By the end of 1944, Savannah, Georgia, had been transformed by the war: the young men were away fighting, thousands of women staffed the massive shipyard south of town. And yet Leopold’s Ice Cream, the soda fountain on the corner of Gwinnett and Habersham streets, stayed busy. Opened twenty-five years before by young Greek immigrants Peter and Basil Leopold, the shop was the embodiment of an American dream. Outside the ice cream shop, a war raged; and yet inside, a bit of sweetness must have remained. In the most dire of times, Leopold’s sought to be, as one former employee put it, “a place for restoration of the soul.” And it is at this place that the women of Jodi Goble’s The Eleanors gather in the evenings.

Working to realize this inspired new chamber opera has been a creative restoration all of its own. For me, returning to the College of Fine Arts at BU feels like coming home. As a student, working with the Opera Institute opened my eyes to the vast possibilities of the form. Here in Studio One, I saw theatrical horizons expanded again and again. I am so grateful to be welcomed back to be a part of the 2025 Fringe Festival uplifting new works of theatre and opera.

Throughout this process, we have had the great privilege to be in conversation with composer Jodi Goble, who crafted this lush score and moving story by drawing from her own family history. While the story is set in Leopold’s, the opera’s characters are based on Goble family legends: the composer’s grandfather, who was taken prisoner by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge; and the composer’s grandmother, whose group of friends came to call themselves “the Eleanors,” fashioned after their enormously impactful first lady. The onstage rendering of this trio of women makes up the very heart of the opera, and these “Eleanors” have a great deal to teach us about that particular strength so thoroughly demanded of those on the homefront: to carry on even as the world around comes crashing down.

At Leopold's, the “Eleanors” find a place that feels like home. It is not that the shop gives the trio a place to escape their troubles—in fact, they gather there to grapple with the hardest parts of their lives. But the shop does give them a place of warmth and light, a place to tell jokes, a place where the barrage of bad news coming from outside can be shared and felt in community. Isn't this also the kind of place we want the opera to be? On the first day of our work, I invited the company of The Eleanors to share in making our rehearsal room that sort of place. As we all face today’s escalating barrage of bad news, I extend the same invitation to you: join us in the theater. Let it be a place for restoration of the soul. And if all else fails, bring ice cream.