PAPER TIGER
World Premiere
Music, Text, and Sound Production by Yaz Lancaster
PAPER TIGER, the latest Digital Commission for the Opera Philadelphia Channel, is a 12-minute digital opera composed by Black transdisciplinary artist Yaz Lancaster, performed by vocalists Eliza Bagg and Miss Grit and pianist Mary Prescott, with a film directed by Sean Pecknold.
In PAPER TIGER, Yaz reflects on nearly a decade of their identity as a queer person of color. The film is an emotional journey through a day in the life of a fictional character, performed by lead dancer Megan Doheny. Through expressive dances and abstract sets, the film explores a range of emotions along the twisting path of finding the strength to be oneself.
Available at youtube.com
Cast & Creative Team
- Sarah Williams Creative Producer
- Ash Marshall Producer
- Adi Goodrich Production Designer
- Toogie Barcelo Choreographer
- Travis Waddell Director of Photography
- Courtney Cooper Art Director
- Tyler Neidermayer Sound Engineer, Additional Production
- John Kilgore Recording Engineer
- Maggie Canady, Orlando Agawin, Baylie Olsen, Riley Higgins, Josie Anders, Justin Porter Dancers
- *Opera Philadelphia debut
The Composer
Yaz Lancaster
Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a Black transdisciplinary artist. They are most interested in practices aligned with relational aesthetics & the everyday; fragments & collage; and liberatory politics.
Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist & steel-pannist in a wide variety of settings; and their work is presented in many mediums & collaborative projects. It often reckons with specific influences ranging from politics of liberation & identity to natural phenomena & poetics. Their ongoing independent studies navigate politics/poetry of horror, Marxist theory, and digital (sub)cultures. Their writing (both creative and journalistic) appears in various online & in-print publications including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, Afternoon Visitor, the tiny, and Underblong, where their poem “Ratios” was awarded the 2021 Blongprize.