Content warning: homophobia, sex, sexual harassment, strong language

Strip Mall is part of a serial dramatic work... with librettist Royce Vavrek called Strangers in Many Ways, which is comprised of short operatic episodes such as this. Other episodes include A Song for Wade (This is not that song), written for Alarm Will Sound, and Bluetooth Islands, written for the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Strangers in Many Ways centers around a suburban teenaged boy named Myles and his family: his apathetic couch-stranded parents, his rebellious older sister Sheena, and her college dropout boyfriend, Christian Boy.

Fifteen-year-old Myles is quite isolated from his family, not the least because of his hidden homosexuality. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Myles has a secret life on the internet, filming himself dressed in drag and performing the songs of The Carpenters, Doris Day, and Judy Garland for throngs of middle-aged male admirers.

In Strip Mall, the story opens with Myles demanding his sister to drive him to the Dairy Queen, located at the local strip mall. He whines and begs until she finally gives in, knowing that this will give her a chance to visit her boyfriend at the Christian bookstore. At this most suburban and banal of destinations we dive into the complicated world of these three characters and learn of the boiling tensions and suspicions between each of them.

- Matt Marks, composer, from LAPhil.com

Musically, the piece is an extensive exploration of various genres and styles, how they interact and conflict, and how such genre fluidity can guide the drama in unique and novel ways. The piece often swings wildly between such styles as rock, classical, bubblegum pop, waltz, funk, musical theater, and hip hop. There also tends to be a hysterically romantic quality to the music: the dolce moments saccharine, the darker moments melodramatic, for example. But despite these excesses, camp is used more as a flavor than as a modus operandi.

- Matt Marks, composer, from LAPhil.com