Sam Helfrich News

New York City Opera has announced Angels in America has received the Austrian Musical Theater Award for Best Contemporary Musical Theater Production for its co-production with The Salzburger Landestheater. The eleventh annual Austrian Music Theater Awards ceremony took place in Vienna City Hall, honoring exceptional works of music, theater, and musical theater, from across Austria.

Soho Rep presents the world premiere of multidisciplinary theater-maker, musician, and composer Jillian Walker's The Whitney Album. Walker's ritual performance flows between incantation, love lecture, scene, and song as it considers the labor of performance itself and honors the legacy of Whitney Houston and so many other Black women beloved, and consumed, for their art.

Soho Rep presents the world premiere of multidisciplinary theater-maker and “imaginary historian” Jillian Walker's The Whitney Album, a meditation on the artist's relationship to Whitney Houston's work and personal life, and perceptions of both in the American imagination. The production concludes a 2022-23 Soho Rep season consisting entirely of works commissioned by the organization

The American Opera Project announces Losing Control, a live performance of eleven fifteen-minute World Premiere operas, performed at 7:30pm on May 26 and 27, 2022 at NYU's Black Box Theater in NY, NY.

New York City Opera co-presents a work commissioned by the Théatre du Chatelet, Angels in America at the Salzburg State Theatre in Salzburg, Austria. The premiere will be taking place on Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 7PM with additional performances on April 12, 20, 22, 24 and May 4, 2022 at 7:30PM. Tickets start at € 18,00 and are available for purchase online at https://shop.jetticket.net/Salzburger-Landestheater/SelectSeats.aspx?msg=0&ret=0&e=9466.

New York City Opera co-presents a work commissioned by the Théatre du Chatelet, Angels in America at the Salzburg State Theatre in Salzburg, Austria. Libretto by Mari Mezei, in English with German surtitles.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has shuttered many performing arts organizations around the world, Long Beach Opera (LBO) has been industriously devising live innovative performance opportunities for both its artists and audiences. 

Tony Award-nominated playwright Neil LaBute, joined the cast and director of A DARK DARK HOUSE for a post-show discussion on Sunday, December 15. Theatre and Opera scenic designer Andromache Chalfant, moderated.

Knife Edge Production of Neil LaBute's play, In a Dark Dark House, opened on December 10 at A.R.T/New York Theatres in Midtown Manhattan. The critically acclaimed production runs through December 21.

Tony Award-nominated Reasons to Be Pretty playwright Neil LaBute will join the cast and director for a talkback following the performance of his play, In a Dark Dark House, on Sunday, December 15 at 7 pm. Andromache Chalfant (set designer for theatre & opera) will moderate.

Knidw Edge Production of Neil LaButes play, In a Dark Dark House, is currently running at A.R.T/New York Theatres in Midtown Manhattan. The production runs until December 21. The company's Resident Theatre Director, Sam Helfrich, directs.

Neil LaBute's, In a Dark Dark House, runs December 6 - 21 at A.R.T/New York Theatres in Midtown Manhattan. Opening night is slated for December 10. The drama is being presented by Knife Edge Productions, the company's Resident Theatre Director, Sam Helfrich, directs.

Knife Edge Productions is pleased to announce their next production, Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House. The play runs December 6 - 21 with opening night slated for December 10 at A.R.T/New York Theatres. In a Dark Dark House is directed by the company's Resident Theatre Director, Sam Helfrich.

Four half-hour long mini-operas inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a watershed moment in LGBTQ civil rights, will have their world premiere at NYU's Shubert Theatre on May 18, 2019 and within the modern-day Stonewall Inn itself on May 19 and 20. The mini-opera performances will conclude NYU's Stonewall at 50 Series, a collection of panels, performances, events, and discussions commemorating the riots and their legacy.

The world premiere of the video game opera PermaDeath, written by creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs and composed by Dan Visconti, the composer of Opera Philadelphia's recent Andy Warhol-themed ANDY: A Popera, takes place at Boston's Emerson Cutler Majestic Theater from September 27-29. 

The world premiere of the video game opera PermaDeath, written by creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs and composed by Dan Visconti, the composer of Opera Philadelphia's recent Andy Warhol-themed ANDY: A Popera, takes place at Boston's Emerson Cutler Majestic Theater from September 27-29. 

What's left to say about Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party"--that milestone of 20th century feminist art now on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum--that hasn't already been said? Actually, quite a bit, according to the students from the Opera Lab of NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP), who have taken a handful of the pieces and used them--and the work as a whole--as inspiration for a series of short operas, under the guidance of the Lab's co-directors, Randall Eng and Sam Helfrich.

Cerise Jacobs (photo credit: James Daniel­­­) ; Dan Visconti (photo credit: SnoStudios Photography) Tickets go on sale today for the latest brainchild of creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs, the video game opera PermaDeath. Hailed by Opera magazine as “intrepid and artistically ambitious,” Jacobs is quickly establishing a body of original operatic work that blends two of her great passions, myth and technology, in compelling and relevant contemporary stories. PermaDeath, her most technologically sophisticated work to date, premieres at Boston's Cutler Majestic Theater from September 27-29.

The Dinner Party Operas, a showcase of eleven original mini-operas inspired by Judy Chicago's iconic feminist installation The Dinner Party, a multi-media work housed in the Brooklyn Museum, will be presented this May in New York City by the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP), the Brooklyn Museum, the NYU Tisch Department of Design for Stage & Film and American Opera Projects (AOP). Six of the operas will be performed on Wednesday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. at NYU Tisch's GMTWP Black Box Theatre, located in Manhattan at 715 Broadway, between Washington and Waverly places, on the second floor. The remaining five operas will be performed on Sunday, May 27 at 2:00 p.m. at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Each under 15-minutes long, the operas were written and composed by students in the NYU Tisch GMTWP Opera Lab and will be performed by professional opera singers with piano accompaniment. The Dinner Party Operas is free with advance registration (May 23) or museum admission (May 27) and open to the public. To reserve tickets for the May 23 performance at NYU, email tisch.ipa@nyu.edu. Complete info at www.aopopera.org.

The latest undertaking for the “intrepid and artistically ambitious” (Opera magazine) creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs is the upcoming video game opera PermaDeath, premiering at Boston's Cutler Majestic Theater on September 27-29 of this year.