Dante’s Inferno,
reimagined
Open Casting Call – Inferno: A Hip Hop Opera
We are currently casting for our upcoming world premiere and tour of INFERNO: A HIP HOP OPERA by Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton. Please submit your video submissions by midnight on Sunday August 2, 2026.
Acting experience is not a requirement. If you are an Emcee and feel drawn to this work, we would love to see your submission. We strongly encourage applications from QTIBPOC artists and creators.
Applicants must be eligible to work in Canada. The production will take place in Vancouver, BC, but we welcome applications from anywhere. If selected, we will pay for travel and accommodation.
Learn more & apply here: https://forms.gle/MoovxNrVY8jfhnpN8
The Project
Inferno is a new hip-hop opera in development by Omari Newton and Amy Lee Lavoie. The work blends hip-hop, rap, beat boxing, sampling, R&B, and contemporary opera in celebration of IBPOC voices. The story reimagines Dante’s Inferno as a feminist, anti-establishment, and anti-colonial allegory. Pairing opera’s emotional richness with hip-hop’s text driven, poetic aesthetics, this musical fusion will culminate in an illustration of paradise for IBPOC people and communities.
Inferno premiered it’s music and script at IndieFest 2025 in a concert performance, on November 28th to 29th, 2025.
Venue: DigiBC Creative Tech Studio, 577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver BC.
IndieFest 2025 Team credits
CAST
Kimmortal as Vie, Musical Collaborator
Leo D.E Johnson as Mo, Musical Collaborator
Scribbly Doodle: Beatboxer & Trebi C
Anushka Kashyap: Ensemble: Pop Singer
Teiya Kasahara: Ensemble, Musical Collaborator
Brandon Thornhill: Ensemble: Finance Bro
Alyssa Samson: Ensemble, Mother
Scott Walters: Ensemble, Exec
The Team:
Micheline Chevrier: Dramaturg, Co-Director
Omari Newton: Co-writer / Co-director
Amy Lee Lavoie: Co-writer
Debi Wong: Music Supervisor
Mary Ancheta: Co-Music Director
Anju Singh: Composer & Co-Music Director
Cande Andrade: Video Designer
Jonathan (Jono) Kim: Lighting Designer
Perri Lo: Pianist
Alex Caprara: LX Assistant
Xavier Berbudeau: Audio Engineer
Heather Lamb: Production Manager
Nico Dicceco: Technician/Assistant PM
Anna Brew: Stage Manager
Synopsis
Set inside a Spotify-esque skyscraper—where each floor represents a modern circle of hell—the story follows Vie, a young hip-hop performer and producer whose work has been appropriated by a powerful music corporation called Streams. Guided by Mo, a security guard whose own creative ambitions have been quietly co-opted by the same system, Vie ascends the building in a bid to reclaim ownership of her art and confront the CEO, aka the Devil. At the top, they discover the true antagonist: Trebi-C, a corporate-built AI that feeds on humanity’s desire for fame, wealth, and validation. The AI is not just the villain—it is a mirror reflecting our base desires for fame, fortune, and external validation.
At the heart of Inferno are four distinct vocal worlds—opera, soul, rap, and beatboxing—performed by four powerhouse vocalists whose genres rarely coexist on stage. Here, singing together becomes an act of resistance: a deeply human reclamation of voice in a moment when art is increasingly mined, replicated, and monetized by AI without consent.
Project History
Inferno has showcased two workshop performances to a live sold-out audience, at IndieFest 2022 and IndieFest 2023.
Inferno premiered it’s music and script at IndieFest 2025 in a concert performance, on November 28th to 29th, 2025.
Key Dates
Inferno is set to have it’s world premiere and tour in Fall 2027.
There is currently an open casting call open until August 2nd, 2026.
Become a co-commissioner
Contact info@reopera to learn more about co-commissioning this work.
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