JACK SCHIMMELMAN

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, DIRECTOR

55 VILLAGE ROAD, J-57
VINEYARD HAVEN, MAMAMA 02568

1854

PHONE: (508) 338-2000 (HOME)

CELL:
(718) 570-7055
E-MAIL: 1854OPERA@GMAIL.COM
WEBSITE: WWW.1854OPERA.COM

BOARD OF ADVISORS
Dr. Lorna Andrade
VICTORIA Haeselbarth
Kate Taylor
Dr. Elaine Weintraub
Consultant

James E. Thomas
Leigh B. Smith
Marcia Draper
Composer and Lyricist
Jesse Wiener
Music Director: Heidi Carter

Painting of Griot by Andrea Rushing

1854 . . . A FOLK OPERA

BY JACK SCHIMMELMAN
BACKGROUND

(AS

OF

9/28/2015)

We are proud to announce that our first sponsor and grantor is the
Marthas Vineyard NAACP. 1854 is also supported in part by a grant
from the Marthas Vineyard Local Culture Council, an agency that is
supported by the Massachusetts Culture Council, by the Permanent
Endowment of Marthas Vineyard, the Marthas Vineyard Savings Bank,
the Marthas Vineyard Center for Visual Arts and the Mass Humanities
Foundation. 1854 is produced under the aegis of the U.S. Slave Song
Project (USSSP), whose founder and artistic director is Jim Thomas.
USSSP is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation and serves as 1854s notfor-profit umbrella. We are grateful to Ms. Leigh B. Smith for her
generosity that has enabled us to move forward. We also are grateful for
many private donations from the Vineyard community. If you wish to
support our project with a donation, please go to our website
www.1854opera.com. Our fiscal sponsor, US Slave Song Project, Inc. is a
501(c)(3) corporation. Your contribution will be deductible according to
IRS rules.

1854 is intended to help empower the residents of Marthas Vineyard by

highlighting a crucial moment in the Vineyards, as well as our national
history. I hope to make the performance of 1854 an annual event. Our
goal is to promote a conversation regarding the African American
experience in the context of Marthas Vineyard and the attendant
misunderstandings that may have developed through the years amongst
different cultures.
Background
There were slaves bought and sold on Marthas Vineyard. They were
mostly domestics. Their numbers were not great. For the most part, one
family would have one or two slaves. There was no institution that
facilitated their sales. From whom and where Islanders bought their
slaves is unknown to me. enabled by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, some
merchant ships captured and returned slaves to their owners. Several
also bought and sold slaves in the Caribbean. Whaling Captains did not
engage in the slave trade or in returning slaves to their owners. Some
Whaling Captains were abolitionists themselves. Captain William A.
Martin of Chappaquiddick was an African American Whaling Captain
whose grandmother was born a slave. One can surmise, therefore, that
Captain Martin was an abolitionist. He is a character in 1854. The
island community considered his grandmother, Nancy Michael, to be a
witch and made her an object of derision and fear. She died a pauper
when she was living in the house of Charles and Julia Vincent. She is a
character in this folk opera, as well, as are the Vincents.
In summary, 1854 is an opportunity to allow the Vineyard community to
witness a little known epoch of their history. Each family represented in
the Townspeople chorus (Citizens Chorus) will be based on actual
families who lived on the island in the mid-19 th century.
The
development of these characters starts with the signers of the original
abolitionist petition. The members of the anti-slavery society, based in
Edgartown, were Collector Norton of the Customs, Silas Luce, Benjamin
Davis, Jr., Charles Kidder and Samuel Butler
Several Wampanoag tribal members, especially well known abolitionist,
Beulah Vanderhoop, also populate the town meeting. Ms. Vanderhoop is
a major protagonist in 1854. The Wampanoags created a stop along the

Underground Railroad on their land then known as Gay Head, currently

Aquinnah.
Our intended principal composer is Jesse Wiener who is a native
Islander. Mr. Wiener grew up in Aquinnah on the Vineyard. He is a
brilliant Harvard-educated composer. He is a songwriter, singer, multiinstrumentalist, music director, conductor, producer, copyist, arranger
and orchestrator who has composed for film, television and theatre. NPR
featured his choral work, Moral Courage, in 2011. Mr. Wiener will
compose the music and lyrics for the Citizens chorus, Freedom chorus
and musical score for the Griot. He is presently based in New York City.
We are fortunate to have Rick Bausman and the Drum Workshop on our
team.
Rick is an accomplished musician and will bring multidimensional talents to 1854. He will compose the drum score that
underlies the piece. Brian Weiland, a Marthas Vineyard composer and
music teacher will compose original sea shanties (Whaling Captains).
With this ensemble of composers I feel confident we will present to the
Vineyard community a production of the highest caliber.
1854 is scheduled to be produced in September 2016. Our goal is to
attract a wide swath of the year-round community, as well as visitors.
Synopsis
1854 is an imagined Town meeting happening at the Union Chapel in
Oak Bluffs on Marthas Vineyard. It is a folk opera, simply and elegantly
laced together from several elements. The piece will be site-specific
utilizing the grounds and distinctive architecture of the Union Chapel.
People are dressed as if they are going to church in their Sunday best.
I anticipate limited instrumentation, with an emphasis on strings, drums
and African instruments. There are three choruses: the Townspeople
(Citizens Chorus), Freedom Chorus (freed African slaves) and Whaling
Captains, plus a contingent from the deaf community that creates its
own special chorus through sign language and poetic body movement.
The deaf community manifests a rich inner life as they speak with each
other regarding the proceedings of the town meeting. Their use of hands,
facial expression and body movement is poetic. 1854 will be signed
throughout and hearing and non-hearing members of the town will
communicate with each other as well.

In addition, I have conceived of an African Griot (see image above)

conducting all of the choruses through dance, gesture and sound. In the
context of this performance, the Griot embodies the rich cultures of the
African continent. She is also the conscience of humanity (and this
meeting), a link to the birth of civilization and is a bridge amongst
multiple realities, seen and unseen. She, in fact, is the personification of
Sojourner Truth. Her major aria sung just before a vote is taken is
inspired by Frederick Douglass 1852 speech about July 4th.
The Citizens Chorus sits amongst the audience while the Selectmen are
on a platform in front. The Griot roams on a platform higher than the
audience, townspeople but lower than the Selectmen. After a series of
choral debates, arias, for and against the petition to abolish slavery, a
crescendo is reached, creating a cacophony of heat without a definitive
vote.
The Citizens chorus freezes, as do the selectmen, and Freedom chorus.
But not the deaf community. They keep chattering with each other
through signing and dancing. They dance as well as sign, expressing
their opinions. After doing their dance throughout the hall, they sit in
their seats.
Suddenly, six Whaling Captains make a dramatic entrance into the
chapel on stilts, thus demonstrating their dominance in the community.
They sing about How Long, which talks about their long and difficult
journeys and serves as a metaphor for the African American quest for
freedom. The Freedom Chorus sings about their journey and how long
must freedom be denied.
The dynamic of being heard but not seen through most of the piece is a
metaphor that is true to the African American status during slavery.
This is an environmental theatrical experience.
The audience is
surrounded by the music and action. No fourth wall (proscenium) is
present, although there will be platforms that will help frame soloists
singing their aria.
The debate culminates when the Griot sings her aria based on Frederick
Douglass 1852 July 4th speech. After many moments of conflict, humor
and suspicion a vote to petition the government to abolish slavery is
passed. The vote is not unanimous.

The African Freedom Chorus remains in shadow in the balcony, to be

fully revealed at the end of the piece via a mirror that had been hanging
over the selectmens platform and is slowly lowered silently after voting is
complete. When finally in place it will reflect the audience, Citizens and
Freedom Choruses in the same frame. The Freedom Chorus presence is
always felt from beginning to end. Their music forms the basis of the
opera. African drumming is present throughout the evening.
As
previously stated, The Freedom Chorus is heard and not seen until the
last moments. In the last image reflected in the mirror the Freedom
Chorus and Townspeople chorus reach out to the other. The scene is
underscored with African drumming which builds into a crescendo.

Jack Schimmelman
Executive Producer, Director and Writer