Examining War and Peace 

Chad Larabee and Anna Ebbesen.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Mar 27, 2017) – The UAlbany Theatre Program, with its March 29 world premiere of the rock musical REBEL/Sister, is joining forces with Albany Pro Musica and the Times Union to create a community-wide series of events around the themes of war and peace.

REBEL/Sister is inspired by Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Antigone, and includes a cast of 23 talented UAlbany undergraduates. The musical follows two sisters as they find the courage to face a powerful opponent. Set during a post-apocalyptic civil war, they are born into religious oppression as a patriarchal leader overtakes their homeland and manipulates the media to control his own people.

The musical was written by Chad Larabee and Jonathan Michael Weber with music and lyrics by Anna Ebbesen, and will be presented at the Performing Arts Center from March 29 through April 5. The full schedule and ticket information are available.

“We want REBEL/Sister to begin a conversation with our audience about how they can engage in our political system to enact meaningful change,” said Larabee, who also directs the production. “The presidential election forced us to rewrite the show dramatically, taking into account our country’s changing political climate. It compelled us to ask, ‘How do you fight for justice in an unjust world?’”

The creative team includes Andi Lyons (lighting designer), Lily Fossner (scenic designer), Renee Bell (costume designer), John Knapp (technical director), Marcus Schlegel (music director) and David Kenner, (fight director).

Prior to each performance, there will be an exhibit in the theater lobby organized by Women Against War and American Friends Service Committee. Humanize Not Militarize displays artwork examining the effects of militarism on foreign and domestic political levels and informs the public on alternative nonviolent solutions.

As part of the larger community-wide series, the Albany Pro Musica (APM) choral group will perform The Armed Man — A Mass for Peace by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins on May 6. APM’s conductor, José Daniel Flores-Caraballo, will deliver his annual lecture on April 13 at 5 p.m. in PAC B78. At his April 13 talk, he will discuss the upcoming performance of The Armed Man.

Flores-Caraballo was appointed a conductor-in-residence at UAlbany last year. APM rehearses weekly in the PAC.

With the theme of war and peace in mind, the New York State Writers Institute is featuring Army veteran, Iraq war interrogator and nonfiction writer Eric Fair on April 20. He will give a seminar at 4:15 p.m. in Campus Center 375 and a reading at 8 p.m. that same evening at the Clark Auditorium, New York State Museum.

Fair is the author of Consequence (2016), a memoir that recounts his experiences working in Iraq as an interrogator for a private contractor at Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. Fair’s appearance is sponsored in conjunction with APM’s performance of The Armed Man, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center, 110 8th St., Troy, on May 6.

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