New Opera about Robert Moses & Jane Jacobs, A MARVELOUS ORDER, Will Be Presented at Penn State University

ADH Theatricals has announced the world premiere of A Marvelous Order on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at Penn State University's Center for the Performing Arts. The new opera features music by Judd Greenstein, a libretto by former US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith, and animation and direction by Joshua Frankel.

Conceived by Greenstein, Smith and Frankel, A Marvelous Order chronicles the battle between the powerful "master builder" Robert Moses and the determined activist Jane Jacobs over the fate of New York City's Greenwich Village. When Moses plans to demolish her neighborhood, Jacobs, the self-taught oracle of unparalleled urban insight, leads a revolt, igniting a conflict that to this day continues to shape manmade environments around the world-from small towns to global cities-and the lives of all who call them home. An expansive work about power and protest, A Marvelous Order examines the ways we live together, who controls our environment, and how we respond to abuses of authority.

At the center of the opera stands Jane Jacobs, a formally untrained but formidable urban theorist fighting to stop a planned highway through lower Manhattan, and Robert Moses, the self-appointed infrastructure architect of New York City, pushing for destructive "urban renewal" at the expense of poorer city dwellers. As the US scrambles to address the rapidly-accelerating climate crisis dovetailing with the reinvigorated fight for racial justice, the legacy of Robert Moses faces renewed public interest and scrutiny, from David Hare's heralded 2022 bioplay, Straight Line Crazy, to the omnipresence of Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, The Power Broker, on the shelves of today's political pundits. Amid the desperate need for climate justice and the reimagining of public space prompted by the pandemic, A Marvelous Order is a timely reminder that urban planning remains an urgent matter of life and death.

From its earliest stages, this new opera was conceived as an interdisciplinary collaboration between the three lead artists. In addition to being through-composed, A Marvelous Order utilizes beautifully wrought animation that allows the opera's visuals to integrate with its music and poetry at a foundational level. The multi-channel animation appears on screens integrated into the opera's set-a collection of modular blocks that the ensemble manipulates throughout the performance-building, destroying and rebuilding their environments.

With music performed by NOW Ensemble, A Marvelous Order will feature music direction by David Bloom, movement direction/choreography by Patrick McCollum, technology design by Fubbi Karlsson and Seth Kirby, production design by Andrea Lauer, lighting design by Robert Bloom, sound design by Greg Allen and video playback engineering by Cameron Vokey. General management is by Courtney Ozaki and production management is by Philip Naudé.

A Marvelous Order is produced by Andrew D. Hamingson / ADH Theatricals, in association with New Amsterdam Presents.

The cast features Melisa Bonetti, Kelvin Chan, Tomás Cruz, Rinde Eckert, Blythe Gaissert, Christopher Herbert, Tesia Kwarteng, Kamala Sankaram, and Megan Schubert.

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