Opera on Tap Launches FlyRail Creative Tech Lab and Dual Brand

FlyRail, Inc., the Brooklyn nonprofit known for 21 years as Opera on Tap, today launched FlyRail, a new arts and creative technology lab that will house the organization's new works, technology projects and STEAM training. Opera on Tap, the community opera program that has brought live opera to bars and public spaces since 2005, continues as FlyRail's founding brand, with a growing network of chapters across the US and abroad. Both are programs of FlyRail, Inc.

FlyRail's first season opens with LOOKING AT YOU, the immersive techno-noir music-theatre experience by composer Kamala Sankaram and writer Rob Handel, directed by Kristin Marting, which returns to HERE January 15–23, 2027, before traveling to The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College on April 2–3. The season continues with the FlyRail Dome Experience at Purchase College's inaugural Taproot Festival in April and, from Fall 2027, the site-specific mixed reality opera JOAN OF THE CITY.

'Since 2016, our team has been exploring what opera can become when it meets emerging technology,' said Annie Hiatt, Co-Founder, President and CEO of FlyRail, Inc. 'That work gave us the world's first VR opera, The Parksville Murders, and led us to partner with HERE on the premiere production of LOOKING AT YOU, a music-theatre experience you take in from a table with its own touchscreen, developed with privacy researchers at Carnegie Mellon; JOAN OF THE CITY, an opera you see through augmented reality devices; and a portable dome that turns a theater lobby into a pop-up immersive venue. It shaped our STEAM programs too, where students write, build and stage their own operas- learning all the skillsets that go into technical theatre production. Every one of those projects depended on partners outside the arts, from universities and researchers to technology companies, and they showed us how many opportunities we could create for artists by building those cross-sector partnerships on purpose. For a while now, the name Opera on Tap hasn't fully captured that side of our work. FlyRail gives it, and the artists and technologists who make it, a home of its own, while Opera on Tap keeps growing and doing what it does best: bringing opera to where people already are.'

The launch is marked by two new websites: flyrailact.org for FlyRail and a redesigned operaontap.org for Opera on Tap.

LOOKING AT YOU returns to HERE for eight performances, January 15–23, 2027, as part of HERE HOSTS. Opening night is Friday, January 15 at 8:30 PM. LOOKING AT YOU is a FlyRail Studios Production in Association with Experiments in Opera, hosted by HERE. It originally premiered in 2019 at HERE as a co-production of HERE and Opera on Tap (a FlyRail, Inc. brand), in association with Experiments in Opera. Full details on the HERE engagement are in HERE's accompanying release.

Pitched as 'Edward Snowden meets Casablanca,' the show places audiences at tables fitted with touchscreens inside the headquarters of a social media behemoth. Dorothy has just landed her dream job as chief software engineer when her ex-boyfriend Ethan, now the world's most famous whistleblower, asks for her help uploading his consciousness to the cloud. Sankaram's score for three saxophones, piano and electronics sets operatic arias against EDM and crime jazz. The Wall Street Journal called the premiere 'an absorbing, frightening whole.'

The 2027 company features Sishel Claverie (Dorothy), Brandon Snook (Ethan Snyder), Adrienne Danrich (Annina), Paul An (Raj), Eric McKeever (Charlie) and Natalie Trumm (Brooke), with conductor Samuel McCoy and pianist Tanya Gabrielian. The design team includes David Bengali (video), Nic Benacerraf (scenic), Ayumu 'Poe' Saegusa (lighting), Nathaniel Butler (sound) and Kate Fry (costumes). The show was developed with privacy researchers Alessandro Acquisti (MIT) and Ralph Gross (Carnegie Mellon University).

After HERE, LOOKING AT YOU travels to The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College for two performances on April 2 and 3, 2027.

Tickets. Tickets for the HERE run go on sale November 1 at [HERE TICKET LINK], priced [PRICES]. Tickets for Purchase College are on sale now at artscenter.org. More at lookingatyoutheshow.com.

THE FLYRAIL SEASON

• LOOKING AT YOU, January 15–23, 2027 at HERE, New York, and April 2–3, 2027 at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College.
• FlyRail Dome Experience, April 2027 at Purchase College's inaugural Taproot Festival, with fulldome works by Daniel Shambo and GammaTime by Nina Sobell and Ed Bear. It is FlyRail's first program presenting creative technologists working outside opera.
• JOAN OF THE CITY, 2027/2028: continued development of a site-specific mixed reality opera about a modern-day Joan of Arc, shedding light on the stories of 5 unhoused women as told by them, with music by Kamala Sankaram and direction by Kristin Marting, co-commissioned with San Diego Opera and Opera Omaha, developed in partnership with San Diego Opera and BAM.
• Space Opera Maker Camp, summer 2027, with Space Kids Global: campers ages 9–15 write, build and premiere a space opera inside FlyRail's dome.

FlyRail's mission is to bridge human creativity and technological advancement. Its work runs on four tracks: FlyRail Studios, new work built like R&D; FlyRail STEAM, hands-on training from K–12 Opera Maker Labs to university dome workshops; FlyRail Junctions, partnerships connecting artists, schools, universities and technology companies; and FlyRail Operators, artist-led evaluation of creative technology tools. FlyRail STEAM is also developing the Creative Solutions Architect Recognition Path, a credential that trains students for technical careers in live entertainment, and is now inviting employer and university partners.

Opera on Tap presented 208 bar show concerts in fiscal year 2025 through its chapters, along with the OperaCades and the Speak Up! Festival. Its international chapters in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg continue, new chapters are opening in two US cities, and two legacy Chapters are relaunching. The redesigned operaontap.org gives every chapter its own page with upcoming events.