Stephanie Vlahos is an Author. Thanks you for your interest in my new work as an Author of Visionary Fiction and a writer for stage performers with talent in music and acting.
Previously I had several websites www.voicehouseLA.com for my work Talent to mentor and coach. Also www.werglobal.show which had new works as a Creator and Performer. Now I have brought these together to develop and grow through collaboration with others as we all journey to bring voice to the word.
As an Author, our personal lives shift, and with the shifts, the balance in our careers. We make new choices in tectonic emotional jolts. I moved away from singing and directing operas or envisioning orchestral works for stage because I divorced, met a Scot, moved, changed up what had become comfortable and familiar, and have attempted to navigate the story of an American in Scotland.
Author
My father, John Vlahos, wrote for radio and the silver screen in Hollywood. Later, he wrote for early television in New York City, what some people refer to as The Golden Age of Television. He never liked living in Los Angeles, and when he discovered the lush green summers of Connecticut, he moved the family to a house on a hill.
And because I have always had a fondness for silly books that somehow pack a wallop, like Archie and Mehitabel, I have just published my little expressive absurdity about an ambivalent astronaut en route to Mars, called, JOHN K – Am I Alone? The book is also featured as a pop culture bible in the novel Mercury’s Wake – The Long Weekend.
The stories I tell can be seen as metaphor or metaphysical. They are stories about people coping under extraordinary circumstances some might characterize as sci-fi or paranormal. I might call my stories fairy tales, and if the element of sci-fi exists, it is more a reflection of possibility and personal challenge than spaceships and ray guns.
In space we face both our pasts and our futures, what we have been and where we might be going. Stephanie Vlahos becomes John K who hitches a ride on a mission to Mars – a place of potential aliens. She is inside his thoughts as he traverses the outer space – ‘I am a motorcyclist in a hailstorm recklessly speeding by the grace of a slipstream.’
Theatre Travels
Performer
In my early teens, I was asked to sing in two madrigal ensembles, one professional, the other semi-professional. I loved to harmonize and blend, even with old people…
I became a professional opera singer when a tiny voice in my chest said yes after a conductor friend suggested I might move to Los Angeles and audition for a new international opera company.
I put my bull terrier into my car and moved West, all on the whim of the word yes, and it paid off. And all those singer friends in NYC who had laughed at the idea of opera in Los Angeles started calling me, asking if I might assist them in jumping on the LA Opera bandwagon.
At one point, in all that glorious upswing, I stumbled. The opera business is both glorious and abusive. It takes great resolve to stand proud in it. Somewhere in the mix, I had forgotten my relationship to the joy of singing. I had forgotten what I had to say. So I jumped off the merry-go-round to explore solo performance under my own steam and unhindered by grand opera’s bluster and demands. I platformed my work as performance art where I could study and explore the art of cabaret, vaudeville, and music hall, creating solo shows where I received the dubious distinction from Associated Press as The Moonlighting Diva.
Creator
As I got older, moving deeper into my inner creative voice, these precious explorations into people and their stories soon matured through a different medium of expression. I became an Equity stage director. And for as much as silence can be as musical as sound, my productions always had a soundtrack.
Stephanie Vlahos regards herself as a performer’s director. Projects have included Tristan and Isolde with at the Broad Theater with Othalie Graham and Jeffrey Springer.
Tosca with Intimate Opera, Tales of Hoffmann and Cendrillon with the Cole Conservatory Opera Institute at Cal State Long Beach, The Magic Flute at the Luckman Theater, and Oliver! at the Alex Theater.
Alan Rich of the LA Weekly wrote of the Stephanie Vlahos production of Street Scene by Kurt Weill
“…a lively, beautifully staged, stark and vigorous facsimile of both drama and music…
Bringing voice to the word
Performer
Along the way I have been working as a Performer to develop and nurture new and emerging talent. New works are in development bringing original stories and compelling voices to the fore.
Reach in and don’t reach out – inspire as Collaborator and support new works.
Our stories are told dramatically, and, what I am most excited about is, many of the stories address (dramatically) the process of creation. There are so many great stories on the road to the final work. We represent both prequel, talkback, exploration, dramatic work, all in one grab.
Stephanie Vlahos – The New Current