For Women Serving Time…
…fuses Fauré’s Requiem, jazz elements and Brechtian theatrical traditions in a powerful contemplation of the human experiences contained in female incarceration in America.
Top row L-R: Judy Yannini, Elizabeth Mondragon, Melissa Wimbish, Louisa Waycott – Bottom: Shana Oshiro
Photo by Bayou Elom
Productions
Washington DC – March 2026 | Dupont Underground – March 2026 | Baltimore Theater Project – April 2026
Commissioned by Washington DC-based IN Series opera company, For Women Serving Time is an hour-long extended poem-opera with music by Adrienne Torf and libretto by Fatemeh Keshavarz, for six female voices (SSMMAC) and small ensemble (piano, cello, flute, trumpet, percussion.)
Directed by: Timothy Nelson.
Musical Direction: by Adrienne Torf.
“Torf is clearly an extremely creative composer, from the instrumentation to the way she used four-part harmony… to make the audience feel how prison is never quiet, to the use of breathing and whispering as vocal effects, including at the end, with a final, audible and dramatic exhale before the blackout.”