Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 5 - Blue

33 | Lyric Opera of Chicago production of Porgy and Bess , broadcast Live from Lincoln Center, received Emmy award nominations for Best Director and Best Production: Classical Music. Among numerous other operas, his directing credits include Dialogues of the Carmelites , Death in Venice , Xerxes , Carmen , Don Giovanni , The Tender Land , Street Scene , The Pearl Fishers , Norma , Margaret Garner , A Midsummer’s Night Dream , Patience , and Freedom Ride . His theater directing credits include the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Arena Stage, the Goodman, Seattle Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, Hartford Stage, Second Stage, Guthrie, Indiana Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Huntington Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Rep, City Theatre, Virginia Stage, and the Old Globe, among others. DONALD EASTMAN SET DESIGNER Lyric debut The acclaimed designer’s premiere productions include Blue (The Glimmerglass Festival), Steve Reich’s 3 Tales (BAM), Phillip Glass’s Appomattox (Washington National Opera), Douglas Cuomo’s Arjunas Dilema (BAM), and Leslie Savoy Burrs’s Vanqui (Columbus Opera). He made his professional debut with La Voix Humaine at the Lisbon Opera and then in America with Conrad Susa’s Transformations at the Spoleto Festival USA. His work has been seen at NYC Opera, Dallas Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theatre, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Dutch National Opera, and Canadian Opera Company. Eastman’s designs for theater include productions at The Goodman, Guthrie, Arena Stage, New York Shakespeare Festival at The Public and on Broadway, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, and ACT San Francisco. Eastman has received an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence. JESSICA JAHN COSTUME DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: West Side Story (2022/23, 2018/19), Norma (2016/17), and Anna Bolena (2014/15). Jahn has collaborated with directors Francesca Zambello, Diane Paulus, Tina Landau, Tommy Kail, Jessica Blank, and Kenny Leon; writers Nora Ephron, Eisa Davis, Charles Busch, Charles Fuller, Tracy K. Smith, and Mark Campbell; and some of her past projects include Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth Theatre), Coal Country (The Public Theater), Blue (The Glimmerglass Festival), Orpheus and Eurydice (San Francisco Opera), Monodramas (New York City Opera), The Crucible (The Glimmerglass Festival), The Manchurian Candidate (Minnesota Opera, world premiere), Dead Man Walking (Washington National Opera), and Moby Dick (Utah Opera). She has taught at both NYU and Rutgers University, and is an Adjunct Costume Design Professor with Brandeis University’s Theater Arts Department. She is currently working toward her Master’s in Cultural Anthropology at Hunter College. Costume Designers are supported by the Richard P.and Susan Kiphart Costume Designer endowment. ROBERT WIERZEL LIGHTING DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: The Marriage of Figaro (2024/25, 2015/16), Macbeth (2010/11), and Partenope (2002/03). The designer’s work has appeared in productions with opera companies in New York (The Glimmerglass Festival, NYCO), Paris, Tokyo, Norway, Toronto, Vancouver, Wexford, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, Portland, Denver (Opera Colorado), Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis, among others. He designed Partenope at Lyric in the 2002/03 Season. Broadway productions include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill , the musical FELA! (Tony Award nomination), and David Copperfield’s Dreams and Nightmares . Upcoming work includes STILL/HERE , a dance- theatre piece with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Siegfried at The Atlanta Opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Washington National Opera, Leopoldstadt at Huntington Theatre Company in Boston and Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D. C., and Rigoletto at LA Opera. Wierzel’s dance work includes more than 35 years with Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. He has designed at most regional theaters across the country, including The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, and the Mark Taper Forum, among many others. Wierzel is a creative partner at Spark Design Collaborative and is on the faculty of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Design for Stage & Film. Lighting designers are supported by the Mary-Louise and James S.Aagaard endowment in honor of Duane Schuler. JOHN METZNER WIGMASTER AND MAKEUP DESIGNER The versatile designer first joined the staff of Lyric for the 2022/23 Season. He has previously collaborated with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, and Court Theatre. He served for nine years as Head of Wig and Makeup for Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts, and designed hair and makeup for more than 50 performances at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Other regional credits include work at The Muny, Great River Shakespeare Festival, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he designed for The Pirates of Penzance , among many other productions. His advanced training includes wig styling at the Wig Room Training Academy and London School of Wig Making. John Metzner is supported by The Marlys A. Beider Wigmaster and Makeup Designer Endowed Chair.