Evans gave Seaton a deep pride in the work of Flournoy Miller, a family member, who wrote the book for the pioneering all black musical Shuffle Along in 1921.
Ruby Dee, Adilah Barnes, Kim Staunton, Michele Shay and Linda Gravatt appeared in a 1998 production of her first play, The Bridge Party, at the University of Michigan, a work inspired by local events.
[7] The fictional work is a depiction of the innermost thoughts of Sarah "Sally" Hemings, an enslaved woman of mixed race who is believed to have had a sexual relationship with Thomas Jefferson.
"[8] The work was commissioned by mezzo-soprano Florence Quivar, who sang the piece at the Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan,[9] and the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco,[10] and other similar venues.
[15] In 2020, Night Trip, a collaboration between Seaton and composer Carlos Simon, was performed at the Kennedy Center as part of their annual American Opera Initiative.
According to critic Alex Baker of the Washington Classical Review, part of what "Sandra Seaton’s libretto...especially in the arias for Conchetta, attains a level of poetry that allows for authentic and thrilling fusion between text and score.
"[17] Matthew Guerrieri, in a review for the Washington Post, praised the "candid, vernacular text" for "gradually revealing dramatic and poetic substance.