Street Scene

painting of a nighttime city scape from within an alley. Neon reflects from rainy surfaces. Two figures walk in the distance.

Music by Kurt Weill

Lyrics by Langston Hughes

Book by Elmer Rice

Director

Heather Dudenbostel

Music Director

Mark Davies

Conductor

Ryan Dudenbostel

About the production

The departments of Music and Theatre & Dance present the American opera Street Scene with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Langston Hughes and will feature the Western Symphony Orchestra.

Based on Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, the plot centers around the conflicts and entanglements between residents of a New York City tenement building in the heat of summer in the 1940s.

At the heart of the tale is the Maurrant family whose tragic story is contrasted throughout the opera with moments of humor, joy, and hope.

Kurt Weill conceived of "Street Scene" as a groundbreaking synthesis of European traditional opera and American musical theater. Musically and culturally, even dramatically, the work inhabits the mid-ground between Weill's Threepenny Opera (1928) and Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957). Weill received the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score for his work, after the Broadway premiere in 1947.

WWU students: sit free on opening night!

We have 183 seats reserved for WWU students in the balcony on opening night. Show your WWU ID at the door on opening night to get your free balcony seat, until all 183 seats are filled.

Time and Location

Getting to Western

Disability Accommodations

For disability accommodations, please contact the department presenting the event. Disability access information is available online at Parking Services, and further resources can be found by contacting Western's Disability Access Center.

Usher registration - current WWU students and employees only
Date Time Venue Sign up link
Performing Arts Center 282 - Mainstage Sign up
Performing Arts Center 282 - Mainstage Sign up
Performing Arts Center 282 - Mainstage Sign up

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