Time to Act
Event Dates
Calderwood Pavilion at Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street
Boston
MA
United States
(View Map)
Tickets for this event will go on sale February 2026.
Boston Conservatory at Berklee is proud to present the New England and collegiate premiere of the contemporary opera Time to Act, a powerful new work by faculty composer Laura Kaminsky (As One) and director/librettist Crystal Manich. Set in a high school as students prepare for a staging of Antigone, this gripping contemporary opera explores how young people confront grief, violence, and the urgent need for change in the face of school shootings. With raw emotion and musical immediacy, this must-see premiere speaks directly to the world we live in—and the future we must shape. Andrew Bisantz conducts and David Gately directs Boston Conservatory’s Center Stage production. Following its Boston run, Time to Act will travel to National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York (April 22–23) for a semi-staged public performance and professional live recording, to be released nationally by the acclaimed label Bright Shiny Things.
Content warning: This opera contains a simulated safety drill and discussions related to the topics of school shootings, school violence, and PTSD.
Time to Act is a co-commission by Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Montana, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, with additional funding by Opera Santa Barbara, presented by permission of the publisher, Bill Holab Music. Time To Act received commissioning and production development support from New Music USA’s Organization Fund, OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers program supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, OPERA America’s Opera Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
This performance has been selected as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s 2025–2026 Center Stage collection.