Performance Dates

Friday, February 9 @ 8:00 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Saturday, February 10 @ 8:00 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts
Sunday, February 11 @ 4:00 PM – Sydney Laurence Theatre in the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts

In English with English titles 

ALL Ticket holders: Take the As One Audience Survey by Feb 25, 2018 and be entered to WIN two (2) tickets to a Metropolitan Opera HD Broadcast at Century 16 in Anchorage (Courtesy of KLEF FM 98.1) Various dates and shows available to choose from. To take the survey CLICK HERE

Photo Gallery

Photos by Kathleen Behnke 

Voth Hall Exhibition

Acclaimed Alaskan photographer, Jenny Irene Miller, created a very special Photo Exhibition especially for our Alaska premiere production of As One which is on display in the Voth Hall on performance days. Plan to arrive early before the show to experience her portrait series of transgender men and women in our community, read their stories, view other works of art, our Post-It Note Wall of #TRANSformative Stories, and visit information tables including those of the Transgender Leadership Council, Identity Inc, Fair Anchorage and the Mayor’s Office.
 
The Voth Hall exhibit is made possible by support from the Anchorage Arts Fund at the The Alaska Community Foundation.

Prelude to the Opera

 
Members of our Anchorage community shared their own personal stories of transition as a Prelude to the Opera.  Lillian Lennon & Lee Harrington (Feb 10 & 12) and Andrea Redeker & Danny Ashton Earll (Feb 11) helped set the stage for the opera, personalizing it, shining a spotlight on our transgender community and ‘bringing it home’ for all Alaskans. We appreciate their willingness to share so openly & thank them for making the theater experience more meaningful, powerful & thought-provoking, thereby fostering dialogue in our community.
WATCH Lillian Lennon & Lee Harrington Prelude to the Opera>>>

#TRANSformative Stories

As part of each performance of As One personal reflections and memories from transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, as well as their families, loved ones, and allies, in our own community, were collected and transcribed onto seat cards, putting the theater experience into the perspective of our own social landscape in Alaska.

Talk Backs 

 
After each performance of As One, Talk Backs with the cast, artistic team & Prelude to the Opera speakers gave audiences the opportunity to share their thoughts on the opera and the issues raised by it.

As One “Backstage Pass” with KTVA

 
James Gaddis of KTVA Channel 11’s Daybreak was our special guest for a ‘Backstage Pass’ to As One. He got a look at the multimedia aspects of the production, chatted with our Conductor/Stage Director/Designer, Andreas Mitisek, AO General Director, Reed Smith, ” Prelude to the Opera” speaker, Lee Harrington & experienced an excerpt from the show! Team AO had a great time being live with him (& his team back at the studio) from the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts!

Anchorage Daily News article

Photo by Loren Holmes

As One made the cover of the Anchorage Daily News Play section with a fantastic article “Hannah-Before, Hannah-After” , by Donna Freedman

“Calling “As One” an opera about gender transition is like calling “The Vagina Monologues” a play about gynecology. In both cases the human body is not the subject, but rather the starting point for a personal journey: the realization that we need not be entirely defined by our physical selves…”

READ ARTICLE >>>

 

 

 

An Alaska Premiere Production

The STARS of As One, Ashley Cutright and Luis Alejandro Orozco, sat down to chat with Scott Roddy about the show on IHeartRADIO‘s great Community Magazine! Listen to the podcast before you see them shine onstage!

Stage Talk – Alaska Public Media 91.1 FM

Andreas Mitisek , Conductor/Stage Director/Designer of As One and Reed Smith, AO General Director sat down with Steve Hunt of KSKA 91.1 FM radio, for this latest installment of Stage Talk: “Anchorage Opera is presenting the powerful new opera, As One”
LISTEN>>

About the Opera

A story about identity, authenticity and compassion. Two voices—Hannah Before and Hannah After—share the journey of a sole protagonist in transition. With empathy and humor, we experience Hannah’s youthful challenges in a small town, her struggles with family, and her inspiring quest to find her one true self. Based, in part, on the life of acclaimed filmmaker Kimberly Reed, As One’s rich libretto and evocative melodies make for an unforgettable theater experience.

Intended to foster conversations within the Anchorage community, we invite you to linger afterwards for a Talk Back discussion about the social issues raised by the work.

A chamber opera for two voices and String Quartet
Music and Concept by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed
Film by Kimberly Reed

By Arrangement with Bill Holab Music. As One was commissioned and developed by American Opera Projects (AOP)

As One in reviews

“As One” is the hottest title in opera right now, at least among the titles written in the last 100 years.” – The Denver Post

“You don’t have to be transgender—or even an opera-lover—to be moved and haunted by As One … It’s a work that will reach anyone who has come to terms with growing up, learning to live with themselves, dealing with the short-comings of others. In other words, all of us…” – BroadwayWorld

“… a piece that haunts and challenges its audience with questions about identity, authenticity, compassion and the human desire for self-love and peace.” – Opera News

… charters new territory in theme and content of “what makes an opera.” – DC Theatre Scene

“The opera, at its best, remains an interior monologue and is performed beautifully by Luis Alejandro Orozco and Ashley Cutright as the two sides of Hannah. Both singers possess powerful voices and sing and move with extraordinary expression and poetic interactions. Opera has come a long way, baby, and these two performers might well have been taken as dancers in their fluidity. They are endlessly watchable, even as they switch briefly into other characters to tell Hannah’s story.” – DC Theatre Scene

“MAGNIFICENT…As One stole an entire house full of hearts.”
– [Q]onstage

“As One forces you to think, simultaneously challenging preconceptions and inspiring empathy…[with] winning humor and a satisfying emotional arc.” – The New York Times

“No opera, to my knowledge, has told the story of a trans person as either a central or subsidiary character, but novelty alone wouldn’t be enough to carry As One had not that story been framed with such expert and thoughtful craft. In short, As One, both inspiring and groundbreaking, innovative yet relatable, is built to travel, and deserves to.”
—Seattle Weekly

“A brisk marvel of dramatic urgency and musical characterization … [with] a delicately atmospheric film accompaniment by Kimberly Reed. The libretto conjures up [a] blend of excitement, shame, self-fulfillment and fear with crisp efficiency, and the string quartet that provides the opera’s only instrumental accompaniment chugs along in a beguiling quasi-minimalist groove. Best of all is Kaminsky’s vocal writing…straightforward melodic lines convey the sense of emotion.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“… a thoughtful and substantial piece as well as that rarest of operatic commodities — a story that lends itself to dramatization in music… effective, direct music … Kaminsky writes well for the voice.” – Washington Post

“Two Voices, one human experience.” – The Salt Lake Tribune

“… a chance to expand your horizons.” – New York Classical Review

“As One is everything that we hope for in contemporary opera: topical, poignant, daring, and beautifully written. “
—New York Classical Review

“…A transgender story with power, passion… “As One” has a power all its own. It is the power of intimate revelation… touch(es) the audience — with the emotional impact of an affecting story about a child born into the wrong body. … beautiful lyrical moments… as uplifting as any operatic ending could be.” 
—Seattle Times

“As One makes the character’s coming to terms with her identity a poignant coming-of-age story just about every audience member can relate to. Its universality is key to As One’s becoming the hottest new American opera of recent years. It challenges us to ponder questions of authenticity, identity, compassion and self-love. And it does so without preachiness.”
—The Chicago Tribune

“The real secret of the opera’s success… is that under everything lays a winning coming-of-age story. … In fact, As One is not so much an opera of ripped-out-of-the-headlines relevance than a traditional, if unconventional, love story. … In the end, As One boils down to the easily relatable condition of a person learning to love one’s self. … By moving beyond the daily news, “As One” approaches admirable universality.” 
—The Los Angeles Times

About the Composer

Laura Kaminsky writes “music that is full of fire as well as ice, written in an idiom that contrasts dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection. It is strong stuff.” (American Record Guide). With “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times), social and political themes are common in her work, as is an abiding respect for and connection to the natural world. As One (co-librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed), debuted in 2014 at BAM to unanimously positive reviews, including: “[As One] is a piece that haunts and challenges its audience with questions about identity, authenticity, compassion, and the human desire for self-love and peace” (Opera News) and “this is effective, direct music…Kaminsky writes well for the voice.” (Washington Post) Subsequent As One productions include Utah State University/Caine School of the Arts, West Edge Opera (Oakland, CA), Urban Arias (Washington DC), and, in 2017, Opera Colorado and Pittsburgh Opera.

Kaminsky has received grants and awards from, among others, the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, Chamber Music America, Aaron Copland Fund, American Music Center, USArtists International, CEC ArtsLink International Partnerships, and Likhachev-Russkiy Mir Foundation. She has been a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Centrum Foundation, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Camargo Foundation (France).

Currently composer-in-residence at American Opera Projects, Kaminsky is head of composition at the Conservatory of Music of Purchase College/SUNY. Scores are available through Bill Holab Music. Recordings are on Albany, Bridge, CRI, Capstone, Mode, and MSR labels. To read Laura’s full bio CLICK HERE

About the Co-Librettists

Mark Campbell is one of the most in-demand librettists working in opera today, profiled in Opera News as one of twenty-five people “poised…to become major forces in opera in the coming decade.” Mark has written fifteen librettos, but his most known work is the libretto for the opera Silent Night, which garnered the 2012 Pulitzer in Music for composer Kevin Puts. Since its premiere at Minnesota Opera, the opera has been broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances and received productions at Opera Philadelphia, Ft. Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Calgary Opera, The Wexford Festival in Ireland, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Opéra de Montréal. Other successful operas include: Later the Same Evening, Volpone, As One, Bastianello/Lucrezia, A Letter to East 11th Street, The Inspector, Rappahannock County, Approaching Ali and The Manchurian Candidate. Mark has collaborated with many notable contemporay composers, including Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, William Bolcom, Conrad Cummings, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Martin Hennessy, Laura Kaminsky, Paul Moravec, John Musto, Paola Prestini, Kevin Puts, Richard Peaslee, D.J. Sparr, and Michael Torke. To learn more about Mark CLICK HERE

 

 

Kimberly Reed, filmmaker/librettist — featured on Oprah, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, The Moth Radio Hour — is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” A New York Foundation for the Arts fellow, she has had residencies at Yaddo, Hermitage Artist Retreat, and Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Regarding her debut as co-librettist and filmmaker of Laura Kaminsky’s opera As One, The New York Times review of its BAM premiere said: “backed by scene-setting projections from Ms. Reed, the drama powerfully coheres.” San Francisco Chronicle noted the “delicately atmospheric film” and libretto—co-written with Mark Campbell—that “conjures up a blend of excitement, shame, self-fulfillment and fear with crisp efficiency.” She is collaborating again with Campbell and Kaminsky on a new opera for Houston Grand Opera/HGOco and Today It Rains for San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle. Reed’s Prodigal Sons, a “whiplash doc that heralds an exciting talent” (SF Weekly), premiered at Telluride Film Festival, has been shown at 100+ festivals and broadcast worldwide, and garnered 14 awards including the FIPRESCI Prize. She is also working on Dark Money, a documentary about campaign finance reform.

Notes from the Creators of As One

“The opera hits the core issues every human being has to confront: Who am I? How do I become myself? What struggles I have to go through? How do I have honesty? How can me changing effect the people and the world around me? – Its specific about Hannah, but also a human story everyone can relate to. That’s the beauty of the libretto, Hannah is breaking down a lot of barriers.” – Laura Kaminsky, Composer

“I wanted to let you get to know a real, live trans person. It’s not unusual for me to be the first transgender person someone has known. I’m happy to be in that position, because the best way to dispel misunderstanding and increase empathy for The Other is to simply get to know someone. ” – Kimberly Reed, Co-Librettist

“Kim recalled an incident as a male-assigned youth in Helena, Mont. Like almost every boy born into a suburban existence, Kim had a newspaper route. But one morning, she decided to deliver newspapers in a blouse worn under her jacket. It was a galvanizing moment. We discussed a few more experiences, and I left that evening with a vague but thrilling notion for a story.” – Mark Campbell, Co-Librettist

When we three set out to write As One, none of us predicted the success it would have. We were well aware of the reality within the industry that many new operas don’t receive second or third productions—for reasons that often have little to do with the quality of the work—and we knew that a new piece about a transgender protagonist might not jibe with some people’s views of opera. But through a confluence of timing, luck, and what we hope is a compelling piece, we now find Opera America reports that the work is one of the most produced new operas in recent history.

We’re the first to admit that one reason for the opera’s number of incarnations is due to its simplest production values: two singers, a string quartet and the most basic of sets to accommodate the projection design. Early on, we envisioned an opera that could be performed in the humblest of circumstances, and we kept those limitations in mind. Of course, this may confound operagoers used to seeing monolithic sets and choruses of peasants, but we also hoped that As One would attract a new audience—people who might seek a simpler, purer synergy of music and text to tell a story.

Another reason for the opera’s popularity may be the character of Hannah herself. Fallible, self-deprecating, and admittedly somewhat self-involved, Hannah’s journey is one that audiences can relate to. We eschewed any political agenda in creating her character and instead focused on someone most people can identify with. We also chose to tell her story with a healthy bit of humor. Of course, Hannah does have conflicts, but she is not the tortured soul usually portrayed in stories about trans people.

The popularity of As One is very gratifying. Even more gratifying to us is how the opera’s message about human rights is reaching so many people—especially at a time when leadership in this country wants to dehumanize trans people and strip away their rights. We feel honored that a company with the reputation of Opera Colorado would choose to not only produce a new production of our opera, but also to do so with such loving care.

—Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, Kimberly Reed, February 2017

View an interview with Laura, Mark & Kimberly

Sponsors & Partners

This production made possible by an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation.

              

History of original funding for As One:
As One film direction and film by Kimberly Reed, commissioned by American Opera Projects. As One premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music, September 2014, made possible in part with funding from BAM/DeVos Institute of Arts Management at Kennedy Center Professional Development Program, OPERA America’s Opera Discovery Grants for Female Composers Program, supported by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Tanner Fund at Utah State University, Jeremy T. Smith Fund, Dr. CoCo Lazaroff, Lynn Loacker, Judith O. Rubin, and many generous individuals.

Organizations that support the transgender community

LOCAL
Identity Alaska. Identity’s mission is to advance Alaska’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community through advocacy, education and connectivity. Transgender community meets every Friday evening.

Alaskan Transcendentalist. Blogspot lists resources in Alaska for transpeople.

NATIONAL
GLAAD. Resources for cisgender people who have questions about the trans community

GLSEN. Resources for supporting trans and gender non-conforming students.

Transgender Day of Remembrance: November 20 is commemorated every year as the “Transgender Day of Remembrance,” a time when we remember the many transgender victims of violence worldwide.

Additional resources (courtesy of GLADD):

The Cast

Production Team


Luis Alejandro Orozco – Hannah Before


Ashley Cutright – Hannah After


Andreas Mitisek – Conductor/Stage Director/Designer


Cedar Cussins – Lighting Designer

Neda St. Clair – Rehearsal Accompanist & Conductor’s Assistant


Hair & Make-up Designer –
Elle Janecek

Stage Manager –
Emily Butzi

Synopsis

Part I
In “Paper route,” Hannah rides around her suburban neighborhood delivering newspapers and revels in her more feminine impulses. Her youthful challenges in conforming to gender norms are related in “Cursive,” “Sex ed,” “Entire of itself ” and “Perfect boy”—in such disparate subjects as handwriting, sex, a John Donne poem, and exemplary male behavior. However, in “To know,” she discovers that she is not alone in the world and seeks understanding about herself at a local library.

Part II
During her college years, Hannah struggles with her bifurcated existence in “Two cities,” but also encounters the joy of being perceived as she wishes in “Three words.” In “Close,” she has made the decision to undergo hormone therapy and briefly suffers its vertiginous effects before feeling at one with her own body. “Home for the holidays,” “A christmas story” and “Dear son” all occur around the Christmas season and relate Hannah’s growing distance to her family and her past, which is countered by an immediate connection with a stranger in a local café. In “Out of nowhere,” Hannah escapes a harrowing assault that prompts her to find a link to the larger trans community and end her self-imposed alienation. Reacting to the conflicting voices in her head, she finally resolves to escape in the fragment, “I go on to…”

Part III
“Norway.” In this extended aria, Hannah finds, in Nature, solitude, and self-reflection, the simple yet surprising equation that will help her achieve happiness.

Libretto

To read the complete script of As One by Mark Campbell & Kimberly Reed CLICK HERE

Free Pre-Opera Talks

Plan to join us one hour before each performance of As One to learn the fascinating history and insights into this poignant and compelling opera.

Friday, Feb 9 at 7:00 pm in the Voth Hall
Saturday, Feb 10 at 7:00 PM in the Voth Hall
Sunday, Feb 11 at 3:00 pm in the Voth Hall

Sponsors


Official Airline Sponsor


Guest Artists’ Fitness Sponsor