Premiering February 27, 2021 @ 7:30pm
Streaming for 72 hours
TAKING UP SERPENTS
by Kamala Sankaram & Jerre Dye
Share your experience on social media #cotserpents
75 minutes
without intermission
Live-captured at
Studebaker Theater
English
with English subtitles
This production contains strong language and occasional theatrical violence. If you require more information, contact the box office at 312.704.8414.
Synopsis
On New Year’s Eve in Gulf Shores, Alabama, 25 year-old Kayla stands outside the Save Mart drug store on a break from her marathon evening shift. Her co-worker, Reba, stands at a distance finishing a cigarette. Kayla watches moths circle the streetlights and questions whether leaving her family and her home to find herself was worth it. A vision appears of her younger self carrying a serpent box. Their eyes meet briefly before Young Kayla disappears.
Back inside, monotony eats away at Kayla, as she cleans up for the night. A second vision appears – this time of her childhood church. Her father takes the pulpit and preaches in all his glory. Kayla feels both joy and fear. Overcome by the Holy Spirit, Kayla’s mother, Nelda, speaks wildly and magnificently in tongues.
A phone call to the Save Mart interrupts Kayla’s vision. Nelda is on the line. Daddy has been bitten by one of his rattlesnakes in a church service and is dying in the hospital.
Kayla is transported to New Year’s Eve from her childhood. Fireworks burst in the sky, and Daddy, sloppy and unpredictable, carries a bottle of bourbon and a bag of bottle rockets, mocking Nelda’s concern. Throwing a series of rockets into the sky, Daddy shouts in desperation and begs to be saved.
On the Greyhound bus, Kayla hears the thoughts of the other lost passengers. She prays to be delivered. Another vision appears. Nelda speaks in tongues. Kayla hears a rattlesnake hissing inside of a suitcase and finds herself with Daddy by Burkett’s Creek as a child.
Kayla arrives at the hospital to find Nelda, furious, tormented, and ashamed. The two women reckon with Daddy’s concurrent grandeur, misdeeds, and cruelty.
Kayla departs into an imagined church vision, leaving Nelda at Daddy’s bedside. Both women must confront what comes next, and Kayla is transformed.
Taking Up Serpents was originally commissioned by Washington National Opera and premiered on January 11, 2019. This newly expanded version, premiering on February 27, 2021, was co-commissioned by Chicago Opera Theater and On Site Opera.
Creative Team
Composer: Kamala Sankaram
Librettist & Director: Jerre Dye
Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya
Costume Designer: Brenda Winstead
Lighting Designer: David Lee Bradke
Wig & Makeup Designer: Rebecca A. Scott
Cast
Kayla: Alexandra Loutsion
Nelda: Leah Dexter
Daddy: Michael Mayes
Reba: Annie Rosen
Young Mother: Morgan Middleton
Save Mart Worker / Bus Driver: Justin Berkowitz
Save Mart Customer / Queer Kid: Rachel Blaustein
Supernumerary: Emma Claire Stace as Young Kayla
Orchestra
Violin 1: Pasquale Laurino
Violin 2: Wendy Benner
Viola: Vannia Phillips
Cello: Mark Lekas
Bass: Christian Dillingham
Piano: Yasuko Oura
Flute/Piccolo: Alyce Johnson
Oboe: Erik Andrusyak
Clarinet: Daniel Won
Bassoon: Lewis Kirk
French Horn: Steven Replogle
Guitar: Steve Roberts
Percussion: George Blanchet
Orchestra Contractor: Ross Beacraft
Note from the Composer
I am so delighted to bring Taking Up Serpents to Chicago for its Midwest premiere – and I’m even more excited that Chicago Opera Theater has given us the opportunity to dig deeper into this world for its new iteration.
My goal for the sound world of the opera has always been to try to capture the mystery of faith in musical form. The original version of the opera accomplished this through musical ciphers including mystic chords, numerology embedded in the time signatures, extended techniques in the orchestral and vocal writing, and idiosyncratic instruments in the orchestra, including whirly tubes and a waterphone.
For the COT production, I have written 20 minutes of new music and tightened the storytelling through the body of the work. The revisions Jerre and I have made allowed us to expand the sonic and dramatic palette to include specific nods to the music of the Pentecostal church, such as the praise band.
To best capture that spirit – and the raw power that a live audience might experience – the opera was filmed with multiple cameras in a single take. Jerre and I are truly grateful to Maestra Yankovskaya for her continued support of the piece, and we can’t wait to share it with you!
Kamala Sankaram
Performers
Get to know the Serpents team:
• If Alexandra Loutsion hadn’t become an opera singer, she would’ve liked to work for NASA. Though she grew up singing in her father’s Greek Orthodox Church choir, Aerosmith is her favorite band of all time.
• Leah Dexter was raised in Detroit, where she studied violin, cello, and ballet. She now performs all over the Chicago music scene, singing with the American Spiritual Ensemble, Lyric Opera, and Chicago Sinfonietta.
• Michael Mayes grew up listening to bluegrass, country, and blues in Cut and Shoot, Texas. His grandfather was a charismatic preacher in the Missionary Baptist Church, making his role in Serpents very personally relatable.
• Before she was a fast-rising conductor with slated debuts at Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, and Seattle Opera, Lidiya Yankovskaya worked as a floral bouquet designer, lifeguard, sailing and waterskiing instructor, and hiking leader in the Adirondacks during her teens.
• Jerre Dye was raised in a Pentecostal church in Mississippi. The sounds that make him happy include: water moving over rocks, cicadas, ice cream trucks, wind through aspens, the waves breaking at Big Sur, slow moving trains, thunderstorms, and all things Fall.
• Kamala Sankaram has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology. She’s also the frontwoman for Brooklyn-based band Bombay Rickey, which blends the worlds of surf rock, cumbia, spaghetti-Western, and Bollywood, balanced out with soaring operatic vocals.
Lidiya Yankovskaya
Conductor
Orli and Bill Staley Music Director
Annie Rosen
as Reba
Morgan Middleton
as Young Mother
COT Young Artist
Justin Berkowitz
as Save Mart Worker
& Bus Driver
Former COT Young Artist
Rachel Blaustein
as Save Mart Customer
& Queer Kid
COT Debut
Production Teams
Chicago Opera Theater
David Lee Bradke, Lighting Designer/Director
Anna Janicek, Assistant Lighting Director
Brenda Winstead, Costume Designer & Wardrobe Supervisor
Rachel Boylan, Assistant Costume Designer
Kayla Cortina, Wardrobe Crew
Lynn Sparber, Wardrobe Crew
Annaliese Voci, Wardrobe Crew
Liz Taylor, Stitcher
Rebecca A. Scott, Wig & Makeup Designer
Necole E. Bluhm, Assistant Wig and Makeup Designer
Emily Boyd, Props Co-Master
Mitchell Ransdell, Props Co-Master
Joseph Staffa, Technical Director
Keira Jacobs, Assistant Technical Director
Kristen Barrett, Production Stage Manager
Adrienne Bader, Assistant Stage Manager
Creative Team Assistants
Michael Pecak, Assistant Conductor/Répétiteur
Josh Quinn, Répétiteur
Rebecca Willingham, Assistant Director
Katherine Coyl, Fight Director
Supertitles
Josh Quinn, Supertitles Operator
Samantha Schmid, Supertitles Creator
Stage Crew
Michael Barahura
Matt Bearo
Maria Deiters
Erin Hurley
Mati Johnson
Heather Kristan
Tim Martin
Smaida Massatt
Matt Pondel
Juan Valencia
Jonah White
Valhalla Media
Production Team
Jan Thompson, Video Director
Nikolas Wenzel, Mixing Engineer
Joseph Court, Audio & Wireless Engineer
Scott Zeugner, Production Engineer
Andrew Cioffi, Production Engineer
Kimmer Olesak, Director of Photography
Nathan Bartlett, Jib Operator
Katrina Mulligan, Camera Operator
Lucas O’Brien, Camera Operator
Brian Delisi, Camera Operator
Clare Sullivan, Musical Assistant
Adam Slutsky, Video Editor
B-Roll Unit
Jan Thompson, Video Director
Katrina Saldana, Camera Operator
Hannah Friedman, Camera Operator
Nikolas Wenzel, Production Assistant
SEASON SPONSORS
Julie & Roger Baskes • Nancy Dehmlow
PRODUCTION SPONSORS
COT President’s Council
ARTIST SPONSORS for Alexandra Loutsion
Queta & Ron Bauer
IN-KIND SPONSORS
S.B.C. Waste Solutions Inc.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
What’s Next
Saturday, March 20, 2021 @ 7:30pm
You might like this if…
• You love elderly ladies with a lot of spunk and sass, a là Sofia from The Golden Girls
• You enjoy quirky characters that are trying to discover themselves through their relationships
• You’re over cookie-cutter stories that focus on a young ingénue – you’re ready to see a story unfold across generations
or
• You’re down to feel those feels and let out those tears
The ~Vibe~
Emotional rollercoaster, light-hearted, self-acceptance, confessional
Starring
Justin Berkowitz, Evan Bravos, Laura Wilde, Morgan Middleton, Keanon Kyles, and Alexandra LoBianco
Creative Team
Composer Matthew Recio, Librettist Royce Vavrek, and Conductor Kedrick Armstrong