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Philadelphia-based theater company The Wilma Theater (265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) concludes its 2023-24 season with the world premiere presentation of HILMA, a contemporary opera by playwright Kate Scelsa and composer Robert M. Johanson. Directed by Wilma Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green, the production explores the life and work of 20th-century Swedish artist Hilma af Klint, considered one of the first modern abstract artists. The world premiere of HILMA features a cast of notable local and regional actors Sarah Gliko, J Molière, Brett Ashley Robinson, Kristin Sieh, and Evan Spigelman. The contemporary opera is produced in partnership with New York theatre company New Georges, and is set to run from June 4 to 23 in The Wilma’s 300-seat theater. HILMA is supported in part by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
HILMA centers on the early 20th-century queer mystic and artist Hilma af Klint (Sieh), who channeled hundreds of paintings through messages from otherworldly forces, hoping to communicate the mysteries of the universe. Only recently rediscovered and hailed as one of the first-ever abstract artists, Klint worked in obscurity during a time that was not yet ready to receive her message. The contemporary opera – with a score that mixes genres from opera, rock, pop, and musical theater – wrestles with the hubris and humility that fueled one woman’s spiritual quest.
The opera’s story picks up when af Klint was a member of the Edelweiss Society with “The Five,” a group of artists she worked alongside who embraced Theosophical teachings. Through her work with The Five, af Klint developed her experimental art forms and created metaphors to illustrate the messages she received through seances. At this time, af Klint is anticipating a chance meeting with Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical Society, who would influence her later work.
Leading the cast as Hilma af Klint is stage, television, and voice-over performer Kristin Sieh. Brooklyn based actor and theatremaker J Molière portrays af Klint’s partner and collaborator Anna Cassel. Joining them as the other members of The Five are performer Evan Spigelman as Sigrid Hedman, with Wilma HotHouse Company members Sarah Gliko as Cornelia Cederberg and Brett Ashley Robinson as Mathilde Nilsson. Rounding out the cast as Rudolf Steiner is HILMA composer Robert M. Johanson.
“When making a performance about a painter, it felt important to me to avoid showing her paintings in their traditional two-dimensional form,” said Morgan Green. “I wanted to translate her work into the language of theater, using color, light, and the body, to communicate the what and the how of Hilma’s unique body of work.”
The contemporary opera’s libretto is written by novelist, playwright, and songwriter Kate Scelsa. A recipient of a Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant for playwrights, she has worked for many years with New York experimental theater company Elevator Repair Service. In 2018, Scelsa’s play Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf was produced in New York City, New York, and Dublin, Ireland, and has been published by Dramatists Play Service.
Scelsa was inspired by af Klint’s deeply unconventional life and her deep commitment to exploring mystical and spiritual practices through her creativity.
“We were inspired to give an overlooked, marginalized artist their due,” said Scelsa. “We knew that we had to embrace unconventional forms in the way Hilma did, with the hope of making a theatrical space that could act as a container for the audience to experience the kind of magic that her work captured. I feel so lucky to have found a like-minded director in Morgan Green and producers in The Wilma and New Georges, two institutions deeply committed to upending people’s expectations around artistic conventions.”
The music of HILMA is written by New York City-based performer, composer, and director Robert M. Johanson. He is a founding member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma and has performed in its productions of No Dice, Poetics: a Ballet Brut, Romeo and Juliet, and No President. Additionally, Johanson composed music for and performed in their epic cycle Life and Times: Episodes 1-9 and Burt Turrido: An Opera. He has created and composed his own pieces in collaboration with both students and professionals, including Life is Hard (Von Krahl Theater) and The Loon (Witness Relocation). He has worked with many companies in New York City and abroad, such as Elevator Repair Service, 7 Daughters of Eve, Radiohole, The Civilians, Jim Findlay, Morgan Green, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, and Spreafico Eckly.
The contemporary opera’s world premiere is directed by stage, screen, and radio director Morgan Green. She is a Co-Artistic Director at The Wilma Theater, where she has previously directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning world premiere filmed production of Fat Ham by James Ijames, Eternal Life Part 1 by Nathan Alan Davis, and School Pictures by Milo Cramer. Her production of School Pictures went on to Playwrights Horizons in New York, where it was lauded as the best production of the year in New York Magazine. She also co-founded the award-winning theater company, New Saloon, best known for Minor Character: Six Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time (The Invisible Dog, The Public Theater, Sharon Playhouse).
Green leads a production team featuring Choreographer Lisa Fagan, Band Leader Granville Mullings, Set Designer Kristen Robinson, Lighting Designer Oona Curley, Costume Designer Maiko Matsushima, and Sound Designer Chris Sannino. The team is rounded out by Resident Stage Manager Patreshettarlini Adams and dramaturg Jackie Tileston.
The world premiere production of HILMA brought to the stage in partnership with New York theatre company New Georges and supported in part by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Preview performances for HILMA are from Tuesday, June 4, through Thursday, June 6. The production opens with an invite-only performance on Friday, June 7, at 7 p.m. and runs through Sunday, June 23.
Single Digital Tickets will be available for sale toward the end of the show’s in-person run. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at www.wilmatheater.org or by calling the Wilma’s box office at 215-546-7824
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