Free Men and The Dream

After a decades-long career in linguistics and a lifetime love for music, Ashley Hastings decided to take on the challenge of composing opera, and this event will feature two of his one-act chamber operas, fully staged. Free Men is set in the American South shortly after the end of the Civil War during the early days of Reconstruction. Here, two withdrawn gay men form an unexpected bond so strong they’d be willing to do anything to fight for love. In The Dream, Hastings asks “What happens when an author’s main character shows up at her door and demands changes in her story?” A pursuit for truth ultimately ends with more questions.