Myron and Sheila S. Bassman Michael Bolton and Peter Keleher Shannon Coulter Mark and Peggy Curchack David B. Devan and David A. Dubbeldam Jeffrey R. Jowett Ms. Caroline J. Mackenzie Kennedy Ian Kirschemann and Leslie Jones Judy and Peter Leone
Bring Opera back to the Mall Thank you for joining us this evening to share stories, celebrate c o m m u n i t y, a n d m a k e m e m o r i e s w h i l e e n j o y i n g g r e a t o p e r a i n t h e great outdoors. Please help keep this tradition thriving for years to come. O P E R A P H I L A . O R G / M A L L | 215 . 7 3 2 . 8 4 0 0