#Leah's Halloween Extravaganza

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Leah's Halloween Extravaganza: Eyeball animation!

heheheh procedural eyeball + rigidbody sim go brrr :)) Might post a softbody/fluid sim version another time

Animation taglist: @dungeonsandblorbos, @the-inkwell-variable, @thatuselesshuman, @trippingpossum, @tragedycoded,

@everythingismadeofchaos, @the-golden-comet, @xenascribbles, @blue-endy, @kaeru483,

@drchenquill, @satohqbanana, @possiblyeldritch, @badscientist, @real-fragments,

@rivenantiqnerd, @finickyfelix, @leave-a-message19, @illarian-rambling, @thewingedbaron,

@differentnighttale, @blargh-500, @kitkins13

[writemarcus]

Heartbeat Opera Announces 2021-2022 Season

Highlights include MESSY MESSIAH, FIDELIO, and more.

by Chloe Rabinowitz

Aug. 10, 2021  

HEARTBEAT OPERA will return to the in-person stage for its eighth season this year. Heartbeat's 2021-22 season kicks off in September with a free outdoor screening of BREATHING FREE, their visual album that connects Beethoven's Fidelio with the work of Black composers and lyricists such as Harry T. Burleigh, Langston Hughes, and Anthony Davis to manifest a dream of justice, equity, and breathing free. BREATHING FREE builds on Heartbeat's 2018 work with incarcerated singers and prison choirs, and continues its exploration of race and the American prison system. Then in December, Heartbeat's beloved annual drag extravaganza, MESSY MESSIAH, returns after six years of Halloween shenanigans for a new Christmas special. Looking ahead to winter 2022, Heartbeat plans to go on its first-ever tour, remounting its production of FIDELIO, which Joshua Barone of The New York Times called "urgent, powerful, and poignant," for seven performances across four cities, kicking off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Heartbeat will later present its pilot production of NO EVIL projects, QUANDO, ossia Project "0," which is co-produced with Long Beach Opera and refashions music from Verdi's operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice into a 25-minute short film. Heartbeat also continues to work on its first-ever commission, THE EXTINCTIONIST, an opera by Heartbeat Co-Music Director Daniel Schlosberg, librettist Amanda Quaid, and Heartbeat Co-Founder & Resident Director Louisa Proske. The Extinctionist wrestles with climate catastrophe and with one woman's unorthodox choice, with the goal of presenting its world premiere in winter 2023.

At the helm are Artistic Director Ethan Heard, Associate Artistic Director Derrell Acon, Co-Music Directors Jacob Ashworth and Daniel Schlosberg, and Managing Director Annie Middleton. Heartbeat Opera was founded in 2014 and has since grown from an indie "start up" into an internationally recognized player, consistently hailed as a leader in envisioning the future of opera.

The 2021-22 Season

BREATHING FREE, a visual album

September 18 at Pier 63, Hudson River Park Trust At dusk A free outdoor screening with live performances (Additional future screenings TBA)

Focusing on Black empowerment in the arts

Featuring excerpts from Beethoven's Fidelio, Negro Spirituals, and songs by

Harry T. Burleigh,

Florence Price

,

Langston Hughes

,

Anthony Davis

,

Thulani Davis

Director:

Ethan Heard

Filmmaker: Anaiis Cisco

Creative Producer: Ras Dia

Co-Music Directors: Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg

Movement Director: Emma Jaster

Watch Breathing Free Trailer

2021 Drama League Award Nominee for Outstanding Digital Concert Production

In 2018, Heartbeat collaborated with 100 incarcerated singers in six prison choirs to create a contemporary American Fidelio told through the lens of Black Lives Matter. In 2020-the year of George Floyd's murder, a pandemic which ravages our prison population, and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth-they curated a song cycle, brought to life in vivid music videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with Negro Spirituals and songs by Black composers and lyricists, which together manifest a dream of justice, equity... and breathing free.

Jamilyn Manning-White in DRAGUS MAXIMUS, photo by Andrew Boyle

MESSY MESSIAH

December 16 at 8pm and December 17 at 7 and 9:30pm at Roulette in Brooklyn

Directed by

Ethan Heard

Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth

Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg

Watch WNET's ALL ARTS feature on Heartbeat's drag extravaganzas

Heartbeat's beloved annual drag opera extravaganza returns in all its glory this December. Over the past seven years, Heartbeat has presented six fabulous extravaganzas at venues across Brooklyn: Hot Mama: Singing Gays Saving Gaia; Dragus Maximus: a homersexual opera odyssey; All the World's a Drag! Shakespeare in love...with opera; Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space; Miss Handel; and Purcell's The Fairy Queen. These interdisciplinary celebrations playfully mix opera classics with pop culture and drag to create an otherworldly experience that encourages audience members to embrace opera in new ways.

This year, the show moves to December-just in time for Christmas. Featuring familiar tunes by Handel, Tchaikovsky, Berlin, and many more, this naughty pageant celebrates the holidays with wit and warmth. Expect tradition...with a peppermint twist.

Kelly Griffin in FIDELIO, photo by Russ Rowland

FIDELIO

Heartbeat's first tour

February 10, 12 & 14, 2022 at Met Live Arts, New York City February 19 at The Mondavi Center, UC Davis, California February 22 at The Scottsdale Performing Arts Center, Arizona February 26 & 27 at The Broad Stage, Santa Monica, California

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven Original libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner & Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner Adapted & Directed by Ethan Heard Arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg New English Dialogue Co-Written by Marcus Scott & Ethan Heard Featuring Derrell Acon (Roc), Curtis Bannister (Stan), Kelly Griffin (Leah), Victoria Lawal (Marcy), Tim Mix (Pizarro) and more than 100 incarcerated singers in six prison choirs

Heartbeat was planning to take its Fidelio on tour in 2020, the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. Then the pandemic hit, affecting incarcerated people especially and forcing them to postpone the tour. Then George Floyd was murdered, sparking a much-needed racial reckoning. Now, with humility and a renewed sense of purpose, Heartbeat has the opportunity to bring the tour back and even expand it. The story of their Fidelio is more urgent and timely than ever:

A Black activist is wrongfully incarcerated. His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him. But when injustice reigns, one woman's grit may not be enough to save her love. Featuring the voices of imprisoned people, this daring adaptation pits corruption against courage, hate against hope.

Heartbeat is thrilled to continue its work on this Fidelio, updating the libretto for our current moment, deepening the company's commitment to anti-racism in all that they do, collaborating more with their prison choir partners, sharing the production, and sparking important conversations. This tour is Heartbeat's largest and most ambitious venture yet. They have the opportunity to reach thousands of new audience members, including hundreds of young people, in four cities across the country.

QUANDO, ossia Project "0"

In-person screenings w/live performances in NY and Long Beach, April 2022 A co-production with Long Beach Opera The pilot production of NO EVIL Projects

Creative Produced by Derrell Acon Music Directed and Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg In-person screenings with live performances in New York and Long Beach in April 2022 (dates TBC)

Some of the most beautiful and famous music from the operatic canon becomes the landscape for this fierce social satire of sex, activism, and the performance of everyday life. Music from Verdi's operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice are repurposed and refashioned into a 25-minute short film that follows a starry-eyed young couple as their night on the town unravels into a surrealist swirl of decadence, intrigue, and ultimately, vengeful justice.

The short film, a co-production with Long Beach Opera and produced by Heartbeat's newly-appointed Associate Artistic Director Derrell Acon, will be screened as is, and then followed by a second presentation that features live composer-performers actively disrupting and reconstituting the music from the score for a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience. No two performances will be the same, as the ending will change with each iteration of the live performances, and audiences will be challenged to re-examine their perceptions of art and its role in societal transformation.NO EVIL is an initiative meant to create a self-replenishing fund of seed money for new projects in the opera field by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) creators. Acon is in conversation with OPERA America, the Sphinx Foundation, and other industry colleagues about the full structure of NO EVIL Projects, which has an anticipated launch of 2022.Says Acon: "As Arts Equity Specialist for the OPERA America New Works Forum, I had the opportunity to facilitate all-BIPOC adjudication panels for granting, and was deeply impressed by the nuance of perspective and intentionality centered in those discussions. I am convinced that the financial barriers experienced by marginalized creators in the field require even more attention and action-and, frankly, MONEY!"

THE EXTINCTIONIST

A new one act opera

Music by Daniel Schlosberg

Libretto by

Amanda Quaid

, based on her play

Directed, Conceived, and Developed by

Louisa Proske

Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth

World Premiere Production Coming in Winter 2023

During the 2020-21 season, Heartbeat Opera commissioned its first-ever opera, The Extinctionist, a one-act work that grapples with the catastrophic effects of climate change and one woman's unorthodox choice to sterilize herself to save the planet and become the very first "Extinctionist." The dark comedy turns one woman's body into the battlefield of our political anguish, conflicting desires, and individual responsibility.

This past May, The Exctintionist was featured in The New York Times, which chronicled Heartbeat's longtime commitment to reimagining classic works and its new expansion into commissioning. A semi-staged production of the opera was presented in May 2021 at PS21 in Chatham, New York, and the world premiere is slated for Winter 2023.

[nickrbockr]

Simon Vs Fan Fic: Chapter 5 - Beer Pong: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Abby and Nick

Ao3

The first show in the season was Spamalot. Nothing against the musical and to many, MANY people’s shock, it’s not my favorite show. Ian is also more of a stage and film actor, so he didn’t audition at all. Because of this, I have an ensemble role and dramatically less rehearsal time on the evening and weekends which left a hole that could only be filled by an Abby & Nick filled weekend extravaganza!

Too much? Oh well. They’re coming this weekend and it’s been needed since I haven’t seen them since the summer. Nick is tearing it up a Julliard in composition and is working a lot with both the vocal performers and the orchestra and has caught the eye of film studios in New York. Many people want to collaborate with him and it’s so great to see Nick become a break out star.

Abby has also had her share of business on the designing aspect. She designed sets for an off-Broadway production of ‘Reefer Madness’ as well as designed and created costumes for the school productions. She has turned into the stereotypical paint-covered human being who constantly hustles. Nick also connects her to his friends at Julliard to commission outfits for their recitals and even Glinda and Elphaba’s dresses for their performance of Wicked.

Needless to say, they are both constantly busy and we hear from them sporadically, but when we’re all able to connect, it’s like we never left Shady Creek. It’s what makes us work as a group: time has no impact on our friendships.

It’s been about a month since I spoke to Tracy and got her blessing and I’ve been coasting on happiness from her approval. One down, two to go, but Elijah has been more difficult to pin down for a talk.

Don’t get me wrong, Bram’s dad and I get along great, it’s just nerve wracking talking to any father of the person you’re planning on marrying. It’s scary, almost scarier than proposing to Bram. Why was it easier with Tracy? I guess easy was a subjective word. Maybe because we expect mothers to be more accepting than fathers. I don’t know if that’s true, but in this case of Tracy and Elijah, I think it is.

I try to call him and I always seem to get his voice mail. I’ll leave brief messages, but then he always texts back responding to whatever voice mail I left. It made me realize it’s probably why Bram acted the way he did in high school. Bram has grown since then, and I’d like to think I helped him. The only thing he didn’t out grow was how he surprised me with gifts in random spots he knew I’d look. Leah has helped him leave plenty of gifts for birthdays and for days that Bram just felt like sending me flowers or small care packages of Oreos. And he’s impacted me. I wear band shirts now.

“Yeah, he’s not the best person at communication,” Tracy told me when I called to ask for advice. “He means no ill will, Simon, understand that much.”

“Oh no, I don’t think that either. But do you think…and this is going to sound weird, but do you think there is any way I can sort of…trick him into seeing me in person?”

Tracy laughed over the phone as I stare my Elliot Smith poster above my bed. I put him there because now I think of Bram every time I see him. It makes me reflect on Bram boppin’ and groovin’ his head as he got himself to like Elliot Smith only because he was trying impress a boy in high school using a pseudonym.

“The only thing that man loves more than Bram is fishing. Talk him into a fishing trip and you got yourself at least a half-day with him.”

Great. Such a dad response to have to be distracted doing something else to talk about a totally unrelated subject. Also, as you may know, I never had the best time fishing. But it’s no longer about me, it’s about Bram and me.

“That shouldn’t be hard, New Haven is right on the water.”

“Sounds like you got this, son.” Tracy said with motherly warmth. It was weird to hear her call me son, but soon she wouldn’t be wrong to call me that. It’s becoming more and more real everyday that my future is rapidly approaching and it’s scary and new and fun and in the end I won’t be alone in my adventure. My heart beat increased and lips parted.

“Thank you…Mom.” I reply.

“Go get him tiger.”

The call ended and I let my phone fall on the bed. The fan rotated slowly around as it hypnotized me into thought. I thought about my life four short years ago. I had just discovered there was another person like me and the seemingly isolated journey of discovering I was a boy who liked boys was joined by another face. A Blue face.

Blue. Bram. Blue. Bram. Abraham Louis Greenfeld-Spier? Simon Jacob Spier-Greenfeld? Abraham Louis Speir? Simon Jacob Greenfeld? Which flowed off the tongue better? It just occurred to me that we’ll have to have that discussion of the last name. Or will we just keep our own? Should we create a new last name? I can cross that bridge later.

Bzzz.

Abby calling.

“Hey Abby,” I answer.

“Simon! Hi! How are you!?”

“Good, good,” I chuckle. “Are you guys close?”

“Yes we are, we’re about 10 minutes away. I miss you! You guys are still in the same apartment right?”

“You know it. Leah is not one to move more than she needs to.”

“Simon!” Nick yelled in the background.

“Nick says hi,” Abby confirmed.

“Everything is already set up, just waiting for you two crazy kids.”

“Prepare for a few drunken days, Si, it’s been awhile since either of us have been able to unwind!”

“She’s right!” Nick yelled again. “Stretch your liver, it’s going to get a work out.”

“Okay, okay, we’ll see you guys soon!”

“Byeeee!”

I go downstairs to see Leah and Ian chatting on the couch along with a few of Leah’s friends and some more theatre kids Ian brought with him.

“They’re almost here,” I announce.

“That means shots!” Ian shouts. “Last time they were here I made both of them puke and intend to do the same thing again!”

“I think they’ll actually be on board this time, I guess they’re been working hard and haven’t had a lot of time to unwind.”

“We’re about to change that!” Ian exclaims as he gets the other people in the apartment ready to play a drinking game in the kitchen. Leah and I are left in the living room with a few stragglers.

“Hey.” Leah said. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just a lot on my mind, ya know? School, proposal, things like that.”

“No…” she says, squinting her eyes. “That’s not all of it. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing…I mean, I guess that Bram’s been a little busy and quiet on the talking front the last few days and I’m trying not to fall into old habits.”

Ugh. I hate myself sometimes. I know Bram is busy. He told me he would be busy, Bram’s Nick told me he’d be busy. I tend to get like this once or twice per semester and get over it after buzz texting Bram and talking it out with Leah (bless her heart). But I guess I’m more disappointed in myself that I’m letting past insecurities manifest.

“Come on, Si. You’re in the home stretch. Don’t retreat into the past, you’re moving forward with me.” Leah ordered.

She pulled me up and we headed into the kitchen to join the group for shots. Leah was right, I need to stop making assumptions. That was the old me. New me is positive and optimistic and…and misses Bram. Need alcohol to counteract these thoughts. Leah and her friends are talking about some boring Sociology professor when suddenly.

“Si!”

Abby and Nick were in the doorway with arms stretched out. These two will also counteract my thoughts. I downed my shot and ran over and hugged Abby who jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me like a spider monkey. It was her new college thing and it makes people like her. I squeeze her in our hug and I set her down as Nick ambles over and we hug, on the ground.

“Hey guys! How was the trip?” Leah asked.

“Good, but we need alcohol and Solo cups.” Abby said with a smile.

“We have the alcohol!” Nick shouted as he brought into what people colorly refer to as a ‘dirty thirty.’ For those who had better taste, a dirty thirty is a case of thirty swill water light beers and supply you with a health hangover the next day. That said, you can party longer because it’s mostly water.

“And we have the solo cups,” I finish Nick’s sentence.

“First game!” Ian shouts. “Le Burke, you and me against Simon and Abby!”

“You’re on!” Abby shouts as she pulls out some beers. The cups are filled as one does in a game of beer pong and the party begins.  However, Ian comes over with additional beers and adds more beer to our cups.

“Hey now,” Leah started. “We’re not all trying to get Ian drunk tonight, just a normal drunk.”

“This is our last year, we gotta live it up, take risks, make mistakes, and geeeeeetttt messy!”

Ian’s been watching the new Magic School Bus episodes on Netflix. The cups were now about two-thirds the way full as Ian crushed the cans and chucked them in the trash. Beer pong always makes me think of Bram and the Halloween Party. Why isn’t Bram texting me back? I know he’s busy but...too busy for me? No! Leah’s right I need to get out of my head.

As the game unfolds, I’m making none of my shots as the ping-pong ball bounces around on the floor.

“Simon, what’s wrong!? Get your head in the game, we’re getting our asses kicked.” Abby pleaded. We only had four cups left and they had nine.

“Sorry! I’m trying, I’m trying.”

“Losers take shots, Simon!” Ian shouts across the table, pointing his finger at me. “And you take a shot of our choice.

My eyes widen. “Oh god please no-”

Ian pulls a plastic pitcher out of the fridge. Leah puts her hand over her mouth in shock and because she felt nauseated. One night after a party about year ago, Ian thought it would be a fun idea to pool any leftover liquor into a sort of community chest of booze. Since then, various liquors have swirled around in that plastic pitcher and on random occasions it has been used as punishment to losers of drinking games.

“You still have that in there?” One of our theatre friends said laughing. “Oh no, Si,  you’re fucked!”

Abby turned to me with determination. “I’m not drinking from that pitcher.”

“Let’s step it up,” I reply, agreeing.

“No, you step it up, I’ve made all our shots!”

“Right, if we lose, I’ll take your shot.” I claim.

“You all hear that? That’s a verbal contract,” Abby shouts. I smile at here and notice Nick isn’t in the kitchen. I peak my head around the corner and see him in our living room (Ian’s bedroom) talking to a group of Leah’s friends. It’s strange, but we are playing a game in here so I suppose he got bored and left to mingle.

After drinking two beers, leaving us with only two cups left, I scored my first cup with a bounce.

“Yes!” Abby shouts as we high five. “That’s two and we get the ball back!”

“Good job, Spier! Finally good to see you woke up and joined the game!” Ian yells playfully. Leah, however, is not a nice as she knows what is on my mind and is pinching her eyes at me from across the table. She turns it off before Abby can notice and sips her beer.

“Re-rack!” I shout. “Diamond and one cup in front.”

“We got this.” Abby whispered as Ian and Leah arranged the cups per our request.

“We got this.” I reply.

We didn’t have it. I missed my shot and Ian and Leah both made their shots into the cups. And now I have to take two shots from the mystery pitcher as Abby Snapchats me doing so. Bram will probably see this and text me, right?

“Just think of it as a Long Island…but literally no coke, just pure alcohol.” Ian gloated.

First one down the hatch.

Uuuggghhhhhhhhh! What is that taste?! My face must have shown what my words didn’t because Ian, Leah, and Abby all laughed at my misery.

“Maybe one is enough,” Leah suggested, seeing my face, knowing my thoughts, and seeing where this could go.

“No way, verbal contract, Simon has too.” Ian defended.

I breathe in deeply and shoot the second down my throat. God! Is that industrial cleaner?! I put the shot class down and breathe through my mouth so I don’t taste the terrible flavor of old vodka, tequila, rum, and whatever the hell else is in that pitcher. The next game starts and we all go into the living room to sit and chat. Nick rejoins us as the people he was talking to followed their friends into the kitchen to watch the game.

“Simon, how are you? Why does it feel so long since we’ve talked? We saw each other last month!” Nick starts, clapping his hand on my shoulder.

The booze has started to take its swimming affect on my head.

“I know! It’s only been a month, but it’s felt much longer. I don’t know, we must just miss each other cause we’re good friends.” I say smiling and throwing my arm around his shoulder.

“That’s it.” Nick said, poking my chest with this finger.

Leah, Abby, and Ian were catching up just across the coffee table on the couch and I realized I haven’t told them about my proposal. I stand up.

“Hey, Abby, Nick, I have something to tell you guys.”

“You’re not going to break into another drunken monologue from a show, are you?” Nick says. “I mean, I love you, Si, but I don’t know if we’re drunk enough for that.” Leah and Abby laugh.

“No! I’m not drunk enough for that either. But no, I have something I want to tell you guys. I have decided…”

I pull out my phone and see no new notifications.

“Decided what?” Abby asks, snapping my attention back.

“Sorry, I have decided to propose to Bram.”

A scream louder than time emanates from Abby’s vocal cords as we all wait for it to be over and then she jumps up and down and back into my arms. People from the kitchen poke their head into the room to see if everything is okay and I give them a thumbs up. Nick is standing a smiling his wide Nick smile, all teeth. As soon as Abby releases me from her hug, Nick comes in and hugs me too.

“That’s amazing, Si. You and Bram are perfect together.” Nick says, sipping his beer.

“He’s so right!” Abby adds. “You two have been the gold standard of relationships since high school!”

“What about you two? You and Nick have dated as long as Bram and I have! If anything we’ve learned from each other.”

Abby pressed her lips and swallowed her smile. Her eyes looked at Nick who looked to the weathered carpet as his thumb flicked the lip of the solo cup. Leah’s eyes pursed as her eyebrows fell towards her ears, fearing for the worst. It was quiet for a bit as all of us stared at one another until I broke the silence.

“Did…did you guys break up?” I asked in a raspy voice.

Nick inhaled and took Abby’s hand. She shook her head and then her standard Abby smile returned.

“We did.”

My mind did back flips. How? Why? The only other couple that I’ve known my age to last as long as Bram and I did is ending? If they could end, can Bram and I end? Will he say no if I propose?

“You’re smiling?” Leah asked, eyebrow cocked. Her statement snapped me out of my thoughts and onto Nick and Abby who were, indeed, smiling.

“Yes,” Abby started. “Look, we would have told you sooner…but we didn’t want to send anyone into a panic.”

“You mean send Simon into a panic,” Leah corrected.

“Maybe.”

“But what happened?” I asked, drunkenly curious even though it was technically none of my business.

“Nothing really happened, Si.” Nick started. “It’s not like I cheated or she cheated or it was some big spectacle. It’s hard to explain, but it was a completely amicable and positive…finale to the romantic part of our relationship. Finales aren’t a bad thing, Si. Our relationship as friends and everything we shared during our time together isn’t gone, we’re not going anywhere from any of you, we’re not dividing up the friend group. Nothing’s changing.”

“He’s right, Si. Finale is the best way to say it. Now it’s on for another beginning for both of us.” Abby added.

“But I still don’t understand.” I utter, unable to be satisfied with the answer.

Nick was about to say something and stopped when Abby place her hand on his knee.

“Simon, we know how you are. And another reason we were waiting to tell you is because of how you’d react. The story is simple. We both realized one day that we were living the parts of being a couple and enjoyed it, but it lacked the…drive and depth of a relationship. When you’re surrounded by people who are good at being in a relationship and you see all the love and little quirks and dumb things and inside jokes but don’t see any of that in your own relationship, it raised red flags. Then when we thought about it and talked about it and it was like our relationship was on autopilot. We realized we love each other, but not in the romantic way we once felt.”

How long are Bram and I going to be together before he feels this way? When will he look at other people’s relationships, other boys and see himself happier and more alive with them? If Abby and Nick couldn’t make the cut, could Bram and I?

Abby knocked on the side of my head kinda hard because she was becoming irritated.

“Simon, don’t you for one second try to compare your relationship with Bram to ours.” She said pointing at me. “You weren’t inside of this relationship, you didn’t see it when it was just me and Nick, so there is no way you can compare it. Promise me right now, Simon.”

I stared at her, wiping beer from corner of my mouth.

“Promise me!” She shouted.

“Promise,” I comply. I do partially believe her. It doesn’t help all the way, but it helps a little.

“Told ya, Bram was ri…oh shit.” Nick started, and caught himself when it was too late. Abby slapped Nick’s knee and her bugged eyes stared lasers that burned through Nick’s skull.

“Wait, Bram knew you two broke up?” I question. Nick placed his head on his hand. “For how long?”

Abby stood up. “I need another beer.” She walked to the kitchen, leaving Nick in the mess he made.

“Okay, Si, you have to promise me you can’t get mad. We called Bram last month when it happened because we didn’t know who else to talk to about it who knew both of us so well. We wanted to tell you, dude, we did, but we know how you get and didn’t want to upset you.”

“Why wouldn’t Bram tell me?” I ask out loud, sipping my beer.

“Because we made him promise not to tell you, Simon, you can’t be mad at him. He promised his friends and you know how hard Bram takes promises. When he saw us he could tell-”

“He visited you in New York?”

Nick mouthed the word ‘fuck.’ Is that why he hasn’t been texting me much lately? Because if he can’t talk to me, he can’t lie to me? Our conversations have been light and fluffy, both on the phone and texting when we can. What else could he not be telling me then? Do I know Bram?

“Nick, go get a beer and send Ian’s ass in here,” Leah ordered, moving to the coffee table to sit directly in front of me. “If you don’t get out of your head right now about this Simon, you’re going to regret it.”

“Yeah, but-“

“No, Simon, no buts. You love Bram Greenfeld, he loves you, and the only thing he’s guilty of is being a good friend. If you needed him here, he would drop everything in a second and by any means come to your side. He is stupidly, grossly, uncontrollably in love with you. I hate to say this to you, Simon, because you’ve been so good about it lately, but don’t Spier this up.”

Ian walked in and could see the stern looks on our faces and his demeanor changed from one of partying to one of concern.

“Hey, guys, everything…good?”

“Talk some sense into him,” Leah said, “I need a refill.”

Leah never left unless she was upset. I know I may be drunk and I know I may be irrational because I’m drunk, but am I being that irrational? I don’t think it’s unfair to bring up the topic, for example, that Nick and Abby a least lived in the same city as each other. Did I not try enough to get into Baltimore? Did Bram not try hard enough to get into Yale?

“Abbs and Nick told me just now, that sucks man, but they seem happy so that’s what’s important, right?”

He was right. I close my eyes and throw my head on my hands.

“I’m being selfish, aren’t I?”

“No, no, no, dude, I totally understand. It’s natural to have these feelings, especially when you’re about to propose to your boyfriend.” He responded warmly. “But Bram is Bram, Nick is Nick, and Abby is crazy loud. Just cause they’re relationship didn’t work out doesn’t mean yours wont.”

I look up at him. His eyes appear unnaturally emerald. He smiles and lifts his eyebrows.

“You are welcome to feel about it how you want, but remember they need you here for them as well. And they came here to party and visit you. And Le Burke of course. They drove from the greatest city in the world to Connecticut to spend the weekend with you. Let’s show them a good time.”

Ian tapped and squeezed my knee…and a familiar…warmth…overcame me.

“Bucker up Buttercup and let’s rematch Le Burke’s ‘Sosh’ friends and show them how overly complicated actors can kick their butts at pong!”

He pulled me up with him and his bicep pressed against his t-shirt cuff in an impressive, masculine manner.

“Yeah, I’ll be in there in a minute. Thanks, dude.”

“Of course, Si. You got this man. You are so close to the finish line, focus on the prize.” He smiled, downed the rest of his beer, and winked at me with a follow up finger gun.

My head felt like it was floating as I found it bopping to the beat of the music.

Bzzz.

Bram Hi Si, I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. Nick told me he let it slip that him and Abby broke up. I’m so sorry, I wanted so badly to tell you, but I promised I wouldn’t. You understand, right?

I did understand, but my drunk mind was also upset that he couldn’t trust me with the information either. Was my drunk brain right? Probably not, but right now I couldn’t help but let that side of me take over. Mystery Pitcher was winning.

                                                                                                              I do

. .. … Si, I know you’re not okay with it. I wish I could do something to make you feel better. Please understand your trust means everything to me. I love you <<33 And your big heart.

How dare he. How dare he do that to me right now. How dare he make me love him when I’m trying to be mad at him.  How dare it kind of work.

I know it deos, and I do turst you.

“Si?” Ian peaked his head in. “Off your phone and out of your head and on this game of pong!” Ian’s head disappears.

My phone buzzes again, but I don’t look at it. If I talk to Bram more I will get over it and I want to be mad at him for a little longer. Irrational? Yes, but since when have I been a totally rational guy?

We lose that game too, much to Ian’s drunken and slurry shouts. I am to the point of being drunk where I can say I know I’m drunk and I tell that to myself. I also notice more of Ian’s arms and chest and has his butt always looked like that?

“Oh, wow. I’m drunk.” I say out loud. Ian looks over at me and laughs and I notice his hazel eyes, the kind of hazel when leaves are green-brown in the fall.

“That’s my cue,” Leah cuts in. “Off to bed, Si-Si.” She easily pulls my arm and sets my drink down while she leads me to my bedroom. She gets me into bed and I have been quiet the entire time.

“Am I a bad friend?” I ask in drunken honesty.

“No, Simon, you’re a great friend. We just…do certain things because we know that you are sensitive.”

“So I’m a bad friend.” I conclude. “You guys can’t even trust me with basic information about other friends. That doesn’t sound like a good friend.”

“Si, that has no correlation with being a bad friend. We all know each other’s…issues and know how to respond accordingly. I’d say you’d have to be a great friend for your friends care and do that for you.”

“Am I a bad boyfriend?” I ask, teary-eyed.

“Simon Jacob…no. You’ll feel better tomorrow. Water is on your night stand. Sleep.” Leah kisses my forehead and lets herself out. I stare at my Elliot Smith poster and think of Bram. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes ant sit up in bed to check my phone. I must have only fallen asleep for a few minutes because I still hear the noise of the party. I text Ian.

                                                                             Can you come to my room?

. .. … Yeah! Be up in a sec.

I hear him softly open the door and Drake flowed in. He shut it behind him and Drake returned to being muffled. I personally like hearing Drake muffled.  I feel him sit on my bed near my chest.

“What’s up? Everything okay?”

I sit up on my elbow and look at him.

“Yeah, just feel a little embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed why?”

“I feel like I let you down.”

“Dude, how? Here, have some water.”

Ian leans over to grab the glass and I couldn’t help myself. I kissed him. It felt weird, but it felt like a good kiss. He pulled back, shocked and breathing hard. I stared at his eyes and he stared back until he came in and kissed me back, pulling my head towards his, pressing our lips against each other.

I jerked awake in my bed and ripped the covers off my body to find it was morning. I ran out of my room and stomped down the stairs to see Ian sleeping on the couch, leg hanging out from under the sheet, mouth open, but not snoring. I shake him.

“Ian, Ian!”

He groggily opens his eyes in a confused manner.

“Wha-What? What’s wrong dude, is everything okay?”

“Did we kiss last night?!” I whisper scream.

“What?” he said in a more awake, but more confused tone.

“Did we kiss last night??”

“Dude, no, gross,” he said, a weight felt lifted off my chest. “You were pretty far gone and passed right out after we lost the game. Then Le Burke and I played and kicked ass again and I passed out here. Ask her yourself.” He tilted his head up at the stairs and I turned to see Leah, arms crossed, in her white, fluffy robe. I stand up from the couch and Ian almost immediately falls back asleep.

I remember then Bram texted drunk-me last night and drunk-me never read it because drunk-me is fucking idiot.

Bram You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You’ll never know, Si, how much I love you, so please don’t take my sunshine away.

My lip trembles and I can’t help but cry in the middle of the living room. Leah comes over and hugs the side of me as the sun cuts through our living room curtain and paints golden light on my chest.

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Leah's Halloween Extravaganza: Pumpkin man

Did a quick little sketch before I'm going to sleep, so have this little guy! Ignore his hands, please, I beg you

Happy halloween!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Leah's Halloween Extravaganza!!

Guess what? I fucking love Halloween and nobody irl wants to celebrate it with me, so Tumblr gets to be showered with my favourite Halloween stuff instead!!

Starting off the party, we have my favourite Halloween song!!!

I'll be posting an animation and some writing later (and possibly a drawing too hehe) Hope y'all stick around and enjoy!!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️ trick or treat?

TREAT

Here's a variation of the eyeball animation I made for Halloween!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Trick or treat?

You double sent it so I'll only respond to this one, but: TRICKKKK!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Happy Halloween! Your characters have been tasked with constructing a haunted house. What's in it?

Happy Halloween!! On today's fine, maggot-free day, I bring you your daily dose of maggot content!

I think Athena would like a bunch of flayed cultist corpses in there. Nobody can tell if they're real or not, and honestly nobody wants to check. I feel like Doc would be a fan of old slasher horror, and he'd want stupid amount of blood sprayed everywhere. For once the two of them would be in agreement on what to do to the house.

Mrin I can totally see making the most grooooovy little models of eldritch monsters. They'd have to many eyes and glitch out just a bit weirdly if you look at them from the wrong angle. And she swears she didn't use magic, but... yeah.

Brett? Somehow he's gotta have the scariest ideas of them all. I don't know what, but I guarantee you it's freaky.

Thanks for the ask, and happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Has no one asked how you made the eyeball yet?? I wanna know! I know nothing about Blender, so if you'd care to infodump about 3D animation while you're at it, you have a captive audience >:]

I already told someone about my favourite parts of making it, so you're getting all my least favourite parts! Buckle up because this is gonna take literally forever!

First off: I used this tutorial (because I'm just about getting the hang of geo nodes, still) to make the eye:

Now, you'll note that the thumbnail on the video shows veins, which would have been perfect for the horror vibes. Unfortunately, from the back, it looks genuinely ass :( So I had to get rid of them. This was only one of the many, many things that went horribly wrong in this event.

Now, I'd waited so long to try out geo nodes that half of the tutorial was outdated and yours truly ended up jury rigging the shader for the cornea, because the settings that they used no longer existed :/ which is why it doesn't look quite as shiny as it was meant to.

And then there was the glorious HDRI issue. the hdri is what provides the lighting and background of the animation, which would have been all fine and dandy, except I couldn't find any horror hdris. At least not free ones. So I had to take a random room and run it into Photoshop to turn it red.

Of course that was when I started finding issues with the animation. I wanted the eyeball to be a softbody, so it could be squishy, but for whatever reason every time I tried to turn it on, the eyeball itself would disappear.

So I decided to just go with rigidbody instead :/ I thought that I could maybe swap it out for some blood simulations instead but it nearly killed my poor laptop..

Unfortunately because of the shape of the cornea the damn eye kept trying to tilt at random angles so I had to disable the geometry nodes and pretended the eyeball was a perfect sphere for the simulation. Oh, and there was the time I forgot to save and my computer deleted several hours worth of work.

So yeah. That's how we ended up with this. Thanks for the ask, jamieeee

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Send this to all your favourite moots and pass the pumpkin round! KEEP THE PUMPKIN TRAIN GOING 🎃🖤🎃🖤🎃

THANKYOUUUU

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Send this to all your favourite moots and pass the pumpkin round! KEEP THE PUMPKIN TRAIN GOING 🎃🖤🎃🖤🎃

HAPPY HALLOWEEN KAYLINNNNN! Congrats on catching me right before I was gonna sleep lolll

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU TOOOOOOOOO

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Send this to all your favourite moots and pass the pumpkin round! KEEP THE PUMPKIN TRAIN GOING 🎃🖤🎃🖤🎃

THANKU FOR THE PUMPKIN PAE PAE!!! HAPPY HALLOWEENNNNN

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Send this to all your favourite moots and pass the pumpkin round! KEEP THE PUMPKIN TRAIN GOING 🎃🖤🎃🖤🎃

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen!!

ILY SO MUCH WYKEDDDDD

[leahnardo-da-veggie]

Leah's Halloween Extravaganza: Butcher's Lane

(This was for Spooktober 2024! Prompt: skeleton & paranoia TW: cannibalism (as always))

*****

Butcher's Lane at night was a sight to see. The town council hadn't gotten around to repairing the lamps, so they flickered like the set of a horror movie, dying with buzz-filled screams. The streets reeked of piss, like a thousand terrified animals had urinated on it as they were dragged to their death. The worst of all, however, was what Butcher's lane was named after: the reek of butcher shops.

I ignored the grumbling in my stomach. How many days had it been now? 5? 6? The last of my water supply was dwindling, and they were growing more insistent on pushing their foods on me.

They weren't people, not like you and I. They ate the poisoned food with no problems, not even registering what killed you. It scares me, old friend, to see these things walking around wearing human skins. 

They recognise me as other, from the bones that poke out from my skin, from the growling of my stomach, from the blood on my cracked lips. I wonder if they understand that I know what they are, if they understand that they cannot convince me to fall for their trap, if they understand that the only way to take me is to pry my jaws open and pour that foul, foul food into my maw.

Gods, I was so hungry. It took everything in me to resist the urge to eat something, anything. I just wanted a meal. The half eaten burger sticking out of the trash was such a temptation, almost as bad as the rotting offal in the gutter. They were both tainted, of course, so I kept walking. 

Are you wondering, old friend, if I'm about to join you? Fret not. I will not succumb to being mere bones. Your precious teeth will not mingle with mine beneath the ground. I am better than that.

I kept walking, hands in pockets, all four of them. When I got cold, I interlaced mine with yours, stroking the exposed bone. The mimics in their disgusting butcher shops stared at me as I walked. It was almost as if they'd never seen a woman carrying a skeleton around, or as if they didn't know how to behave like a real person. My stomach growled at the thought.

All that meat in the butcher shop, cured ham and dried lamb and sausage links stinking like heaven. It made something deep in my chest shudder with lust. But- I wouldn't touch the fakes' tainted food. I kept walking.

Home was a little hovel at the end of Butcher's Lane. Something up there must have been laughing at me when it placed me there, right alongside the street full of diabolical meat.

Thinking about it made me glad you were nothing but bone. You were pure, unlike me. I'd tried to keep the taint from touching my flesh, but with it in everything the fakes ate, there was only so much I could do. I imagined it corrupting my flesh already, and shuddered in disgust.

But I heard you whispering to me. Your voice is like the sweetest of flesh, so tender and juicy and- Oh, how could I insult you by comparing you to tainted meat? You are bone, dry and safe and utterly unlike the delicious crunch-explosion of metal on my tongue.

I am listening, old friend. I hear you when you suggest that I eat. I know you worry, and I'm glad that you do. Truly, it warms my heart that you fear me wasting away.

But what am I to do? All the food here is tainted, and if I eat any food whatsoever, I'll end up tainted myself. Then who will be there to protect you?

Eat them? Are you out of your mind? That would destroy me! Why, they've got a higher concentration of toxin than anything else in this town! One bite of that tender, tender flesh, and I'd be shot to hell! Besides, it's cannibalism, and cannibalism is ‘bad’. I'm careful, not crazy.

Oh, I never thought of it that way. You're right. They aren't human, ergo eating them isn't cannibalism. That's so clever! See, this is why you're the brains of the operation. But still… what of the toxins?

Don't worry about them?! Of course I'm worried! Do I look like I want to die? 

I- Huh. I see. That… That might just be true, old friend. That might just be true. But if it isn't, it's my head on the line, not yours. Why should I risk it? 

Yes, of course I trust you. You're my best friend, the only one standing by my side against this horrid invasion. I'd follow you anywhere, you know that. Or at least drag your skeleton anywhere.

Alright, alright, you win. I'll go grab myself a bite of one of them. Which shop should I stop at? The butcher's? There is a certain irony to it, I must admit. I like it.

I dropped my old friend on the ground, letting their bones clatter unceremoniously. Brushing dust off my stained skirt, I strolled into the butcher shop. Immediately, one of them turned to stare at me. There was horror and disgust on his face, as though he were mimicking my expression. Fool thing: didn't he know I saw right through him?

“Hey there, mind letting me over the counter?” I batted my eyes at him.

He stared blankly, as though I'd grown a second head. I must admit, I should have been more careful about the whole affair. If he hadn't been so shocked by my hubris, I might have been in real trouble. “Miss, the shop's closed for the day. You have to come back another time. Please,” he added hurriedly, hands scrambling to find something. I had a sneaking suspicion it was a butcher knife.

Of course one of them would try to kill me. I launched myself over the counter before he could attack, fingers scratching and clawing at his eyes with ferality. “Die, monster, die!”

Righteousness must have lent me strength and luck in equal measure, for I overwhelmed him to the floor and caught his knife as it fell, plunging the tip right into his chest. A spurt of blood, red and luscious and oh-so-delicious, shot up, splattering my face. I closed my eyes and let his death coat me.

It felt so good to fight back. All this time spent fearing the taint, nursing that growl in my stomach, enduring the eternal hunger as it grew, and at last I was finally freed of my shackles. 

It was then that I let myself succumb to the hunger. I know, old friend, self-control is a key virtue. But just this once, I let myself go. 

I mean- how often does one get to feast?

My fingers dug into soft, loamy flesh, stuffing it into my mouth. I ate like an animal, tearing apart his ribcage, shoving my face in the cavity where all the organs, the good bits, were. I squeezed the stuffing out of his intestines and gulped them down. I sucked his eyeballs right out of their sockets. I ate and ate and ate until I was stuffed, and then I ate some more.

There was something luscious in the act, the devouring of a hostile being, taking them and making them yours. I loved it. I loved the waves of ecstasy that flooded me as I bit his throat, as I savoured the bile of his liver, and I straddled his violated corpse and ate his and my hearts out. I loved him, in that moment, loving my enemy wih a passion that I didn't know I had.

Old friend, old friend, was the start of my fall? That lying on the floor, clothes ripped and stained, panting in ecstasy, body pressed up against his corpse? Was that the moment the slippage of my sanity began, at your cajoling? Was that your intention all along, to tempt me into madness?

You traitor, tainting me deliberately, in a way I, so afraid of a different kind of taint, could never have seen coming. Oh, but you were right about one thing.

Insanity felt so, so very good.

Taglist: @coffeeangelinabox, @dorky-pals, @calliecwrites, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @shukei-jiwa

@thewingedbaron, @pluppsauthor, @cowboybrunch, @wylloblr, @possiblyeldritch

@tragedycoded, @finickyfelix, @urnumber1star, @ratedn, @ramwritblr

@vampirelover890, @possiblylisle, @illarian-rambling, @the-ellia-west, @differentnighttale

@evilgabe29, @glitched-dawn, @rivenantiqnerd, @dragonhoardesfandoms, @xenascribbles

@drchenquill, @everythingismadeofchaos, @owldwagitoutofyou, @dimitrakies, @beloveddawn-blog

@riveriafalll, @the-golden-comet, @rascaronii, @trippingpossum, @real-fragments

@unrepentantcheeseaddict, @the-inkwell-variable, @paeliae-occasionally, @an-indecisive-nerd, @thecomfywriter

@seastarblue, @wyked-ao3

[writemarcus]

Heartbeat Opera Announces The 2021-2022 Season

August 10, 2021 

Maria A. Rodriguez

On Heartbeat Opera Announces The 2021-2022 Season

HEARTBEAT OPERA will return to the stage for its eighth season this year. Heartbeat’s 2021-22 season kicks off in September with a free outdoor screening of BREATHING FREE, their visual album that connects Beethoven’s Fidelio with the work of black composers and lyricists such as Harry T. Burleigh, Langston Hughes and Anthony Davis to manifest a dream of justice, fairness and free breathing. BREATHING FREE builds on Heartbeat’s work in 2018 with incarcerated singers and prison choirs, and continues its exploration of race and the American prison system. Then in December, MESSY MESSIAH, Heartbeat’s beloved annual drag extravaganza, returns after six years of Halloween shenanigans for a new Christmas special. Looking ahead to winter 2022, Heartbeat plans to make its very first tour, reviving its production of FIDELIO, which the New York Times’ Joshua Barone called “urgent, powerful and poignant”, for seven performances in four cities, kick off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Heartbeat will later present its pilot production of projects NO EVIL, QUANDO, ossia Project “0”, which is co-produced with Long Beach Opera and reshapes the music of Verdi’s operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in 25 short minutes. footage. Heartbeat also continues to work on its very first commission, THE EXTINCTIONIST, an opera by Heartbeat musical co-director Daniel Schlosberg, librettist Amanda Quaid and Heartbeat co-founder and resident director Louisa Proske. The Extinctionist is fighting climate catastrophe and one woman’s unorthodox choice, with the aim of presenting its world premiere in the winter of 2023.

At the helm are Artistic Director Ethan Heard, Associate Artistic Director Derrell Acon, Musical Co-Directors Jacob Ashworth and Daniel Schlosberg, and General Manager Annie Middleton. Heartbeat Opera was founded in 2014 and has since grown from an independent “start-up” to an internationally renowned player, always hailed as a leader in visioning the future of opera.

The 2021-22 season

BREATHING FREE, a visual album

September 18 at Pier 63, Hudson River Park Trust At dusk A free outdoor screening with live performances (Next additional screenings to be determined)

Focus on empowering black people in the arts With excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Negro Spirituals and songs by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis, Thulani Davis

Director: Ethan Heard Director: Anaiis Cisco Creative producer: Ras Dia Musical co-directors: Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg Director of the movement: Emma Jaster

Watch the trailer without breathing

Nominated for the 2021 Drama League Award for Outstanding Digital Concert Production

In 2018, Heartbeat collaborated with 100 singers incarcerated in six prison choirs to create a contemporary American Fidelio told through the lens of Black Lives Matter. In 2020 – the year of George Floyd’s murder, a pandemic ravaging our prison population, and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth – they organized a cycle of songs, animated by live music videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with Negro Spirituals and songs from Black Composers and Lyricists, which together manifest a dream of justice, fairness … and free breathing.

Jamilyn Manning-White in DRAGUS MAXIMUS, photo by Andrew Boyle

MESSIAH DISORDER

December 16 at 8 p.m. and December 17 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. roulette in Brooklyn

Directed by Ethan Heard Music conducted by Jacob Ashworth Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg

Watch WNET’s ALL ARTS feature on Heartbeat’s Drag Extravagances

Heartbeat’s beloved annual drag opera extravaganza returns in all its glory this December. Over the past seven years, Heartbeat has presented six fabulous extravagances in Brooklyn venues: Hot Mama: Singing Gays Saving Gaia; Dragus Maximus: a homosexual opera odyssey; Everyone is a drag! Shakespeare in love … with opera; Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space; Miss Handel; and Purcell’s Fairy Queen. These interdisciplinary celebrations playfully blend opera classics with pop culture and drag to create an otherworldly experience that encourages audience members to embrace opera in a new way.

This year the show moves to December, just in time for Christmas. With familiar tunes from Handel, Tchaikovsky, Berlin and many more, this naughty show celebrates the holidays with wit and warmth. Expect tradition … with a touch of peppermint.

Kelly Griffin in FIDELIO, photo by Russ Rowland

FIDELIO

Heartbeat’s First Tour

February 10, 12 and 14, 2022 at the Met Live Arts, New York City February 19 at the Mondavi Center, UC Davis, California February 22 at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center, Arizona February 26 and 27 at the Broad Stage, Santa Monica, California

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven Original libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner & Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner Adapted and directed by Ethan Heard Arrangements and music conducted by Daniel Schlosberg New dialogue in English co-written by Marcus Scott and Ethan Heard With Derrell Acon (Roc), Curtis Bannister (Stan), Kelly Griffin (Leah), Victoria Lawal (Marcy), Tim Mix (Pizarro) and more than 100 singers imprisoned in six prison choirs

Heartbeat planned to run its Fidelio in 2020, on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Then the pandemic struck, particularly affecting the incarcerated and forcing them to postpone the tour. Then George Floyd was assassinated, triggering a much needed racial calculation. Now, with humility and a renewed sense of purpose, Heartbeat has the opportunity to bring the tour back and even expand it. The story of their Fidelio is more urgent and current than ever:

A black activist is wrongly imprisoned. His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free it. But when injustice reigns, a woman’s courage may not be enough to save her love. Featuring the voices of imprisoned people, this daring adaptation pits corruption against courage, hatred against hope.

Heartbeat is excited to continue their work on this Fidelio, updating the booklet for our current moment, deepening the company’s commitment to anti-racism in everything it does, collaborating more with its prison choir partners, sharing the production and sparking important conversations. This tour is Heartbeat’s biggest and most ambitious endeavor to date. They have the opportunity to reach thousands of new audience members, including hundreds of young people, in four cities across the country.

QUANDO, ossia Project “0”

In-person screenings with live performances in New York and Long Beach, April 2022 A co-production with Long Beach Opera The pilot production of NO EVIL Projects

Creative produced by Derrell Acon Music conducted and arranged by Daniel Schlosberg In-person screenings with live performances in New York and Long Beach in April 2022 (date to be confirmed)

Some of the most beautiful and famous music in the opera canon becomes the landscape for this fierce social satire of sex, activism, and everyday performance. Music from Gluck’s Verdi La Traviata and Don Carlo and Orfeo ed Euridice operas is repurposed and transformed into a 25-minute short film that follows a young couple with starry eyes as their night on the town unfolds in a surreal whirlwind of decadence , intrigue and ultimately, a vengeful justice.

The short, a co-production with Long Beach Opera and produced by Heartbeat’s new Associate Artistic Director, Derrell Acon, will be screened as is, followed by a second screening featuring live songwriters disrupting and actively re-enacting the music. of the score for a unique theatrical experience. No two performances will be the same, as the ending will change with each iteration of the live performances, and audiences will be challenged to reexamine their perception of art and its role in transforming society.

NO EVIL is an initiative to create a self-replenishing seed fund for new opera projects by the creators of BIPOC (black, indigenous and other people of color). Acon is in conversation with OPERA America, the Sphinx Foundation, and other industry colleagues about the full structure of NO EVIL Projects, which is slated to launch in 2022.

Acon states, “As the Equity in the Arts Specialist for the OPERA America New Works Forum, I have had the opportunity to facilitate the adjudication committees of all BIPOCs for the award, and have was deeply impressed by the nuance of perspective and intentionality centered in these discussions. I am convinced that the financial barriers faced by marginalized creators in the field require even more attention and action – and, frankly, MONEY! “

THE EXTINCTIONIST

A new opera in one act

Music by Daniel Schlosberg Libretto by Amanda Quaid, after her play Directed, designed and developed by Louisa Proske Music conducted by Jacob Ashworth

World premiere production coming in winter 2023

In the 2020-21 season, Heartbeat Opera commissioned its very first opera, The Extinctionist, a one-act work that deals with the catastrophic effects of climate change and a woman’s unorthodox choice to sterilize to save the planet. and become the very first “Fire extinguisher.” Dark comedy turns a woman’s body into a battleground of our political anxieties, our conflicting desires, and our individual responsibility.

Last May, The Exctintionist was featured in The New York Times, which chronicled Heartbeat’s long-standing commitment to reinventing classic works and its further expansion in commissioning. A semi-staged production of the opera premiered in May 2021 at PS21 in Chatham, New York, and the world premiere is slated for winter 2023.

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