UPDATE: Excerpts from THIS IS JANE will be performed in Summer 2026 by Opera Contempo! Details coming soon.
This is Jane is a new opera by librettist Kendra Preston Leonard and composer Angela Elizabeth Slater. We are seeking co-commissioners to join with an already-committed co-commissioner, and are seeking companies interested in workshopping and premiering the work.
A scene from This is Jane was performed at the 2024 Aspen Music Festival.
Between 1969 and 1973, before Roe v Wade legalized abortion, more than 11,000 women with unwanted pregnancies called a number, asked for Jane—as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation was known—and got safe, if illegal, abortions. Drawing on historical sources, interviews, and members’ memoirs, This is Jane chronicles the work of the Jane Collective, depicting the experiences of seven Jane members who arranged abortions, kept clients and staff safe, learned to provide abortions themselves, and persevered through raids and arrests. An epilogue addresses the need for new abortion aid networks since the 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe.
