IN SUPPORT OF THOMAS LLOYD'S IN THE LIGHT

This donation page is for Choral Chameleon's premiere production in May 2026 of Thomas Lloyd's second choral-theater work, In the Light.

Performances will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 7:00pm and Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 5:00pm in New York City.

A film will also be made of the fully staged production, led by music director Vince Peterson and stage director Joe Barros, with the goal of promoting future performances of the work. The production will feature a professional choir of over 30 singers and a chamber ensemble of clarinet, cello, and piano.

In the Light is a work of fiction inspired by public reporting and extensive interviews with former members of a residential community in the United States that presents itself as an ecumenical Christian community in the Benedictine monastic tradition—with a professionally recorded choir at its center, conducted by the Prioress.

THE STORY

"With choral music, Christian liturgy, and support for women's leadership in those traditions having long been at the center of my own life's work, discovering that such a community was the home of a choir whose professional-quality recordings I had long admired was deeply disturbing. I had to find out more about how such a thing could happen."

Starting soon after completing Bonhoeffer, Lloyd began exploring the community through public documents, national media exposés, long discussions with former members, and time spent at the community as a guest.

Several scenes involve a division between the way members present themselves to the public and how their minds are responding privately. This includes video transitions produced by the composer in collaboration with his son, producer/composer Jeremy Lloyd.

This work was created not to shock or expose a community that has already received extensive press coverage.

Rather, with an unflinching but compassionate view of a coercive community and its members, Lloyd reveals that such social pathology cannot simply be dismissed as extreme—it can be found within social organization at all levels of our society.

Your support brings this vital work to life.

By contributing to In the Light, you're enabling a profound artistic exploration of autonomy, manipulation, and the human capacity for both vulnerability and resilience. This is art that asks urgent questions about power, community, and the ways we surrender—or reclaim—our own minds.

**For additional background about In the Light, visit the composer's web page about the work.**

"I have long been concerned with those who claim ownership of the minds of others. And also with those who come to offer their minds to such would-be owners through whatever combination of voluntary self-surrender and psychological and physical coercion. I've come to recognize that the mental predators are concerned not only with individual minds but with the ownership of reality itself."

—Robert Jay Lifton, Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry (2019, The New Press)

Supporting Thomas Lloyd's IN THE LIGHT

By Choral Chameleon

Supporting Thomas Lloyd's IN THE LIGHT

Choral Chameleon is asking for your support for our upcoming 2026 world premiere of In the Light by composer Thomas Lloyd.

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