Cecelia Raker

Cecelia Raker

Cecelia is an opera librettist and playwright from Santa Fe NM.

As a queer, observantly Jewish artist, she's excited by fantastical stories that don't neatly fit into their dominant culture's boxes.

Current projects include a children's opera remix of Rumpelstiltskin, a virtual-interactive challah-baking solo performance piece, a YA novel that mashes up...
Cecelia is an opera librettist and playwright from Santa Fe NM.

As a queer, observantly Jewish artist, she's excited by fantastical stories that don't neatly fit into their dominant culture's boxes.

Current projects include a children's opera remix of Rumpelstiltskin, a virtual-interactive challah-baking solo performance piece, a YA novel that mashes up Chasidic shtetl life with a shapeshifting fairytale, a binary-busting TYA mermaid adventure.

Awards and productions include BUBBIE AND THE DEMON at the Washington National Opera / Kennedy Center, the Kennedy Center's Darrel Ayers TYA Playwriting Awards (1st place 2019 for WEBBED HANDS, 2nd place 2018 for LA LLORONA), the 2016 Princess Grace Award (runner up), the 2016 Kilroys List (honorable mention), and a 2017-2018 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship. Her work has been developed and produced with Fresh Ink Theatre, Cohesion Theatre, Venus Theatre, the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, the Boston Theater Marathon, the Great Plains Theater Conference, the ART’s Loeb Ex, and a variety of other venues. MFA Michener Center for Writers/UT Austin, 2020.

Plays

  • Bubbie and the Demon (with composer Jens Ibsen) by Cecelia Raker
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: ageism, Jewish comedy + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, horror, musical, opera, verse
    Keyword: ageism, Jewish comedy, Covid lockdown
    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...
    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.
  • Good Country (with composer Keith Allegretti) by Cecelia Raker
    Cast: 
    5–9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: California Gold Rush, chamber opera + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, immersive, musical, opera, period, verse
    Keyword: California Gold Rush, chamber opera, opera, Mining, queer history
    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...
    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.
  • Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children - a youth opera (with composer Jens Ibsen) by Cecelia Raker
    Cast: 
    12–40
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 8 more
    ·
    Keyword: youth opera, fairytale + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy, musical, opera, verse, young audiences
    Keyword: youth opera, fairytale, queer family
    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...
    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.

  • bread/blood by Cecelia Raker
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: challah, bread + 4 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, faith-based, holiday, immersive, young audiences
    Keyword: challah, bread, interactive, baking, Jewish, intermarriage
    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.
  • Bog Butter by Cecelia Raker
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: butter, mother + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, period, political, science fiction
    Keyword: butter, mother, daughters, Sisters, History, women, climate change, Dystopia, feminist
    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.
  • Webbed Hands by Cecelia Raker
    Cast: 
    8–20
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: Fathers and Daughters, mermaids + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical, young audiences
    Keyword: Fathers and Daughters, mermaids, fairy tale, ocean, mixed families
    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.
  • dry bones rising by Cecelia Raker
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 8 more
    ·
    Keyword: Jewish, Golem + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, faith-based, fantasy, horror, political, science fiction, young audiences
    Keyword: Jewish, Golem, mud wrestling, religion, children in war, Survival
    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...
    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?
  • La Llorona by Cecelia Raker
    Recommendations: 13
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–10
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 9 more
    ·
    Keyword: fairy tale, Southwest + 7 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, faith-based, horror, political, satire, young audiences
    Keyword: fairy tale, Southwest, ghosts, conversos, Catholic, Spanglish, Latinx, judaism, indigenous people
    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...
    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.
  • Song for a Windy Night in the Suburbs by Cecelia Raker
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: Adolescence, poetry + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, fantasy, holiday, young audiences
    Keyword: Adolescence, poetry, tree-climbing, Suburbs, halloween, summer, midnight
    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?