STEPHANIE FLEISCHMANN is a librettist and playwright whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual worlds. Her “lyrical monologues” (The New York Times), “smart” libretti (Opera News), plays, and music-theater works have been presented internationally and across the U.S. Opera libretti include: THE LONG WALK, music by Jeremy Howard Beck, (American Lyric Theater/Opera Saratoga, Pittsburgh Opera, Utah Opera); IN A GROVE, music by Chris Cerrone (Mahogany Opera Group; TBA); AFTER THE STORM, music by David Hanlon (Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco); NIAGARA FALLS with composer/drummer Bobby Previte and director Daniel Fish (Hudson Opera House); THE PROPERTY (Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited; composer: Wlad Marhulets). She is currently developing new operas with composers Jeremy Howard Beck (TAINARON), Peter Knell (ARKHIPOV), Jeremy Gill (WALLIS), and Julia Adolphe (A BARREL OF LAUGHS, A VALE of TEARS).


She has received grants/fellowships/residencies including: a Virginia B Toulmin Foundation grant for her libretto for BARREL/VALE; a Venturous Capital Grant for SOUND HOUSE; 3 NYSCA Individual Artist Commissions—for her libretti for THE LONG WALK and RED FLY/BLUE BOTTLE and for SOUND HOUSE, NEA Opera/Music-Theater, Mapfund grant for THE LONG WALK, Frederick Loewe Award, Howard Fellowship in Playwriting, Tennessee Williams fellowship, New Music USA, and residencies at New Dramatists, Macdowell, American Lyric Theater, the Playwrights Center. Her work for theater has appeared at venues including EMPAC, Noorderzon (the Netherlands), Exit Festival (France), Roundhouse Studio (UK), Here Arts Center, the Ojai Festival, New Georges, and many more. Her most recent play, SOUND HOUSE, premiered in 2018 in NYC at the Flea Theater, produced by New Georges. THE SWEETEST LIFE, a new music-theater work with composer Saskia Lane, was recently developed at the New Victory, via LabWorks.