An interview with School of Theatre Director Jim Petosa and Opera institute Artistic Director William Lumpkin.
Within the rigor of a conservatory setting, how much room is there for collaboration? For Jim Petosa, School of Theatre Director, and William Lumpkin, Director of the Opera Institute, the stage offers ample space to experiment.
“Often with cross-disciplinary pursuits, there’s inherent fear of compromise,” says Petosa. “But, that’s not the case at all. What started as an investigation has grown to be a unique way to intertwine the dramatic content of an opera and the musical aspect of a score.”
Since 2002, the pair have produced over 20 rich and diverse productions, from the new or rarely performed works of the annual Fall Fringe Festival to staging Thérèse Raquin, The Rape of Lucretia, and Owen Wingrave to reinventing the narrative of Postcards from Morocco.
Last winter, Petosa and Lumpkin wowed audiences in a beautiful presentation of Angels in America, an opera based on the award-winning play by Tony Kushner, set during the early stages of the AIDS pandemic in 1980’s New York City. “With each year, we take on greater challenges,” continues Petosa. “Angels is theatrically complex, humanly complex, and musically complex. Nothing is easy about that piece. Both of us were stretched to the max.”
Pushing the limits is a hallmark of this partnership, creating a “lab” for students to fully explore productions from the ground level work to the more complex nuances that stretch and challenge tradition.” Lumpkin and Petosa have come to greater appreciate this opportunity for their students to collaborate.
“Watching the activity; the interactions between the orchestra who are fans of the singers; and the theatre students, whether designers or directors or actors, who in any other instance, would never interact, is something that is really special and unique to us,” says Lumpkin.
Petosa and Lumpkin approach each opera as a unified whole, directing each play from the whole score. While one may have a primary role at a particular rehearsal, the other is never absent. They’ve yielded incredible results, aggressively adopting the principles into their curriculum to better prepare their students for life beyond the classroom.
“We teach students to be responsible for their processes, to take an aggressive role in their creativity, and to have high standards, regardless of the professional bar,” says Petosa. “Students graduate with the tools to be creative in any construct.”
This fall, Petosa and Lumpkin are working to produce Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, the opening production of the 2015 Fall Fringe Festival.
Widely considered among Weill’s masterpieces, this is the story of two immigrant sisters who embark on a seven-year odyssey through seven vice-laden cities, as they try to earn money to build a family home in Louisiana.
Petosa plans to use this opportunity to connect his curriculum to the annual festival in his Acting course with the Opera Institute, teaching acting from the core repertoire. It is the first time Petosa is using song as material in the course, and speaks to the state of operatic repertoire today.
“Audiences now demand a theatrical opera,” adds Lumpkin. “Working with Jim is a perfect storm. He is passionate about both opera and theatre. Our students are excited to collaborate.” “This collaboration is quite effortless,” adds Petosa.
“We function with mutual respect, and value our difference in perspective. Anything we have that is worthwhile comes from the totality of this perspective, not individual pursuits. This collaboration is a warm and sustaining part of our lives.”
Petosa and Lumpkin are looking forward to the continued investment and investigation into collaboration within the program. “Each year, there’s a new crop of students,” continues Lumpkin. “We select titles that despite being staged time and again are fertile enough to serve the curriculum and performance needs for music and theatre.”
In addition to the Fringe Festival programming, which includes both The Seven Deadly Sins (October 2–4) and Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (October 9–11), the Opera Institute will stage two well-known masterpieces this spring, Cosí fan tutte (February 25–28) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (April 14–17).