Pensacola Opera awarded grant monies from National Endowment for the Arts and OPERA America for Audience Development Project.
Pensacola Opera has been awarded $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts and OPERA America: The Opera Fund in support of an innovative series of Town Hall Meetings in advance of the company’s presentation of the Florida premiere of Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking. Beginning January 11, 2017 and continuing through April 12, 2017, Pensacola Opera will present a series of fourteen (14) Town Hall style meetings embracing a variety of topics related to the discussion of capital punishment. Participants in the Town Hall meetings include members of the religious, legal, justice and social communities within Pensacola. Based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean and the movie starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, Jake Heggie’s opera Dead Man Walking was commissioned and premiered by San Francisco Opera in 2000. With a libretto by Tony-award winning playwright Terence McNally, Dead Man Walking has been presented by 50 opera companies around the world. Pensacola Opera Executive Director Jerome Shannon shared these comments. “The decision by the Board of Directors of Pensacola Opera to present this important American opera is a bold and curageous one. I am overwhelmed and humbled by the funding awarded by the National Endowment and OPERA America: The Opera Fund in support of our idea of involving our community in a discussion of wide ranging topics in advance of the Florida premiere of Dead Man Walking. Having been involved in four productions of this opera in other communities, I have seen the impact this work can have on this topic which remains relevent to our nation.” A complete listing of the Town Hall Meeting Schedule is available on the company’s website at www.pensacolaopera.com. Performances of Dead Man Walking will be presented March 17 and March 19 at the Pensacola Saenger Theatre. Tickets for Dead Man Walking are available through Pensacola Opera at 850 433 6737, the company’s website, TicketMaster or the Saenger Theatre Box Office. CONTACT: Kristen Wisniewski, Director of Marketing kristen@pensacolaopera.com