Portland Opera Commissions New Opera Jubilee by Composer Damien Geter and Librettist Lorene Cary

The Gospel According to Nana

The short opera, The Gospel According to Nana, with composer Liliya Ugay, features my libretto based on the mash-up of life and death and love and fear of caring for our 101-year-old grandmother.

My General Tubman

My General Tubman, my first play, enjoyed sold-out houses at the Arden, from January to COVID. Harriet Tubman time-travel, love, war, iambic pentameter...Director: James Ijames; Producing Artistic Director: Terry Nolen, and dramaturg Michele Volansky. Danielle Lénee led a gorgeous cast.

Reviews

February 24, 2020, “Her General Tubman,” in The Pennsylvania Gazette

February 16, 2020, 6ABC-TV, “ 'My General Tubman' marks the theater debut of novelist Lorene Cary”

January 28, 2020, “My General Tubman,” on WHYY’s Radio Times, hosted by Marty Moss-Coane. Videotaped in front of a live audience, with guests, James Ijames, director, and actors Danielle Leneé and Brandon Pierce.

January 24, 2020, Arden Theatre Company presents Lorene Cary’s ‘My General Tubman’: The past is the present, in The Broad Street Review

January 23, 2020, “Arden’s ‘My General Tubman’ will charm you with history, bloodshed, heroism, love — and magic” in The Philadelphia Inquirer

January 12, 2020, “Dream team at Arden Theatre brings ‘My General Tubman’ to stage” in The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Damien Geter’s understanding of the spirituals, his feel for them, and his narrative passion make it a privilege to tell this story of Black brilliance with him for Portland Opera.

"Just as the young Fisk Jubilee singers brought the spirituals into the Western canon of great music, this work will bring them into opera halls.”