ELLIS
Music by Gabriele Vanoni | Libretto by Ewa Chrusciel
A new multimedia and immersive opera that reminds us that we are all wanderers looking for a place to call home.
DATES
Saturday & Sunday, October 2 & 3, 2021, 7PM EDT
LOCATION
Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108
ADMISSION
$45.00
Based on true stories from Ellis Island, experience the clash of cultural identities, the artifacts immigrants bring to this country, and the acceptance or intolerance of cultures through time, through emotional stories of migration.
A multicultural cast to embodies true stories from our nation’s past, while larger-than-life video projections transport audiences through time. Experiences an actual journey to communally explore how we are all wanderers in our lives searching for a sense of identity and place in the face of the unfamiliar.
CAST
Aliana de la Guardia (soprano) as Raysel/Maria’s Mother
Bizhou Chang (soprano) as Maria/Manny’s Aunt
Taka Komagata (tenor) as Manny
Brian Church (baritone) as The Guard/Lou, Manny’s Brother
Andros Zins-Browne (dancer) as Raysel’s Father
Lilit Hartunian (violin)
Stephen Marotto (cello & mandolin)
Philipp Stäudlin (saxophone)
Mike Williams (percussion)
PRODUCTION & CREATIVE
Gabriele Vanoni (Composer)
Ewa Chrusciel (Librettist)
Laine Rettmer (Stage Director/Video Artist)
Nicholas O’Leary (Associate Director/Dramaturg)
Nuozhou Wang (Associate Director/Video Effects)
Pamela Hersch (Projection Mapping)
Maxx Finn (Lighting Design)
Rebecca Shannon Butler (Costume Design)
Tae Kim (Pianist)
Sarah Schneider (Artistic Projects and Production Manager)
Keithlyn Parkman (Associate Producer)
Julia Noulin-Mérat (Artistic Advisor)
ACCESSBILITY
Guerilla Opera’s productions of ELLIS require some walking and may include the use of stairs. The production can accommodate most accessibility needs. Please choose GROUP A if you are experiencing difficulty with mobility and require assistance.
Guests are encouraged to call or email Guerilla Opera’s Box Office at 617-286-6307 or boxoffice@guerillaopera.org to disclose accessibility needs before attending any live event.
COVID-19 SAFETY
What you need to know before attending a live performance.
Guerilla Opera is committed to helping stop the spread of COVID-19. All guests must:
Be fully vaccinated OR provide a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of any live performance
Show their vaccination card OR test results and a government issued ID prior to entering any event ticketed by Guerilla Opera. A photo of your vaccination card is acceptable. COVID-19 results shown from an app are also acceptable.
Wear masks regardless of vaccination status.
Guerilla Opera requires all performers, staff members, ushers, stagehands and vendors to be fully vaccinated or provide a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of any in-person event.
Please carefully read all pre-performance emails and communications for important information pertaining to each performance.
Land and Blood Acknowledgement
“As we embark on the development of this opera, I would like to acknowledge that not everyone in this country is an immigrant and not everyone who resides here made a conscious choice to be here. We acknowledge the ancestral lands of the Massachusett people and we pay respect to the Massachusett people past and present, whose land we occupy. We acknowledge the truth of violence perpetrated in the name of this country. We acknowledge the truth of the enslavement of African people and the violence perpetrated to them in the name of this country.
Land carries memory. The land we each stand on, wherever we are, holds deep history. It holds success, pain, connection, partnership, life, death, love, abuse, growth, genocide, discovery, community, and violence.
By acknowledging the land and all that it holds, I invite us all to learn more deeply about the places we occupy and the people who are our neighbors. Let us reflect together on the history of the space that we occupy, and what that has meant for different people who have occupied that same space throughout its history.”
- Aliana de la Guardia, Artistic Director
ELLIS IS SUPPORTED BY
ELLIS is supported in part by a Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Haverhill Cultural Council a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, Pentucket Bank, and Michael and Sharon Mollerus; developed with the help of our partners partners at Trinity Parish of Newton Centre, The Gloucester Stage, Revolutionary Spaces, HC Media, the Haverhill Art Walk, Luminartz, Studio HHH, Sharp NEC Display Solutions; and with special thanks to José Carlos Ibañez Olvera (Compañía Nacional Ópera Contemporanea), Pamela Hersh, theatre KAPOW, Ovation Theatre Company, Nathan Troup, and Carolyn Royce and Roscoe Giles.
