Our Crowdfunding Groups
Crowdfund UC Davis thanks all of the donors who gave to this important project in February. This campaign has closed, but we are grateful for your support!
Waiting Rooms is an immersive, site-specific opera that presents a cross-section of the past, present, and future of HIV/AIDS in the United States. It will be staged at the Sacramento Gender Health Center and will feature a pop-up exhibition of historical materials curated in collaboration with the Lavender Library Archives and Cultural Exchange.
Waiting Rooms is scored for mezzo soprano, bassoon, electric guitar, viola, dancer, electronics, and absent performer. Audience members will first experience a sound collage of interviews with women, gender expansive, and BIPOC activists who were involved with the New York chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).
The dancer-guide will then lead audience members through intimate scenes with solo performers inside four therapy rooms, with poetry by Tim Dlugos (1950-1990, with permission from his estate). The poetic narrative of the Dlugos texts will collapse into a dream sequence over the course of these short scenes.
In the next scene, audience members will watch a collection of miniature short films scored with manipulated, distorted, and decaying disco music.
Following this dream sequence, the audience will be led to the final space, where they can peruse the exhibit provided by the Lavender Library to light disco music. As the performers arrive one by one to the final space, they will join together to perform a finale.
The estimated run time of Waiting Rooms is 40 minutes, with a brief intermission. It will have three live showings on May 26, 2024. Following the premiere, the work will be reassembled as a digital experience. Waiting Rooms has received financial support from the University of California Davis Humanities Institute via the Graduate Public Scholars Program and the 2023-2024 New Music USA Creator Fund.
Your gift helps provide meals for performers during our residency in Sacramento. Donors will receive a thank you text from the project team and their name will be included in the program.
Your gift helps cover travel costs for performers who are traveling from New York City, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Donors will receive a handwritten thank you note from the project team and their name will be included in the program.
Your gift provides lodging for a performer during our residency in Sacramento. Donors will receive a thank you note and social media recognition from the project team, and their name will be included in the program.
Your gift supports the recording and reimagining of Waiting Rooms for digital audiences. Donors will receive a thank you note, social media recognition, a thank you video, and their name will be included in the program.
Your gift directly supports artists through the preparation, rehearsal, and performance of Waiting Rooms. Donors will receive a thank you note, social media recognition, a thank you video, a signed and bound score for Waiting Rooms, and their name will be included in the program and score.
