"La Traviata" Adaptation a Risk Worth Taking
The newly adapted La Traviata partnership between the NNDC and the Arbor Opera
Theater (AOT) had its national debut this past weekend. It included four performances and three outreach events as a platform to address the stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide. The new production premiered at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in Ann Arbor, MI, June 11-14, 2015.
In addition to the emotionally provocative and stunningly beautiful music and performances by the cast, the educational outreach events included Dr. John Greden on behalf of the NNDC and Dr. Melvin McInnis on behalf of the Precher Bipolar Study. This new and bold undertaking provided a unique opportunity for the NNDC to build awareness of our organization through the arts and to literally put mood disorders in the spotlight.
The performances were truly amazing and exceeded expectations for how well it came together a
nd worked. Two performances were filmed in their entirety as well as footage of some of the rehearsals and on camera interviews with both the “Violetta” actresses, Dr. Greden, and Creative Director, Shawn McDonald. The Community Talk Back event was also filmed and included four of the main cast members coming together for a discussion about their own mental health challenges and what it was like to be a part of this unique production.
The combined film footage is being used to create a short documentary of the making of La Travaita for the purpose of “taking the show on the road” and into other communities across the nation. Detroit Public Television is involved in this effort and is making a documentary about AOT which will include this La Traviata project. We will continue to work with AOT to get this adaptation of La Traviata out to other places across the nation. If you are interested in bringing La Traviata to your city in 2016, please contact Kathleen Stevens at the NNDC. [email protected].
