Little Histories

The world production of Grey Rose Grant's latest theatrical work!

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A mortician reflects back on the events that led them to become a mortician. They work through their first experience of death as a child, burying animals, first adult love, the first death of a close friend, and a revelation about their first encounter with death. They do this as they prepare for a home funeral of their lover. Their friend arrives to console and to help carry out the funeral ritual. Memorialize and remembering.

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​Little Histories, is a folk opera that explores death ritual and our distanced relationship with death in the U.S. Personal histories from the composer's own life are swirled together in a world of magical realism where grandmothers become trees, where Icarus is a depressed mortician, where death has made its presence known, mixed with histories at large such as the birth of the U.S. funeral industry. The work investigates how we memorize our dead, how we grieve, how we die, and how impermanence shapes meaning in our lives.

Visit fifthwallperformingarts.com/current-season for more information.

TICKET SALES ONLINE END 3 HOURS BEFORE THE PERFORMANCE. YOU CAN STILL PURCHASE TICKETS AT THE DOOR.

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Join Grey and Fifth Wall for an intimate evening of experimental opera-theatre about death! The audience is invited to sing select songs from The Sacred Harp throughout the performance.

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Content warning: mentions of suicide, and heavy religious themes surrounding Christianity-based religious trauma.

CAST

The Mortician - Grey Rose 

The Friend -  Allison Prost

The Lover - Daniel Becker

BAND

Mike Avitabile - flutes

Westley Hornpetire -  cello, voice

Melissa Coppola - piano, accordion, voice

Daniel Johnson - musical director, voice

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CREATIVE

Concept / Libretto / Music - Grey Grant

Electronics - Alfredo Cabrera

Producer / Director - Grey Grant

Scenic Design - Ali Giessner & Grey Grant

Costuming - Grey Grant

Dramaturgy - Karl Ronneburg

Marketing - Zoe Marie Hart

Thank you to Canterbury House for having us.

Thank you to Riverside Arts Center for providing rehearsal space.

Commissioned in part by the Gabriella Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music

Co-Produced by Fifth Wall Performing Arts and Grey Rose Works

Supported in part by New Music Detroit, The Canterbury House, and Eileen Weiser EXCEL Fund.