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- The opera tells the story
of a transgender person's journey to self discovery
from the time that they are in middle school-ish
until sometime in their early to mid twenties.
It's told through only two singers and a string quartet
and the two singers, the character's name is Hannah,
and it's Hannah before and Hannah after.
However, it's not really that simple.
Nobody's really playing one side or the other.
We are playing both sides all the time
because we are a whole person.
- I think that Hannah before and Hannah after,
in the most positive way, the two sides of every person.
So, for me, I see Hannah before as this scared, young person
who's desperately searching for herself
and to discover what her true nature in life is
but what we find over the course of the opera
is that as she gets older
she sorts of meld into this other version of herself
and so you lose sense of who is who,
which is the beautiful part of this story.
- For me, just it came to opening the score,
opening the libretto actually, and seeing what words,
what phrases, what things jumped out at me
that I immediately connected to
and with this there were so many.
In addition to that, doing research and talking to people
who identify other than, for me,
a cisgendered woman, who's straight.
It's important for me
to understand other people's perspectives
and bring other honest bits to the part as well
so it's not as hard as you think
because its a human story
and the whole point is that we're all people.
- When you decide to come out of the closet,
it feels like it's going to be life ending.
You feel like you're gonna lose everything
that you've built up to that point
but once you do it you realize
how life affirming and changing it is.
No matter what it is you lose, you gain so much more.
And one of the biggest things you lose is fear
and one of the biggest things you gain is freedom and love.
- Courage is transcribed fear
and I think when we accept love is as love is
I think unity is what we're looking for
and we're now in a time where we have become the evolution
and the change for that to be our reality
and there is power in that.
- And I was so proud that it's being released on June 28th,
which is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots
so it seems like a totally appropriate time
to get this message out in the kind of way
that we can all sort of accept
as part of the LGBTQ community.
You know what I'm super excited about
is the recording that's coming out of As One.
The first ever world premiere recording of As One so that.
- [Briana] With the original cast.
- With the original cast as well, Sasha Cooke.
So a way to get to this recording of As One
is through the website AsOne.ninja.
It's being produced by Bright and Shiny Things,
which is brightshiny.ninja
and we're in our fundraising period for the recording.
The kick starter campaign just launched.
June 28th.
AsOne.ninja.
Go and support this amazing project.
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