Firehouse's TO DAMASCUS Awarded $10,000 NEA Grant

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $25 million in grants as part of the NEA's first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $10,000 to Firehouse Theatre for the world premiere of Richmond composer Walter Braxton's opera TO DAMASCUS. This is the first direct NEA grant that Firehouse has received in its 24 year history.

The Art Works category is the NEA's largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

"It is energizing to see the impact that the arts are making throughout the United States. These NEA-supported projects, such as this one to Firehouse, are good examples of how the arts build stronger and more vibrant communities, improve well-being, prepare our children to succeed, and increase the quality of our lives," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "At the National Endowment for the Arts, we believe that all people should have access to the joy, opportunities and connections the arts bring."

TO DAMASCUS had a limited run of seven performances at Firehouse from January 18 thru 27, 2018. The Richmond Times Dispatch's Tony Farrell called it "a sensuous and cerebral operatic creation." TO DAMASCUS built on a range of sources including the bible story of Paul's conversion, August Strindberg's THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS, the rivalry between Lorenzo de' Medici's patronage of secular art versus Girolamo Savanarola's bonfire of the vanities and his call for an orthodox religious revival, Thomas Mann's only play FIORENZO, the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, James Marcus Schuyler and Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and the Catholic Mass. Braxton wove these sources in to his libretto and composed a lush score that was performed by an orchestra of sixteen musicians and five singers.

The opera examines the rituals we practice to reconcile the sacred and the profane and ease the noise between our angels and demons. In Firehouse's Season of Possibilities we rejected traditional ideas and embedded conventions of historicized opera and applied techniques of installation art and experimental performance to make an anti-opera for the 21st century.

Firehouse's Producing Artistic Director and director of TO DAMASCUS Joel Bassin said, "The NEA grant is a very meaningful sign of the support that Walter deserves. For me, Walter embodies music and exemplifies the audaciousness of the artistic spirit in his lifelong commitment to beauty, creativity, and rigor. It was an honor and a thrill to bring Walter's opera to life and we are all very grateful to the NEA for this generous award."

Performers
Michele Baez
Elisabeth Carlton Dowdy
Michael David Gray
Chase Peak
Imani Thaniel

Musicians
Flute: Susan Davis
Oboe: Jane Kise
Clarinet: Myrick Crampton
Bassoon: Anthony Cavanaugh
Horn: Roxanne Williams
Trumpet: Aaron Bottoms
Violin 1: Katharine Wooldridge, Marissa Resmini
Violin 2: Heather Ryan, Alanna North
Viola: Brenda Johnson, Justin Williams
Cello: Ned Haskins, Jacquelin Spears
Bass: Ayça Kartari
Keyboard: Leilani Fenick

Production Team
Director - Joel Bassin
Musical Directors - Leilani Fenick (vocal coach) + Michael Knowles (conductor)
Environment Designers - Isabel Layton
Lighting Designer - Bill Miller
Costume Designer - Kathleen O'Connor
Stage Manager - Corrie Yarbrough
Assistant Stage Manager - Taylor Rumbley

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