2022 Libretto Writing Course
Explore script writing through the lens of opera and develop new tools and approaches to creating a libretto that brings your new work to the next level. Join Guerilla Opera in this exciting 6-week beginner-friendly dive into libretto writing!
Through exploratory writing exercises, group discussion, and feedback sessions, participants will each begin to write their own libretto and develop their writing skills. This class also features guest speakers from throughout the opera industry, a variety of “Open Mic Nights” to share your work, and opportunities to meet 1:1 with one of our resident librettists for personalized suggestions and feedback.
While this Lab will focus on libretto creation specific to opera, you don’t have to be an “opera librettist” to apply. All artists seeking inspiration in setting text to music are encouraged to participate including librettists, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, composers, stage directors, dramaturgs, vocalists, instrumentalists, designers, etc.
No previous writing experience is required, as activities and discussions will be designed to meet the inclusive needs of every participant based on their expressed interests and experience level (ages 18+). This course has no prerequisites, and we encourage all who are interested to apply! We especially encourage female-identifying, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC writers to apply and offer need-based subsidies to these groups as available.
You are not required to “pitch” a concept or project to participate. You’re encouraged to bring ideas and specific concepts to discussions and exercises, but it’s not required. The Guerilla Lab is intended to be a space where ideas are conceived and encouraged to grow with the aid of discovery and experimentation.
Multi-lingual participants are encouraged to apply, but sessions will be facilitated in English.
Important Information
Sessions & Duration: Six (6) weekly, 2-hr online sessions
Days & Times: Thurs (7PM EST ) | Sats (1PM EST)
Thursday Cohort: July 7, 14, 21, 28, Aug 4 & 11
Saturday Cohort: July 9, 16, 23, 30, Aug 6, & 15
Deadline to apply: Friday, July 1, 2022, 11:59PM EST
Notification: Saturday, July 2, 2022, 11:59PM EST
Participant Fee: $630/$530 alumni discount
Payment Due: Tuesday, July 5, 2022
This is a popular workshop, so we need payment either in full or in part to secure your spot in the workshop.
Additional Course Dates
In addition to the weekly meetings, we will also offer several Open Mic Nights throughout the summer session! This is an opportunity for participants in both sections to come together and share their work and celebrate our community! The Open Mic Nights are scheduled for the following dates and will take place over zoom:
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 | 7-8:30 pm EST
Friday, August 5, 2022 | 7-8:30 pm EST (BIPOC ONLY OPEN MIC NIGHT)
Saturday, August 13, 2022 | 4 -5:30 pm EST
Subsidies/Scholarships: We offer subsidy to any culturally or socially underrepresented participant based on expressed need and as funds are available.
With respect to our extraordinary teaching artists we cannot offer these classes for free.
What to expect:
We build a safe and vital space for creative ideas to be nurtured as part of a creative community. The Lab allows for peer-learning, valuable critical response and feedback, and hands-on group exercises, discussions, and process-driven activities where each participant will grow and evolve their own individual practice.
Estimated weekly time commitment
Co-Learning – 2 hours
Independent Study – 3 to 5 hours
1:1 Consultation with Guest Librettist - 0.5+ hours
Total = 5 to 7 hours weekly
Each participant will:
Develop an outline for a new short form opera work
Develop text for at least one arias
Develop text for at least one duet and/or ensemble
Explore character development work
Have temporary access to Guerilla Opera’s full video archive
Additional discussion topics include:
Approaches to creating:
Original libretti
Libretti from adapted literature
Libretti from auto-biography or historical events
Discussions with composers and librettists from Guerilla Opera’s exciting repertoire.
Methods for critical response
Writing for the voice
Story telling aesthetics for the stage
Technical Requirements:
Access to a computer, laptop or smartphone with video, and a reliable internet connection are the technical requirements for the program.
Format:
Guerilla Lab Creatives will meet in video conferences via Zoom. We will use break out rooms to share and practice with each other. Program materials will come from your instructor and be shared using google docs and other online resource sharing programs.
Guerilla Lab Creatives will be expected to complete writing, research, and other activities as assigned by the instructor between sessions so co-learning time can be used for new topics, discussions, and sharing.
Curriculum:
Week 1: Storytelling Basic Structure and Artistic Frame
Week 2: Writing Process & The Role of the Dramaturg
Week 3: Archetypes: Plot & Character
Week 4: Wordsmithing & The Editing Process
Week 5: Considerations for the Singer
Week 6: From the Page to the Stage
About Guerilla Labs:
We want to amplify your unique perspective in our community and give you the ability to share the artforms you love with your community. Our vision is to examine the world through culturally focused and contemporarily lenses. We especially encourage female-identifying artists, LGBTQ+ artists, and BIPOC artists to apply and offer need based subsidies to these groups as available!
Guerilla Opera is the premiere ensemble for new opera in the Boston area and one of the first in the country to exclusively commission new works. For us, art-making is a collaborative process. Our Guerilla Lab extracts the words from the music in order to isolate and explore this aspect of opera development more fully.
Questions? Email programs@guerillaopera.org.
Course Instructor
Alexis Peart
As an operatic mezzo-soprano, teaching artists, and arts administrator, Alexis Peart is a fierce advocate for diversity in opera and accessibility in arts education. She is the current Development and Marketing Coordinator for Guerilla Opera.
As a performer, Alexis frequently performs new music, with recent roles including Brittomara in Jake Heggie’s If I Were You, Taller Daughter in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and Ada Lovelace in the world premiere first reading of Elena Ruehr’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. She has been heard in recordings produced by PARMA and in the recording of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera. Alexis is a two-time alum of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio Artists program.
In her teaching, Alexis has presented a variety of DEIA-focused lectures and moderated discussions as a part of the 2020 Gender Equity in Music Conference and the SUNY Fredonia Masters in Music Education Program. She has also worked closely with the Eastman School of Music, Boston University, Sigma Alpha Iota, Washington Concert Opera, and Thompson Street Opera Company on their DEIA practices and community engagement programming. Alexis is a New York State certified K-12 music teacher, teaching students throughout Rochester, NY prior to her relocation to Boston. In addition to teaching with Guerilla Opera, Alexis is also a Teaching Artist with Castle of Our Skins.
Alexis holds a BM in Voice Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music and is completing an MM in Voice Performance with a certificate in Fundraising Management from Boston University.
For more information about Alexis, please visit: alexispeart.com
COURSE GUESTS
Keep checking the website to meet more of our incredible summer guest lecturers!
Aliana de la Guardia
Aliana de la Guardia (Soprano & Artistic Director) has garnered acclaim for her “dazzling flights of virtuosity” (Gramophone) in “vocally fearless” performances that are “fizzing with theatrical commitment” (The Boston Globe). A voracious interpreter of repertoire old and new, this Cuban-American artist enjoys a multifaceted career as a vocalist, actor, educator, and entrepreneur in New England and beyond.
A co-founding artist and now Artistic Director of Guerilla Opera, she has produced more than twenty-five world premiere operas with roles tailor-made for her ferocious stage presence. Specializing in new music and garnering skills as a theater artist she is especially fit for premiering new experimental operas, genre-bending performance art, devised works, intimate performances, and film projects. She has enjoyed new music and new opera collaborations featuring today’s most eminent composers with American Lyric Theater, Beth Morrison Projects, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston New Music Festival, Dinosaur Annex, Enigma Chamber Opera, Ludovico Ensemble, Monadnock Music, New Gallery Concert Series, the PARMA Festival, Transient Canvas, and Winsor Music, among others.
She was recently selected as a protégée for OPERA America’s Women’s Opera Network
Mentorship Program for Women in Opera, paired with Lee Anne Myslewski from the Wolf Trap Foundation, as well as the recipient of a Public Art Learning Fund grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts to pursue mentorship with the renowned Double Edge Theatre. She is the owner and founder of Dirty Paloma Voice Studio in Haverhill, MA, treasurer of Granite State National Association of Teachers of Singing, and was on the 2020 Haverhill Multicultural Festival planning committee. Aliana has a BM in vocal performance, emphasis in opera and an MM, vocal performance from the Boston Conservatory, and additional studies with SITI Company and New Repertory Theater. (alianaelaguardia.com)
Geovonday Jones
An actor, director, and teaching artist/coach. He most recently directed The Importance of Being Earnest, The High Captain at The Tank, The Motherfucker with the Hat, and In the Blood. Jones has also directed or assisted on operas, including but not limited to Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, The Bartered Bride, Carmen, to name a few. Also, he has served as an acting coach for many operas and concerts. Most recently, as an actor, he was a costar on Law & Order: Organized Crime and a part of JAG’s Jagfest 4.0. Previous: Irondale Theatre’s work of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat (Brucie), Waterwell’s Ajax (Ensemble), which was a part of The Green Plays Festival, Ancram Opera House’s production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother Size (Ogun), New Works Brooklyn’s reading of Nambi Kelley’s Translation of Likes (Too Legit To Quit). Regionally, Geovonday has performed in several shows with Tent Theatre, including Peter and the Starcatcher (Captain Scott), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Senex), Rumors (Officer Welch), and Anything Goes (Henry T. Dobson). Other regional roles include Bobo in A Raisin in the Sun, Jose the Muleteer in Man of La Mancha, and Tinca in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. Among his favorites are Gabriel Pleasure in Mac Wellman’s The Lesser Magoo, Vanya in Uncle Vanya, Sly in Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ’67, Father Luka/Eugene in Ambition Facing West, and Twilight Los Angeles, 1992. Previously, he taught on the faculty at The People’s Improv Theater, and the adjunct faculties in Brooklyn College's Department of Theater and The City College of New York’s Department of Theatre and Speech, where he developed the popular course entitled Theatre and Racism. Recently, he joined the coaching team at Ignite, CSP and the faculty at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Geo is a member of SAG-AFTRA and an Associate Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Additionally, he is a freelance Implicit Bias & Anti-Racism consultant. Also, he serves as the Performer Advocate and Antiracist consultant for River & Rail Theatre Company. He has an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College and a BFA in Acting from Missouri State University. Currently, he is completing his Teacher Certification in the Chekhov Technique with Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. (geovondayjones.com)