New Atlanta Opera production 'Forsyth County is Flooding' is a dark comedy about Georgia history

In the plot of a new work commissioned by the Atlanta Opera Company, residents in Forsyth County have a problem.

Forsyth County is Flooding (with the Joy of Lake Lanier), a one-act opera that premieres at Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College June 15, is billed as a dark comedy. The production reflects on an environmental and spiritual retribution around two events in Georgia history: The forced exile of black residents from Forsyth County in 1912, and the decades-later creation of Lake Lanier, a manmade recreational lake in reservoir that covers a large part of North Georgia, including a town at the center of the events in 1912 known as Oscarville.

The opera's creators are Marcus Norris, who wrote the music and lyrics, and Adamma Ebo, who wrote the book and story. Ebo is a writer and director for film and television. She wrote the screenplay and directed the 2022 feature film Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, for which Norris wrote the score. Norris is also the founder of South Side Symphony and has worked with artists like Beyonce.

GPB's Devon Zwald speaks with Norris and Ebo about their vision for the opera and how the historical background ties into the story. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Adamma Ebo: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Marcus Norris: Good morning. Good morning.

Devon Zwald: So, I want to start with some of the characters. There's Church Jenkins, a private detective, and Odella Cyrus, a gray witch. How did they react when the puddles start appearing?

Adamma Ebo: I think a little differently. I think that church reacts as someone who thinks there's a logical explanation and a very methodical way to solve or investigate this issue. And Odella believes that there's something clairvoyant happening, there's something spiritual happening that it's not it's not going to, you know, a gumshoe detective isn't going to be able to use his usual means in order to figure this out.

Devon Zwald: Are the characters fictional or are they based on real people?

Adamma Ebo: Highly fictional, I would say. And you know, a lot of the temperament of the characters and the way that they speak are inspired by real people.

Devon Zwald: How do you weave the real historic events into the storylines of the characters?

Adamma Ebo: Essentially by having the characters sort of fall into the history in a very specific way. They don't readily go to history and past social happenings, as a route, and they sort of stumble upon it.

Devon Zwald: So it kind of finds them, maybe?

Adamma Ebo: It finds them. It's sort of, unavoidable.

Devon Zwald: Can you talk a little bit about the role of the supernatural in the opera?

Marcus Norris: I was thinking about it like, I always wanted you to be like, ‘Could it be, or could it not be?’ And in the way Adamma would put these two opposite characters in the same place, like, one is, like, as spiritual as you can get. She really knows to her core. She speaks to spirits and then, you know, hardcore science, atheist, logical, and then they have to solve this together. And I kind of wanted to make the audience wrestle with that, like, 'Is this?' And like, you’re kind of not sure for most of the time, like, 'Is this spiritual? Is this supernatural?' And I hope, I hope people kind of go on that journey for themselves.

Adamma Ebo: Yeah, I mean, I'm southern, I identify as mostly Christian and so I believe in spirituality, deeply. And so I wanted there to be a, you know, a supernatural or a spiritual element to this because it feels like the ultimate equalizer. No matter what happens on this plane or on this earth, the higher ups are going to have the last word. And that felt very appropriate for the story and for the point that we're making, what we're trying to explore.

Devon Zwald: What is the point that you're making?

Adamma Ebo: No deed, good or bad, goes unpunished.

Devon Zwald: The Atlanta Opera commission, Forsyth County is Flooding [is based on a piece that won] the 2022 96-Hour Opera Competition for "Go on With That Wind," which is an eight-minute opera that you wrote and rehearsed in about four days, but you changed the commission to Forsyth County is Flooding. Why did you decide to make that change?

Adamma Ebo: We wrote Go on With That Wind to be 8 to 10 minutes, and we truly felt like we told the most compelling and interesting story within that time frame. I was like, ‘We made the point.’ It was short and sweet and to the point, and we just we didn't want to, sort of, overextend our welcome. And that, combined with the fact that Marcus and I both have this creative bug where we constantly want to be creating something new. We were like, we got commissioned to write a full-length opera. Let's, like, really sit down and cultivate a story that we feel like speaks to us for something of that length and magnitude. And I'm glad we did it.

Devon Zwald: So I did want to ask you about comedy because it's a dark comedy. So how does that show up in this? And does it have an effect on the tone of the opera?

Marcus Norris: It's on every level. And I think this affects the experience because I think, like, you know, a lot of people don't want something that's just heavy, heavy all the time or something that's just like preaching to them off the gate. It's just like I've been telling people, I knew we wanted to make something that it's like, you can just have a good time, you can just enjoy yourself. You don't have to suffer through it, or you don't have to like, ‘Oh my God.’ You know what I mean? That I think happens with a lot of, like, high art.

Adamma Ebo: Yeah, we're definitely, like, ‘A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down’ ideology with us with a lot of the things that we create.

Devon Zwald: Is there anything that you want people to take away from this when they go see it?

Marcus Norris: You can talk the way you normally talk. You can be yourself and still make whatever you want to make. There's no code switching with this opera. It's like all the lyrics, like, people very much talk the way people talk where I'm from. And so, my hope would be that people, like young people, could see this and be like, you know, ‘I can talk the way I talk, and I can make opera,’ or ‘I can make TV,’ ‘I can make anything I want to make, and I don't have to, like, switch it up. I can bring my whole self to everything I do.’

Adamma Ebo: Yeah, I agree with that. I would say it's something that, like, my parents definitely drilled into me and raised me to believe, but question everything because, you know, recorded history doesn't necessarily mean fact. Dive and dig as deep as you possibly can to find out the truth.

Devon Zwald: Adamma Ebo and Marcus Norris are the creators of Forsyth County is Flooding. It premieres June 15 at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College. Thank you both so much for being here.

Adamma Ebo and Marcus Norris: Thank you for having us.