This week’s Chicago Reader features a story on University of Illinois Press author Henry Perritt’s new rock opera You Took My Flag Away.

You Took Away My Flag is a vanity project, written from Perritt’s heart and funded out of his own pocket. Directed by Tyler Condon—whom Perritt found on Craigslist—it has a cast of a dozen, mostly young performers. The original budget was $10,000, but Perritt now thinks “it’s probably going to cost twice that.” He figures to recoup a little on ticket sales at $20 a head, but it’s not going to be profitable, and he says profit’s not the goal. Perritt wanted to pay tribute to the KLA struggle, and hopes to get the show performed in Kosovo.