About Us
CONTACT us here to bring a dynamic multicultural show to your site!
Opera Piccola ('small works') was founded in 1989 with the mission of bringing performing and visual arts to under-served populations of all ages and backgrounds. We are especially dedicated to sharing and facilitating creative experiences and expressions with those who have little or no access to the arts. To this end we have, over the past twenty years, incubated and hatched a number of highly successful community-based and school-based programs.
Small Works: Opera Piccola's dynamic theater company creates and is constantly adapting an evolving repertory of "interactive fusion operas" for performances at libraries, homeless shelters, senior centers and other community venues thoughout Northern California. Based on ethnic folktales and modern urban stories, these "small works" feature colorful costumes and sets, orginal music and dance, combined with improvisation and audience participation. (Audience members of all ages wear costumes and perform side-by-side with our professional actors.) For more information on specific shows, and to book a performance at your own community venue, contact us here.
ArtGate: Since 1993, Opera Piccola has also provided long-term artist residencies through our ArtGate educational program. ArtGate resident artists share their creative talents with teachers and students in the public schools of Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. ArtGate offers K-12 services in arts integration and arts electives and pre-12 after-school services in dance, drama, improvisation, music, poetry, spoken word, and visual arts. As educators, our artists have developed a unique, youth-driven methodology recognized by both the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts as a model in the field of arts education. For more information on ArtGate, its artists and services, please contact us here.
Youth Summer Institute: One of our youth intern programs, the Youth Summer Institute focuses on youth development and empowerment though an intensive two-week introduction to careers in the arts. Young adults, ages 14-20 build skills for career and college readiness. They meet with professionals in the arts and observe rehearsals and other professional activities. They plan and implement an art service project, make new friends, learn about being an adult in the arts and have fun. And they earn a stipend on top of it all. Resident artist Sonja Travick leads this summer's institute on careers in dance.
Second Sundays Play and Poetry Series: Opera Piccola's most recent community arts program was launched in July 2009 with a performance of four short plays at the Oakland Museum of California. Second Sundays takes place now on the second Sunday of each and every month, when we host play-reading and open-mic poetry from 4-6 pm in our own neighborhood performance space at Opera Piccola Headquarters. For more information on attending and participating, please contact us.