Credits: Music and concept by Fred Ho. Book/Libretto by Ann T. Greene. Directed and choreographed by Mira Kingsley. Lighting by Allen Hahn. Costumes by Cristina Maria Ruales. Original scenic by Neil Prince. Martial arts choreography by George Crayton, III.

WARRIOR SISTERS is the imaginary meeting of four legendary female revolutionaries-China's Fa Mu Lan, the invincible and demagogic female avenger who is over 1,000 years old but doesn't look a day over 40; Nana Yaa Asantewa, the 50-year old Queen Mother and military general of The Ashante nation (pre-modern Ghana); Sieh King King, the teenage Chinese feminist reformer; and Assata Shakur, legendary leader of the Black Liberation Army and America's Most Wanted Political Fugitive. Rupturing the physical universe with her magic, Fa Mu Lan takes Nana Yaa Asantewa and Sieh King King from the 19th century, to America in the 1970's. They jailbreak the imprisoned Assata Shakur and set out to form a matriarchal guerilla army to destroy patriarchal-capitalist imperialism.

Composer Fred Ho and librettist Ann T. Greene have created a radical fantasy action-adventure opera designed to appeal to not only traditional opera lovers, but to contemporary popular music lovers, too. WARRIOR SISTERS features authentic Chinese martial arts, combines both European-classically trained and American multicultural popular singing styles, and features womyn of African and Asian descent as principals. The music blends African American and Asian American heritages. WARRIOR SISTERS shatters the sexist image of womyn characters as tragic femme fatales and docile virtuous ladies. Oh, we spell "womyn" to take out the men.

Commissioned by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Arizona State University-Tempe, the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical-Theater Program, the Margaret Jory Fairbank Copying Assistance Program of the American Music Center, Dance Theater Workshop and Aaron Davis Hall.

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