The Waistmaker's Opera is an original folk-rock opera that tells the true story of Clara Lemlich and the Uprising of the 20,000, a massive garment worker's strike in 1909 helmed by the young women workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York in a response to unfair treatment and wages.

Presented by Downtown Art with their ensemble The Bowery Birds 

Performed at the Lower East Side's University Settlement in May 2014

Composed by Michael Hickey

Book, lyrics, and direction by Ryan Gilliam

Featuring Paige Acevedo, Cassidy Dawn Graves, Kara Green, Gihee Hong, Ruth Ipince, Joyce Laoagan, Madison McGhee, Hila Naus, Hannah No, Sadah Proctor, Ariel Rosen-Brown, Amy Secunda, Umi Shakti, Hadley Todoran, and Kelsey Watts

Photographs by Gloria Ha