What the critics say about Director Stephanie Vlahos
A Lion in Winter Director Stephanie Vlahos
Director Stephanie Vlahos, who had been a professional opera singer, understands that The Lion in Winter is the stuff of grand opera. She gives the confrontations between the characters an intensity that arias were made to capture
Greg Simay, My Burbank – A Lion in Winter
Ian Buchanan, and Mariette Hartley in The Lion in Winter.
Director Stephanie Vlahos.
Director Stephanie Vlahos keeps a tight rein on her cast; they act large but never over the top. Their emotions are real and true.
Rob Stevens, My Haines – A Lion in Winter
With drama on as a majestic a scale as this, Stephanie Vlahos proves an inspired choice to direct the near operatic Lion In Winter, a play which she stages quite grandly indeed, beginning with a striking opening sequence which has characters striding across the stage one by one as Eleanor looks down from her prison tower.
Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA – A Lion in Winter
The Morini Strad Director Stephanie Vlahos
The Morini Strad, written by Willy Holtzman, Director Stephanie Vlahos.
Starring Mariette Hartley.
Director Stephanie Vlahos reworks genre conventions to delicately rubato effect.
David Nichols – LA Times – The Morini Strad
Under Stephanie Vlahos’ brilliant direction, the monologues interweave like the musical lines of a duet. We begin to see that playwright Willy Holzman intends Erica and Brian to become aware of a deeper unity that already exists between them.
– MyBurnbank – Greg Simay – The Morini Strad
Stephanie Vlahos’s theatrical direction, weaving seamlessly from grand to delicately nuanced, seems orchestrated as a musical composition rather than a play.
Backstage – Travis Michael Holder – The Morini Strad
Old Wicked Songs Director Stephanie Vlahos
Jon Marans’ 1996 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Old Wicked Songs.
Director Stephanie Vlahos
Director Stephanie Vlahos guides the remarkably natural performances with a light hand.
Culture Monster – LA Times– Old Wicked Songs
The Colony’s director, Stephanie Vlahos, is a former professional opera singer herself, and her knowledge of the interplay between teacher and student is probably more authentic than you’ll encounter in most revivals of Marans’ work.
LA Stage Times – Don Shirley, Old Wicked Songs
She has found two actors in Towey and Danz who convincingly play and sing their own music without relying on recordings ““ and they are no less convincing in their spoken dialogue. This is a remarkable revival of a play that appears to be close to achieving classic stature.
Amahl and the Night Visitors Director Stephanie Vlahos
Gian Carlo Menotti’s beloved Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Director Stephanie Vlahos.
Featuring Malcolm McDowell.
The one act is filled with “unabashed whimsicality,” as Director Stephanie Vlahos notes in the program.
Pasadena Star News – Robert Thomas,
She does an effective job of accentuating those qualities by telling the story without resorting to unnecessary gimmicks, aided by Kate Bergh’s costumes, Jared A. Sayeg’s lighting scheme, and Conny Mathot’s choreography.
about Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Pasadena Playhouse
Stephanie Vlahos: Short Bio
Stephanie Vlahos comes to the directing profession with the experience of a former, professional opera singer with a crossover edge.
Her career has ranged in its collaborative work with artists such as Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Van Dyke Parks, John Adams, Ry Cooder, Sir Peter Hall, Peter Sellars, and Don Was.
Diva
A recipient of the Chanel Diva Award, Stephanie has sung in opera houses nationally and internationally. In addition to her direction of and performances in cabaret-influenced performance art devoted to the music of European cabaret.
Nominated
Nominated for the prestigious United States Artists Grant in directing, Stephanie has directed sold-out performances of Le Nozze Di Figaro and Don Giovanni for California State University.
Two critically successful productions of Old Wicked Songs and The Morini Strad at the Colony Theater, La Boheme with Lyric Opera Virginia, and Britten’s Little Sweep in collaboration with Maestro James Conlon in addition to a collaboration with the Confucius Institute on a production conceived and directed by Stephanie entitled Pacific Cinderella.
Boutique
Her boutique company, Opera Posse, hit the ground running with a critically-acclaimed production of Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Pasadena Playhouse with Malcolm McDowell reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales.
Hybrid
Her hybrid production of the opera Carmen (Carmen High) was featured in Getty Images and received 5-stars at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Thornton School of Music
Stephanie served on the Thornton School of Music, Board of Councilors at the University of Southern California and has worked as a stage director at a number of universities, including her work as Stage Director and Theater Coach for the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera.
Director
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Love Festive celebration with Night Visitors
Amahl and the Night Visitors by Italian-born American composer Gian Carlo Menotti Directed by Stephanie Vlahos. In the 1950s, Menotti was the toast of…