Welcome to Guerilla Opera’s Libretto Labs!

The Labs include two 4-week summer courses and a 9-month, academic year-long Writing Collective.

In Guerilla Opera’s 2025 Summer Libretto Lab, we’ll explore script and song writing through the lens of opera, giving you the opportunity to develop new writing tools and approaches, gain experience in writing for the voice, learn how to create characters, and explore a variety of storytelling forms.

Summer 2025 Libretto Lab Session 1: Introduction to Libretto-Writing (4 weeks)

In Session 1, you’ll learn the necessary vocabulary for writing text to be sung; get a thorough grounding in how the creation, development, and production process work in opera, musicals, and song; experiment with different narrative modes; explore resources for researching topics you want to write about; practice writing and editing your own work; and engage in group feedback using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. We’ll also talk about the industry and the issues it faces, and what it means to be an activist artist. Session 1 participants should expect to spend 3-5 hours a week on reading and writing assignments.

Summer 2025 Libretto Lab Session 2: Writing Libretto Scenes (4 weeks)

In Session 2, we will focus on developing a scene or multiple scenes. You’ll learn techniques for outlining and scaffolding a narrative and methods of assessing the success of your goals in arias, songs, and other segments of your scene and the scene overall. You’ll learn how to build and resolve narrative tension; create and develop characters and contexts and express emotions; and take vocalists and vocality into consideration as you write. You’ll learn approaches to editing and revising your work; working with composers and performers; and identifying and developing your personal aesthetic as an activist artist writing for the voice. We’ll study a number of recent libretti; engage in critique using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process; and discuss current issues in the industry in-depth. Session 2 participants should expect to spend 5-7 hours a week on reading and writing assignments.

Writing Collective Description (9 months)

Applications open here July 1, 2025!

From September through May, Guerilla Opera creates a space for a collective of artists developing texts for musical performances to convene virtually as a supportive creative community.

Meeting remotely via Zoom twice a month for eight months, these inclusive and encouraging writing groups will explore developing a completed draft of a script intended to be performed with music.

Participants will develop and hone their own unique approaches to writing musical text, have their pieces workshopped by the group through table-readings and other formats, and support one another as peers by acting as readers and providing feedback for the work of others. We will also hold regular open mics for participants to present their work.

At the end of the Writing Collective program, each participant will have a full reading of their text.