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Maya's ArkAn investigation into the nature of faith with something to say to almost any audience. |
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SYNOPSIS REVEREND WHITE, the pastor of an inner city church, has called MAYA into his office: Maya, a reformed drug addict who now works as a handyperson for the church, has been stockpiling scrap lumber, and he wants to know why. Maya informs Reverend White that she is planning to build an ark in the church parking lot. Reverend White tells Maya that he has far too much to deal with as it is, given the hopeless neighborhood the church is in, the shrinking congregation and the sorry state of the church’s finances, without having to contend with “an ark in the parking lot.” He asks what she was thinking. Maya replies that “when you’re drowning, find something that will float—or if you can, build a boat.” She sees the ark as a gesture of hope for the congregation. Reverend White brings Maya back to reality with talk of zoning ordinances and insurance, and orders her to remove the pile of scrap lumber. She reluctantly agrees, but then begins to have drug cravings, her first since beginning work at the church months ago. Reverend White tries to talk her down, but is unsuccessful until he realizes “it’s the notion of this ark that’s been keeping you straight, hasn’t it—not the love of our Lord at all.” When Maya replies, “It’s the same thing,” Reverend White has an epiphany, and tells Maya that he will help her build her ark. As the piece ends, they exit discussing how to begin.
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| Production Team | ||
| Story, Composer, Librettist | David Wolfson | |
| Direction | Grethe Barrett Holby | |
| Artist Statement |
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In the mid-1980s, new to New York City, I was fascinated by a handful of articles in the New York Times about Kea Tanakawa, who was building an ark in a church parking lot in the badlands of downtown Newark, New Jersey. It was being hailed as a major piece of folk art, and it had been ordered destroyed by the Newark city fathers, as it was in violation of several zoning ordinances. I tried a couple of times over the ensuing couple of decades to interest collaborators in the story, to no avail. Discussions always foundered on the fact that the villain of the piece was the zoning board, which did not lend itself to drama. But when I was casting about for a suitable subject for a short opera early last year, the idea bobbed to the surface again, condensed into one encounter that summed up the story’s arresting themes: the meeting in which Maya (my heavily fictionalized version of Kea Tanakawa) informs the pastor of the church whose parking lot she’s building in just what her project actually is. Reverend White’s reaction (standing in for us, the audience) when presented with Maya’s leap of faith is what makes the story worth telling. Since, after such a long gestation, I felt very connected to the core impulse of the piece, I elected to write the libretto myself. (I’d previously written one other short opera, libretto and music, as well as the texts to several of my own song cycles and individual songs.) Grethe Holby of Ardea Arts was kind enough to read the libretto at that stage and was very encouraging; over the summer, when the music was done, she (even more encouragingly) organized a reading of the piece and offered a thorough, detailed and very helpful critique—which in turn led to the recently completed revised version you have before you. Maya’s Ark is an investigation into the nature of faith, with something to say to almost any audience. |
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- Kea Tanakawa's Ark, Newark NJ - |
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| Artists Bios |
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DAVID WOLFSON (composer, librettist) is a composer, music director, arranger, pianist and copyist who lives in New York City. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1985, and in that same year was the first recipient of the newly established Darius Milhaud Award and won the Bascom Little Fund's Musical Theatre Composition Competition for his short opera Rainwait. David is the Associate Artistic Director, Music Director and resident composer of Experience Vocal Dance Company. His compositions for the company have been performed at Symposium Tanz und Musiktheater in Hannover, Germany, and in New York at The Field's Fielday, New Dance Group's The Exchange, Movement Research's Open Performance, and The Composer's Voice series at Jan Hus Church. David has collaborated with Grethe Barrett Holby and Ardea Arts/Family Opera Initiative since 2006, as music director on a number of projects including "Sir Gawain & The Green Knight," the premiere staged reading of "Animal Tales," and most recently the workshop and world premiere of "CAT The Opera-Musical." | |
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Grethe Holby (Artist, Visual Concept), Holby's primary mission lies in originating, collaborating on, and directing new American opera, which began with her originating role in Robert Wilson-Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, and choreographing Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti & A Quiet Place for the Houston Grand Opera, La Scala, and Kennedy Center. Founding Director of American Opera Projects, fostering 25 new works during her tenure, and currently Ardea Arts/Family Opera Initiative with 6 new operas, she has directed productions for opera companies across the US including Lincoln Center Festival, Anchorage, Indiana, Lake George, Los Angeles, Memphis, Philadelphia, Toledo, Wolftrap |
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| Community Impact and Engagement - Maya's Ark integrates the musical art form of opera with a story layered with meaning, inspiring critical thinking and discussion as the audience explores the meaning of the Ark. The presentation is structured to include discussion and analysis following the performance, engaging the audience and the artists, with the help of a facilitator, to explore the meaning behind Maya's Ark. It is the hope of the creators that this discussion will continue in the community long after the artists have left. | |||
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| - Kea Tanakawa's Ark, Newark NJ Circa 1985 - | |||
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