Taocarkeste

04/02/2026

This is the cast of MASK IN THE MIRROR!

12/07/2025

Senate scene in Camden..

12/07/2025

Adolphus Hailstork and his magnificent Robeson !!!!!

With Kevin Maynor, Kevin Courtemanche, Heather Bobeck, Edward Washington, Phillip Bullock, Sam Lomotey, Esther Asibuo, Ivan Thomas directing music and Stage Director, Kim Sykes with projections by Kaelaan Maynor . And of course, lights by Jada !!

07/16/2025

Review

Trilogy an opera company completed its task to present the final installment , if you will, of Wagner’s Ring. A fine job was done of the reduced version that was put together in order to meet the severe cuts in the arts. These days by MAGA.

Nevertheless, it was a beautiful musical evening. Not because it was perfect, but because there were moments of sometimes imperfection erased by perfection following that moment, and here was the exciting breathless experience that the listener could suddenly realize!

Gotterdaemerung is by no means a small feat to be undertaken by anyone. Maestro Leslie Dunner led the charge thru the massive score leading the company to victory many times over with a glorious brass section and absolutely lovely woodwinds in the form of Flute, Clarinet, Oboe, and Bassoon, , with your deepest strings supported by a solid percussive section, ensuring that the ensemble was on course.

There was a minimal set describing the apples that gave the Gods strength in the first installment as well as the sword and the giant ring itself, indicating the course set in the earlier three operas…. under the direction of Kevin Maynor there was acting indicating important moments that needed to be clarified for the audience. Hagen’s “Sitz” as well as the Death of Siegfried, the destruction as well as flooding, and burning of the great hall and the ultimate returning of the ring to the Rhinemaidens.

Kimberly Lloyd brought forth a beautifully and easily produced Brunhilda

Kevin Courtemanche saved the day stepping in at the last minute for a disabled Nelson Ebo, providing a strong sense of style and tradition. Kevin Maynor sang a sonorous Hagen, CHISOM MADUAKOR was a solid Gunther and Heather Bobeck gave a lovely expressive Gutrune .Monica Camafreita was a light determined WALTRAUTE.Good work from Alberich, convincingly sung by Jonathan Green.A sprightly group of Rhinemaidens added moments of charm.

All in all, this was an experience not soon to be forgotten. Trilogy has put the city of Newark NJ on the map with not only doing works by black composers, but also with its RING!

-Elliott Ronyam

05/14/2025

Great ladies of Trilogy

12/10/2024

11/25/2024

My own impressions of horror….

Visually at first I am forced to look or should I say listen to the text. The stage direction of Marshall Jones at the start doesn’t seem to offer much so what one is forced to do is to listen for the text. And feel the music that is so wonderfully thrust upon me under the leadership of Leslie Dunner. Marshall Jones does force the singing actors to tell a story that is in his mind about one of the most horrific crimes ever committed against Seven black men who r***d allegedly a white woman and was found later to be exonerated after being killed or should I say murdered in the electric chair of Martinsville, Virginia fame.. where it took place is not so important considering that it took place at all since the alleged crime did not fit the outcome thrust upon seven black males, simply because one white woman was embarrassed about a possible relationship started with one black man.

All of the singing actors are placed in such a way that you have no alternative, but to listen to the text, providing they enunciate while singing the jagged but funky musical enterprise. If one can actually understand what is said, and can watch closely the slight movements thrust forward upon them , you will understand the sadness that is presented at the very end of the opera when these men look at themselves by way of the visuals presented by Kaelaan Maynor, and then they looked at the electric chair on the stage and walk out into the audience into nothingness. This was highly effective for the audience and the camaraderie expressed between the gentlemen when walking up stage to look at their own images is moving indeed. Leslie Dunner has to his advantage a wonderful muted trumpet that plays at just the right time seemingly making the evening all the more, sorrowful. Dwayne Fulton’s music works.

There is a particular moment when three black women confront the white woman with whom they feel there is good cause to ridicule and badger Ruby, the white woman who feels she was r***d. There is no doubt that there is s*x involved in my mind anyway, but it seems to be consensual , and the three black women are quite angry at the thought of their black men being with this so-called seventh day Adventist white woman visiting their community in Martinsville Virginia. Jones ensures that you get the text at this moment having the women all sing straight out and slightly, turning their heads to look at each other all done in concert. Kevin Maynor produces this piece insuring that you see the large arm of the law for us upon these seven males and a large newspaper backdrop, supported intermittently, with projections that tell the story aiding the wishes of Marshall Jones. The evening is blessed with the presence of one of the sons of the Martinsville seven Mr. Charles Grayson.

It seemed as though this work was being filmed, and I hope so, because it is necessary to see and hear and think about this during the age of men like George Floyd, Martin Luther King Jr., and representative John Lewis ….

-TAOC

10/25/2024

Special thanks to Ess*x County for the grant award! Every little bit helps!

10/25/2024

Get ready… both of these have a great orchestral sound 

09/17/2024

This production is centered on the most horrific crime exercised against black males since slavery . These seven boys were accused of ra**ng a white woman 70 years ago and were electrocuted only to be exonerated this past year. Seven killed for nothing they had anything to do with, as revealed to the world. Three one day and four the next. We are looking and studying the attitude of the systems that were in place at the time. Trilogy uses music to tell our stories and draw correlations. While starting a project like this we noticed the current state of our country and what concerns Americans. With the horrific tradgedy thrust upon George Floyd during the time of this commission it brought to mind the encouraging words of Martin Luther King jr. and John Lewis. However, we can only imagine how black people of Virginia feel and FELT!

Music soothes the soul…