COURTESY OF BREAD AND ROSES MISSOURI
The cast of The Workers' Opera: Blue Light Special includes several current Amazon workers, shown in rehearsal with musician Celia.
The Workers' Opera: Blue Light Special takes it name from the lights that start spinning on the floor of Amazon warehouses when workers aren't moving fast enough, says Emily Kohring, the executive director of Bread and Roses Missouri, which is putting on the show.
That sort of verisimilitude can only come from playwrights who've done their homework — or, in the case of Bread and Roses Missouri, members of the company who live that reality every day. For this show, writer/director Mariah Richardson worked closely with Amazon workers at STL8, the fulfillment center in St. Peters that has been target for union organizers, holding "story circles" to get their experiences and working with them in the creation of the opera.
And their involvement didn't end there. Kohring says two of the 10 performers in this year's production are STL8 Amazon workers.
Bread and Roses Missouri takes it name from a 1912 textile workers strike, and its work is very much focused on labor issues. The company first debuted its Workers' Opera series in 2018, and it's since become something of an annual event, though the pandemic interrupted several iterations.
Kohring says, "The Workers' Opera has often tackled a specific issue: Medicaid expansion, the Fight for $15, why Right to Work was wrong for Missouri — this year we had the opportunity to focus on Amazon due to our partnership with Missouri Workers' Center. Next year it will be a new topic — because there is always something workers are fighting for..."
Fittingly, the show is being mounted at CWA Local 6300 (2258 Grissom Drive). Both the Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, performances will begin at 7 p.m., and Kohring says they'll last about 45 minutes. "We offer tickets on a sliding scale, nobody will be turned away because they can't pay," she adds. "All are welcome, and we really mean that!"
Those tickets can be purchased, for a suggested amount of $20, at tinyurl.com/workersopera.
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