Teatro Grattacielo has been awarded a $24,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the world premiere of its new chamber opera “Jefferson Lives!”

The multidisciplinary work explores John Adams’ reflections on his deathbed about the founding of the United States.

“Rather than presenting history as a fixed narrative, the opera approaches the American Revolution as a living psychological and theatrical experience,” said Stefanos Koroneos, Librettist and Director, per an official press release. “John Adams appears as a ghost shaped by memory and moral burden, while a modern Narrator—an accidental protagonist—finds himself overtaken by the history he thought he only knew. Moving fluidly between dialogue, monologue, music, and silence, the work transforms documented events into a dramatic journey that traces how ideas of freedom and resistance migrate from thought into action. Jefferson Lives! invites audiences to encounter the Revolution not as a monument, but as an unresolved human reckoning.”

Prior to its New York premiere, the opera will undergo a developmental workshop and open performance in Tucson, Arizona, this November in collaboration with Polyhymnia. The world premiere follows on Nov. 7 and 8 at The Flea in New York City, conducted by Saverio Alfieri. Engagement activities will include post-performance talkbacks, study guides, and free tickets for schools.

The creative team includes composer Joshua Daniel Nichols, librettist and director Stefanos Koroneos, concept and source material by James Harrigan, projection designer Camilla Tassi, lighting designer Amara McNeil, and costume designer Angela Huff.

The grant is part of the NEA’s FY 2026 funding cycle, which comes as the country marks its 250th anniversary.