Sara Widzer
Sara E.Widzer, a native of Los Angeles, CA, has enjoyed success as an actress, but works primarily as a stage director and acting coach. Most recently, Ms. Widzer directed G.F. Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Charles Gounod’s Faust for Celestial Opera Company of South Pasadena, CA’s 2008-2009 season. Other Southern California directing credits include: As You Like It, Warhol style, Midnight Summer Night’s Dream, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, This is Where We Came In, The Sea Gull, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Zoo Story The Lee Strasberg Creative Center, Hollywood, CA); Shakespeare is Dead, Curse of the Golden Rose (The Actors Gang, Los Angeles, CA); Bootleggers, Kalamazoo, Dinner and a Funeral (the Actors Studio West, Los Angeles, CA). Regionally: Spring Awakening (Tansill Black Box Theatre, New London, CT). Ms. Widzer is a member of the Actors’ Studio: Playwright Director’s Unit where she workshops new plays with some of Los Angeles’ most esteemed writers. Ms. Widzer teaches acting and “voice/speech for the actor” to adults and children at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles, California. She is also on staff at the Young Actors Studio, and at other performing arts studios around the Los Angeles area. Ms. Widzer has a Bachelor of Arts from Connecticut College in Directing and Acting, and additional certificates from the British American Dramatic Academy and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Ms. Widzer will be stage director for Tosca and Don Giovanni at OIO for the 2010 season.
Alan Hicks
Stage Director Alan E. Hicks began his professional career at the age of sixteen as a conductor, instrumentalist and singer in his native Mississippi. During a nearly twenty-year career in the Arts, Alan's work has run the gamut and includes instrumental performance and conducting, operatic and choral performance, and theatrical and operatic stage direction.
Described as "a pleasing baritone of great promise," Alan performed with Minnesota Opera, Virginia Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, and Opera Northeast as well as concerts and recitals across the United States. In 1998, Alan originated the title role in the Virginia Opera's world premiere production of Seymour Barab's The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
From 2002 to 2006, Alan served on the faculties of the internationally acclaimed Actors Studio Drama School and American Academy of Dramatic Arts, both in New York City. Alan's former students have performed on Broadway (in Gypsy with Patti LaPone), television (CBS: Three Rivers, NBC: Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and Fox: Lie to Me), and in major motion pictures (Overture Films: Traitor, 2008). Until 2008, Alan maintained studios for singers and actors in New York City, and, in 2005, Alan produced a master class with musical theatre composer and Broadway veteran Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party, The Addams Family, jon&jen, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1999 revival), Grammy Award nominee, Outer Critics Circle).
As a director, Alan's work has been described as "gorgeous," "maturely-realized," and "real magic." A new production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, conceived and directed by Alan for the University of Texas at Austin, won First Prize in the 2007-2008 National Opera Association's Opera Production Competition. Alan has served on the staffs of Chautauqua Opera, Tulsa Opera, Green Mountain Opera Festival, and is currently on the staff of the Central City Opera. He will return to Tulsa Opera in January of 2010 to direct the touring production of The Elixir of Love.
Alan holds a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) with Vocal Emphasis from Mississippi State University, a Master of Music (MMUS) in Vocal Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Opera Directing from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. Alan is a member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA) and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). Alan will direct Carmen at OIO for the 2010 season.
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