American Lyric Theater is set to return to live performances with its presentation of Jorge Sosa and Julian Crouch’s “The Opposable Thumb.”

The workshop is set to take place at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City on Oct. 1, 2021. “The Opposable Thumb” ruminates on whether humans are superior to the animals that are kept behind bars of a zoo’s cage or whether they are simply apes with an opposable thumb and a trigger-pointing finger.

“The opera takes place in a zoo inside a city under siege,” composer Jorge Sosa said in a press release. “It explores the relationships between a series of broken characters who are forced into a high risk, high-tension situation. Soldiers from opposite sides are trapped with innocent zoo keepers as they await the invading army’s last offensive. Food is completely gone and if war does not kill them, hunger surely will.”

The showcase will star  Flora Wall, Heather Johnson, John Viscardi, Christian Sanders, Zachary James, Sydney Anderson, Laura Soto-Bayomi, Heather Hill, Chantal Freeman, Kimberly Sogioka, and Kirsten Sollek with David Neely conducting and Jason Wirth at the piano.

The performance will be followed by a discussion with the composer and librettist, moderated by ATL Founder Lawrence Edelson.