Can a building affect the human lives that it comes in contact with?
The Sears Crosstown Building in Memphis was built in 1927 as a high-rise distribution center and retail store for Sears, Roebuck & Co. It served as such until 1983 when the retail store was closed, and until 1993 when the company shut down the distribution center. After sitting unused for 17 years, the building took on a new life with the formation of Crosstown Arts, an organization with the goal of resurrecting the building using arts and culture as a catalyst for creating “a mixed-used vertical urban village” called Crosstown Concourse.
The ways in which the building affected lives is the basis for a cycle of five short operas, *The Ghosts of Crosstown*, created in 2014 under the auspices of Opera Memphis. Each opera has a separate composer with the libretti for all five pieces written by Memphis author/playwright Jerre Dye.
Knoxville’s Marble City Opera tries out its own production at Scruffy City Hall of 3 of the 5 operas including, Movin’ Up in the World by Zach Redler (performed by bass-baritone Brandon Gibson), Abandoned by Kamran Ince (performed by contralto Julie Bélanger Roy), and Mitch and the Moon by Jack Perla (performed by soprano Lindsay Cunningham).
Thursday, October 29, 7:00 p.m.
Scruffy City Hall
Tickets at the door: $20/$10 adults/students
