Guest Artists
Dorothy Danner
Stage Director
In the two decades since leaving her career as a dancer and actress Dorothy Danner has directed and choreographed more than 150 productions of operas, operettas, musicals, and plays. While equally at home in dramatic works, she is particularly noted for her inventive staging of comic works. Before turning to directing, Dorothy (Frank) Danner performed in many Broadway shows from the original "Once Upon a Mattress" to Michael Bennett's "Ballroom."
Dorothy Danner, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, has directed with such companies as Opera Pacific, The Atlanta Opera, Orlando Opera, Opera Omaha, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, The Minnesota Opera, The Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg, The Syracuse Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, The Glimmerglass Opera, Dayton Opera, Indianapolis Opera, The Mobile Opera, and Hawaii Opera Theatre. Her repertoire of staged productions includes Tosca, Postcard From Morocco, Albert Herring, The Mikado, La Cenerentola, La grand Duchesse de Gerolstein, Wargo's Chekhov Trilogy, Candide, Rosemarie, La traviata, Iolanthe, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tender Land, and She Loves Me.
Recent activities include Man of La Mancha at New Jersey's famed Papermill Playhouse, scenes programs and fully staged productions at Portland State University, New York University, Carnegie Mellon Institute, The Academy of Vocal Arts, and with the Young Artists Program of Pittsburgh Opera and Florida Grand Opera. Her staging of "An Evening with Gilbert & Sullivan" for The Boston Pops was televised nationally over PBS and she staged another Gilbert and Sullivan evening for The Omaha Symphony. She has also served on the faculty of The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute.
Engagements in recent seasons included Manon and The Pirates of Penzance with Piedmont Opera, Die Zauberflöte with Opera Pacific, Il barbiere di Siviglia for The Cleveland Opera, The Merry Widow with Opera Grand Rapids, La fille du regiment with The Kentucky Opera, Man of La Mancha with Opera Omaha, and South Pacific with Utah Festival Opera. Other commitments included Tosca with Virginia Opera, Falstaff with The Academy of Vocal Arts, La perichole with The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Porgy and Bess with New Orleans Opera, La Cenerentola with The Cleveland Opera, Iolanthe with Skylight Opera Theatre, and Desert Song with Utah Festival Opera.
During the 2002-03 season Dorothy Danner directed Musgrave's A Christmas Carol as well as Die Fledermaus with Virginia Opera, H.M.S. Pinafore with Opera Omaha, Die Fledermaus at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and Fiddler on the Roof at Utah Festival Opera. Future engagements include Carmen with The Cleveland Opera, The Pirates of Penzance with Fort Worth Opera, and Il barbiere di Siviglia with Portland Opera.
This past season, Ms. Danner has directed productions of Carmen, Susannah, Tartuffe, The Pirates of Penzance, and the premiere of Thea Musgrave's "Voices of Power and Protest" at the United Nations. At AVA, she has directed Elektra, Falstaff, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Madama Butterfly, the Richard Wargo opera The Chekhov Trilogy, Barber's Vanessa and Massenet's Manon.
Damon Nestor Ploumis
Stage Director
Cambridge (history), Athens University and the Ecole Biblique Française in Jerusalem (theology) and The University of East Anglia (law). Having performed over sixty roles, he now is making his American directorial debut at AVA with Così fan tutte.
Since 2000, Mr. Ploumis has been a principal guest artist with the Finnish National Opera, where he recently sang Don Profondo in Dario Fo's production of Viaggio a Reims (broadcast live throughout Europe and available on DVD). In the past seasons he has sung the roles of Don Bartolo, Dulcamara (L'Elisir d'amore), Don Magnifico in Zedda and Hampe's production of La Cenerentola, and Mephistopheles in La Damnation de Faust. He returns again in 07 and 08 to reprise both Dulcamara and Don Magnifico.
This season's appearances have been, Dulcamara, Don Magnifico (Germany), Don Profondo (Finland), Don Bartolo (le Nozze di Figaro) in Canada, Pooh Bah in The Mikado (Canada), which he also directed, as well as Don Pasquale (the UK and France). Ramfis in Aida (Thessaloniki) and the world premier of the Speed of Light, a multi media opera performed in Berlin. Making his debut at the Swedish Royal Opera in 2003, he sang Dulcamara in the Jonathan Miller production. As a member of the German National Theatre of Weimar, he has sung Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Papageno, Colline, the Grand Inquisitor and Giacinto in Galuppi's, Il Mondo alla roversa. While still at AVA he made his professional debut as Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) with the Greek National Opera, a role he has now sung in nine productions. After leaving AVA he went on to become a member of the International Opera Studio at the Opernhaus Zürich performing main stage roles including Capulet (Romeo et Juliette), which he reprised in Lübeck, Dr. Lorek (Fedora), Prichitsch (Die Lustige Witwe), and Don Profondo (Viaggio a Reims).
As well as singing and directing, Damon Nestor Ploumis conducts a regular master class in Vancouver and will be commencing a summer lyric studio in Weimar, Germany with the support of the German National Theater, where he lives with his Danish wife and two sons.
Blanka Zizka
Stage Director
Blanka Zizka (Director and co-Artistic Director) has been Co-Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater since 1981. Recently Blanka directed The Life of Galileo (5 Barrymore nominations), My Children! My Africa!, Ariel Dorfman's The Other Side starring Rosemary Harris and John Cullum at Manhattan Theatre Club, Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, the World Premiere of Raw Boys by Dael Orlandersmith, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis, (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production and Best Director), the World Premiere of Embarrassments by Laurence Klavan and Polly Pen, and the Philadelphia Premieres of Lillian Groag's The Magic Fire and Chay Yew's Red.
In 2002 she directed the World Premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman at Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, ACT in Seattle, and at The Wilma Theater. She was awarded the first Barrymore Award for Best Direction of a Play for Cartwright's Road. She directed Jiler and Leslee's Avenue X (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical), Wright's Quills (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play), and the East Coast Premiere of The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play and Best Direction of a Play).
Her other favorite productions include Orwell's Animal Farm, O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, Ionesco's Macbett, Fugard's Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Playland, Dulack's Incommunicado, Sherman's When She Danced, Stoppard's Travesties, Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Meet the Artists Freed's The Psychic Life of Savages, Klavan and Pen's Bed and Sofa, Sherwood's Spin, Thompson's Perfect Pie, Carr's Portia Coughlan and Sherman's Patience.
