Author, illustrator, and Kennedy Center artist-in-residence Mo Willems has written his first opera: Slopera! A Bite Sized Opera. Based on his book I Really Like Slop!, the 20-minute show has been touring around DC in the Kennedy Center’s opera pop-up truck, giving performances for health care workers, school children, and nursing home residents.
Slopera! features Willems’s beloved characters Elephant and Piggie, who are trying to work through their differences. When Piggie shares her favorite parts of porcine culture with Elephant—including her love of slop—she’s disappointed to find that Elephant doesn’t hold her favorite dish in the same high regard. The two have to learn to respect each others’ likes and dislikes, and appreciate what makes each of them unique.
This is the last weekend Slopera! will be performed live, check back here for times and locations tomorrow afternoon. The Kennedy Center will also be recording a performance at the REACH that will be available free on demand with pre-registration July 1-5.
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
