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still from Sparkle
courtesy Julia Reichert

Canceled—Making Morning Star preceded by Sparkle

film series: Julia Reichert: Fifty Years in Film

Julia Reichert: Fifty Years in Film

  • Saturday, April 18, 2020
  • 1:00 p.m.
  • East Building Auditorium
  • In-person

As a precautionary measure in light of COVID-19, the Gallery has canceled this event. We hope to welcome you to the Gallery soon and thank you for your support.

Sheri Williams, known as Sparkle, has been a star performer with the legendary Dayton Contemporary Dance Company for forty years — an unparalleled record in the dance community. Sparkle is also one of the few dancers outside New York to have been honored with the prestigious Bessie Award for Individual Performance. After this dynamo suffers her first serious injury, she's forced to consider whether she really has the will to return to the stage as her fiftieth birthday approaches. (Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, 2012, 18 minutes)

Making Morning Star presents a behind-the-scenes look at the joys and challenges of developing a new American opera in a workshop hosted by the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music. Featuring interviews with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, librettist William M. Hoffman, and theater director Ron Daniels, the film captures the delicate balance of personalities in an intense collaboration. (Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, 2016, 37 minutes)