Writer/Creator

I have taken to writing opera libretti.

My dream opera is a work that unifies all creative disciplines: poetry, music, acting, dance, visual art & architecture and does so with a high level of craftsmanship. It allows each of these disciplines space to enter the story where it is most appropriate, and to communicate another layer of feeling or understanding. It exacts virtuosity from its performers, but only as much virtuosity as required by the story being told.

My dream opera revels in the capacity of the human instrument to communicate directly through sound, movement, word, and gesture. It does not depend on microphones and amplification, but instead glories in the sensation of sound vibrations traveling directly through space from the performers to the audience. It plays with time and the relative feeling of its passing.

My dream opera takes on a story that current audiences can follow. This opera draws on history, or legends or fairy tales, or pop culture stories and icons, or simply a story that speaks so directly to modern life that you can’t help but know it. It is culturally significant and addresses questions, dilemmas, and disagreements of the moment. It takes on deep issues through specific characters and relationships and an acute sense of dramatic humour.

My dream opera is always a new opera.

And so, I write.

Works in Development

The 10-Block Walk: An Old Person’s Odyssey – A 45-min to 1hr musical dramatic work in ten scenes for 6-19 performers . Composer: Erin Huelskamp. Follows an elderly woman as she painstakingly crosses town and the multiple worlds of one city. As she journeys, she encounters questions of death and deterioration, xenophobia and the need for human contact, frailty and determination.

The Legend of Rosepetal – a theatrical version of the Clemens Brentano fairy tale in which a haughty princess finds herself an unwilling pumpkin married to a rosebush.

Untitled – A grand comic opera set-up as a reunion episode of the Daily Show featuring guests from the Clinton saga. Features numbers such as “The Blue Dress Blues” (with saxophone) sung by Bill and “Oh, how I long to be back in the White House” sung by Hilary. Two choruses include the white house press corps and the senate.  Collaboration with poet/historian Samuel Biagetti

Produced Works

Requiem aeternam – A musical-theatrical remembrance ceremony for the dead and long-forgotten of the North Burial Ground in Providence, RI. Commissioned by the Cryptic Providence Festival. Co-created with Arvid Tomayko-Peters. Re-imagined with video for the Pixilerations program of the FirstWorksProv Festival. 2008.

Actias Luna – An evening of theatrical dance works about moths and family. Accompanied by music and original texts. Ensemble creation by Creative Collaborations, a student workshop. Providence, RI. 2004.

Water/Fire – A ceremonial dance with music and spoken word. Ensemble creation by Creative Collaborations, co-produced by Providence WateFire. 2004.