The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California is set to present “Birds in the Moon” as part of its Fall 2021 programming.

The chamber opera by Mark Grey and Júlia Canosa i Serra will be making its West Coast premiere on Sept. 1 through 4. The work will be directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer and will star Maria Elena Altany as the Bird Mother and Austin Spangler as the Ringmaster. They will be accompanied by the Friction Quartet.

The opera tells the story of a mother-bird and her bird-child as they try to survive the desert and draws from the 17th century theory that birds migrated to the moon and spent their winter there.

“We had a number of ideas: the dearth of works with compelling, riveting and complicated female protagonists, being captivated with a show that could come out of a shipping container that could turn into a kind of travelling circus, reaching many different communities and audiences, and a fantasy of performing it in the desert,” said Director Elkhanah Pulitzer in a press release.

Grey and Canosa i Serra are known for their National Opera of Belgium production of “Frankenstein.” Meanwhile, Pulitzer directed David Lang’s “prisoner of the state” for the New York Philharmonic and the Barbican Theatre.