Creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs will team up with Mexican-born composer Jorge Sosa to produce a new opera entitled “I Am A Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams.” The topical subject of this new work is immigration.

The opera tells the story of Rosa, an undocumented immigrant, and the relationship she forms with ethnically-Chinese Indonesian immigrant Sanga, her court-appointed attorney, while awaiting deportation in jail.

The cast, featuring Carla López-Speziale as Rosa, Helen Zhibing Huang as Singa, and Kirsten Chambers as Mother/Gangster/Prosecutor, reflects the ethnicity of the characters, while bringing a variety of perspectives on the immigrant experience to the stage. Additionally, the production staff consists primarily of intentionally diverse female members.

According to a press release, the new opera “reflects the ambition of Jacobs and her production company, White Snake Projects, to integrate original opera with social activism.” Originally intending for “MONKEY” to be her next project, Jacobs shifted her focus when the DACA program came under, taking it as a “call to action.”

Drawing on folk music from Mexico and China, as well as elements of jazz and classical music, Sosa “approached the music for ‘Dreamers’ as a mosaic of styles reflecting the intersection of cultures in the story.” The voices of children are also integrated into the score, as a “commentary on and counterpoint to the struggles of the adults around them.”

“Dreamers” will premiere on Sept. 20 – 22, 2019 at ArtsEmerson’s Robert J. Orchard Stage in Boston, MA.