The Workers’ Opera

Workers Opera 2023 cast of "Blue Light Special" created in partnership with Missouri Workers' Center and the Amazon STL8 Organizing Committee. Photo by Philip Deitch

The Workers’ Opera is a live performance written and performed by workers, for workers. A combination of theater sketches, music, storytelling and humor, the Workers’ Opera is about the economic and social justice issues that impact working class people, in their own words.

Since originally conceived for Bread and Roses Missouri in 2015 by the late Agnes Wilcox and poet Freeman Word, the Workers’ Opera has become an annual event that has featured over 30 workers-turned-actors. Our actors are union members, organizers, fast-food workers, retail employees, Amazon warehouse workers and others who use their creativity to lift up the voices of workers and the economic and social justice issues that concern them.

Workers’ Opera topics have included the racist, harmful, and largely hidden history of Right To Work, and the effect it has on workers and their families; why Medicaid Expansion is vital to Missouri’s working poor; and why Amazon warehouse workers are fighting for safer working conditions at the world’s largest employer.

The Workers’ Opera has been performed in theatres, churches, union halls, at house parties and at the Grand Center Theater Crawl. It’s even gone on the road to Columbia and Kansas City.

Want to become a partner in creating the next Workers’ Opera in 2024? Contact Emily Kohring at director@breadandrosesmo.org and let’s talk!

Workers' Opera Documentary by filmmaker Kim Love Productions, LLC

Previous Workers’ Opera Artistic Teams

Agnes Wilcox and Freeman Word, 2015-2017

Kathryn Bentley and Colin McLaughlin, 2018-2021

Mariah Richardson and Delaney Piggins 2022

Mariah Richardson (director and writer) 2023

Previous Cast Members

John Antonich

Monica Bohlen

Theotis Bohlen

Georgia Brown-Moore

Ann Acklen Brown

Cody Burlson

Stacey Cowsette

Hassie Davis

Shannon Duffy

Sally Eaton

Kevin FitzGerald

Shatema Gholston-Byrd

Sonja Gholston-Byrd

Lee Hladky

Camese Johnson

Ash Judd

Arianna Kimbrough

Don McClendon

Jahna Kimil Moore

Noah Laster

Colin McLaughlin

Michael Paplanus

Antigone Chamber-Reed

Anthony Ringo

Holly Roe

Josyland Rucker

Rachel Sacks

Shelton Solafleur

Rohan Sherali

Carolyn Whitlock Dunn

Freeman Word

See and hear about us featured in the news!

Our Workers’ Theater Projects have earned news coverage, reviews and artist interviews on St. Louis Public Radio, The Labor Tribune, St. Louis Magazine, The Riverfront Times and more.