Strange Trace

Two snakes fight over a hot dog

An operatic adaptation of the David and Goliath story. In this telling, Goliath is a cowardly pawn in a bigger machine.

A standalone animated excerpt from the "Mother Goose" opera by Felix Jarrar

Three people look for each other in a graveyard

The employees of The Missing Piece, a custom puzzle company, meet for a virtual happy hour to blow off steam and discuss ways to deal with the unexpected "puzzle boom." But nothing goes according to plan, including a visit from the company's CEO, as they find themselves trapped in the Zoom call and one by one meet a disastrous fate.

Strange Trace presents a micro-opera by composer Greg Nahabedian. Emails From Gary uses transcriptions of the actual emails and phone calls exchanged between the composer and a former boss as they tried to quit an honestly dangerous working situation. Our presentation ends with a dramatic reading of actual Yelp reviews of the business in question.

See You Today presents six conversations removed from their surrounding contexts. In each scene, the performer has an exchange that begins with the same words—“I didn’t think that I’d see you today.” For a conversation partner, there is only the subtitles, which converse with the performer back and forth. From the mundane to the erotic, See You Today finds meaning in the process of conversing, rather than in the narrative context that surrounds it.

A standalone excerpt from the "Mother Goose" opera by Felix Jarrar