Transgressive Theatre-Opera Hosts Benefit Concert For Immigrant Relief

Transgressive Theatre-Opera will offer this benefit concert at 7:30 PM on Saturday, September 7 at the historic Ebenezer Lutheran Church's auditorium, 1650 W. Foster. Everyone involved is donating their talent so that all tickets sales and other donations can go directly to a local immigrant relief and a national immigrant relief organization. The organizations to be benefited are Ebenezer's own Refugee Support and the National Immigrant Justice Center. Special permission for this concert benefiting these specific organizations was granted by the Menotti estate.

Babies and children, ripped from their families, are caged at our country's border in cells so over-crowded that they must sleep on concrete floors in shifts. Their fathers and mothers, fleeing crime, poverty, and oppression have brought their hearts and hopes to our country, claiming asylum, but instead of being cared for and guided through the steps to achieve their goals, they are housed in makeshift camps with insufficient water, food, and toilet facilities, for weeks at a time. As we watch these horrors on our television screens and read about them in the media, what are we to do?

In times such as these, artists use their art to comment, to protest, and to share resonant stories with their audiences, introducing characters who can make the struggle of "the other" very real and present for them. Using their art as their finest arsenal, artists help their audiences maintain the focus to see each day for the war on humankind that it is and not simply another day in a time of great wrongdoing, and to send them to their phones, emails, wallets, and the organized protests that are still the right of the people of this county.

Transgressive Theatre-Opera is answering art's dictate by giving a single concert performance of Menotti's masterpiece, The Consul. Gian Carlo Menotti's English-language opera made its Broadway debut in 1950, where it ran for more than seven months. Menotti, himself an immigrant to America, wrote both the libretto and music in response to denial of safe passage into the country for non-Americans, sometimes with devastating results. The setting's location and time frame are not specified, highlighting the universal themes of persecution, dehumanization, and mankind's universal inhumanity.

The plot centers around a family with what are considered inappropriate political affiliations by the government. The father needs to flee the country to escape incarceration, but is loathe to leave behind his wife, infant, and aging mother. While he goes into hiding, the mother attempts to acquire the necessary documents for the rest of the family to leave the country, with tragic consequences.

Tickets may be purchased here: theconsulbenefitconcert.brownpapertickets.com.
All seating is general admission, although there is a tiered scale for those who would like to make an additional donation at the same time.
General Admission: $20
Premium Admission: $50
Immigrant Relief Admission: $100
Donations can be made directly the TT-O's PayPal account button on our website. Please include a notation that the monies are for Immigrant Relief, and they will not flow into the general budget.

Some of Chicago's finest singer-actors portray the characters in this parable of warning:

Magda Sorel: Jessie Oliver
The Secretary: Jennifer L. Barrett
John Sorel: Dorian McCall
The Mother: Angela Torres
The Magician: Ryan Frenk
The Secret Police: Peter Ruger
Mr. Kofner: Katherine B. Dalin
The Foreign Woman: Caroline Shaul
Anna Gomez: Amanda Noelle Neal
Vera Boronel: Mallory Harding
Assan: Noah Gartner
Voice on the Record: Bruno Rivera

Aaron Hunt directs, and Marta Johnson is the musical director.

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