The Wild Beast of the Bungalow by Rachel J. Peters (Cycle 14) and Royce Vavrek (Cycle 16)
GMTWP Alums Rachel J. Peters (Cycle 14) and Royce Vavrek (Cycle 16) received the world premiere of their new operatic triptych THE WILD BEAST OF THE BUNGALOW at the Oberlin Conservatory in February 2020.
Quirky and darkly comic, The Wild Beast of the Bungalow follows an 11-year-old girl through a triptych of short operas. In “Mermaid in the Jar,” she begins a reign of terror over a most unwelcome living gift. The girl divorces her real parents in “Prairie Dogs” and creates her own taxidermied prairie dog family, only to find that they are not the affectionate substitutes she’d hoped for. Finally, in “Fine and Dandy,” she is quarantined in her room, facing forces she cannot control: the Fine and Dandies, a barbershop quartet of chicken pox, and her mother’s own ’60s-style girl group of illness, the Shingles.
The Wild Beast of the Bungalow is the inaugural work presented by the Oberlin Opera Commissioning Project, made possible by Elizabeth and Justus ’71 Schlichting.