Ian Silverman, director
James Rotondo, set designer
Marcella Barbeau, lighting designer
Travis Chinick, costume designer
Nora Winsler, choreographer

Fellow Travelers
by Gregory Spears/Greg Pierce

This production explores the intimacy of queer love within the mounting pressure of a society, and in particular a government, that sees non-heterosexuality as a threat. Hawk and Tim’s private moments are juxtaposed within a larger bureaucratic machine that augments the surveillance threat. Through this look into the past, we hold up a mirror to our present. In a society where Obergefell is in danger and Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill threatens the lives of queer people to live as their authentic selves, this production highlights the audacity of queer love.

Ian Silverman, director
Ian Silverman (he/him)/his) is a Long Island-based stage director. He has worked on the directing staffs of The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Colorado, and On Site Opera, among others. This past summer, Silverman served as the assistant director on the world premiere of Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman’s Awakenings, directed by James Robinson, as well as Glimmerglass’ new production of The Sound of Music, directed by Francesca Zambello. This season, Silverman will remount Francesca Zambello’s production of The Sound of Music at Arizona Opera as well as co-direct Papermoon Productions’ Barber of Seville and Werther with Fenlon Lamb. This summer, he returns to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to assist James Robinson on a new production of Tosca as well as to co-direct the Centerstage Concert. He is passionate about contemporary opera and has worked on 11 world premieres, including Awakenings, Holy Ground, and The Knock. Silverman received his master’s degree in opera stage directing from the Eastman School of Music in 2020.

James Rotondo, set designer
James F. Rotondo III (he/him/his) is a Boston-based theater artist originally from Rhode Island. Combining his background in visual arts, experience as a performer onstage, and passion for dynamic performance, Rotondo brings a unique approach to storytelling through expressive and bold spaces that support and enhance the story. He is particularly interested in exploring conventional performance spaces in unconventional ways and bringing stories beyond the traditional in both location and expectation. Recent work includes the world-premiere operas Holy Ground (Geter/Palmer) presented with Taking Up Serpents (Sankaram/Dye) as well as The Jungle Book (Sankaram/Rourke) at The Glimmerglass Festival. Upcoming designs include Rigoletto with Intermountain Opera Bozeman and a new musical version of Make Way for Ducklings at Wheelock Family Theatre.

Marcella Barbeau, lighting designer
Marcella Barbeau (she/her/hers) is a New York City-based lighting designer. Recent credits include Cabaret and As One (The Atlanta Opera); You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Village Theatre); The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (co-design, Austin Opera); Five Guys Named Moe (Playhouse on Park); Murder on the Orient Express and Meet Me in St. Louis: A Live Radio Play (Sierra Repertory Theatre); The Threepenny Carmen and The Threepenny Opera (The Atlanta Opera); and Trayf (New Repertory Theatre). Upcoming projects include Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon (Lookingglass Theatre) and María de Buenos Aires (OPERA San Antonio). As a Chinese American lighting designer, Barbeau actively seeks to collaborate with and amplify the voices of fellow BIPOC artists of all intersectionalities.

Travis Chinick, costume designer
Travis Chinick (he/him/his) is a costume designer and painter based out of the tri-state area. In the past, he has worked as the costume painter at the Metropolitan Opera and the assistant costume designer for the 2014 revival of Les Misérables, and he most recently assisted at The Glimmerglass Festival for the world premiere of Tenor Overboard. Chinick has freelanced Off-Broadway and regionally. Some highlights include Mysterio! Magic Rocks the Night (Holiday World and Splashing Safari), Cinderella (Trollwood Performing Arts), and Bodas De Sangre (Yale). He is currently designing the world premiere of The Brightest Thing in the World at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Chinick is an M.F.A. costume design candidate at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and is expected to graduate in the spring of 2023.

Nora Winsler, choreographer
Nora Winsler (she/her/hers) is a director/choreographer of theater and opera based out of her 2004 Honda Accord. After graduating from James Madison University’s School of Music in 2019, Winsler has worked on productions at The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera North, Opera Columbus, Manhattan School of Music, PROTOTYPE Festival, and Virginia Opera (where she is currently finishing her second season as resident assistant director). Winsler is dedicated to expanding the use of movement in opera, a mode of storytelling that she feels is too often underutilized with regard to singers. She aims to create organic choreography that supports the story and also fits singers’ individual abilities. Winsler is on track to continue building her intimacy director qualifications with IDC and TIE. 

Claire Choquette, director
Josafath Reynoso, set designer
Scott Hynes, lighting designer
Hsiao-Wei Chen, costume designer
Danielle Georgiou, choreographer

Salome
by Richard Strauss/Hedwig Lachmann

In a dark and foreboding space, the tension between overwhelming passion and unraveling social order reveals a gripping narrative of eroticism and self-destruction. In the modern-day cult of Herodium, dedicated members pursue spirituality through exploration in psychedelic drugs and free love. By the time we encounter the group, their charismatic leader Herod has been driven to madness. Believing that the end is near, he has become paranoid and moved the cult into a dilapidated factory where the walls are scribbled with prophecies and drawings. Here amidst ruin unfolds a sordid modern twist on the familiar story of Salome, thrumming with sexual desire, religious prophecy, and vengeance, where paranoia and psychosis weave themselves into an ever-denigrating plot following the intermingled lives of the group’s chosen elite. 

Claire Choquette, director
Stage director, critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano, and versatile visual artist Claire Choquette (she/her/hers) is an artistic force of nature. After co-founding Opera Amici in 2020, she served as the executive producer for their inaugural production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in Oklahoma City, which was performed for three sold-out audiences. Choquette was the resident assistant director at Painted Sky Opera for its 2021–2022 season, working on productions of Three Decembers, Pagliacci, Carmen, and Scalia/Ginsburg. While pursuing her master’s degree at Louisiana State University, she assistant directed Massenet’s Manon and sang the roles of Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Dot (Sunday in the Park with George), Olga (Eugene Onegin), and Zosia (Two Remain), among others. She is currently the resident stage director of Dallas’ Opera in Concert and the assistant director at The Dallas Opera Outreach, also appearing as a singer on their roster.

Josafath Reynoso, set designer
Award-winning scenic designer Josafath Reynoso (he/him/his) was born in Mexico and was awarded the Gold Medal for Scenic Design at the World Stage Design 2017 in Taiwan for his production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He is the recipient of the 2021 Virginia Theatre Critics Circle Award, 2015 USITT Scenic Design Award, 2014 SETC Scenic Design Award, and 2013 Regional Broadway World Award, among others. In the U.S., he has designed for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, ZACH Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Clarence Brown Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse, Warehouse Theatre, Triad Stage, and Lexington Children's Theatre, among others. International credits include new productions for Teatro Salvador Novo, Foro Antonio López Mancera, UNAM Facultad de Arquitectura, and Teatro Esperanza Iris in Mexico; Teatro del Borde in Argentina; Escena 8 in Venezuela; and KCDC in Israel.

Scott Hynes, lighting designer
Scott Hynes (he/him/his) is a freelance lighting designer in Oklahoma City. He has worked on countless theater, movie, and industrial productions in and around the OKC area for the past 10 years. Unconventionally trained, Hynes cut his teeth learning the trade the hard way in storefront community theaters, working and learning from his mentors, until he became technical director for Painted Sky Opera. There, he designed sets and lights for Rigoletto, As One, Scalia/Ginsburg, Tosca, and Carmen, among others. As a guest designer, Hynes has also worked with Opera UCO, Jewel Box Theatre, Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, Oklahoma City Theatre Company, and Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, and he is the resident lighting designer for Perpetual Motion Dance, OKC’s only professional modern dance company. In his free time, Hynes is a professional tap dancer, avid fisherman, and trained chef.

Hsiao-Wei Chen, costume designer
Hsiao-Wei Chen (she/her/hers) is a visual storyteller, scenographer, and artist based in Austin, Texas, and Taiwan. She enjoys visual storytelling with her diverse skills and broad aesthetic to create both environment and character. With both a design and management training background, Chen excels in cooperation, communication, and creative thinking. Her works include film, music video, theater, opera, musicals, and dance, and she is eager to explore more storytelling formats. Some of her credits include a Silver Remi award at WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival (Lose Myself, production design); the Audience Award and the New Talent Jury Award at the 2019 National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle (Lucky Girl, production design); and Special Mention at the 2019 Kaohsiung Film Festival in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Chi: the method of breathing, costume design).

Danielle Georgiou, choreographer
Danielle Georgiou (she/her/hers) is a Dallas-based director, choreographer, filmmaker, and performance artist. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally; most recently, her videos have been screened in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Germany, Italy, and Cyprus. Since 2011, she has been the artistic director of the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group (DGDG), an ensemble-based dance theater company that produces original dance plays, musicals, and theatrical films. DGDG was selected as Best Dance Troupe of 2020, 2017, and 2015 by the Dallas Observer and Best Dance Company of 2016 by the readers of D Magazine. Georgiou was the associate artistic director of Dallas’ Undermain Theatre from 2019 to 2022. She holds a Ph.D. in aesthetic studies from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Alison Pogorelc, director
Ember Streshinsky, set designer
Morgan Williams, choreographer
Zhang Yu, costume designer
Avi Sheehan, lighting designer
Camilla Tassi, projection/video designer

Salome
by Richard Strauss/Hedwig Lachmann

This production of Salome follows the opera’s titular character as she searches for autonomy in a world defined by God’s autocratic power and the shadow it casts on his blind disciples. Over the course of the opera, Salome breaks free from the material and aesthetic objectification of her body and ultimately transforms into a divine prophetess of enlightenment. Using the technique of shadow play, this production will explore the materialistic environment of Herod’s palace as existing in the cold, pious shadow of God (der Schatten Gottes).

Alison Pogorelc, director
American director of opera, theater, and film, Alison Pogorelc (she/her/hers) is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This season, she joined the assistant stage directing staff at the Metropolitan Opera and made her West Coast debut, directing Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-bleue for West Edge Opera. Additionally, she directed Wolf Trap Opera’s Studio Showcase and returned to Cincinnati to direct Handel’s Agrippina at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she previously directed L’Amant Anonyme and is pursuing her artist diploma. Pogorelc frequently collaborates with Early Music Now, producing and directing narrative films centered around baroque arias. Previously, she has assisted at Cincinnati Opera, Florentine Opera Company, The Glimmerglass Festival, and PROTOTYPE Festival. Pogorelc is the recipient of the National Opera Association’s 2022 JoElyn Wakefield-Wright Stage Director Fellowship.

Ember Streshinsky, set designer
Ember Streshinsky (they/them/their, she/her/hers) is a scenic designer specializing in theater and opera. They are currently an M.F.A. candidate in scenic design at California Institute of the Arts. Recent design credits include Eliogabalo and Breaking the Waves with West Edge Opera. Recent assistant credits include Roberto Zucco with CalArts, Julius Caesar and Coraline with West Edge Opera, and Yerma with the University of Michigan.

Morgan Williams, choreographer
Morgan Williams (he/him/his) accepted his first professional contract to dance with Dance Kaleidoscope in Indianapolis at age 18. Following his time with Dance Kaleidoscope, Williams continued his career by performing with numerous companies: Momenta Dance Company, Cerqua Rivera, Joel Hall & Dancers, Chicago Dance Crash, Deeply Rooted, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, and Visceral Dance Chicago. In 2021, he opened the doors to his studio in the greater Milwaukee area (The Studio), which is home to his professional repertory dance company Water Street Dance Milwaukee. Williams has choreographed numerous professional works of concert dance. Recently, he has been commissioned to set works for Madison Ballet and Illinois State University. “Morgan Williams’ choreography is so unique and expressive that I would be happy if he choreographed every show in Milwaukee” (Milwaukee Magazine).

Zhang Yu, costume designer
Zhang Yu (he/him/his) is a costume designer with professional experience in theater, opera, musical, dance, and Chinese traditional opera. Deeply rooted in his diverse background and interest in bridging the gaps between design and fine art, Zhang Yu incorporates intercultural elements and interdisciplinary techniques in many of his designs on stage. Acknowledging both the designer and artist in himself, he hopes to break new ground and redefine his practice in both the studio and the theater. He wishes that his work can bring the beauty and value that all humanity shares. Zhang Yu has presented his work at the Shanghai Expo 2010, the Shanghai Art Biennial 2010, Expo Milan 2015, and Taipei Kuandu Arts Festival 2010. Zhang Yu received an M.F.A. in costume design from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was named an Elizabeth Schrader Kimberly Fellow. He is the winner of the USITT 2022 Zelma H. Weisfeld Costume Design & Technology Award, the 2020 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region Two Design Excellence for Costumes Award, and the Annual Award of the China Institute of Stage Design for Best Costume Design in 2012.

Avi Sheehan, lighting designer
Avi Sheehan (they/them/theirs) is a lighting designer for opera, dance, and theater. They are most passionate about the intersection of music, movement, and design. They are currently an M.F.A. candidate in lighting design at Northwestern University. Recent design credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Portland Center Stage, In a Grove with Northwestern Opera Theater, Men on Boats at Northwestern University, Call Me Tempest with Northwestern Dance, Safe Space at Single Carrot Theatre, and DNA at Oregon Children’s Theatre. Recent assistant credits include The Magic Flute and To the World at The Glimmerglass Festival.

Camilla Tassi, projection/video designer
Camilla Tassi (she/her/hers) is a projection/video designer, producer, and musician from Florence, Italy. Design credits include Golijov’s Falling Out of Time (Carnegie Hall), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Apollo’s Fire), Pollock’s Stinney: An American Execution (PROTOTYPE), Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage), Mozart’s Magic Flute (BOA), Talbot’s Path of Miracles (Conspirare), Massenet’s Cendrillon (Peabody Opera), Handel’s Alcina (Yale Opera), and associate design to Peter Nigrini on The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist (Hopkins Center for the Arts). Tassi enjoys bringing theatrical design to traditionally unstaged compositions, recontextualizing the repertoire with today’s audiences. For video, she has directed and edited for the Washington Chorus, Les Délices Early Music, Princeton Festival, and Chicago Ear Taxi Festival. She sang with the Schola Cantorum at Yale and has created Italian translations for groups including L’Arpeggiata. Tassi holds degrees in computer science and music from the University of Notre Dame and digital musics from Dartmouth and an M.F.A. in projection design from Yale.

Kimille Howard, director
John D. Alexander, lighting designer
Kimberly V. Powers, set designer
Danielle Preston, costume designer

Sweeney Todd
by Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler/Patrick Quentin

Who knew asylums were once a place of entertainment for the wealthy? Our production of Sweeney Todd places the iconic story in the twisted world of Bedlam Asylum as the inmates put on a show for our voyeuristic audience — paralleling current society’s voracious consumption of the macabre, grotesque, and trauma of others. With a set and costumes swallowed by shades of white, our blank canvas will become a different work of bloody art with every performance as the Grand Guignol-style violence of the production creates a dramatic splash across the stage.

Kimille Howard, director
Kimille Howard (she/her/hers) is an assistant stage director at the Metropolitan Opera, artistic director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre’s NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship, and co-founder of the Black Classical Music Archive. Recent directing credits include L’italiana in Algeri (Tulsa Opera), The Adventures of Honey and Leon (NYCCT), American Apollo (Des Moines Metro Opera), B.R.O.K.E.N Code B.I.R.D Switching (Berkshire Theatre Group), Highway 1, USA (IU Opera), Night Trip (Opera NexGen), The Visit (ECU), The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson (Glimmerglass Festival), L’Amant Anonyme (Wolf Trap Opera), Death By Life: a live virtual opera (White Snake Projects), In The Open (WCSU), Soil Beneath (Primary Stages/59E59), $#!thole Country Clapback (Loading Dock Theatre), and Skeleton Crew (TheatreSquared). Broadway credits include Ain’t Too Proud (assistant director). Her Met Opera credits include Porgy and Bess and Tosca (assistant stage director). Her recent fellowships include the NYTW 2050 Fellowship, MTC Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship, and The New Georges Directors Jam. She was a participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project.

John D. Alexander, lighting designer
Recent lighting designs of John D. Alexander (he/him/his) include The House of the Negro Insane (Contemporary American Theatre Festival); Crying on Television (Everyman Theatre); Daphne’s Dive (Signature Theatre); The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Theatre Squared); Mary’s Seacole (Mosaic Theatre Co.); and B.R.O.K.E.N. Code B.I.R.D. Switching (Berkshire Theatre Group). Off-Broadway credits include Lambs 2 Slaughter (Cherry Lane Theatre) and Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence (New Victory Theater). Upcoming designs include Detroit 67 (TheatreSquared), From the Mississippi Delta (Westport Country Playhouse), and Hula Hoopin’ Queen (Imagination Stage/Childsplay Theatre Company). He holds a B.F.A. in lighting design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Kimberly V. Powers, set designer
Kimberly Powers (she/her/hers) is an Arkansas-based set designer and artist. Regionally, her work has been seen at Syracuse Stage (NY), Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma (OK), Arkansas Repertory Theatre (AR), Florida Repertory Theatre (FL), TheatreSquared (AR), Virginia Repertory Theatre (VA), Charleston Stage (SC), Stages Rep (TX), Southern Rep (LA), Casa Mañana (TX), and Northern Stage (VT). She was the resident set designer for Ocean State Theatre Company’s inaugural season and for five years at Ohio Light Opera, as well as the first design assistant at The Denver Center Theatre Company. She has also been a freelance artist since 2000 and has worked professionally as a muralist, props master, event designer and coordinator, graphic designer, and exhibit designer. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

Danielle Preston, costume designer
Danielle Preston (she/her/hers) is a costume designer based in Washington, D.C. Recent theater design credits include designs for the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Chicago Opera Theater, Olney Theatre Center, Studio Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Theater J, Mosaic Theater Company of DC, Florida Repertory Theatre, and Berkshire Theater Group. She also works at Washington National Opera as a costume coordinator. Professional fellowships include the Kenan Costume Fellowship for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute Fellowship in Costume Design. She holds an M.F.A. in costume design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.