Stage Director

In 1943, the National Negro Opera Company is set to perform on a floating barge to evade racially-segregated venues. But when bad weather threatens—pushing the performance to a segregated performance hall—visionary impressaria Mary Cardwell Dawson must find a way forward.

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The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

In 2019, Cornell University started “Freedom on the Move,” a database of “runaway ads” from the United States’ early newspapers—names, dates, descriptions, rewards. The database notes that it compiles “thousands of stories of resistance that have never been accessible in one place. Created to control the movement of enslaved people, the ads ultimately preserved the details of individual lives—their personality, appearance, and life story. Taken collectively, the ads constitute a detailed, concise, and rare source of information about the experiences of enslaved people.” (Cornell Department of History’s Edward Baptist, primary investigator for FOTM) These advertisements also provide a testament to their bravery: each of these people in the over 30,000 entries attempted self-emancipation.

Songs In Flight

Hayti Heritage Center

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson makes its highly anticipated mainstage premiere to celebrate the remarkable founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company, established in 1941. Starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role, this play with music by Mark Twain Award-winning playwright Sandra Seaton includes selections from the repertory of the National Negro Opera Company and original music composed by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence and 2023 Grammy nominee Carlos Simon.

Central Piedmont Community College

Harriet Tubman may be the best-known conductor of the Underground Railroad, but there were others including William Still. An abolitionist and historian, as well as a conductor for the Underground Railroad, he is credited with helping nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom. Sanctuary Road by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec, is based on the remarkable writings of William Still.



Sanctuary Road In Richmond

Dominion Energy Center

Sanctuary Road In Fairfax

George Mason University

Sanctuary Road is based on the remarkable writings of William Still – an abolitionist, historian, and conductor of the Underground Railroad who helped nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom. This moving piece tells the stories of Clarissa Davis, who fled Portsmouth, VA, Henry “Box” Brown, who fled Richmond, VA, along with the account of several other men and women who risked it all in pursuit of freedom.

Sanctuary Road

Harrison Opera House

Sanctuary Road In Norfolk

Visionary impresaria Mary Cardwell Dawson fights and triumphs as she establishes the National Negro Opera Company in Carlos Simon and Sandra Seaton’s new play with music.

She trained hundreds of African American youth to sing. She founded the longest-running, all-Black opera company. She organized opera guilds in the country’s biggest cities. Mary Cardwell Dawson’s dream to bring music to African American audiences came true—and it changed the future of opera.

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson makes its highly anticipated mainstage premiere to celebrate the remarkable founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company, established in 1941. Starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role, this play with music by Mark Twain Award-winning playwright Sandra Seaton includes selections from the repertory of the National Negro Opera Company and original music composed by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence and 2023 Grammy nominee Carlos Simon.

The story starts in Washington, D.C. in 1943, where the company is set to perform on a floating barge to evade racially-segregated venues. But when bad weather threatens—pushing the performance to a segregated performance hall—Mary Cardwell Dawson must find a way forward.

Kennedy Center

A showcase of six twenty-minute scenes from operas-in-development by the current composers and librettists in The American Opera Project’s “Composers & the Voice” Fellowship Training Program.

Kimille Howard

Stage Director

Events

Apr 27 - May 5, 2024

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson · Pittsburgh Opera

Apr 3, 2024

Songs In Flight · Duke Performances

15 - 17 Feb, 2024

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson · Opera Carolina

9 - 11 Feb, 2024

Sanctuary Road In Richmond · Virginia Symphony Orchestra

3 - 4 Feb, 2024

Sanctuary Road In Fairfax · Virginia Symphony Orchestra

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