The Stage of Dreams’ rock opera “The Duality Conflict” will get its biggest production yet with a performance Saturday at the Columbiana Arts Theater.

The band — Daniel Butch and Janelle Lawless, lead vocals; Dion Pomponio and Jim Carsone, guitars; Chris Marriotti, bass; and Shaun McConnell, drums — drew inspiration from hard rock concept albums like Queensryche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” for the album, which was released in January 2024.

Butch envisioned a live show more suitable for a stage than a bar while the album was being made, but finding a suitable location has been a challenge until this weekend.

“A couple of band members reached out to the Columbiana theater and they welcomed us to do a show there,” Butch said. “This will be our second performance with it.”

The concept deals with a former soldier whose wife is abducted. Distraught and court martialed by the military, he attempts suicide and wakes up in another realm, where an executioner recruits him to track down evil souls. His first target is the man — or, in this case, vampire — who kidnapped his wife.

Joining the band for the Columbiana show will be performers from Rust Belt Theater Company in Youngstown, and they will dramatize portions of the story.

“Our guitar player, Jimmy Carsone, is friends with a guy named Keith Stepanic (who has performed in and directed shows at Rust Belt),” Butch said.

“He told him about it, and Keith was really interested in it and was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this.'”

The collaboration has allowed the concept album to evolve in new ways.

“Letting more people in has been a good thing,” Butch said. “It’s led to a better backstory, another story within the story, and it just keeps growing.

“It can be a little bit tough at times, because you’ve got to set your ego aside and listen to what other people are saying and contributing. I’m all for it. It was a good decision.”

The band also collaborated with Hubbard filmmaker William Victor Schotten on a video for “Killingback Woods,” one of the 17 tracks on “The Duality Conflict.” It won best music video last fall from the New York Independent Cinema Awards.

Butch said he hopes Saturday’s production leads to more opportunities to stage “The Duality Conflict.”

“Definitely, we want to do more shows,” he said. “Hopefully it won’t be as hard to book the next shows as it was this one.We need a certain size venue, and we also need people that are willing to take a risk on something that’s a little bit different.”

If you go …

WHAT: The Stage of Dreams — “The Duality Conflict”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Columbiana Arts Theater, 5 N. Main St., Columbiana

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $20 and are available online at www.atthecat.com.