

TheShining
Composer: Paul Moravec | Librettist: Mark Campbell | Based on the Novel by Stephen King
Co-production by Opera Parallèle, Hawai’i Opera Theatre & Portland Opera
Running Time: 2 hours 20 mins with intermission – performed in English with supertitles.

Deep in the shadows of the Colorado Rockies lurks the Overlook Hotel. For its new caretakers, the Torrance family, the only thing more unnerving than their profound isolation is the realization that they are not the hotel’s only guests. Their young son Danny, with his spine-tingling sixth sense, endures the house of horrors while his father faces demons – past and present, real and remembered – that ultimately turn him into a monster. What starts as a desperate search for financial and marital sanctuary, spirals into a terrifying battle for sanity and survival. Adapted from Stephen King’s iconic novel, the Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning team of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell bring The Shining to even more frightening depths than ever before.
- Venue: Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA – 700 Howard St, San Francisco
- Dates: June 2, 2023 @ 7:30pm, June 3, 2023 @ 7:30pm. June 4, 2023 @ 2pm
EnhanceYour Experience
Videos
A series of events and conversations as part of OP’s Bullhorn Community Programs to help you discover more about this classic story. More content coming soon!
The Shining as Gothic Literature
The Shining contains many elements of Gothic literature. It is rooted in the power of the past and how irrational violence influences the world. What Makes a Gothic Novel (Carla M. Paton. The Writing Collective. 2022, Mar 2) – Atmosphere & setting, Visions and Omens, Supernatural events: Mystery & fear, Women in distress, Tyranny of men. Enjoy these other examples of gothic literature.
Why Do We Crave Horror
Recreational Fear Lab

A Very Nervous Person's Guide to Horror Movies
Additional Reading Materials
- Why we Crave Horror Movies – by Stephen King (Playboy. 1981, Jan)
- Why we like scary things: The science of recreational fear by Richard Sima (Washington Post. 2022, Oct 27)
- What is Gothic Literature and Why Are We Still Obsessed With It (Sammy Evans. For Reading Addicts. 2023)
- A Guide to Horror Operas, for Those Who Loved “The Shining” (Scott Chamberlain. Mask of the Flower Prince [blog]. 2016, May 16)
Stephen King
Stephen King established himself as a preeminent writer in the horror genre with The Shining, published in 1977. The themes are like others in his literary output: the thin line dividing reality from fantasy. His frightening plots emerge from ordinary daily routines. The storylines are not scary in and of themselves. But the way that bizarre occurrences affect believable characters cause terror to the reader. The ways ordinary people become monstrous by their own doing, mirroring King’s own history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Stephen King

Writing Your Fear: Stephen King's 'The Shining'

The Great Stephen King Reread

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Stephen King
Cast & Creatives
Cast
*Member of the San Francisco Girls Chorus

Robert Wesley Mason
Jack Torrance
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Kearstin Piper Brown
Wendy Torrance
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Tenzin Forder
Danny Torrance
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Michael Thompson
Danny Torrance
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Kevin Deas
Dick Hallorann
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David Walton
Delbert Grady / Stuart Ullman
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Nathan Granner
Bill Watson / Lloyd the Bartender
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Molly Mary Mahoney
Mrs. Massey / Vocal Ensemble
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Christabel Nunoo
Mrs Grady / Vocal Ensemble
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Meher Arvind*
Grady Girls
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Gitanjali Menon*
Grady Girls
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Perri So
Grady Girls
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Kiyomi Treanor*
Grady Girls
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Chung-Wai Soong
Senator / Vocal Ensemble
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Timothy Murray
Horace Derwent
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Daniel Cilli
Mark Torrance
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J. Raymond Myers
Crooner / Vocal Ensemble
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Caleb Alexander
Mafia Guy 1 / Vocal Ensemble
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Ryan Bradford
Mafia Guy 2 / Vocal Ensemble
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Aisha Campbell
Vocal Ensemble
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Maya Goell
Vocal Ensemble
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Rachel Rush
Vocal Ensemble
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Michelle Pavlova
Vocal Ensemble
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Kurt Winterhalter
Vocal Ensemble
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Composer & Librettist

Paul Moravec
Composer
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Paul Moravec, recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, has composed over 200 orchestral, chamber, lyric, choral and operatic works. Frequently commissioned by notable ensembles and music institutions, Mr. Moravec’s next premiere is A Nation of Others, an oratorio about Ellis Island to a libretto by Mark Campbell for Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall in November. Other recent premieres include The Shining for Minnesota Opera, and Sanctuary Road for North Carolina Opera. A graduate of Harvard and Columbia universities, he holds the distinguished rank of University Professor at Adelphi University, and has served as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as well as Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. His website is www.paulmoravec.com and his works are published by www.subitomusic.com.

Mark Campbell
Librettist
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The Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning operas of librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell are among the most successful in the contemporary canon. Mark has written 40 opera librettos, 7 musicals, 8 song cycles and 4 oratorios. His works include Silent Night (Kevin Puts), The (R)evolution of Steve Job (Mason Bates), As One (Laura Kaminsky; Kimberly Reed, co-librettist), Elizabeth Cree (Puts), Sanctuary Road (Paul Moravec), The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare (Julian Grant), Stonewall (Iain Bell), Later the Same Evening (John Musto), Today It Rains (Kaminsky/Reed), Bastianello/Lucrezia (Musto) and Songs from an Unmade Bed. In 2020, he created and funded the Campbell Opera Librettist Prize the first award for opera librettists in the history of the art form and administered by Opera America, and in 2022 co-created the True Voice Award to help with the training of transgender singers, administered by Washington National Opera.
Creative + Production

Nicole Paiement
Conductor
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Conductor, Nicole Paiement is the Founder and General & Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle (OP). Recently for OP, Paiement conducted Glass’ La Belle et la Bête and Everest: An Immersive Experience by Talbot, a work she originally premiered on stage at The Dallas Opera, where she is Principal Guest Conductor. An active guest conductor, Paiement has performed with companies including the Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Atlanta Opera. In 2020 Paiement made her debut with L’Opéra de Montréal with Benjamin’s Written on Skin, returning in 2023 to conduct Golijov’s Ainadamar. This season Paiement also made her UK debut with the English National Opera conducting Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and conducted a series of concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, Italy. Upcoming engagements include a return to London to conduct Talbot’s Everest with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican Center. The 2023/2024 season will include 2 world premieres with OP, a return to The Dallas Opera, followed by a debut with the Volksoper Vienna conducting both a symphonic concert and an opera by John Adams. Photo Credit: Cory Weaver

Brian Staufenbiel
Director & Concept
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Brian Staufenbiel is the creative director for Opera Parallèle where he has directed and spearheaded the conceptual designs of the company’s productions since it was founded in 2010. Specializing in multimedia, immersive, and interdisciplinary productions, he actively works across a wide range of artistic disciplines collaborating in film and with media designers, choreographers and dancers, circus and fabric artists, and designer fabricators. His progressive approach to stagecraft has garnered critical acclaim for many of the company’s productions, including Wozzeck, Orphée, Champion and Dead Man Walking. Most recently he finished the Cocteau Trilogy with Opera Parallèle’s acclaimed production of La Belle et la Bête, and the first fully immersive opera experience of Talbot and Scheer’s Everest. On film Staufenbiel recently directed pieces for the online festival season of the Sun Valley Music Festival, a film of Dove/Angelis’ Flight for Seattle Opera, a graphic novel opera film of Talbot/Scheer’s Everest with Opera Parallèle, and a feature length film of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Upcoming film projects include a documentary about the life of Frederica von Stade with Paper Wings Films, and Out of the Darkness, a dance film about Japanese incarceration camps in the United States during World War II. Staufenbiel recently directed Golijov/Hwang’s Ainadamar at L’Opéra de Montréal which will be reprised at Victoria Opera next season. Other upcoming directing engagements include Das Rheingold for Seattle Opera and Calgary Opera and The Shining for Atlanta opera. Photo Credit: Cory Weaver.

Jacquelyn Scott
Scenic & Props Designer
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Alina Bokovikova
Costume Designer
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David Murakami
Projection Designer
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Y. Sharon Peng
Hair & Make Up Designer
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Y. Sharon Peng is pleased to be reprising at Opera Parallèle after its tremendous run of La Belle et La Bête. A member of IATSE 706, her works range from stage to editorial to film & television. Recent stage productions include Into the Woods (Foothill Musical Theatre), Failure: A Love Story (Castilleja School), and The Producers (Hillbarn Theatre). She can also be found at San Francisco Opera, both in the wig shop and as a show foreperson, as well as heading Wigs & Makeup for the Merola Opera Program. She stewards the Wig & Makeup Department at Opera San José. For more of her work, visit her online portfolio at ysharonpeng.net.

Jim French
Lighting Designer
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Jim French designs lighting for the performing arts and live events, with work seen in twenty-five countries around the globe. Highlights of Jim’s work in dance include over fifteen world premieres for San Francisco Ballet, nine seasons as resident designer for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, premiere works for Finnish National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and long-running collaborations with the choreographers Val Caniparoli, Pascal Rioult, and Amy Seiwert. At home in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has collaborated with Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Merola Opera Program, Shotgun Players, Kronos Quartet, Joe Goode Performance Group, Bandaloop, ODC Dance, Post: Ballet, SF Danceworks, Imagery, Sacramento Ballet, Marin Theater Company, West Edge Opera, Smuin Contemporary Ballet, and has been house LD at SFJazz. Jim designed lighting for the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, and volunteers for Dancers Responding to AIDS and Bike East Bay.

Jaymes Kirksey
Assistant Conductor
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A native of the great state of Oklahoma, Jaymes Kirksey has become a national presence as a violinist, pianist, and conductor. He serves as Conductor of Orchestras and is the Director of Classical Music Studies at Oakland School for the Arts, while also a faculty member of the string and piano department. As a conductor and educator, Jaymes has created high-quality musical interpretations ranging from Baroque to modern symphonic repertoire. He has performed in venues across Europe and the US and remains a steadfast performer in the Bay Area where he brings versatility, precision, and an exciting stage presence to audiences. Continuing as Music Director/Conductor of the Young Musicians Choral Orchestra for his seventh season, Kirksey continues to strive for exposure with young musicians and create access to classical music for communities of color.

David Toro
Assistant Director
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Latino American director, David Radamés Toro, applies his backgrounds in music and mime to create innovative opera productions. He has worked at companies such as Minnesota Opera, the Wexford Opera Festival, Opera Colorado, and Cincinnati Opera. An admirer of modern era opera, David has had the privilege of directing 21st century works including Dead Man Walking (Opera Idaho, 2022), The Shining (Opera Colorado), Glory Denied, (Opera Fayetteville, 2020) and Flight (Minnesota Opera, 2020). In 2015, He directed the premiere of Rose Made Man: An Inside Out Opera for the Cohen New Works Festival in Austin, TX. Future productions include: Das Rheingold (assistant director, Seattle Opera), Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (director, Minneapolis Opera & Austin Opera), and The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me (assistant director, Washington National Opera). In addition to directing, David teaches movement and acting for singers using his extensive background in physical theatre and Gestural Mechanics.

Jack Beuttler
Production
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Jack Beuttler is an Oakland based producer and designer. He’s the Director of Production for ODC and the Production Manager for the Sun Valley Music Festival in Idaho. He’s toured nationally and internationally with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Van Anh Vo, and Flyaway Productions and is thrilled to have been a part of bringing The Forgotten Empress to Pakistan in 2017. Jack is honored to have received a 2019 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design for Flyaway’s The Wait Room. Jack recently produced the feature length opera film Goodbye, Mr Chips. www.jackb.info
Supporters
Major production support has been provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, Don & Andrea Fellows Fineberg, Louise Fox, Philip Goward & Theodore Ueki, Jack & Betty Schafer, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and The Amphion Foundation, with support from Producers Circle members Donna Dubinsky and Len Shustek.
Major support for Opera Parallèle has been provided by Gordon Getty, The Lemala Fund, City & County of San Francisco Grants for the Arts, The Future Fund, Paul L. King, Scott R. Lord, and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
The Bullhorn programming is supported in part through a Civic Practice Grant from OPERA America’s Opera Fund and by The Henry W. and Nettie Robinson Foundation.