The nonprofit Reimagining Opera for Kids has begun its 19th season. The organization’s specialty is giving kids their first introduction to live performance, production manager Sara Dailey Muñoz said.
The organization is made up of volunteers ranging from 13 years old to people in their 60s and 70s. Most of their performers come from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Muñoz said. The group has about seven to eight singers, ranging from 13 to 35 years old and four to five instrumentalists.
“Last year, we performed for over 3,500 kids in Indiana, and all for free,” she said. “And so there are specialized curriculum guides for each grade level and for each show, and to really make it a fully educational, well-rounded experience for the kids.”
The group mainly performs at schools, libraries and community centers in south central Indiana, with a focus in rural areas. Muñoz said surveys in the southern half of the state outside of Bloomington showed that kids don’t see live performances until adulthood.
“It’s special,” she said. “It's not something that you get just from watching video recordings of performances, there's something very special about being in the room and having the kids get that experience and exposure.”
Each season the group does a different show that last about half an hour. There are 20 to 30 performances during the school year, Muñoz said. This year’s show, Ana y su Sombra, is a Spanish opera with English narration for the kids.
Ana y su Sombra is a story of young girl who moved often, most recently to the U.S. due to her parents being Mexican diplomats. The girl is extremely lonely and her shadow is her only friend. She sings about wanting to be her shadow because her shadow is just like all the other ones, there’s no difference in language, race or hair color. Then the shadow says, “Well, I don't want to be cooped up in a room being sad anymore, and so we're going our separate ways,” Muñoz said. Then it’s the story of them reuniting.
“We are kind of going for a bit of a telenovela,” Muñoz said. “We're doing a lot of huge gestures and gesticulation and overacting.”
The group’s shows in the past five years have all been in English. Operas are generally in other languages such as Italian, German or French. She said this is a first step starting with a language that is most likely familiar with Indiana kids to find that they can enjoy a story that’s in another language.
The group rehearses weekly to prepare for performances.
“Comedy is a very important part of having these shows be engaging for kids, so we are always workshopping the
funniness we can bring into everything,” she said.
Danielle Long has been a performer for the nonprofit for three years.
“We take what we do very seriously, and we want to make sure that we present something that's very special that the kids will remember that will inspire them to either go into the arts or value at least value the arts,” Long said.
She said since she’s been a part of the group, Ana y su Sombra is the most challenging opera she’s performed, musically and vocally.
“This one is really fun because since it's in Spanish, and it's taking place in Mexico/America, there's a rhythmical component too that is really fun and uses a lot of Latin rhythms, which I'm really enjoying,” she said. “But it also can make it a little difficult to figure out where you are in the music.”
Long said the performances are a rewarding experience for everyone. It has given her the opportunity to be more involved in the community and she’s been able to add the roles she’s played on her resume. She said the group has received letters from teachers about how the kids can’t stop talking about the group’s performance.
“It feels like the whole thing is one big circle of joy,” Long said. “We're putting joy out into the community. They give us joy back, and we give each other joy. And it's just---it's such a wonderful, bright light.”
The nonprofit’s goal this year is to perform for over 4,000 kids. They debuted Ana y su Sombra at Lotus Festival. The next performance is October 24 at the Monroe County Public Library’s Southwest Branch.