Decameron Opera Coalition: Heroes

A series of 8 short-film operas by 8 American opera companies including Opera in the Heights premiering Steve Wallace’s Unsung Activist, which tells the story of Houston civil rights activist, Eldrewey Stearns. 

On Friday, October 1 at 12:01am PT / 3:01am ET / 9:01am CET, the Decameron Opera Coalition will release all three episodes of their highly anticipated second world premiere project titled HEROES.

*Content warning: film contains police violence, use of racial slurs, and consumption of alcohol

 

PERFORMANCE DATES:

Friday Night - 10/01/2021 7pm

(world premiere and available to stream on demand through 12/31/2021)

VENUE:

Online

Please meet our extraordinary cast and creative team of our chapter "Unsung Activist"

  • Steve Wallace

    composer/librettist/record producer/tenor

    playing the role of “Eldrewey Stearns”

  • Abbas Padilla

    film director

  • Eiki Isomura

    producer

  • Julie Jackson

    soprano

    playing the role of “Holly Hogrobrooks”

  • Calvin Maurece Harris

    tenor

    playing the role of "John Bland"

  • Saïd Henry Pressley

    bass-baritone

    playing the role of "Otis King"

OTHER CREDITS:

Scott Clark | playing the role of "The officer"

Kristie Chiyere Osi Shackelford | costume designer

Krista Pape | make-up artist

Andy Bradley | recording engineer

Dominika Dancewicz | violin

Patrick Moore | cello


OH!'s Chapter: "Unsung Activist"

OH!'s chapter "Unsung Activist" written by and starring Steve Wallace, is set in Houston, Texas in 1959. Eldrewey Stearns, a law student at Texas Southern University, is pulled over by the police. The officer discovers a photo of a white woman in Stearns's wallet and viciously beats and arrests him. Stearns appears before city council in protest and captures the attention of the press. Afterwards, a group of fellow student activists at TSU including Holly Hogrobrooks, John Bland, and Otis King look to Stearns as the charismatic leader they need to organize their fight for desegregation. Inspired by other protests in the South, Stearns leads a lunch counter sit-in, calling the police to attract the press ensuring their visibility and protection. Decades later, Stearns passionately tells his story, looking back on his fight for justice as the spark that led to the desegregation of Houston. The pride he takes in his accomplishment is evident, but so too, is the psychological toll of that fight.

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Program Note: After Houston civil rights activist Eldrewey Stearns passed away at the age of 89 in December 2020, the Houston Chronicle obituary quoted his biographer Thomas R. Cole: “He was courageous. He was brilliant. He was the person who sparked the sit-in movement that led to desegregation, and he was flawed and troubled and suffered.” Composer/librettist Steve Wallace portrays Stearns raising the question, “How could I not? How am I supposed to stay sane? America made me this way.” UNSUNG ACTIVIST examines heroism borne of trauma, and how recognition for such heroism tends to fade even while that trauma lingers.

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MORE ABOUT DOC: HEROES

Each episode consists of different chapters commissioned and produced by Decameron Opera Coalition member companies. HEROES explores the meaning of heroism and profiles unsung, unconventional, or misunderstood heroes from varying eras and geographies. HEROES looks forward into a new era of innovation in opera and to increasingly enlightened perspectives on who we hold up as role models and why. American soprano & Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner (2022) Karen Slack leads a quartet of soloists singing “Hero Songs” written by composer Peter Hilliard and librettist Matt Boresi, which frames all of the episodes. Some of the subjects include Hazel Johnson, the “Mother of Environmental Activism”, a Pay-What-You-Can Cafe in an urban food desert, and even the everyday heroes in and around all of our lives.