Cecelia Raker

Rachela is a woman ahead of her time. She has a master’s degree in history and a history of flouting norms. So when the Nazis conscript her and her colleagues for intellectual slave labor in 1940s Vilna, she instigates a daring smuggling operation to save Europe’s most valuable archive of Yiddish literature and culture.

Victoria is an illiterate Polish Catholic woman with a third-grade education. She loves children, but yearns for a life beyond a village marriage. She never dreamed that becoming Rachela’s housekeeper would lead her into a world of intellectual intrigue, a passion for books and the woman who taught her to read, or a quest to rescue a child from extermination.

Against the backdrop of unimaginable loss, Rachela and Victoria risk everything to save what matters most to them: their daughter, the books , and each other.

But what happens after the war ends and the hidden child is bonded to both of her mothers? What happens when the archive Rachela worked so hard to stash beneath the Vilna ghetto is suddenly inaccessible behind the Iron Curtain…along with Victoria? And what would happen if Victoria and Rachela could find the courage to tell each other how they feel, after everything they’ve been through together?

PAPER BRIGADE is a new musical about the power of women supporting each other through the unimaginable and through the mundane. Based on true primary sources about two unsung cultural heroes, it’s a queer love story that transcends war, trauma, and post-traumatic rebuilding. Creators Debra Caplan and Cecelia Raker weave historical Yiddish music and poetry into the fabric of the story, enabling audiences to hear the sounds and cadences (both musical and linguistic) of our characters’ world.

Rachela is a woman ahead of her time. She has a master’s degree in history and a history of flouting norms. So when the Nazis conscript her and her colleagues for intellectual slave labor in 1940s Vilna, she instigates a daring smuggling operation to save Europe’s most valuable archive of Yiddish literature and culture.

Victoria is an illiterate Polish Catholic woman with a third-grade education. She loves children, but yearns for a life beyond a village marriage. She never dreamed that becoming Rachela’s housekeeper would lead her into a world of intellectual intrigue, a passion for books and the woman who taught her to read, or a quest to rescue a child from extermination.

Against the backdrop of unimaginable loss, Rachela and Victoria risk everything to save what matters most to them: their daughter, the books , and each other.

But what happens after the war ends and the hidden child is bonded to both of her mothers? What happens when the archive Rachela worked so hard to stash beneath the Vilna ghetto is suddenly inaccessible behind the Iron Curtain…along with Victoria? And what would happen if Victoria and Rachela could find the courage to tell each other how they feel, after everything they’ve been through together?

PAPER BRIGADE is a new musical about the power of women supporting each other through the unimaginable and through the mundane. Based on true primary sources about two unsung cultural heroes, it’s a queer love story that transcends war, trauma, and post-traumatic rebuilding. Creators Debra Caplan and Cecelia Raker weave historical Yiddish music and poetry into the fabric of the story, enabling audiences to hear the sounds and cadences (both musical and linguistic) of our characters’ world.

Deep in the forest lives a gaggle of feral, unlovable children. They work their hands to the bone every day in service to the evil wizard Rumpelstiltskin…he makes them do chores! And brush their teeth regularly! And talk about their feelings! It’s the WORST. But then one day, Rumpel tells them the story of how his childhood friend, a talented businesswoman, got forced to marry the king. Suddenly all the Unlovable Children’s narratives about who they are begin to unravel. When Goldie, the eldest of them, learns that she’s actually the long-lost daughter of that Queen, she’s faced with a tough choice: go live the life she'd imagined as a princess, or stay with the unconventional family that has nurtured her true self?

Glimmerglass is proud to present the world premiere of the youth opera Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children by Jens Ibsen and Cecelia Raker, showing August 6, 8, and 11 2024. A modern take on the fairytale classic exploring how queer chosen family can help us reach even our most unconventional dreams, this one-hour piece continues a proud Glimmerglass tradition of commissioning pieces written for children to take center stage.

Please reach out with inquiries about the full score and production opportunities.

Bubbie has filled the void of Covid isolation by solving as many word searches and crosswords as possible...until her latest puzzle turns out to be a ƈʊʀֆɛɖ ֆʊʍʍօռɨռɢ ɨռƈǟռȶǟȶɨօռ that conjures a Demon from the netherworld. When Bubbie welcomes him with delight, insisting he must be her long-lost goth grandson, how far will her well-intentioned neighbor Karen go to convince the old woman that something is horribly wrong?

Please reach out for score, libretto, and video/recordings.

A chamber opera about a trans stagecoach driver during the California Gold Rush. On a fateful night in 1861, a barmaid and a driver find out some catawomptiously strange things about each other. Will they keep each other’s secrets? Good Country was workshopped at UT Austin’s Cohen New Works Festival in April 2019 starring internationally-acclaimed baritone Holden Madagame. Cecelia and composer Keith Allegretti are one of the first teams ever to craft a lead role in opera specifically for trans* singer’s voices.

An immersive solo live performance piece / participatory challah-baking class. Cecelia invites the audience into how she has woven her religious and cultural identities into a cohesive whole, using the seemingly contradictory “ingredients” of her background. As participants learn to bake her challah, they are challenged to explore and question their own secret ingredients.

When A tries to bond with her sister B over their shared obsession with the fermented ancient butter that’s found buried in peat bogs, she digs up more than she bargained for: not only the end of the whole polluted, broken world, but also the dairymaids of the deep past and the far future—and some vulnerability she might not be ready to handle.

Shashi has grown up with just her father and some strange stories about a mother who disappeared when she was a baby. But when she begins to hear voices calling her from the sea, she confronts her father about who her mother was and gets a disconcerting answer--one that will sweep her up in the epic, age-old battle between Land and Sea, and one that will force her to find allies in other freakyweird inbetweeners like herself.

In the wake of the world-shattering catastrophe, two children from very different sides of the Wall emerge from the rubble, alone except for each other. With nothing familiar left, they agree on only one point: they gotta find help. But he wants to embark on a journey to a safer place, and she wants to stay, calling upon an ancient power to kiss a protective golem to life. When creating a Mud Man doesn't turn out the way she'd hoped, will the two human survivors be able to make a new world together, or will they reap the dire consequences of playing pretend God?

Maria has a secret growing inside her and not quite enough toughness and badass gene-sequencing internships on the outside to keep it in . Rachel is considering taking up rugby in addition to Hebrew School just to piss off her mother—except maybe she cries too much to be a real athlete. And Molly has plenty to say to the Capitalist Made-in-China Internet Clothing Company who doesn't think her fat Native body is flattered by horizontal stripes--but who will she be when she's alone with herself?

When these three girls got thrown together on a school project to research the local urban legend of La Llorona, they didn't quite bargain for some horrifying weeping murderess ghost to start showing up in their lives with haunting advice.

Lia climbs out of her window into the wind. The neighbors witness everything. If you watch through your white picket fence through your walled up privacy through your quiet contained life as somebody falls, are you responsible?