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We’re about to wrap up our third week of rehearsal for our summer production of Handel’s 1711 opera Rinaldo. It’s our most ambitious project to date—a new adaptation of a beautiful classic, full of difficult arias, heart-wrenching emotion, a beautifully queer updated libretto, and seven young singers with their noses to the grindstone while many of their peers are on vacation.

But as glorious as their hard work might be, our project is the most underfunded it’s ever been. We’ve been rehearsing in our own small studio, staging scenes in the front yard, and have yet to secure a performance space we can afford. With production week just a few weeks away, we’re excited, but drowning in uncertainty.

Thanks to your generous donations, we’ve raised over $1500 this week, which means that next week we’ll move out of the yard and into our beloved rehearsal space at All Saints Church! But we still need to raise $3500 more to get us into a performance space and to pay the artists whose brilliance and generosity we rely on to make our productions sound and look the best that we can make them.

Can you help us reach that goal? Even as little as $10 helps move us forward! Click here to donate online. If you prefer, you can also donate by check*.

Thank you for your support!

Act Too Studio Opera Workshop is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non‐profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Act Too Studio Opera Workshop must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” and are tax‐deductible to the extent permitted by law.

*Checks should be made payable to Fractured Atlas, with “Act Too Studio Opera Workshop” in the memo line. Checks may be mailed to Act Too Studio Opera Workshop, Attn: Melinda Beasi, 15 Cottage St. #418, Easthampton, MA 01027. Checks for $1000 or more must be accompanied by a Major Gift Letter.

Yesterday was #GivingTuesday, and we’d like to thank everyone who came out to support Act Too Studio Opera Workshop! Though we fell short of our goal for the day, we’re hopeful that we can make up that deficit as our Week of Teen Opera continues! Every dollar that was donated yesterday is vital, and we are so grateful to you all. If you missed out on yesterday’s flood of videos, we’ve collected them all here for you!

Each day this week comes with a theme, and for #GivingTuesday, our students recorded video testimonials about what the workshop means to them, and why they think it’s important. Even I got in on the action and recorded my own testimonial about what the *kids* mean to me! Check them out below.

We also received a written testimonial from one student, which I’ll share with you here as well:

So I’ve been sharing a bunch of links to this today, and here’s why I think you should donate money to this cause:

The Opera Workshop is an amazing cause and an amazing opportunity, there is nowhere else that I know of that does what Melinda Beasi does for us. When you search for high school opera schools and programs, none appear that aren’t related to the Met or Universities like Carnegie Mellon. Now, when I first started taking voice lessons at Act Too and Melinda and Janet Klump asked if I wanted to try a classical piece I resisted and worked a tiny bit on an easy little french piece, not giving it any thought. Melinda continued to try to convince me to do classical pieces to which I maneuvered my way out of, and then I saw the Opera Workshop’s production of The Medium. My view of Opera had been shattered and I was shown how amazing this art form was, throughout the next year I worked a little and a little bit more on classical pieces, and a year later, Melinda asked me to officially join the Workshop. It changed my life, I could perceive music in a whole new way, Opera helped me understand the history of the art form, and the importance, as well as the beauty of it.

But why should you donate money?

It is safe to say that Opera is a dying art form, barely any young people have any interest in it. The mission of ATS Opera Workshop, is to bring this huge part of the history of the world back, and to keep it alive, and show people what Opera truly can be. Donate money so that the Workshop can keep putting on productions that will captivate the community and revitalize the art form, as well as help teens find their voice.

– Brayden (16)

Our Week of Teen Opera continues today with “Opera Misconceptions.” Follow us on Facebook to enjoy the videos as they come! And please, if you’re able, consider a donation of any size to help keep this program alive and affordable for all our teens. CLICK TO DONATE.