… a musical theater production that dives into the tensions at the heart of American democracy, American Patriots is a show that follows creator Samantha Williams, and her journey across America’s increasingly polarized society, as she interviews over 50 Americans from vastly different perspectives; traversing political party, race, gender, and class as she searches for a shared American Identity that she can be proud of.

Using the verbatim lyrics from these interviews, three performers embody interviewees by literally stepping in and out of their shoes, and sharing their words through songs and monologues. They traverse the labels often used to demarcate difference, while giving an unbiased portrayal of each story. Music director Yaniv Segal collaborated with a team of five composers to weave a range of styles (opera, jazz, rock, broadway) into one cohesive experience. Director Rose Jarboe masterfully engineers an environment where audiences interact and reflect live with Samantha to answer questions from the project. Williams narrates, sharing her own journey from deep disillusionment to reclaiming the concept of patriotism, a term she didn’t feel she had access to previously. Viewers must attempt to reconcile the varied American realities expressed by each interviewee with their own lived American experience. The final result is a production that is reflective of the wealth of diversity across the nation and that appeals to the audience of today: a broad base of critical thinkers, activists, and adventurous consumers.

The minimalist production uses innovative staging to center an “intentional storytelling” process. The show does not support any political candidate or party, but provides socially relevant content and representation of perspectives across disparate racial and socio-economic lines appeal to today’s audiences: a broad base of critical thinkers, activists, and adventurous consumers.

AMERICAN PATRIOTS INFORMATION PACKET

As the country becomes increasingly polarized and diverse, Americans are once again grappling with the fundamental question of who this country is for. What does it mean to be an American Patriot? Is it possible to find common ground with perspectives that seem to invalidate our lived experiences? Where is the line where it’s no longer okay to “agree to disagree?” 

Over the past few years, Creative Producer Samantha Rose Williams has found herself surrounded by real-life imagery of tanks facing off against protestors on Pennsylvania Avenue, men and women in tri-fold hats ransacking the Capitol in the name of Liberty, and children in cages and parents at the border holding Biden 2021 signs. She became interested in creating a project that could speak to the multifaceted and complicated nature of American Patriotism and that allows audiences to engage and empathize with stories and perspectives different than their own.

Samantha was particularly interested in the mindset of Americans from groups that had been, and continue to be, systemically oppressed by America (the land of opportunity). How do identities that have been left out of the American Dream rationalize elements of Patriotism? How do they address what it means to be American while these ways often contradict their own lived experiences?

Inspired heavily by the work of Anna Deavere Smith and her play Fires in the Mirror, 50 interviews were conducted with people who identify as African-American, white Working-class American, New American, and Indigenous American over Zoom.

“In America we cherish differences. We cherish freedom. It's kinda chaotic, I'm not gonna lie, it's kinda messy. As long as that doesn't hurt the other side.”

“I do not know what they think the American Dream is, but we do not get a dream.”

“And so for as much of the injustices that have defined parts of my life, I'm continuously reminded just how lucky I am to have been born here.”

“I understand that I protect their right. The Constitution says they have the right to protest, and as long as they’re doing it peacefully, there’s not a damn thing that can be done about it.”

“Patriotism is not a blind loyalty, or a lack of objectivity. True patriotism is the ability to protest. True patriotism is the ability to point out America’s flaws. True patriotism demands that our government do better, for all people.”

“I don’t care what they say. When I was in history class, They did not have one chapter about slavery. Not one chapter. Nothing about slavery! Can you believe that? We should have been educating this whole time.”

“That my respect for this country is conditional, conditional on this country's respect for me.”

“I believe in the promise of this country, I believe, I believe, I believe! I want this country to be better.”

American Patriots is committed to “Intentional Storytelling.” The question of who has the right to tell certain stories is increasingly important and the line between exploitation and partnership can be ambiguous. Collaborating with marginalized communities and allowing them to present themselves in ways that feel authentic to them is critical to the mission of this project.

In order to do this, American Patriots used a system of checks and balances to ensure collaboration rather than extraction with each community involved: paying interviewees for their time, having each interviewee approve or veto the final song text, allowing each interviewee to choose their own level of credit or anonymity in the project, prioritizing hiring composers from each identity to set the songs from that experience, and ensuring that composers and interviewees get royalties for their work with every performance.

Additionally, American Patriots features gripping visual projections, unique to each performance, that are made by local videographers at each stop on the tour. This allows our production to speak to both the national and the local, highlighting the lived realities of these communities within each city, as well as creating opportunities for local artists.

As our society becomes increasingly diverse and as audiences demand more accountability, American Patriots believes that the process is equally important to the product when it comes to the representation of marginalized communities.

Samantha Rose Williams is an arts activist committed to sharing marginalized experiences with diverse audiences and creating space for critical discussion about art, culture, and social change. An accomplished performer in both musical theater and opera, a researcher, and arts leader, Samantha began producing to share nuanced stories of people of all backgrounds and beliefs to help create a more sympathetic and equitable world by breaking down the walls of “us and other.”

Learn more about Samantha

Yaniv Segal (Musical Director and Composer) has achieved critical success since childhood for his work as a conductor, composer, actor, and violinist. Yaniv is Music Director of the Salina Symphony in Kansas, Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor of the Chelsea Symphony in New York City, and former Assistant Conductor of the Naples Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Learn more about Yaniv

Rose Jarboe (she/her) is a director, producer, writer, performer, and the founding artistic director of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret.  After receiving a BA and a BFA in English and Theater from the University of Michigan, Jarboe moved to Philadelphia, where in the past 14 years she has created and performed work for organizations including The Wilma Theater, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Horticultural Society, FringeArts, and Opera Philadelphia. She has also written, performed, and directed original work for La Mama ETC, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series, andThe Guggenheim's Works & Process series. She has written for and directed original cabarets for famed opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo and is the drag dula of Stephanie Blythe. She is also a resident artist at The Fabric Workshop in Museum and recently debuted her first installation of films and objects in The Rose Garden.

Cath Brittan - Producer. Originally from Manchester, England, Cath was a producer for the Vienna Festival for many years and has worked as a production manager and producer in venues throughout the world including English National Opera, London; The Bolshoi, Moscow; Teatro Real, Madrid; and Opera de Comique, Paris, to name a few. Between 2018 and 2023 Cath was the producer for AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company).

Born in Florence, Italy, and described by Third Coast Percussion as "sharing passion for meaningful cross-disciplinary collaboration", Camilla Tassi is a NYC based designer and musician interested in the production of new+period music and theatrical performances.

Her work as a projection designer includes Golijov's Falling Out of Time (Carnegie Hall), Purcell's King Arthur (Lincoln Center, Juilliard415), Apollo's Fire's tour of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (Cal Performances & UMS Michigan), Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage & Long Wharf Theater), Esmail's Malhaar (Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA Master Chorale), Talbot's Path of Miracles (Conspirare, TX), Mozart's Magic Flute (Berlin Opera Academy), Handel's Alcina (Yale Opera), Lady M (Heartbeat Opera), Tesori's Fun Home (David Geffen School of Drama), as well as for recitals, chamber music, and theater at Curtis, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, IU opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, Mass MoCA, and others.

Regina Harris Baiocchi is a composer, author, and poet. Her music has been performed by artists throughout the U.S., notably the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Her poetry appears in such publications as the Modern Haiku and the Chicago Tribune. Regina is also profiled in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music and the International Dictionary of Black Composers, among others. In 2010 Regina founded 6Degrees Composers to feature women’s music. In 2004, she founded the Haiku Festival to promote children, poetry, and literacy. Regina has received many awards, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council. She is an alumna of New York, DePaul, and Roosevelt universities.
Nightmare
Dixiecrats
Creed
Homecoming

for more about Regina, click HERE

Gala Flagello (b. 1994) is a composer, educator, and nonprofit director whose work is inspired by a passion for lyricism, rhythmic vitality, and fostering meaningful collaboration. With music described as “both flesh and spirit, intensely psychological without sacrificing concrete musical enjoyment” (I Care If You Listen), Flagello collaborates with leading ensembles, artists, initiatives, and institutions nationally and internationally to craft impactful projects for performers and audiences alike. She is the Festival Director and co-founder of the nonprofit contemporary music festival Connecticut Summerfest, and has been a Composition Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and Aspen Music Festival.

Dream

Interlude

for more about Gala, click HERE

Danielle Jagelski is a conductor and composer based in New York, NY and Portland, OR. She currently serves as the Music Director and co-founder of Renegade Opera, an immersive opera company based in Portland, as well as cover conductor at the Manhattan School of Music. She has worked with ensembles across the U.S, and has premiered nearly 50 newly written works by living composers. As a composer, she enjoys writing choral, vocal, and chamber music. As an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation and Redcliff Band of Ojibwe, Danielle often collaborates with other Native artists in multidisciplinary creative projects in order to further the visibility of Indigenous peoples in the fine arts.
Grandfather
Learn Something For Me
Sovereignty
The Flag “taps”

for more about Danielle, click HERE

Marc LeMay, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, is a composer known for music that is at once “pleasingly muscular” and “passionately lyrical” (New York Classical Review). Commissions include from the BrassTaps Duo, CHAI Collaborative Ensemble, and the vocal sextet Variant Six. The Nervous System Symphony, a multimedia work created in collaboration with artist Michelle Wang, has been shown in Philadelphia and Brussels. Marc worked with the InVersion Theatre company to devise an interactive soundwalk for iPhone, Mirroring Sky, which features original music and sound sculptures that morph as users move along a proscribed path through Center City Philadelphia. He was also a fellow with the American Opera Projects Composers & the Voice workshop from 2015-2017, and has been developing projects for new operas and multimedia works ever since.

Marc began his life in the arts as an actor, theatre technician, photographer, guitarist, and self-taught singer-songwriter. He received an undergraduate degree in music, with a concentration in music technology, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a Master’s degree in composition from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music. He has taught Composition and Theory at the Georgia State University School of Music, Rowan University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and University of Alabama at Birmingham. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, the musicologist Maria Ryan, and their daughter Sophie.

Kneel

Honor

Patriots

A Good Life

for more about Marc, click HERE

Yaniv Segal is first-generation American composer and conductor who grew up in a musical family in NYC, has played violin since age four, started writing music before age ten, has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, toured in a Broadway musical, and conducted around the world. His music has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Naples Philharmonic, Reno Philharmonic, Ashland Symphony, Grand Rapids Classical Orchestra, Norwalk Symphony, and Salina Symphony.

Aging Out

Born Here

Could Have

I’m not BIPOC

Polarity

for more about Yaniv, click HERE

Mezzo soprano Samantha Rose Williams is an arts activist committed to sharing marginalized experiences with diverse audiences and creating space for critical discussion about art, culture, and social change. She balances an exciting professional career in performance and arts leadership and has a deep love for opera, musical theater, directing, marketing, development, and producing.

Annie is a New York-based actress and singer of musical theatre, opera, and contemporary repertoire. Broadway tours include: THE SOUND OF MUSIC Global and National Tours (Elsa Schraeder), Warchus & Thorne’s Tony Award-winning adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Jess, Belle U/S, Little Fan U/S), and Lincoln Center Theatre's THE KING AND I (Anna alternate). Regional theatre and opera credits include: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Mrs. Nordstrom, Anne U/S) at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, RAGTIME ON ELLIS ISLAND (Evelyn Nesbit), MACBETH (Witch, swing) at the Los Angeles Opera, FALSTAFF (Nannetta) with Pacific Opera Project, and more. Annie has performed solo concerts nationwide and premiered her original English translations of Edith Piaf's songs in a one-woman-show at The Green Room 42 (NYC). Annie holds a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from UCLA and a B.A. in Music and Human Biology from Stanford University.

Fernando Grimaldo is a Bass-Baritone and a native Houstonian from 2nd Ward. He received his B.A. in Applied Music at Pepperdine University, and his M.M. in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan where he studied under Stanford Olsen. This is his third season with Opera to Go. Currently he is covering the baritone roles in Mo Willems’ Bit-Sized Operas, Slopera! and Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. Additionally, he is presenting his own recital series, Boleros y Arias, which exemplifies Spanish and Latin American music and culture.

He recently had his role debut of Colline in La bohème at the Bay View Music Festival. Previous credits include Leporello (Don Giovanni), Pirate King (Pirates of Penzance), Melisso (Alcina), Maximillian (Candide) and Benoit & Alcindoro (La Boheme), Schanaurd (La Boheme), John Brooke (Little Women), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), Pandolfe (Cendrillon), and Papageno (The Magic Flute). In addition to his operatic roles, he has been featured in both concert and musical theater roles like Pontious Pilate in St. John’s Passion and Bernardo in The West Side Story Suite as well as South Pacific and Big Fish in Malibu, California. He also received the Friends of Opera Scholarship in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Some other areas of interest include the study and exposure of classical music in traditionally underrepresented communities, and the impact of Mexican and Spanish folk music to opera and art song.