STAR CHOIR

An interstellar chamber opera set inside the the historic Mount Wilson Observatory

The Industry presents the World Premiere of STAR CHOIR, co-directed by Malik Gaines (The Industry’s Co-Artistic Director) and Alexandro Segade, composed by Gaines with Libretto by Segade.

Audiences will embark on a cosmic mission, as a starship crew seeks refuge on the hostile Planet 85K: Aurora. Once there, the colonists encounter intelligent life imperceptible to their all-too-human awareness. As the planet defends itself from their invasive presence, the humans evolve to become a part of the Holobiont, a queerly multi-species organism that covers this world. STAR CHOIR offers a meditation on the challenges and pleasures of mutual coexistence, reimagining humanity as a porous category that must transform to survive.

Alexandro Segade’s lyrical world-building is inspired by science-fiction epics from Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Series to Ridley Scott’s Alien and the anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion. Confronting a fear of the unknown while embracing the alien, the text explores ecological concepts influenced by theorists including Zakiyyah Iman Jackson (Becoming Human) and Donna Haraway (The Cyborg Manifesto). Gaines’ composition synthesizes a lush, classical musicality with the visionary radiance of psychedelic jazz and splashes of space disco, in a score that moves through shifting styles and perspectives. The colonists employ the virtuosic vocal play of operetta; the life-forms indigenous to the planet move and vocalize using instructional scores; and the stars themselves form a constellation choir. STAR CHOIR is a merging of language and sound, as Segade and Gaines celebrate the collective voice, and its collaborative expressions, within our ever-expanding universe.

For more than ten years, The Industry has been producing groundbreaking works of opera and performance in some of the most unexpected locations in greater Los Angeles. STAR CHOIR continues this tradition, unfolding within the historic 100” telescope dome at the Mount Wilson Observatory, which first offered visitors a look to the sky in 1917. Over one hundred years later, this site’s commitment to progress, curiosity, and creativity—and to considering humanity’s place in the cosmos—becomes a deeply resonant and evocative context for The Industry’s work.

STAR CHOIR features an ensemble of eight singers, with performances by company members Kelci Hahn, Sarah Beaty, and Jon Lee Keenan. The Industry’s Music Director, Marc Lowenstein, leads an orchestra of six musicians, featuring board and company member Lucy Yates. Choreographer Milka Djordjevich joins the creative team as movement director and the sci-fi video elements are designed by Daniel Leyva.

Through fantasy and critique, STAR CHOIR asks urgent questions facing humanity amid our era’s confluence of natural and political crises, evoking scenes of disaster migration, fugitivity, and colonization as they are entwined with our difficult histories and our best visions of a potential future.