dwb (driving while black)

Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel's dwb (driving while black) tackles what it means to be a parent of a Black child who starts driving. In its swift 45 minutes, the listener spends 16 years with a Black mother, feeling her growing fear as her Black son moves towards driving age.

dwb (driving while black) will be presented in a community locale in the Des Moines Metro. Location information will be provided at a later date. Each performance will feature a community talkback session immediately following the opera. 

“The deeply affecting and innovatively conceived new chamber opera dwb (driving while black) makes its powerful impact with deliberately limited forces. The piece, by composer Susan Kander and first-time librettist Roberta Gumbel, is a 45 minute monodrama for female voice. The instrumentation, consisting only of cello and percussion, is refreshingly spare and surprisingly multicolored.…” (Opera News)

MUSIC BY
Susan Kander

LIBRETTO BY
Roberta Gumbel

PREMIERED
2018

SUNG IN
English (with English subtitles)

ESTIMATED RUN TIME
1 hour, 20 minutes

COMPANY PREMIERE