Stephen Kitsakos – To speak at Friends of the Library series

 On Monday, Feb. 19, The Key West Friends of the Library will welcome Stephen Kitsakos, a writer, director, performing arts administrator, and professor of theater arts, as the next speaker in their lecture series. Talks are presented at the Key West Theater, 512 Eaton St. Admission is free. His lecture begins promptly at 6:00 p.m. Seating starts at 5:30 on a first-come, first-served basis.

Kitsakos’s work explores the connection between the healing power of the performing arts and the use of sacred texts to inspire contemporary storytelling.

He is the former executive director of the Artist in Residence Program at Holy Cross Kingston, a performance arts presentation program. While there, he directed the world premiere of the chamber opera The Other Voice: Portrait of Hilda of Whitby.

Later, he was a member of the Theatre Arts Faculty at the School of Fine & Performing Arts at SUNY New Paltz, where he taught courses in theater, cultural studies, and performance. He also directed, conducted, or composed for many productions, among them Our Town, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Hairy Ape, The Producers, Urinetown, Sunday in the Park With George, Tartuffe, and King Lear.

Kitsakos wrote the libretto for the chamber opera The Wooden Sword, with music by the American composer Sheila Silver. The two also collaborated on The White Rooster, A Tale of Compassion: Cantata for Women’s Vocal Quartet, and 6 Tibetan Singing Bowls, which was commissioned for the vocal ensemble Tapestry by the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

Most recently Kitsakos was commissioned by American Opera Projects – again in conjunction with Sheila Silver – to write the libretto for the opera adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s bestseller A Thousand Splendid Suns. The project received the exclusive opera stage rights to the novel about women in Afghanistan. The work will have its world premiere in the 2019-2020 season at The Seattle Opera.

Kitsakos and his husband reside in Key West.

For more information, go to http://friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org and click on lecture series.

PHOTO CREDIT: Contributed

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