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Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel鈥檚 鈥渄wb [driving while black]鈥� concerns a Black mother鈥檚 anxieties as her son nears driving age. 鈥淎s One,鈥� by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, dramatizes a transgender woman鈥檚 coming of age.

Receiving its 10th production since its 2018 premiere, 鈥渄wb鈥� rosters a cellist, a percussionist and a soprano, the Mother, who works through complex feelings involving 鈥渢he talk鈥� that African American parents have with their kids about handling police stops. Gumbel, the librettist, first sang the role.

Originally conceived as a song cycle, 鈥渄wb鈥� developed into an opera. 鈥淚t鈥檚 autobiographical, but it鈥檚 very heightened from my actual life experience. I started writing, and the next thing I know, it was no longer a 15-minute song cycle, it was a 45-minute dramatic piece.鈥� Her own son was 15 then.

鈥淓very story we tell in 鈥榙wb鈥� happened, whether it鈥檚 the headlines that the mother is reading, or the stories that she鈥檚 hearing. There are some that happened to my nephew, some that happened to my brothers, one that happened to my husband, and then some are pulled directly from the headlines, which when you see it, you鈥檒l recognize, I鈥檓 sure. So, all of it鈥檚 true. Heightened for the stage, yes, but absolutely true.鈥�

UAO favorite, soprano Marsha Thompson, plays the Mother in 鈥渄wb.鈥�

鈥淥ne of the lines is 鈥榳ith this privilege (driving) comes independence, but also terror,鈥� because it鈥檚 her fear that one night she may receive a knock on her door as other mothers have received,鈥� Thompson says.

Performances of 鈥渄wb鈥� have coincided with national news of police brutality.

鈥淲hen this was performed in Birmingham two and a half years ago, Allison Sanders was singing it,鈥� Thompson says, 鈥渁nd the performance was the same night they released the police video of Tyre Nichols being beaten to death (by police in Memphis).鈥�

Though the opera addresses a greater risk for African Americans, Thompson also notes, 鈥淭his has happened to southeast Asian Americans, it has happened to, obviously, Latinos, and it can happen to anybody. There have been white Americans pulled over who鈥檝e also been abused. So it鈥檚 not just a Black experience. This is an American experience.鈥�

The emotionally harrowing drama is reinforced by composer Susan Kander鈥檚 score, who speaks of music鈥檚 capacity to affect people. 鈥淲e are having in both of these operas a very intense, very intimate, theatrical, dramatic experience and music is put to use to heighten all of that and make it more immediate and make it more intimate and make it a much more instantaneous nervous system response on the part of the audience.鈥�

Of her chamber scaling, Kander says: 鈥淲e calmed it down to this place where I think audiences can hear just about every note. And yet it sounds fully orchestral.鈥�

鈥渄wb鈥� has traveled, but 鈥淎s One鈥� has gone downright viral; UAO鈥檚 staging will be its 65th since its 2014 premiere. Composer Laura Kaminsky employs only slightly more instrumental forces than Kander 鈥� a string quartet.

Kaminsky, best known for composing instrumental chamber music, explains the orchestration: 鈥淪o the piece is really a dialogue of a person with themselves, Hannah Before and Hannah After, or older and younger characters. And when I started to realize that, I wanted to have an intimate chamber setting for it, and it seemed most useful to have a string quartet because it鈥檚 really one sound. Just as the two voices play one character, the quartet is one voice from the lowest note of the cello to the highest harmonic on a violin and kind of a seamlessness around it.

鈥淚 wanted to make this piece feel very intimate and contained. That鈥檚 what it needed to be.鈥�

Two singers play the protagonist, baritone Evan Bravos as Hannah Before, and mezzo-soprano Emma Sorenson as Hannah After.

Bravos, however, deemphasizes the idea of gender 鈥渢ransition,鈥� noting that Hannah鈥檚 still the same person.

鈥淚n the score it says 鈥楬annah Before鈥� and 鈥楬annah After,鈥� but I think they鈥檝e started saying 鈥楬annah Younger鈥� and 鈥楬annah Older,鈥� just to erase the notion that they鈥檙e two different people and to say, yes, Hannah Before exists within Hannah After. Her (knowledge) has grown, her personhood has grown, her depth. Because at one point she did occupy one gender and now she occupies the other. And I think that鈥檚 important, too.鈥�

Mark Campbell might be the most prolific opera librettist working today. But handling the subject matter for 鈥淎s One鈥� took extra care.

鈥淚t was my decision to engage Kimberly Reed as co-librettist. She had never written an opera before, but she is trans, and there鈥檚 no way that I could have had any kind of authenticity in my voice as the librettist for this work if I had not asked her to co-write the libretto with me. So I had a very powerful ally with her. And it happens that she鈥檚 also a tremendous writer and a great storyteller.鈥� (Reed, a film director currently on a shoot, could not be reached for comment).

Opera, fundamentally, is storytelling. Kander agrees: 鈥淚t makes those stories hit your nervous system faster and harder, I think, than they would if either one of them were just delivered as plays. What I come back to all the time in my own work 鈥� human beings like to gather together in a dark space and tell stories.鈥�