PROTESTRA is partnering with director Jennifer Williams to bring her latest devised opera, Dis/Inform, to life at OPERA America on May 17, 2024. The performance will be an immersive experience with visual art installations by Jungah Han.
Dis/Inform is a devised opera about the global disinformation crisis told through an intimate, human perspective. Devised music is a collaborative compositional process in which an ensemble of devising artists generates a performance through structured improvisation. A devised opera has a plot line, dramatic arc, and characters, which are generated collaboratively within a determined structure. This structured improvisation adds to the repertoire in a sustainable way because it is not fully improvised; the central story and musical structure remain the same; so, the premiere of Dis/Inform will differ from future performances in collaboration with each partner, but Dis/Inform retains its central story and musical structure.
Dis/Inform is about a fictional character who is inspired by real-life, anonymized testimonies of individuals in rural America who have been drawn into the alternate realities of disinformation. The story traces how they became alienated from their trusted outlets, the fear and isolation that drove them to alternative spheres, and how disinformation reshaped unexpected dimensions of their life.
Jennifer Williams is a hybrid artist. She tells stories by blending music and theater with diverse artistic forms, including immersive performance, site-specific installation art, digital media, interactive technologies, and devised performance. Her devised opera Grounds won grants from Brooklyn Arts Council and New York State Council on the Arts. The Foundation for Contemporary Arts awarded Williams an e-grant in 2020. Her professional affiliations include the Nederlandse Reisopera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Beth Morrison Projects, and Center for Contemporary Opera. The U.S. Department of State recently appointed her an Arts Envoy. In 2022, Harvard University invited her to teach a workshop on her creative practice. A Fulbright scholar, Williams holds a Ph.D. in performing and media arts from Cornell University and an A.B. in interdisciplinary studies in humanities from the University of Chicago.
The development of Dis/Inform received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers: Discovery Grants program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Dis/Inform Devising Artists
Jennifer Williams, director
Jungah Han, visual artist
Erin Schwab, soprano
Shanyse Strickland, horn
Kayla Williams, viola
Anthime Miller, cello
Morgan Parker, percussion
Space is limited - if you RSVP and find out you can no longer attend the performance, please notify team@protestra.org as soon as possible so that we can open up more seating.
Click here to learn more about the United Vision Project, a nonprofit organization which inspired the the development of Dis/Inform.
The live performance will be recorded and made available for viewing at a later date.