Class of 2017: New Director-Designer Showcase Teams

Article Published: 02 Jan 2017

Class of 2017: New Director-Designer Showcase Teams

This fall, an independent panel convened by OPERA selected the finalists of the 2017 Director-Designer Showcase. For the first time, applicant teams had the option of creating productions for standard repertoire, in addition to 20th-century and contemporary works; significantly, two of the three selected teams were drawn to Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer. All three teams will receive $2,000 apiece to refine their concept proposals and present them at Opera Conference 2017 in Dallas this May. The designs will then be featured in eight-month rotating exhibitions in the Opera Center, beginning in summer 2017.

2017 Director-Designer Showcase Finalists Teams

Glory Denied (Tom Cipullo)
Ashley Tata, director; Stephan Moravski, scenic designer; Liene Dobraja, costume designer; Abigail Hoke-Brady, lighting designer; Brad Peterson, projection and video designer

The team envisions a Glory Denied in which an “American dream home” is fractured, with the prisons of society, matrimony and motherhood reflecting those of a POW cell.

Der fliegende Holländer (Richard Wagner)
Shannon Knox, director and scenographer; Becky Heisler, lighting designer; Gabrielle Heerschap, technical director; Micaela Tobin, sound designer and composer

This conception of Der fliegende Holländer evokes contemporary political reality, casting Senta as an isolated young woman in rural Pennsylvania who turns to extremist propaganda chatrooms for community and purpose.

Der fliegende Holländer (Richard Wagner)
Luke Harlan, director; Alexander Woodward, scenic designer; Fabian Fidel Aguilar, costume designer; Andrew F. Griffin, lighting designer; Rasean Davonte Johnson, projection designer

By contrast, this surrealistic reimagining of Der fliegende Holländer focuses on the collision of past and present. In a small English fishing village in the bleak 1980s, a poor fisherman’s daughter caresses the image of a legendary sea captain, who eventually beckons to her across the threshold of time itself.

This article was published in the Winter 2017 issue of Opera America Magazine.