Mostly Human

It’s about a massage therapist called Angela, who makes contact with extra terrestrial life. It’s also about three opera singers in a shed, putting on a show at the end of the world. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure about the importance and futility of storytelling in times of crisis.

We wanted to make a hybrid work, to be experienced by an in-person audience and an online audience, where the livestream is at the heart of the event and not an accessibility add-on. In ‘Mostly Human’ the audience who can’t make it to the theatre are the ones who have more power over the performance - getting to choose how the story develops, and to participate musically. On the other hand, the live studio audience gets to see how the sausage is made. The two experiences aren’t the same - they never really are - but hopefully they’re both live, theatrical and compelling.

We chose to work on Twitch because it felt like an interesting place: a mix of video games, animal sanctuaries, ASMR, hobbies and crafts, full of utopian and dystopian possibilities, atomisation and connection. Besides, it allows us to engage directly with our audience without building a platform from scratch, just like streamers do all the time. We hope you’ll feel welcome whether Twitch is totally new to you, or somewhere you often hang out.

‘Mostly Human’ is a collaboration  between Hera and Michigan State University, where Alexis Bacon is Professor of Composition. An R&D workshop at Canterbury Christ Church University in July 2024 tested a complete draft of the opera, and we’re currently working to bring the project into production.