The audience is looking at the stage. The lights come up on half the stage. A 15 year old girl is sitting on a rumpled bed in a seedy motel room. To the left there is a crummy chest of drawers with a broken mirror above them. Behind the girl there is a window with Venetian slats that are evocative of bars. A neon light shines on and off through these slats. The girl at times holds either a doll or a rather large gun as she sings the “Girl’s Soliloquy.” When her song ends the rest of the stage is lit and the audience is presented with a modern San Francisco living room circa the early 2000’s. The décor is sharp. There is a large picture window with the city towers seen through it. To either side there are curtains that are loosely gathered. In front of this long window there is a couch in the Scandinavian style with metal legs and there are matching chairs with metal legs. There is a bar. The décor is cold, uncomfortable and quite stylish. The people in this set are: The Mother, The Father, and the Girl.

The Mother then sings “The Neighbors Are Coming”. She becomes more frantic as she orders the Father around. “The Divorce Song” is a duet between the Mother and Daughter that is sung to the Father.  “Father’s Poor Excuses come next. “

Father is now singing to his daughter- on stage.  The finale to the first part is a trio/aria entitled, “Our “Little Family” and is sung by the Girl, the Mother and the Father.

The story treatment is the following. In Act 11 the parents are now divorced and the girl is a teenager. She has gone to a babysitting job. When the curtain goes up we see her hooked up to a computer. She has her ipod on and her cell phone is ringing. There are electronic lights and sounds but she can hear nothing as she is busy with the computer. And then above all of this electronic static we hear the frantic sounds of a baby crying. The Girl is oblivious.

Finally we hear a strange thud and the crying stops. When the Girl takes off her ipod she has a sense of foreboding. She goes to the baby’s room and sees that he has fallen out of his crib, landed on a toy, hit his head and died. She thinks that she has committed murder.  She and The Shadows sing “Babysitter From Hell” and then she flees to the only person who has shown her any care and attention, a man she has met online who professes to love her. She goes to him, The Predator, and he takes her to a “Cabin in the Woods.” She stays there and is molested by him. She sings “I Want a Man on a Motorcycle”, perhaps commits another murder and eventually escapes. There is much singing between her and our Greek chorus – in this case “The Shadows” once again with much commentary on their part as they explore what has happened to her and how uninformed her choices have been. The Shadows sing “Meditation On Home” and together with the Girl sing “On The Run”.

In the last section of the opera the parents once more unite because the police contact them to tell them their daughter has gotten a gun. The stage set is once again the living room from the first act. The parents meet for the first time in a long while, flirt, drink many martinis together, reminisce and wait for their daughter. They sing together as they get more and more drunk. Meanwhile the Girl has got the gun and she is coming for her parents as they sing “Together Again”, lament their daughter’s behavior, and take no responsibility for what has happened.

The Girl and The Shadows begin to sing “Sneaking In.”

The shocking “Finale Finally”, sung by all of the characters, will be announced to the next producers of the 75 minute opera. Hang on to your hats!!!!