Two days before the world premiere of a new opera in New York City, many are fighting to stop it from ever taking the stage — both because of the subject matter, and because of the writer.
Rehearsals are underway inside the theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, for a performance about justice. The story, told through opera, centers around 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
"Opera hopefully will draw out the emotion. It’s going to reach the heart," said composer Mary D. Watkins.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
Watkins worked with librettist Clare Coss for eight years to create the opera. The pair come from a powerful perspective: Coss was a college student at the time of Till’s death, and Watkins was also a teenager at the time.
“This was our child, this is our story. It’s not just a story to be told by a Black person,” said Watkins.
“The failure of justice, the trial, the denial of dealing with this was life changing,” Coss said. “It turned me into an activist.”
The central figures in the show are Till’s mother and a fictional character created by Coss, who she said is “a white woman who represents the people who care, but are silent.”
"And so her arc goes from denial, to taking a step to fighting for justice," Coss said. "To bridge the silence with activism."
Watkins said she hopes the takeaway for the audience is "that we need each other and that we need to work together."
But the production, with two sold out shows March 23 and 24, is drawing criticism. An online petition is urging the show be canceled, saying Coss centered the play around her "white guilt...her white self and her white feelings" and that she is "more concerned with showing the audience that 'not all white people are bad' than she is with the ongoing fight for racial justice."
More than 12,000 people have signed the online petition.
"White perspectives should not be centered in the stories of lynched Black children," said John Jay student Mya Bishop. "That's not my only problem with the play … It is still unacceptable to generate profit from the likeness of a deceased child, and that child's now-deceased mother, both of whom are unable to receive justice."
Watkins said she’s proud to work with Coss on this production.
"I think it’s very interesting and important that it is a white woman and a Black woman, and we’re pretty much in the same age group. We both were alive when this happened and we’ve seen a lot," she said.
"Emmett Till, A New American Opera," will be presented at the Gerald Lynch Theater.
