Fort Worth Opera | Driving While Black

FORT WORTH OPERA

“With your license comes freedom.

That smile melts my heart.

My beautiful brown boy, you are not who they see.

Move the Seat.

I’ll hold you, when you let me.

Did you hear it click, the seatbelt?

Turn the key.

How can I set you on a path in this world?

Adjust the mirror.

Don’t take your foot off the break.

Both hands on the wheel.

Now put it in drive.”

Van Cliburn Concert Hall February 16-17, 2024

Kimbell Art Museum February 24, 2024

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FORT WORTH OPERA presents

Composer SUSAN KANDER

Librettist ROBERTA GUMBEL

Directed by AYVAUNN PENN

MARSHA THOMPSON Mother

CREMAINE BOOKER Cellist

DAVID VERIN Percussionist

dwb (driving while black), Music by Susan Kander Published and presented with the permission of Subito Music Corporation

SHOW SYNOPSIS

dwb (driving while black) is a montage of poetic and haunting moments examining the trials and triumphs Black mothers experience as their children come of age in a society plagued by racism and inequality. In the central narrative, we meet the Mother in her home. The dangerous world outside, however, is out of the Mother’s control, and anxiety builds in her mind and heart as her “beautiful brown boy” approaches manhood and the realities of modern life as a Black person in America. dwb (driving while black) is 50 minutes with no intermission. After the show we will take a short break to setup for the post-show talkback. Join us as we reflect on the show with a range of voices: the composer, librettist, vocalists, musicians, scholars and community members.

NOTES FROM THE AUTHORS

“Singers are storytellers,” says Roberta Gumbel, “but rarely do we get the opportunity to help create the stories we are telling.” dwb (driving while black) is constructed out of two interwoven strands, one personal, one external.

In the central narrative, we meet the Mother: a baby is born to happy parents; she frets at the father to put the all-important car seat in the back seat of the car properly. From here on, she relates to the child first in its seat facing backward in the back of the car, then Roberta Gumbel & Susan Kander facing forward, then eventually the child sits Photo Credit: Rick Hellman next to her in the front seat on the passenger side. This is how Time is marked; the car is ever the center of their lives. The Mother scenes move forward in time from the beginning to the end of the piece.

Threaded between these scenes, punctuating them, are telegraphic vignettes of contemporary news bulletins or personal stories introduced in spoken words by the musicians. They have a different instrumental color and texture from the Mother scenes, as if a channel has been switched. The Singer sheds her role as Mother and, taking on different characters, (young, old, male, female) relates specific but generic events. These all describe, without comment, the dangerous world beyond the Mother’s control, and the increasing anxiety building up in her mind as her “beautiful brown boy” approaches age sixteen and his much-desired independence. How does she summon the courage to hand him the keys to her car and let him go?

-Roberta Gumbel Librettist Roberta Gumbel and I waded into new waters in so many ways with this piece.

Her first libretto; my first collaboration with a librettist other than myself; my first work with the ground-breaking duo New Morse Code, who are swiftly letting the world know that the orchestrational possibilities embodied in one cellist and one percussionist are, at least in their hands, vast. I chose to build the percussion centered on the vibraphone because it offers so many different timbres and durations and easily provides a harmonic bed. Beyond that are twenty more instruments the percussionist will hit, swipe, rub, blow and kick. The cellist’s part goes beyond the cello (toy piano, tambourine), including a brief stint in the percussion area. One scene is almost entirely done without any instruments beyond the human body, a twenty-first century reference to juba or ham-boning. Both instrumentalists are also drawn into the telling, because even though this is technically a one-woman show, no one in this story is ever alone. We’re all in it together.

-Susan Kander Composer

Esteemed Patrons, During the challenging period of the pandemic, like many of you I turned to the arts for solace, specifically to online video productions as a means of connection. It was during this time that I came across dwb (driving while black), a production that left an indelible mark on my consciousness.

The unfiltered ideas conveyed through the medium of opera had a profound effect on me and prompted a desire to bring this powerful work to life on the stage here in Fort Worth.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel for crafting this impactful work. Through their collaborative efforts, they have fearlessly addressed challenging issues within the format of a one act opera and inspired us to engage in meaningful conversations.

A special thank you to the Fort Worth Opera Board of Trustees for their support of repertory choices that promote dialogue within our community. It is through such dialogue that understanding blossoms, empathy is nurtured, and ultimately the way is paved for transformative change.

With gratitude,

Angela Turner Wilson General and Artistic Director

CAST

Mother ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Marsha Thompson Cellist ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ Cremaine Booker Percussionist ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� David Verin Mother (Cover) ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Kaswanna Kanyinda Director ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Ayvaunn Penn Lighting Designer ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Jamie Milligan Stage Manager �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Avery James Evans Assistant Director ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Klark Johnson Marsha Thompson (Mother) Internationally acclaimed soprano Marsha Thompson is a multiple prize-winner with the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Orlando Opera Competition, and Fort Worth Opera Competition, Ms. Thompson sang the title role in Tosca last July with Charlottesville Opera, where her performance was characterized as “enchanting, heartbreaking, and Herculean.” (Today

y Mañana). Upcoming appearances include the title role Aida with Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis, and Abigaille from Nabucco, with Teatro Municipal de São Paulo fall 2024.

Cremaine Booker (Cellist) also know as “ThatCelloGuy.” He currently serves as cellist in the Iris Collective and is formerly principal cellist of the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra and The Jackson Symphony. He has made solo appearances with the

CAST

Opera Birmingham, Des Moines Metropolitan Opera, Trevecca Symphony, Sewanee Symphony, and Roy “Futureman” Wooten’s Black Mozart Ensemble. He has performed with the likes of Hans Zimmer, Carrie Underwood, India.Arie, Mickey Guyton, and Black Violin. He also can routinely be seen playing many shows such as the GRAMMYs, CMA Awards, BET Awards, and many more.

David Verin (Percussionist) received his Bachelor of Music degree from Howard University and his Master’s Degree from The University of Alabama at Birmingham where he studied under Dr. Gene Fambrough. For 15 years, David has performed as a freelance artist and taught percussion privately while also being employed with the public school systems of Birmingham and Bessemer, Alabama. When he is not performing, David enjoys international travel and community enrichment programs.

Kaswanna Kanyinda (Mother-Cover) A second-year Resident Artist, she portrayed Flosshilde in Michigan Opera Theatre’s Twilight: Gods. In 2020 she finished an active season with Opera MODO’s with lead roles in their productions of La Gioconda and Dialogue of the Carmelites. She won a Wilde Award for her performance as the Mother in Opera MODO’s 2019 production of The Consul and had joined Pittsburgh Festival Opera as a member of their Mastersingers Program.

She was awarded 1st place in the 2017 Opera Guild of Charlotte competition.

Ayvaunn Penn (Director) Columbia University Playwriting Dean’s Fellow, Ayvaunn Penn, is a playwright and director whose community-centric work has been seen by audiences across the United States of America and internationally. Select credits include: directing Fabulation at Jubilee Theatre; directing The Feather Doesn’t Fall Far from the Wing featured at the Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre; and serving as assistant director to Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Golden Globe-winner

Regina Taylor on various shows.

Susan Kander (Composer) her 2021 Albany Records release dwb (driving while black), written with librettist Roberta Gumbel for soprano Gumbel and the cutting edge duo New Morse Code, garnered a Critics Choice award in Opera News, calling it “deeply affecting and innovatively conceived...transcendent... achingly lovely.” Washington Post described it as “searing...sung drama”.

Commissioning organizations include the National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and, most recently, Chamber Music America. Her newest opera, Carry My Own Suitcase, for which she composed the score and co-wrote the libretto with Roberta Gumbel, had a workshop production at University of Kansas in Spring 2023 with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Opera America Discovery Grants. Susan is a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony. www.susankander.net Roberta Gumbel (Librettist) is a soprano and Professor of Voice at the University of Kansas. A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, Roberta has performed with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Michigan Opera Theater, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Memphis, and Philadelphia Opera. A frequent Clara in Porgy and Bess. She performed in several Broadway shows, including Showboat, Ragtime, Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème and In My Life, as well as the off-Broadway production of Running Man by Deidre Murray. Roberta has been a frequent soloist with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Most recently she recorded dwb (driving while black) for which she wrote the libretto. In 2023, Roberta received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a workshop production of Carry My Own Suitcase, her newest collaboration with composer, Susan Kander.

WHO’S WHO IN THE TALKBACK Moderators February 16 & 17 Dr. Stacie McCormick & Dr. Brandon Manning Moderators February 24 Adrian Andrews, CPP Panelists Susan Kander, Roberta Gumbel, Ayvaunn Penn, Marsha Thompson, Cremaine Booker, David Verin & Adrian Andrews, CPP

Dr. Stacie McCormick (Moderator) is an Associate Professor of English, Chair of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Core Faculty Member of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University (TCU). Her work takes up a number of subjects such as: Black body politics, land, sexuality, and the ongoing resonance of slavery in contemporary Black writing and performance. She is the author of Staging Black Fugitivity and co-Editor of the Special Issue of College Literature, entitled “Toni Morrison and Adaptation.”

Dr. Brandon Manning (Moderator) Associate Professor of Black Literature and Culture in the Department of English and a core faculty member in the Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies Department at TCU. He is the college diversity advocate,

former interim director of Black Studies and current College Diversity Advocate in AddRan College. His book, Played Out: the Race Man in Twenty-first Century Satire, (Rutgers 2022) is an examination of black masculine performance and vulnerability through the lens of contemporary satire.

Adrian Andrews (Moderator & Panelists) is the Assistant Vice Chancellor (AVC) for Public Safety at Texas Christian University and has been in that capacity for just over 6 years. Mr. Andrews retired from the United States Secret Service in 2017 after 28 years of service. While at TCU, AVC Andrews has used his years of law enforcement experience to supervise the TCU Police Department, the TCU Director of Emergency Management and the TCU Parking and Transportation team.

Staff for Fort Worth Opera

Angela Turner Wilson ������������������������������������������������������������������General and Artistic Director Joe Illick ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ Music Director Emeritus Mary Goosens ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������CFO Sheran Goodspeed Keyton ���������������������������������Director of COT Production & Civic Impact Gordon Kelly ����������������������������������������������������������� Director of Marketing & Communications Jennifer Chung Quintard ��������������������������������������������������� Director of Artistic Administration Courtney Kennebeck ����������������������������������������������Director of Development & Special Events Justin A. Miller ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Director of Production Collins Osei ��������������������������������������������������������������� Director of IT & Systems Administration Dr. Charlene Lotz ������������� Music Director for Children’s Opera Theatre and Civic Impact, .

Company Pianist Nikki Washington �����������������������������������������Sr. Manager of COT Production & Civic Impact Meredith Browning ������������������������������������������������ COT Production & Civic Impact Assistant Faye Falconnier �������������������������������������������������������������������� Accountant & Business Operations Jacob Hope ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Assistant Production Manager Emily Dear ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� Box Office & Marketing Associate Lynen Heilmann ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Marketing Intern

FORT WORTH OPERA RANDY SABBAGH Chair NICOLE DUVALL Secretary

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JUDY BENNETT GARNER Governance

ALLIE BETH ALLMAN KEON ANDERSON, DDS NELSON E. CLAYTOR, Ph.D. ROBERT ESTRADA JENNIFER GOLDBERG ROBERT L. JAMESON BARBARA JORDAN​ TERESA CARTER KING​ JOSEPH D. LESLEY

ASHLEY LACAMP MOORE Treasurer JILL FISCHER Chair Emerita

GUY V. MANNING MIKE R. MARTINEZ SUSIE OLMOS-SOTO​ SKYLAR BROGDON O’NEAL MARY B. PENCIS​ KATHERINE POLENZ VERNON E. REW, JR. EBONY ROSE

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