The contemporary youth opera Pandora’s Locker is inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box, in which a young woman’s curiosity leads to the unleashing of all the world’s evils. It is a simple, archetypal myth, which reflects our own hunt for knowledge and the potential for disaster upon its discovery. This search for information - keys to the ...

Proving Up, based on a story by Karen Russell, is an opera about the American Dream, told through the story of Nebrasken homesteaders in the 1870s. A family dreams of "proving up" and obtaining the deed to the land they've settled. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house dwelling, and perha...

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...

Content warning: terrorism, racism

An adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film of the same name, Adoration follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an imaginary event perpetrated by his parents. When his stor...