May 10 2020
We Shall Not Be Moved - Virtual Opera Performance

We Shall Not Be Moved - Virtual Opera Performance

at Online/Virtual Space

On the run after a series of tragic incidents, five North Philly teens find refuge in an abandoned, condemned house in West Philadelphia at the exact location that served as headquarters of the MOVE organization, where a 1985 standoff with police infamously ended with a neighborhood destroyed and 11 people dead, including five children. This self-defined family is assuaged and even inspired by the ghosts who inhabit this home and begin to see their squatting as a matter of destiny and resistance rather than urgent fear. This World Premiere chamber opera by Daniel Bernard Roumain, an acclaimed composer and performer whose work defies genre, and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, an arts activist known for spoken‐word performance, is “ambitiously interdisciplinary,” according to Bill T. Jones, the celebrated director, choreographer, dramaturge, and dancer. Combining spoken word, contemporary movement, video projection, classical, R&B and jazz singing, and a brooding, often joyful score filled with place, purpose, and possibility, We Shall Not Be Moved is a timely exploration of past and present struggles which suggests an alternate future through the eyes of its young protagonists.

Admission Info

Free, but Contributions encouraged.

Dates & Times

2020/05/10 - 2020/05/10

Additional time info:

The broadcast premiere will take place on WHYY TV-12 (Comcast 812 & FiOs 512) on Sunday, May 10 at 2:00 p.m.

The digital stream will premiere on Sunday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. and will be available for viewing until Monday, August 31.

Location Info

Online/Virtual Space