Arts Capacity Launches Cardboard Opera With Walker State Prison

Arts Capacity has announced the launch of a new initiative with Walker State Prison, called Cardboard Opera. The production will build on Walker State Prison's culture of creating inspired sculptures from cardboard by the prisoners.

Inmates with all skill levels, experiences and backgrounds, including artists, craftsmen, writers and musicians, will work together with Arts Capacity to produce and perform the Cardboard Opera that will debut in late 2022.

Since 2016, Arts Capacity founder and violinist Holly Mulcahy has presented regular interactive recitals at Walker State Prison. "Bringing in a more collaborative element was a natural next step," Mulcahy said.

Joining Arts Capacity for the production of the Cardboard Opera is local Chattanooga composer Tim Hinck and Houston-based librettist Kendra Preston Leonard.

Tim Hinck is a composer, pianist and a former Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands. His musical compositions and multimedia performances have been presented across the country and abroad in Spain and the Netherlands. Hinck scored the music for the Emmy award-winning documentary From the Streets to the Stage; his opera Eve Apart premiered in Pittsburgh, PA in 2015, and his recent compositions have been performed by Houston's ROCO Ensemble, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Ann Arbor Symphony, and at the Juilliard school.

Kendra Preston Leonard is a librettist, musicologist and music theorist. She was the librettist for eight operas that have premiered since 2018, including five micro-operas with composer Lisa Neher for the 2021 One Voice Micro-Opera Project. Her works have been performed by the American Opera Project, Choral Arts Initiative, Opera Elect, and Hartford Opera Theater, among others.

The Cardboard Opera will debut in 2022. For more information and updates on production, follow along at https://artscapacity.org/about/cardboard-opera/