BUS Opera: An Overnight Greyhound Fever Dream

Have you ever looked on in pity at the poor souls waiting for the bus? Are you one of those forgotten travellers? BUS Opera is the unsung story of a transit user whose gender identities and economic anxieties collide over the course of an overnight bus trip. A 2024 recipient of an Opera America discovery Grant, BUS Opera uses both adventurous and lyric music to explore queerness, wanderlust, alienation and the quest for stability in modern life.

All aboard for a workshop presentation of "BUS Opera," an innovative and surreal operatic experience. After two successful iterations at the Canadian Music Centre and New Music Concerts, Rebecca has developed a new version reflecting public feedback and integrating new political realities.

Event Details:

Date: April 29, 2025
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Hugh’s Room Live, 296 Broadview Ave, Toronto, ON M4M 2G7
Run Time: 45 minutes, followed by a 15-20 minute discussion
Tickets: Admission is free, however, donations are appreciated to support the artists

Accessibility

Hugh’s Room Live is currently working on a General Admission seating system. Seating is first-come, first-served. We advise coming early (30m) if you are concerned about where you may sit. If you have mobility issues, please contact Hugh’s Room at 647-347-4769 or at info@hughsroomlive.com.

296 Broadview is not currently fully accessible. There are steps into the venue and a small staircase from the lobby into the main hall. The staircases are wide and with railings. The washrooms are a full flight of stairs to the lower level.

Questions?
Please email Rebecca (rebecca_gray@live.ca) or Daevyd (daevyd.pepper@gmail.com) for questions about the show. Hugh’s Room is not responsible for answering show-related inquiries.

Cast

Dream Protagonist - Rebecca Gray
Shadow - Ryan McDonald
Dentist/Wifi Guy/Dream Demon - Andrew Adridge
Bus Driver - Justin Miller
Bus Protagonist - Daevyd Pepper
Multi-level-marketing Girl/Fantasy/Dream Demon - Hillary Jean Young

Ensemble

Conductor - Matti Pulkki
Saxophone - Justin Massey
Violin - Gemma Donn
Cello - Evan Lamberton
Piano - Morgan-Paige Melbourne

Creative Team

Composer/Librettist/Producer - Rebecca Gray
Director/Producer - Daevyd Pepper
Music Director - Matti Pulkki
Designer - Rachel Gray

Production Team

Production Assistance/Stagemener - Rée Andrews

Thanks to Our Supporters

Canada Council for the Arts
Opera America Discovery Grant
Canadian Music Centre
New Music Concerts
Continuum Contemporary Music
Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity

More About the Opera:

BUS Opera is a dark, surrealist comedy that follows an anxious and anguished millennial as their hopes, horrors and histrionics collide on an overnight bus trip. Through an innovative musical structure of dreams, reality and fantasies in between, BUS Opera explores gender identity, alienation, and the quest for stability in modern life.

BUS Opera blends many musical styles as it alternates between dreams and reality, with the musical style amplifying each dream's distinct absurdist logic. There is a wet dream, a dentist visit gone wrong, a chorus of singing strings of licorice, and a heartfelt lyric aria of yearning. While often busy and intense, BUS Opera has many poignant moments of lyricism. Rebecca’s compositional style balances tonal and experimental writing to give audiences unusual and emotionally satisfying experiences.

The work is a love letter to the millennial generation and a dramatization of the modern mind as it copes with the pressures of capitalism, loneliness, perceived failures, and loss. A Greyhound bus as the setting is personal to Rebecca, and the work is an ode to a form of travel that is increasingly marginalized in our society.

The creators are driven to bring modern queer representation to the opera stage without relying on a trauma narrative and without the narrative being overtly focused on recognizably queer material. The opera is queer because we are queer.

BUS Opera is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Opera America Discovery Grant for Women Composers. This workshop presentation is a step in the ongoing development of this work.

For more info on BUS Opera visit our landing page here. Or by visiting Rebecca’s website.

The Bus Opera logo was designed by Rachel Gray. You can learn more about her work here.