The PHAME Academy, an organization which empowers adults with development disabilities to lead creative lives, and the Portland Opera have announced that it will put on a collaborative rock opera this August at the Hampton Opera Center.

The opera focuses on a young writer who creates a number of poems that take on a life of their own.

The two organizations have collaborated over the last 18 months to create a new work that is set to feature artists and performers with disabilities. Five PHAME artists have already been cast I leading roles and are set to receive vocal coaching with Portland Opera’s Manager of Education and Outreach Alexis Hamilton.

The production will also feature an orchestra made up of iPads that will be played by PHAME studies; there will also be a string quartet consisting of students from the Metropolitan Youth Symphony.