![]() ![]() Lauren has to be flexible about who she builds community with and Reagon hopes that is a lesson that audiences can learn together as temporary de facto communities.Ĭommunity building is one of the themes of the story that was incorporated into the libretto and the evolving performance from the very start. Like the audiences that gather for the performances, togetherness happens by the fact of proximity. Lauren, the main character and narrator of the story, doesn’t get to choose in advance with whom will she eventually ride out apocalyptic world events. “Parable of the Sower,” both the original book and the opera, offer incisive lessons on how we can come together in community to make a change, Thake said. ‘Parables’ is a warning and holds a lot of beautiful lessons.” “The book is a prophecy in a lot of ways and it’s set in 2024. Shanta Thake, the chief artistic director at Lincoln Center, agrees that the timing is right for the full opera’s premiere. During the course of the semester, their work inspired by Butler's book began to take a musical shape, even when initially they weren’t quite sure about what exactly they were making. In the late '90s, author and professor Toni Morrison tapped Reagon and Johnson Reagon to teach a multidisciplinary creative writing course at Princeton University based on their work as musicians and activists. Still, it took decades before this opera got to this moment. In the back of our minds, a lot of us have been worried about where we are now.” That’s why this opera, she said, is “on time.” People are reading her books and seeing that somebody saw this 30 years ago, which means we, in some way, have been living it. “I think that’s the thing that turns us towards the world that Octavia imagines. That frustration, she noted, lies under the resurgence of interest in works by Butler, who died in 2006. “Many people feel very assaulted by their government’s impact on planet Earth,” said Reagon. It wasn’t predicting a difficult future anymore it was describing a terrifying present. ![]() There is renewed interest in Butler’s writing - particularly her Parable series - in the past few years. And we also got to see collaborative violence globally.”īutler’s work started to feel more urgent and contemporary, and not just to Reagon. We got to see our collaborative power globally. But then the world shut down and the sky was clear. People have said that you can’t stop pollution. “When Covid happened, I was like, this is an opportunity for us to really see our power. “I started paying attention globally,” Reagon said. ![]() In the earlier days of the production's decadeslong development, Reagon said that she didn’t think we - as a country or a planet - would be anywhere near the conditions described in the book in 2024. “It’s really on time because it’s reflecting the reality that we’re all living in, whether you know the book or not,” she said. Toshi Reagon said that the timing of the show makes sense. is descending into climate disaster-fueled chaos and the government is becoming increasingly fascist. Butler’s Parable of the Sower” will make its New York City debut on July 13.īutler's story is set in 2024, at a time when the U.S.
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