“There have been — there are — a lot of dead people in my life,” Licity Collins said in a statement. “What I’m curious about is how the dead remain a part of our lives and also how grief is expressed.”

Collins, a Portland-based singer, guitarist, performer, and multidisciplinary artist, received a $74,000 Creative Heights grant from the Oregon Community Foundation supporting the development of her opera One Death in Seven Doorways . The project will offer an intimate exploration of grief and connection told through storytelling and song, with a single role played by seven actors representing a different stage of grief. The actors are of varied ages, genders and races, with blind casting utilized to underscore the universality of grief. Each of the “seven Sams” is paired with a different

See Full Page