Joan Ross Sorkin is an opera librettist, musical bookwriter, lyricist, and playwright. In addition to Jubilee: A Folk Opera with Randy Klein, her opera libretti include: The Reef with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis; Finalist, 2018 Pellicciotti Opera Prize; Berkshire Opera Festival concert, Merkin Hall, NYC (2024); libretto presented in Center for Contemporary Opera’s Prima Le Parole (2014 ) and Libretto Slam! (2010); Strange Fruit with Chandler Carter, developed at New York City Opera’s VOX 2003; commissioned and premiered by Long Leaf Opera (2007); presented in concert by Harlem School of the Arts in association with NYCity Opera (2009); materials archived at NY Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture; White Witch: A Monodrama for Contralto and Percussion with Brian Schober; premiered at Symphony Space (2014); Roulette concert (2016); produced by Salem State U. (2019); Roman Fever, excerpts presented by The Mount and Grace Church at Grace Church, NYC (2026); Paradise Bound with Steve Wallace (in dev.). Grant Adjudicator, Opera America (2017).
Her musicals include Black Swan Blues, Bordello, In The Theatre, Imagining Monet, The Real McCoy, and award-winning family musicals Dandelion (licensed by Dramatic Publishing); Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell; and Go Green! NEO lyricist, York Theatre Co. (2009).
Plays: (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story, Emerging Artists Theatre Co., Chicago Humanities Festival, Jefferson Playhouse, and The Schoolhouse Theater, Drama Desk and Black Theatre Alliance nominations for Capathia Jenkins as Hattie, and materials archived in The Schomburg Center. Other plays have been produced in NYC and regionally.
Cabaret songs have been performed at Lincoln Center, Birdland, Don’t Tell Mama, Broadway Baby Bistro, Opia and other venues. Member: The Dramatists Guild (Opera Comm.), BMI Musical Theatre Workshop (alum), ASCAP, and Opera America. Past President and current member of the Board of The York Theatre Company.
