YOU\ME/ALIEN – A “Space Opera” at the Opera Lab Berlin

YOU\ME/ALIEN unfolds as an experiment in radical empathy, a meditation on the unknown – not as a figure of fear or exclusion, but as a presence to be reimagined. Through this lens, Opera Lab Berlin reinterprets the genre of “space opera”. It usually evokes large-scale science fiction epics. But here, it becomes a poetic and sonic journey. This journey explores the fragile and deeply political spaces between people and the way they encounter each other.

On this journey, an international group of 12 performers interlaces experimental vocal techniques and choreography with instrumental timbres from strings, winds, percussion, and electronics.  Sound becomes the terrain of encounter: unstable, searching, shifting between signal and language. The crew aboard a deep-space vessel works to interpret these signals as identities loosen and re-form, and certainty slips away.

This otherworldly sound theatre invites you to immerse yourself in a world beyond familiar boundaries and raises 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?

Artists

Thorbjörn Björnsson – Vocalist 

Thorbjörn Björnsson, born in Iceland, studied singing at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. He has worked with the music theater director David Marton. His collaborations include projects at the Schaubühne Berlin and Dresden State Theatre. He has also worked at Schauspiel Hannover, Schauspiel Stuttgart, and the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Additionally, he collaborated at the Opéra de Lyon, the Ruhrtriennale, and the Munich Kammerspiele.

Björnsson made his debut as a director and performer with the pieces Das Verein at the Neuköllner Oper and Holzfæller at the Sophiensæle. He frequently appears as a guest performer with Opera Lab Berlin, Error Theater Vienna, GKW-Basel, Atonale e. V., La Cage, and Schlossplatz Theater Köpenick.

Björnsson has a close working relationship with the music theater collective “Hauen und Stechen.” He has performed with them at the Opera Stabile, the Stuttgart Opera of the Hamburg State Opera, the Sophiensæle Berlin, and the Bavarian State Opera. Since 2018, together with Julia Marx, he has formed the music theater duo Björnsson / Marx.

Evan Gardner – Electric Guitar & Artistic Director

The 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 USA, Norway and Germany, he received several awards (Would add one or two for reputability) and commissions from renowned ensembles (here as well).

In 2013, he founded OPERA LAB BERLIN, which produced numerous successful productions, including ‘Sales of a Deadman’ (2014), 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 Theatre Berlin) from 2014 to 2017.

Peach Kander – Text

Peach Kander is a queer poet and current MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU living. Current projects include an (auto)biography set in a dystopian North Pole and a translation of Georges Hugnet’s ‘Childhoods.’ Lately, they’ve been going to karaoke to sing classic pop songs in the style of Bob Dylan.

Poems are forthcoming in Fugue and dirt child, vol. 1, and other creative property can be found in the Sephora archives. This poem was shortlisted for the 2019 Peach Gold in Poetry with guest judge Dorothea Lasky.

Astan Meyer – Vocalist 

Astan Meyer also known as Astan KA is a Berlin-based performer, singer, songwriter, experimental rapper, dancer, actress, and event-curator. Born in France with roots from Mali, she embraces a double culture that led her to consider herself as a “child of reconciliation.” Her musical style, “Gangsta Jazz,” blends vocal inspirations from jazz, punk, drill, trip-hop, slam/poetry/storytelling, Malian blues and Afro-underground sounds.

Meyer fronts Asphalt Djelis, sings with Sonic Interventions, and explores themes of love, protest, identity, and universality. Astan has performed in musicals, theater pieces, short-films and TV shows. She co-founded Cult-Sup, collaborates with artists and brands worldwide, and used to work as a stylist and 1st assistant’s artistic director for 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.

Morvan performs regularly with various orchestras and theatres in Germany and France (Brandenburg State Theatre Frankfurt, Eroica Berlin, Berlin Academy for American Music, Berlin Symphony Orchestra …). He also performs as a chamber musician at festivals such as Festival du Val de Saire, Festival Musique en Bugey, Les vacances de monsieur Haydn in La-Roche-Posay, and the Passion:spiel Festival in Weimar.

Roshanak Rafani – Daf, Tombak & Percussion

Roshanak Rafani (b. 1994) is an Iranian percussionist specializing in Daf, Dayereh, and Tombak, active across contemporary, classical, and cross-cultural music. She has performed with leading ensembles including the Austro-Iranian Symphony Orchestra, Lugano Percussion Ensemble, Bridges Kammerorchester, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Pierre Bloulez Ensemble and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, and Matthias Pintscher.

Since 2013, she has collaborated internationally with diverse artists and ensembles, co-founded the Tehran Percussion Ensemble, and continues her work as a performer and educator in Berlin. She is a core member of the Rondo Projects and the Aban Ensemble.

Guilherme Rodrigues – Cello

Guilherme Rodrigues, born in Lisbon in 1988, began cello and trumpet lessons at the age of seven. He studied classical music and theory at the National Conservatory of Music in Lisbon until the age of 23. His music, shaped by improvisation and sound research, is exciting, polyrhythmic, and full of contrasts.

Rodrigues’ work includes both acoustic and electroacoustic compositions, often described as delicate, intense, and physical. He collaborates with ensembles and dancers, and has created music for theatre, radio, television, and silent film. Rodrigues is part of the label Creative Sources Recordings, musical director of Hosek Contemporary Art Gallery, and a member of the Reanimation Orchestra and Opera Lab Berlin. 

Sadie Shea – Vocalist & Choreography

Sadie Shea is an NYC-based actor, dancer, singer, and cellist. She graduated from NYU Tisch School for the Arts in May 2025, receiving a BFA in Drama. She trained at the Atlantic Theatre Company, Experimental Theatre Wing, the Classical Studio, and at arthaus.berlin.

Recent credits include: I’ll Be There (Feature film), A Guide to Self-Synthesis (Opera Lab Berlin), Play by Ear (La MaMa Galleria), and WIGS: the Play! (The Pit). In 2024 she premiered her new play, SMOKESHOW, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a 2021 National YoungArts Winner in Theatre.

Aparna Shenoy – Vocalist

Born in Mumbai, Aparna Shenoy is a Hindustani classical singer and dedicated teacher. She began her training at 13 with Guru Rajesh Purkhe ji, later studying with Dr. Revati Tai Kamat of the Jaipur-Atroli Gharana and Pt. Suryakant Gaikwad ji of the Kirana Gharana. Under his guidance she completed her Sangeet Visharad at the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Vidyalaya.

She also trained in semi-classical styles such as bhavgeet, natyasangeet, and bhajans with Archana Tai Khasnis. Alongside her work as a homeopathic doctor, music has always been an important source of balance. At the Global Music Academy, she shares her passion as a teacher of Hindustani singing.

Youka Snell – Shamisen & Violin

Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia with Japanese roots, Youka Snell is a Berlin-based violinist, shamisen player, and singer. She has been classically trained since the age of ten. Shenoy holds degrees in violin (performance) and composition & production from the Queensland Conservatorium. 

Youka leads the Japanese neo-folk band Mitsune, touring across Europe, and works internationally from her Berlin studio. Her projects span film, television, and live performance, including string arrangements for nearly 80 episodes of Bluey and vocals for the Golden Lion-winning film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022).

Susan Stryker – Text

Susan Stryker is a pioneering scholar, filmmaker and activist whose work has had a significant impact on the field of transgender studies. Born in 1961, Stryker is best known for her influential writings. She is also renowned for the documentary film “Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria”. This film 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 marginalised groups.

Mauricio Velasierra – Quena, Hybrid Electro-Acoustic Flutes

Colombian-born Mauricio Velasierra is an expert and pioneer of keyless Latin American wind instruments: quenas, sikus, and mohzeños. Besides developing techniques to play them fully chromatically he has also reimagined and rebuilt them, transforming the acoustic sound into animalistic distortion machines. A genre escape-artist, with a facility to improvise between worlds, Velasierra plays with an explosive directness that has taken his music to prestigious venues and festivals internationally.

Velasierra is also a composer, renowned for his innovative and highly original style, which combines modern jazz, contemporary classical and progressive music influences. His work has been critically acclaimed by The Guardian, Songlines, The Wire and the German Record Critics Prize, among others.

YOU\ME/ALIEN is produced by Opera Lab Berlin and Theater im Delphi. With funds from Hauptstadtkulturfonds