THE MARCH

South Shore Opera Company

Performances of composer Jonathon Stinson's opera collaboration with librettist Alan Marshall, a "The March: A Civil Rights Opera Project," which dramatized events leading up to The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, arguably the most consequential peaceful civil rights gathering in American history. We created an immersive performance combining new opera scenes and arias with a civil rights mass meeting, with original speeches and historic freedom songs led with audience singing along. We performed for audiences throughout the development process. Performances at South Shore Cultural Center, Northwestern University, The Chicago Temple, and at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia during the 2012 Opera America Conference, among others.

Photos by Omar Robles

Conductor Daniel Black

Costumes Shanna Foster Philipson

Projections Hillary Leben
Lighting Julian Pike

Cast

Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Woods

Keenan McCarter

Emmett Till B.A. Newland

John Lewis Cornelius Johnson

Bayard Rustin Larry Marshall

Bernard Holcomb

Roy Wilkins Vince Wallace