Stage and Intimacy Director Sara E. Widzer is thrilled to begin her 2023-24 season reuniting with composer, Carla Lucero, in directorial debut at Opera Birmingham with the world premiere of TOUCH! She makes an additional debut at the Eklund Opera Program with Amy Beach’s Cabildo and Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, followed by her return to the UCLA Opera Program directing an evening of opera scenes. An avid educator, this season she also serves as Guest Lecturer and Acting Coach at both the University of Colorado and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Recent directorial projects include Handel’s Semele at Opera Santa Barbara, La bohème at Cal State Northridge, and an innovative new program Acadia Diner at the Music Academy of the West in collaboration with composer Tom Cipullo. She created a new production of La Tragedié de Carmen which debuted at Opera Santa Barbara with subsequent performances at Charleston Opera Theatre and Velaa Private Island in The Maldives. Additional directing credits include La Morte D’Orfeo with LA Opera; Juana with Opera UCLA; Monkey See, Monkey Do with Long Beach Opera; Woman of Salt with Eugene Opera; and Carmen with The Rochester Philharmonic and Orlando Opera, alongside leading remount productions of The Flying Dutchman with Virginia Opera and Hawaii Opera Theatre and The Music Man with the Royal Opera House of Muscat. Equally at home in the world of theatre, she has directed productions of Reasons to be Pretty with the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute; In Their Own Words: A Conversation with Weill, Wilson and Verdi with the Glimmerglass Festival; and Dinner and a Funeral with The Actors Studio. 

As an Intimacy Director, she serves as the Consent and Intimacy Director Consultant for LA Opera and as the Intimacy Director for the company’s 2023-24 season opening production of Don Giovanni. She returns for the remainder of the season as Intimacy Director for the historic Los Angeles premiere of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA; La Traviata; and Turandot. Previous appointments as Intimacy Director include Washington National Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and Opera UCLA, as well as acting as the first ever Intimacy Director and Acting Coach at Music Academy of the West. Additionally, she was the Intimacy Coordinator for the film After Glow directed by Ryan McKinny starring John Holiday based on Franz Schubert’s Winterreise.

Ms. Widzer received her MM in Opera Directing from Florida State University, her BA in theatre from Connecticut College, and holds the Artist’s Diploma in Classical Acting/Shakespeare from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is tenured faculty at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and is a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio. She currently makes her home in Los Angeles, CA.

For more information, visit saraewidzer.com.