Eat the Document
EAT THE DOCUMENT, a new opera based on the novel by Dana Spiotta, is a story of activism, sacrifice and the cost of living a secret. In the heyday of the seventies underground, Bobby DeSoto and Mary Whittaker—passionate, idealistic, and in love—design a series of radical protests against the Vietnam War. When one action goes wrong, the course of their lives is forever changed. The two must erase their past, forge new identities, and never see one another again.
Now it is the 1990s. Mary lives in the suburbs with her fifteen-year-old son, Jason, who spends hours immersed in the music of his mother’s generation. She has no idea where Bobby is, whether he is alive or dead. Not far away, a man calling himself Nash presides over an anarchist bookstore, drawing the disaffected youth of the next generation into a series of “groups” and “collectives.” Miranda, alone among the kids who frequent the bookstore, takes Nash seriously.
Shifting between the protests in the 1970s and the consequences of those choices in the 1990s, Eat the Document explores the connection between the two eras—their language, technology, music, and activism.
Eat The Document is supported by the Mental Insight Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. We are also grateful for support from Nancy & Jim Barton, Joan Desens and Simon Carr-Ellison, Robert Ellis, Gene Kaufman & Terry Eder-Kaufman, Roz Lasker, Ann D. McChord, Helen Mills, Marie and Mike Rourke, Thomas Simpson, Michael Young, and Faith E. Gay & Francesca Zambello. Eat The Document received developmental support from American Opera Projects, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Center for Fiction, Joe’s Pub and HERE.
John Glover (composer), Kelley Rourke (librettist), Kristin Marting (director), and Mila Henry (music director) have been developing the piece together since 2020. For our world premiere as part of the 2025 PROTOTYPE Festival, we have assembled an incredible team of collaborators (Peiyi Wong, scenery; Rashidah Nelson, costumes; Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa, lighting; Ken Feldman, sound), and a stellar cast that includes Paul An, Danielle Buonaiuto, Adrienne Danrich, Amy Justman, Michael Kuhn, Paul Pinto, Tim Russell, and Natalie Trumm.
We are almost there—we have assembled an incredible team and almost raised our entire $250,000+ budget, largely from generous friends like you. We are committed to paying fair wages to our incredible artists, and need to raise the last $35,000 more in order to do so. This is where you come in. We ask you to make a contribution to impact this special project. Gifts of all sizes are meaningful.
Donors who contribute $100 or more will receive a free digital download of a single from the show. Those who contribute $500 or more will receive a signed copy of Eat the Document, the novel by Dana Spiotta that inspired the opera. Those who contribute $5000 or more will be credited on our title page as co-commissioners. We can’t wait to share this work with you!
Photo credit: Kristin Marting
John Glover (Composer)
Kelley Rourke (Librettist)
Kristin Marting (Director)
Mila Henry (Music Director)
Tickets on sale now for Members and November 1st for General Audiences.
John Glover (Composer)
Described as “an unabashedly expressive composer,” (New Yorker) John Glover has created music for concert, opera, dance, and theater. He has received commissions from organizations including American Composers Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, On Site Opera, The New York Youth Symphony, Washington National Opera, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Amber Sloan Dance, Crossman Dans(c)e, Ensemble Meme, String Noise, and the Five Boroughs Music Festival. His work has been presented in venues ranging from Rockwood Music Hall to Carnegie Hall, The Invisible Dog to the Rothko Chapel.
Kelley Rourke (Librettist)
Kelley Rourke is a librettist, translator and dramaturg. Libretti include Eat the Document, Right Now, Lucy, and Stay (John Glover); The Beekeeper (Wang Lu); The Emissary (Kenji Oh); Jungle Book (Kamala Sankaram); Wilde Tales and And Still We Dream (Laura Karpman); and Odyssey and Robin Hood (Ben Moore). Kelley is the recipient of Opera America’s 2024 Campbell Opera Librettist Prize. Her English adaptations of canonic operas have been hailed as “crackingly witty” (The Independent, London) and “remarkably well wedded to the music” (New York Times). Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera Australia, Welsh National Opera, Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, American Composers Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Carnegie Hall, Met LiveArts, Opera Parallèle, On Site Opera, American Opera Projects, Detroit Opera, and Calgary Opera, among others. Kelley is resident dramaturg for The Glimmerglass Festival and Artistic Advisor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative. www.kelleyrourke.com
Kristin Marting (Director)
Kristin Marting is a director & creative producer based in NYC. Constructed 36 world premieres (15 hybrid, 9 opera/music-theatre, 8 adaptations of novels/short stories & 5 classics). Currently developing operas by Paul Pinto, John Glover/Kelley O’Rourke, & Kamala Sankaram. Selected premieres: BAM, HERE, Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep. Selected touring: 7 Stages, Berkshire Festival, Brown, MCA, New World, Painted Bride, UMass, Moscow Art Theatre, Oslo. Selected workshops: Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theatre, Target Margin. Selected residencies: Ankram Opera House, Bethany Arts Center, LMCC, Mabou Mines, Mass MOCA, NACL, Playwrights Center, Space at Ryder Farm, Voice & Vision, Williams. Reviews in all major New York media. Recipient of two prestigious MAP Fund awards, a nytheatre.com Person of the Decade for outstanding contribution, a Leader to Watch by Art Table & a BAX10 Award. Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of HERE. Co-founding director of PROTOTYPE festival.
Mila Henry (Music Director)
Mila Henry is a conductor, pianist and music director who maintains a versatile career, spanning folk operas to rock musicals to reimagined classics. She has now worked on nine PROTOTYPEs, including as conductor for Magdalene (and its West Coast premiere at REDCAT), pianist for Mata Hari and Thumbprint, and répétiteur for Angel’s Bone and p r i s m; as well as extensively with its two co-producers, from conductor for The Old Man and the Sea (BMP, VisionIntoArt) to pianist for Looking at You (HERE, Opera on Tap, Experiments in Opera). Hailed “a stalwart contributor to the contemporary opera scene” (Opera Ithaca), she also led the premieres of Letters That You Will Not Get (American Opera Projects), The Hunt (Miller Theatre) and Welcome to the Madness (Opera Steamboat); assisted on The Night Falls (BalletCollective, PEAK Performances) and The World is Round (Ripe Time, Obie-winner); and played for We Shall Not Be Moved (Opera Philadelphia, The Apollo, Dutch National Opera) and rehearsals for Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding’s Iphigenia (Real Magic, Octopus Theatricals). Mila holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Elizabethtown College, and was nicknamed a “Jill of all trades” (Sullivan County Democrat) for her multi-instrumentalist work with the band The Opera Cowgirls. milahenry.com