YOU\ME/ALIEN - A Space Opera

The international group of 10 performers interlaces experimental vocal techniques with instrumental timbres from strings, winds, percussion, and electronics to an otherworldly atmosphere.
Pulses of light, fragments of text, and choreography extend the music into a multidimensional, immersive theatre of sound. Rather than presenting music and text as fixed compositions, the work treats them as evolving languages -shifting, porous, and collective.

Through this lens, YOU\ME/ALIEN reinterprets the genre of “space opera”, usually evoking large-scale science fiction epics, as a poetic and musical journey into the spaces between people and the way they encounter each other. These spaces are fragile, unpredictable and deeply political.

YOU\ME/ALIEN asks urgent questions: How do we hear each other across divides? How does language both connect and separate us? And how might art create the conditions for empathy to replace division?

Opera Lab Berlin has staged over 30 independent productions since its founding in 2013, working with more than 40 contemporary composers and 18 directors. With YOU\ME/ALIEN, the collective continues its mission to expand the possibilities of contemporary music theatre to open space for exchange of diverse lived experiences.

(In English with German subtitles)

Artists

Thorbjörn Björnsson – vocals
Thorbjörn Björnsson, born in Iceland, studied singing at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. He has worked with director David Marton at the Schaubühne Berlin, the Dresdner Staatsschauspiel, Schauspiel Hannover, Schauspiel Stuttgart, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Opéra de Lyon, the Ruhrtriennale, and the Münchner Kammerspiele. Björnsson made his debut as a director with Das Verein and Holzfæller. He has performed at Atonale e. V., La Cage, Opera Lab, GKW Basel, the Neuköllner Oper, and the Schloßplatztheater Köpenick. He sang the lead role in the opera Kleist and appeared in Angela Schanelec's film Der traumhafte Weg. With the collective “Hauen und Stechen,” he has made guest appearances at various opera houses. Since 2018, he has formed the musical theater duo Björnsson / Marx with Julia Marx.

Evan Gardner – Electric Guitar & Artistic Director
American-Norwegian composer Evan Gardner began studying composition in 1996 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Pauline Oliveros. After successful years of study in the US, Norway, and Germany, he received several awards and commissions from renowned ensembles such as the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ensemble Mosaik. In 2013, he founded OPERA LAB BERLIN, a collective for experimental music theater that has produced numerous successful productions, including “Sales of a Deadman” (2014), “Gunfighter Nation” (2016), “Lonely Hearts Bus Tour” (2018), “Odyssey: Dead Men Die” (2020), and “Who's Afraid of Pop Culture?” (2022). He is also involved in cultural policy and was a board member of the Verein für Zeitgenössisches Musiktheater Berlin (Association for Contemporary Music Theater Berlin) from 2014 to 2017.

Peach Kander – Text
Peach Kander is a queer poet and master's student in the poetry department at NYU. Their current projects include an (auto)biography set in a dystopian North Pole and a translation of Georges Hugnet's “Childhoods.” Their poems appear in Fugue and dirt child, vol. 1, and other creative works can be found in the Sephora archives. Nominated for the Peach Gold in Poetry 2019. Lately, Peach enjoys going to karaoke to sing classic pop songs in the style of Bob Dylan.

Astan Meyer - Vocals
Astan Meyer is a Berlin-based performer, singer, songwriter, experimental rapper, dancer, actress, and curator. Born in France with roots in Mali, she embraces both cultures and describes herself as a “child of reconciliation.” Her musical style, “gangsta jazz,” combines jazz, punk, drill, trip-hop, slam/poetry/storytelling, Mali blues, and Afro-underground. She is the frontwoman of Asphalt Djelis, sings with Sonic Interventions, and deals with themes such as love, protest, identity, and universality. Astan has appeared in musicals, plays, short films, and TV shows. She is co-founder of Cult-Sup, works with artists and brands worldwide, and was stylist and first assistant to the artistic director of the Afro-futuristic fashion concept KASAPIO.

Constance Morvan - Clarinet
Originally from Nantes, Constance Morvan studied in Paris with Florent Pujuila and Bruno Martinez and completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at the Berlin University of the Arts with Prof. François Benda. She performs regularly with various orchestras and theaters in Germany and France (Brandenburg State Theater Frankfurt, Eroica Berlin, Berlin Academy for American Music, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, etc.) and as a chamber musician at various festivals (Festival du Val de Saire, Festival Musique en Bugey, “Les vacances de monsieur Haydn” Festival in La-Roche-Posay, Passion:spiel Festival Weimar).

Roshanak Rafani - Daf, Tombak & Percussion
Roshanak Rafani is an experienced percussionist and teacher specializing in Persian percussion instruments. She began playing the daf at the age of eight and later expanded her repertoire to include the dayere and tombak. While studying social sciences at the University of Tehran, she also devoted herself to classical percussion and music theory. Since 2014, she has been teaching daf and tombak in Iran and Germany, and since 2018 she has been studying classical percussion with Dominic Oelze at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. Roshanak has performed with the Austro-Iranian Symphonic Orchestra (AISO), the Nilper Orchestra, and the Junge Philharmonie Berlin, among others, and founded the Tehran Percussion Ensemble in 2016.

Guilherme Rodrigues - Cello
Guilherme Rodrigues, born in Lisbon in 1988, began taking cello and trumpet lessons at the age of seven. He studied classical music and music theory at the Conservatório Nacional de Música de Lisboa until the age of 23. His music, characterized by improvisation and sound exploration, is exciting, polyrhythmic, and rich in contrast. Rodrigues' works include acoustic and electroacoustic compositions that have been described as delicate, intense, and physical. He works with music ensembles and dancers and has created music for theater, radio, television, and silent film. Rodrigues is part of the Creative Sources Recordings label, musical director of the Hosek Contemporary Art Gallery, and a member of OperaLab Berlin.

Sadie Shea – Vocals & Choreography
Sadie Shea is an actress, dancer, and cellist from New York City and is in her final year of her BFA in Drama at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In Berlin, she trained at the International Summer School of arthaus.berlin. As a choreographer and movement director, she worked on the feature film “I'll Be There” and the plays “in lucem” and “Homebody.” She has performed solo performances for cello and movement at La MaMa's Galleria and as the opening act for Kenan Thompson at a benefit event for “The Door,” among other venues. In 2023, her new piece “SMOKESHOW” premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Photo: Ted Ely

Aparna Shenoy - Vocals
Born in Goa, Aparna Shenoy is a Hindustani classical singer and teacher. At the age of 13, she began her training with Guru Rajesh Purkhe ji, later with Dr. Revati Tai Kamat from the Jaipur-Atroli-Gharana and with Pt. Suryakant Gaikwad ji from the Kirana-Gharana. Under his guidance, she completed her Sangeet Visharad at the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Vidyalaya. She also received instruction in semi-artistic styles such as Bhavgeet, Natyasangeet, and Bhajans from Archana Tai Khasnis. In addition to her work as a homeopathic doctor, music has always been an important source of balance for her. At the Global Music Academy, she shares her passion and teaches Hindustani singing. Photo: Lukas Freudenberg
Youka Snell - Shamisen & Violin
Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia with Japanese roots, violinist, shamisen player, and singer Youka Snell currently lives in Berlin. Classically trained since the age of ten, she holds degrees in violin (performance) and composition & production from the Queensland Conservatorium. Youka leads the Japanese neo-folk band Mitsune, with whom she tours throughout Europe, and works internationally from her Berlin studio. Her projects range from film and television to live performances, including string arrangements for nearly 80 episodes of “Bluey” and vocals for the Golden Lion winner “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (2022). Photo: Shari Annabell Marks

Susan Stryker – Text
Susan Stryker is a pioneering scholar, filmmaker, and activist whose work has significantly shaped the field of transgender studies. Born in 1961, Stryker is best known for her influential writings and the groundbreaking documentary “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria,” which chronicles one of the first collective uprisings of transgender people in the United States. As a professor and public intellectual, Stryker has authored groundbreaking texts, including Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution, which examines the cultural, social, and political developments of transgender communities. Her work bridges academia and activism by combining rigorous scholarship with a commitment to visibility and justice for marginalized groups.

Mauricio Velasierra - Quena, Electroacoustic Flutes
Colombian-born musician and instrument maker Mauricio Velasierra is an expert and pioneer in keyless Latin American wind instruments: quenas, sikus, and mohzeños. In addition to developing techniques to play them fully chromatically, he has also reinterpreted and rebuilt them, transforming their acoustic sound into animalistic distortion machines. A genre-escape artist with the ability to improvise between worlds, Velasierra plays with an explosive directness that has taken his music to renowned international stages and festivals. He is also a composer and is known for his innovative and highly original style, which combines influences from modern jazz, contemporary classical, and progressive music. His work has been highly praised by The Guardian, Songlines, The Wire, and the German Record Prize, among others.