Encompass New Opera Theatre
138 S. Oxford Street, Suite 1A
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718.398.4675 tel.
718.398.4684 fax
encompassopera@yahoo.com
Nancy Rhodes
Artistic Director
John Yaffe
Music Director
Spring Gala!
Save the Date! May 18th Encompass Honors Composer Jerry Bock!
Click here for info and take a peak at our past galas.
Touring available for a Gertrude Stein musical trilogy. Click here for more information
"The most distinctive music heard all season."
—USA Today (for Only Heaven)
"An inventive and most pleasing triple bill."
—The New York Times (for Miss Havisham's Wedding Night, Ocean Dream, and I Will Wait)
"[Nancy] Rhodes is one of the most inventive directors of the theatre."
—The (Bergen) Record (for Elizabeth and Essex)
Encompass Spring Gala!
May 18th Encompass Honors Composer Jerry Bock
Tony Award winning Composer for Fiddler on the Roof, The Apple Tree, She Loves Me, The Rothschilds
and Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner for Fiorello!
Sunday, May 18th, 6:00 P.M. at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South.
PROGRAM A selection of music by Jerry Bock performed by |
Call or email Encompass Office for tickets: 718-398-4675; encompassopera@yahoo.com.
Past Galas have honored Jerry Herman, Charles Strouse, John Kander and Sheldon Harnick!
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Encompass Mainstage Production: Composer Philip Hagemann teams up with George Bernard Shaw in two of his most fascinating looks at literary inspiration and passion. The Dark Lady of the Sonnets will delight and illuminate with the likes of Shakespeare himself as a bumbling eavesdropper who snares all his famous lines from the petty conversations of the court— including in disguise—Queen Elizabeth I herself.
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Performance Schedule:
Thursday, June 19 at 8:00 P.M., Friday, June 20 at 8:00 P.M.,
Saturday, June 21 Matinee at 2:00 P.M. & evening at 8:00 P.M.
Sunday, June 22 Matinee at 3:00 P.M.
At the Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space (95th and Broadway).
For tickets call: 212-864-5400 or http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/2348.
Encompass New Opera Theatre’s Newest Work-in-Progress
Notes from The Theory of Everything
Physics and science have been interests of mine since childhood, inspired by long walks through nature with my grandfather, a physics teacher. He taught me how to observe and analyze, to appreciate the invisible forces, and unleashed in me an insatiable curiosity to explore the grand design of our universe.
In 1987, I read an article in The New York Times about an astounding new physics theory postulating the simultaneous existence of at least ten dimensions, known as superstring theory. Pushing the envelope of the mind to embrace multiple dimensions, sister universes, and the possibility that everything from our bodies to the farthest star, is made up of vibrating strings, fascinated me.
During this time I was working in different countries; while riding on trains, I read metaphysical literature, Eastern philosophy, science, and poetry. Turkey was one of the places that resonated deeply within me, the ancient city of Ankara with its Hittite Museum, and Istanbul, the crossroads of Europe and Asia. I found layers of history everywhere, sensed ancient voices, as I walked through the ruins of Ephesus.
Upon returning home, it came to me in the middle of the night: Act I, Scene 1, a Planetarium. Thus began The Theory of Everything. The story revolves around the lives of 8-year-old Cassy, her mother Rachel, a documentary filmmaker, and her father Tomás, a quantum physicist from Brazil. A series of dramatic events catapault a scientific and metaphysical search into other dimensions and alternate universes.
Further research led me to the writings of physicist David Bohm and his ideas of a holographic universe, to Native American spiritual conferences, healing seminars, and the laboratories of physicists at Columbia, CUNY, and Princeton.
The Theory of Everything’s composer John David Earnest has written extensively for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, solo voice and opera. He writes, “in my conversations with Nancy over the past 2 years, I was immediately drawn to her concept of exploring the connection between spirituality and the physical world. In order to find a musical voice for these themes and Nancy’s libretto, I have chosen several eclectic sources ranging from tonally based melodic ideas to non-traditional musical structure and vocabulary.”
Look for new scenes in 2008!
Encompass is grateful for commissioning and development funds from Opera America’s Opera Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Access to Excellence.
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Encompass Spring Gala! Save the Date! Encompass Mainstage Production! – 5 Performances Only! At the Leonard Nimoy Thalia, Symphony Space (95th and Broadway). For tickets call: 212-864-5400 or http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/2348. Click on News to see a full list of Encompass 2007-2008 Season
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Encompass New Opera Theatre is dedicated to creating a new home for American opera and new music theatre.
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© Encompass Theatre Company
138 South Oxford Street • Suite 1A • Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 398-4675 • encompassopera@yahoo.com