Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 7 The Light in the Piazza

Lyric Opera House | 26 CRAIG LUCAS WRITER Plays: Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, God’s Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Prayer for My Enemy, The Singing Forest, Ode to Joy, I Was Most Alive With You and Death of the Republic. Screenplays: Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss and The Dying Gaul. Libretti: The Light in the Piazza (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), An American in Paris (music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin), 3 Postcards (music and lyrics by Craig Carnelia), Two Boys (composed by Nico Muhly, U.S. premiere at the Metropolitan Opera), Orpheus in Love (composed by Gerald Busby), Amélie (music by Dan Messe), Wine & Roses (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel), Three Women (co-authored with Frankie Krainz, composed by Gerald Busby). Direction: The Light in the Piazza (world premiere at Intiman Theater), This Thing of Darkness (Atlantic Theater Co.), Saved or Destroyed (Rattlestick), Play Yourself (NYTW), Ode to Joy (Rattlestick at Cherry Lane Theater). Films: The Dying Gaul and Birds of America. Awards: Longtime Companion won the Sundance Audience Award and The Secret Lives of Dentists won the New York Film Critics’ Award for Best Screenplay. He has been a Pulitzer finalist and won three Obie awards. He received three Tony nominations. ADAMGUETTEL COMPOSER Adam Guettel recently scored Aaron Sorkin’s Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work. His musical The Light in the Piazza (cast album on Nonesuch Records), with a book by Craig Lucas, premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater’s Vivian Beaumont Theater in April 2005 and went on to receive six 2005 Tony Awards includ-ing two for Mr. Guettel (Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations) and a Grammy nomination for Best Cast Recording. The Light in the Piazza also received five Drama Desk Awards, including two for Mr. Guettel (Best Music, Best Orchestrations). He wrote music and lyrics for Floyd Collins, which received the 1996 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical and earned Mr. Guettel the Obie Award for Best Music. Saturn Returns (recorded by Nonesuch as Myths and Hymns) was produced in an extended run at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1998. Currently, Mr. Guettel is in pre-production with three new musicals; Days of Wine and Roses (book by Craig Lucas), Millions (book by Robert Martin) and Twins (book by Theresa Rebeck and lyrics by Michael Korie). Accolades for Mr. Guettel include the Stephen Sondheim Award (1990), the ASCAP New Horizons Award (1997), and the American Composers Orchestra Award (2005). DANIEL EVANS DIRECTOR In 2016, he was appointed Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre, where he has directed numerous productions, following seven years as the Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. At Sheffield, his work as a director included Show Boat , Flowers for Mrs. Harris (both were joint winners of the Best Musical Production at the UK Theatre Awards), Oliver! (Best Regional Production, WhatsOnStage Awards), This is My Family (Best Musical Production, UK Theatre Awards), My Fair Lady (Best Regional Production, WhatsOnStage Awards) and The Full Monty (Best Touring Production, UK Theatre Awards). As an actor, he appeared in Company , The Pride , Cloud Nine and The Tempest , which transferred to the Old Vic Theatre, London. Sheffield Theatres won The Stage’s Regional Theatre of the Year Award in 2013, 2014 and 2016. West End productions include Quiz , Show Boat , The Full Monty and American Buffalo . Other theater work includes numerous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre; Merrily We Roll Along (Olivier Award) for the Donmar Warehouse and Sunday in the Park with George (Olivier Award, Tony nomination) at the Menier Chocolate Factory, the West End and on Broadway. He is a Fellow of the Guildhall School and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. KIMBERLYGRIGSBY CONDUCTOR Kimberly Grigsby is a New York-based music director, conductor and pianist. Broadway credits include To Kill a Mockingbird, Head Over Heels, Amélie, Spider- Man: Turn Off the Dark, Spring Awakening, The Light in the Piazza, Caroline, or Change, The Full Monty, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Twelfth Night. Off-Broadway: The Lucky Ones, Here Lies Love, The Fortress of Solitude, Coraline, Mother Courage and Her Children, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Immigrant, Radiant Baby and Songs from an Unmade Bed. Other collaborations include My Life is a Fairy Tale and Orphan of Zhao by Stephin Merritt, Telaio: Desdemona by Susan Botti, and the premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me for Washington National Opera. As a pianist, she has appeared in concert with Jose Llana, Michael Winther, Michael Friedman, Tonya Pinkins, Capathia Jenkins, Jay Hunter Morris, Maria Friedman and Adam Guettel. She holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Manhattan School of Music. ROBERT JONES DESIGNER West End credits include Ragtime, The Sound of Music (also Toronto, UK tour, Tokyo, China, South Africa and Australia), Calendar Girls (also Toronto, Australia and UK tour), Heroes (also Geffen Playhouse), The Wizard of Oz (also Toronto, Australia and U.S. tour) and Rock ‘n’ Roll (also Broadway). As an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has designed numerous productions there. Elsewhere, he has designed for the National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Old Vic and Chichester Festival. Opera: Tristan and Isolde (Tokyo, Vienna), Giulio Cesare (Glyndebourne, Chicago), The Coronation of Poppea (Paris, Berlin), Anna Bolena, Giulio Cesare, Norma and Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan Opera), Andrea Chenier (Covent Garden, Barcelona, San Francisco and Beijing) and On the Town (English National Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet). BRIGITTE REIFFENSTUEL COSTUME DESIGNER Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes have been seen on stages all over the world, for the past twenty years. She made her LA Opera debut with Madama Butterfly in 2016. Her work has taken her to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, London’s Royal Opera House, La Scala in Milan, Chicago Lyric, the Bastille in Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and many more. Born in Munich, she moved to London to study at the London College of Fashion, and St Martin’s School of Art, where she attended classes led by the acclaimed illustrator Howard Tangue. In 2014, she designed the costumes for Kate Bush’s acclaimed Before the Dawn concerts in London. She was given the Oscar della Lirica for Achievement in Costume Design, presented at the International Opera Awards, and the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design. MARK HENDERSON LIGHTING DESIGNER Mark Henderson made his LA Opera debut with The Turn of the Screw in 2011. He was the recipient of six Olivier Awards for Lighting Design, the 2013 and 2014 Whatsonstage lighting design award, a 2006 Tony Award, and he has also received a Welsh BAFTA. He has lit extensively for all the major theater,