The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

Kamala Sankaram

Praised as “one of the most exciting opera composers in the country” (–The Washington Post), composer Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of contemporary opera, experimental music and sound art…

Minita Gandhi

Minita Gandhi is a Los Angeles based librettist/writer/actor who was born in Mumbai, India. They are a multi-hyphenate artist whose written work often engages with magic realism and dark comedy to explore…

Hear from Mary Birnbaum, director of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr.

“A shoebox containing immortality, the Goddess of Death hell-bent on revenge, tight-knit communities that come together to work and mourn, party and pray. And in the middle of it, a girl with long raven hair who has lost track of the meaning of life and whose body will be repurposed by Death…”

Prologue
A nebulous and ethereal world, a shoreline just out of reach softly brushes our ears with the rise and fall of the tide. Is it the ocean or the muffled chorus of relentless sorrow? A sea of lost souls drowning in unfulfilled mortal desire. We catch a glimpse of the GODDESS OF DEATH. Her long, dark hair dances around her in the wind. Her arms open wide and her chest lifts toward the sky…

Ram V is the award-winning author and creator of comics & graphic novels such as The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, Rare Flavours, Dawnrunner, the Eisner winning Blue in Green and The One Hand & Six Fingers.

Filipe Andrade is a Portuguese multi-disciplinary visual artist. Graduated in Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, he has collaborated and published with BOOM! Studios, Marvel, Passion Studios, and Riot Games.

In just a few weeks, the curtain will rise on the 2026-2027 season marked by the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram and Minita Gandhi’s The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. It will be a special moment in many ways and the culmination of a process that kicked off several years ago and that has involved every corner of the company.

Read more to look back on some of the milestones that brought us to this moment.

Early Set and Costume Renderings

Enjoy a sneak peek into the visual world of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr with slideshows of early set renderings and costume designs from designers Oana Botez and Mimi Lien.

Building World Premiere Costumes

Collaborating closely with Costume Designer Oana Botez, Costume Director Corinna Bakken recently traveled to New York City to find the fabrics that best capture the story to help bring this opera to life.