Deborah Brevoort

Deborah Brevoort writes plays, musicals and opera librettos. She is best known for her play THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE, which is produced internationally. Her latest play, MY LORD, WHAT A NIGHT, about Marian Anderson and Albert Einstein, was produced at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC and has been optioned for productions on the West End and Broadway. She is the winner of the 2023 Campbell Opera Librettist Prize from Opera America and was appointed as the 2023 Librettist Mentor for Washington National Opera’s “American Opera Initiative” at the Kennedy Center. Deborah is the librettist for 10 operas that have been commissioned and produced at leading opera companies in the US.  THE KNOCK, with Alexandra Vrebalov, was commissioned by Glimmerglass Festival, where it was made into a live-action movie that is available to stream on YouTube.  It premiered on stage at Cincinnati Opera in June 2023. Her other operas include:   MURASAKI'S MOON, with Michi Wiancko, (Metropolitan Museum of Art, On Site Opera and American Lyric Theater; upcoming: Hub City Opera in 2024); QUAMINO’S MAP with Errollyn Wallen (Chicago Opera Theatre); EMBEDDED with Patrick Soluri, (American Lyric Theater, Ft. Worth and Fargo Morehead Operas); STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME with Gerald Cohen, (Opera Colorado); DINNER 4 3 , a 10-minute sex farce, with Michael Ching for the Decameron Opera Coalition; THE POLAR BAT (a contemporary version of Die Fledermaus) and a new version of Mozart’s THE IMPRESARIO (Anchorage Opera); and ALBERT NOBBS with Patrick Soluri.  Deborah is a three-time winner of the Frontier’s Competition at Ft. Worth Opera for EMBEDDED, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME and ALBERT NOBBS, and a two-time winner of the Frederick Loewe award in musical theatre for COYOTE GOES SALMON FISHING, her GMTWP thesis musical written with GMTWP alum Scott Davenport Richards, and KING ISLAND CHRISTMAS with David Friedman. Current musical projects include: book and lyrics for LOVING, about Loving vs. State of Virginia, with composer Diedre Murray; book and co-lyrics for TIFFANY GIRL, about Clara Driscoll, the true creator of the Tiffany Lamp, with composer/lyricist Julianne Wick Davis; THE RED THREAD, an opera about American adoptions of Chinese girls, with composer Wang Lu; and an operatic adaptation of her play THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE with Shawn E. Okpebholo. She is a member of the Playwrights Collective at Florida Studio Theatre, where she was commissioned to write THE DROLLS, a comedy about the outlaw actors of Puritan England.  Her other plays include THE POETRY OF PIZZA, THE BLUE-SKY BOYS, THE COMFORT TEAM, THE VELVET WEAPON, and SIGNS OF LIFE, which have been produced at theatres around the US, including Purple Rose, The New Group, Women’s Project, Virginia Stage, Mixed Blood, Barter Theatre, Capital Rep and others. BLUE MOON OVER MEMPHIS, her Noh Drama about Elvis Presley, will tour Japan in July 2024 in a production by Theatre Nohgaku of Tokyo featuring traditional Noh orchestrations by Richard Emmert. Deborah serves as a mentor to the NBO Musical Theatre Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, which is developing new musicals by Kenyan composers and writers. She was an original company member with Perseverance Theatre in Alaska. She is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders, dedicated to international theatre exchange. Her plays are published by Samuel French, Applause Books, Dramatist Play Service and No Passport Press. She also teaches in the graduate playwriting program at Columbia University.