by Daniel Hathaway

Opera can be a powerful medium for documenting social injustice, especially when the plot hits close to home. Case in point: the six wrongly convicted individuals in Northeast Ohio whose stories are told in David Cote’s and Scott Davenport Richards’ 80+-minute work, Blind Injustice. 

The opera, premiered by Cincinnati Opera in 2019 and subsequently produced in Colorado, New Jersey, and New York, was presented by Chagrin Arts on July 11 at the Outcalt Theatre in Playhouse Square.

The tightly-constructed, one-act music drama tells the real life stories of Rickey Jackson, Nancy Smith, Clarence Elkins, and the East Cleveland 3 — teenagers Laurese Glover, Eugene Johnson, and Derrick Wheatt — all imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. The opera follows each of them from their conviction to their eventual release through the work of the Innocence Project. [Read more…]