by John Adams
texts by June Jordan
April 14-16, 2023 Baltimore Theatre Project
April 21, 22, 29, and 30, 2023 Atlas Performing Arts Center, Washington, DC
At long last IN Series premieres a new production of composer John Adams and poet June Jordan’s seminal collaboration I WAS LOOKING AT THE CEILING AND THEN I SAW THE SKY. We make history with this production, as the first new staging of the work since its premiere recording with Broadway legend Audra McDonald. Called by its creators a “song-play”, CEILING/ SKY blends America’s popular music styles with searching poetry of love and the leaning towards justice, while telling the story of seven mix-matched souls that find themselves thrown together during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This luminous work takes its title from one of the survivors of that disaster, its music from America’s most important living composer, and its text from a poet of uncompromising insistence on beauty. In it, love reveals that there is more to us than what we have come to believe. This production is one of the nation’s not-to-miss opera and theater events this year!
Directed by Timothy Nelson
Musical Direction by Emily Baltzer and Dave Chavez
FEATURING: Judy Yannini, Daniel J. Smith, Shana Oshiro
Supported through a grant from Opera America
