I Need Space (2014, revised 2016)

I Need Space tells the story of a couple moving to a Martian colony but breaking up on the way there. It’s set in the present—but as 2016 had been imagined by sci-fi writers in the 1960s.

This one-act opera short premiered at Merkin Concert Hall, New York City, December 15, 2016. It was performed in preview at Abrons Art Center and "live" in the studio at WNYC in 2014.

Katie Eastburn, Janet
Tomas Cruz, Ray
Jason Cady, Model LNC 500
Ann Heppermann, Radio Voice

recorded and mixed by Clay Holley
synthesis by Jason Cady

Thanks to: Amanda Sidebottom, Perri Di Christina, and Aaron Siegel

"I Need Space by Jason Cady was a delightfully weird fifteen-minute science fiction opera. The year is 2016, as imagined by science fiction writers in the 60s, and humans have just recently colonized Mars. Janet and Ray, in skin-tight silver body suits, have fled the Cyborg invasion of earth to start a new life on Mars. But there’s a problem. Janet is in love with Lance, Ray’s robot, played by the composer. The score is addictive and oddly dramatic. Katie Eastburn and Tomas Cruz as Janet and Ray gave hilarious, dry and detached performances that made this futuristic, retro story of love and rejection endearingly poignant. "

—Steven Jude Tietjen, Opera News