FRIENDS OF MADAME WHITE SNAKE
a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to building bridges across the world

The Friends of Madame White Snake is a grassroots organization of individuals who are inspired by the story of one individual’s yearning for that one bright life defining moment that illuminates who we are and gives meaning to our existence. The White Snake’s transformation from demon to human to experience that most human of all emotions – love - is a meditation on what it means to be human, a meditation that continues in us all.

There is no more effective tool for cross-cultural understanding than cultural immersion through music, drama and dance. In 2007, the Friends began to forge alliances with local community groups for outreach and education programs to build bridges between the Asian and mainstream American communities through multicultural projects.

In 2008, Cerise Lim Jacobs, the opera’s creator and librettist, realized that while the opera was a powerful vehicle to reach adults, there had to be a retelling of the myth from the child’s perspective to really reach out to children. Thus she wrote the children’s musical, “When the White Snake Cries.” ArtBarn, a local children’s theater group based in Brookline, premiered the play which explores the issues of racism, peer pressure, tolerance and love, in November 2009.

For the Ouroboros Trilogy, the Boston Children’s Museum and Artbarn will be reviving “When the White Snake Cries” in the performance space at Boston Children’s Museum. There is no charge for the performances.

Other Friends’ projects, past, present and future include events with the Brookline Public Library, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, the Boston Mayor’s Office and Primary Source.

The Friends were instrumental in raising the money necessary to fund their first multicultural project with Opera Boston in 2010, Madame White Snake. This opera, one of three in Ouroboros Trilogy, went on to win the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in music for its composer, Zhou Long. Ouroboros Trilogy is scheduled to premiere in September 2016. The Friends continue to fundraise, to renew old alliances and forge new ones.

It has been a remarkable journey so far, and it continues...

We hope you will join us.