Anne Brown creates the role of Bess in George Gershwin’s iconic opera, then flees to Norway to escape Jim Crow America.  Joachim Rønneberg leads a platoon of skiers on a dangerous mission in the mountains of Norway to prevent the Nazis from attaining a nuclear weapon.  Two elderly people meet on a park bench and realize they were once young lovers, separated by class differences. Weaving fiction and biography, original music and timeless classics, this theatrical piece for two actors explores the ways bigotry pulls people apart, but also the humor and resilience of the human spirit that keep hope alive. 

SAGA: A Musical Triptych has book by Ed Weissman, new music by Chris Blacker, and Lyrics by Chris Blacker and Ed Weissman.

The Only Way To Feel

This is the opening of the third piece of the triptych. It is the spring of 1925, the year Oslo took its name back after centuries of Danish colonial rule. Solvi, an elderly widow decides to try and shake off her winter malaise by going for a walk in Frogner Park and feeding the birds,

The Lady Of The Sea

While in the park, Solvi meets Erling, who she discovers was once her lover who she was forbidden to marry due to class differences. Rather than revealing themselves, they tell tall tales about what they heard about these young star-crossed lovers. This is Solvi’s story, and Erling’s response.

A Normal Life

In this song we meet Joachim Rønneberg, a young Norwegian army lieutenant leading a near-impossible mission to sabotage a heavy water plant and prevent Hitler from developing a nuclear bomb.

Glass Boat

This is the closing number of the second piece of the triptych. Joachim’s experiences leading Operation Gunnerside and working with the Norwegian Resistance in general led him to the conclusion that freedom and democracy are like a glass boat that everyone has to work to protect.