Dog Days

For its 15th anniversary, David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s haunting contemporary opera Dog Days returns in a special concert presentation. Based on the short story by Judy Budnitz, the work follows thirteen-year-old Lisa and her family as they struggle to survive in a near-future America unraveling under the pressures of war, hunger, and emotional collapse. As food disappears and hope erodes, each member of the family confronts the limits of their humanity in different ways. Their fragile world is further disrupted by the arrival of Prince, a mysterious man in a dog suit begging for scraps. Is he delusional, enlightened, or simply adapting better than the humans around him? By turns brutal, darkly funny, and deeply moving, Dog Days is a powerful meditation on survival, morality, and the animal instincts that emerge in times of crisis.