Nashville Opera’s One Vote Won takes on a young woman’s doubts about the significance of her vote in an upcoming election. This production will be the company’s first virtual performance in its 40-year history.
Gloria, a young woman living in present-day Nashville, is fed up with the voting process. “Why should my vote matter?” she asks. As she grapples with frustrations over voting injustices that were not solved with the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920, she is befriended by two historical figures: Frankie Pierce, a trailblazer of the early Women’s Suffrage Movement; and Diane Nash, a student leader of the civil rights era.
The three characters are all African American; their interaction takes the audience on a deep dive into the lives of Black women from past to present.
“It’s not necessarily about convincing me to vote or not, but it’s about changing my heart,” says Tamica Nichole, who sings the role of Gloria in the production. One Vote Only also features as Pierce and as Nash.
This Arts Break also includes insights from composer Dave Ragland and librettist Mary McCallum as they muse about how the past can eerily been seen and felt in issues of voting today.