SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR AT THE MUSEUM

MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY ALAINA FERRIS
DIRECTION BY KATIE MADISON
MUSIC DIRECTION BY MILA HENRY

Amelia - Justine Aronson, soprano
Rose - Victoria Davis, soprano
Evelyn - Cáitlín Burke, mezzo-soprano
Gustave - Timothy Stoddard, tenor
Simone de Beauvoir, Queen of the Vampires - Sophie Delphis

Simone de Beauvoir at the Museum follows the story of Evelyn, an aspiring writer in Brooklyn who is struggling with her life and PTSD from sexual assault. She wants to have a family and an artistic career, but is not sure she can do both — Simone de Beauvoir, after all, chose to never have children so she could write. Evelyn goes on a trip to Paris with her two best friends, Amelia and Rose, to enjoy the sites and each other’s company. At Musée D’Orsay, the group begins to discuss the painting Ramsès dans son harem, when they unexpectedly summon a feminist vampire named Gustave. He joins their analytical discussion of the painting, touching on points of gender equality. Triggered by the talk, Evelyn goes into a fugue state. When she reemerges, Gustave invites them on a tour through feminist history, starting with a literary salon in Paris, 1949, the year Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe was published.