The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Gabriel Jackson)

Yale Institute of Sacred Music's Palm Sunday performance of Jackson's 2014 Passion was originally commissioned by Merton College at Oxford to celebrate its 750 anniversary. Its libretto weaves passages from all four Gospels as well as Latin hymn texts, Psalm 175, and lines from authors/poets associated with Merton College over the years.  As composed by Jackson, the soloists and the choir have equivalent roles, with the collective voices playing more than a supportive role for the individual, solo voices.

I would love to hear it again.

Highly recommended.

An Octoroon (Branden Jacobs-Jenkins)

An important exploration of race in the United States, this appropriation of Dion Boucicault's The Octoroon scandalous 19th-century play never lets the audience ease into high-minded superiority over our slave-owning ancestors (even if we don't have those ancestors).

Highly recommended.

Lives of the Saints (David Ives)

David Ives is one of our favorite playwrights, so it made perfect sense to head to Manhanttan for this series of short plays: "The Goodness of Your Heart," "Soap Opera," "Enigma Variations," "Life Signs," "It's All Good," and "Lives of the Saints." While these lighthearted and sweet comedies poke fun at human foibles, they also provoke our sympathies for characters much closer to us than might initially appear.

Highly recommended.