Civil Rights Opera "Is This America" Premieres at The Strand Sep 20-222

Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist performing arts company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs today announced the upcoming world premiere of Is This America? at Dorchester’s The Strand Theatre from Friday, September 20, to Sunday, September 22. This new 90-minute fully-staged opera celebrates the life and legacy of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Is This America? features performances by the Massachusetts-based Victory Players chamber orchestra alongside a small ensemble of singers with the lead role of Ms. Hamer played by mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel (Met Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago). The composer, 85-year-old Mary D. Watkins, has blazed the trail for other Black women composers in the field of opera. Haitian American queer woman Pascale Florestal stage directs.