PAST PROJECTS • Philip Themio Stoddard

“HAPPILY EVER AFTER: A Modern Person’s Guide to Operetta” with New York Festival of Song (2024)

For decades, operetta charmed audiences across the globe with the promise of happy endings and the allure of sweet melodies. Its perfume is still potent – and surprisingly varied, from the wit of Gilbert & Sullivan, to the opulence of Lehár, to the grit of masters like Sondheim, Kurt Weill, and Astor Piazzolla. Happily Ever After is not just a feast for the ears but also a bracing exploration of popular culture from eight countries. Sung by a brilliant cast of artists featuring baritone Philip Stoddard, tenor Scott Rubén La Marca, and soprano Adriana Stepien, the show reunites Steven Blier with one of his favorite collaborators, the stage director Katherine M. Carter. Presented by Oysterponds Community Activities.

“On Magic” at Satellite Tribeca (2024)

Musings on the Nature of Magic broadcast live over the airwaves.

Conceived by Philip Themio Stoddard & B. Rafidi, featuring Aaron Stokes and Julian Loida.

From the heart of Philip Themio Stoddard, comes perhaps the first magic show made for airwaves. “On Magic” is a playful meditation on the nature of Magic, featuring music, storytelling, candle ritual and wonder. A feast for the senses. Join a live audience for this one-night-only-never-been-seen-before event.

“The Extinctionist” with Heartbeat Opera (2024)

A world premiere 75-minute opera, sung in English.
Composed by Daniel Schlosberg
Libretto by Amanda Quaid, based on her play
Directed by Shadi Ghaheri

A young couple is trying to have a baby. Ice caps are melting. Forests are burning. In the face of environmental collapse, one woman wonders if the best way to protect a future child is not to have one at all. It all goes according to plan until she discovers she has little choice in the matter. In this dark comedy, a woman’s body becomes a battleground of political anguish, conflicting desire, and existential dread.

Benefit Concert for Creatives Care (2023)

Philip joined award-winning pianist Michael Stephen Brown for an intimate concert to benefit the work of Creatives Care, a non-profit that provides affordable mental health care to artists.

“Camelot” Cast Recording (2023)

Philip made his Broadway debut in the 2023 Lincoln Center Theater revival of Lerner & Loewe’s CAMELOT at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. He can be heard on the Original Broadway Cast recording, streaming now.

Schubertiade (2023)

Philip joined longtime friend Dr. Allen Steere for an evening of selections from Schubert’s masterpiece to benefit the work of mental health organizations NAMI and Creatives Care.

Monday, January 16th, 2023 at 7pm

Nordic Hall, Scandinavian Cultural Center

Newton, MA

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“Sabina” in Concert (2022)

Philip reprises his role as Dr. Carl Jung in a one-night-only concert performance of Louise Beach and Willy Holtzman’s musical SABINA at The Century Club in Manhattan.

Tuesday November 29th, 2022

Recital: American Folk Set (2022)

Baritone Philip Stoddard and pianist Katelan Trần Terrell perform a program of Stephen Mark Kohn’s acclaimed American Folk song settings in recital at Music on Norway Pond.

Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 4:00 PM

Hancock, New Hampshire

“LIAR LEAR KING” (2022)

DANCE + SOUNDBED + CHAMBER POP + SHORT FILM + ANIMATION + PROJECTION

LIAR LEAR KING is an adaptation of King Lear set in New York, 1972. The story is focused not on King Lear and his tragedy, but on Cordelia his daughter, and her epic journey as she becomes a force who can mount an invasion of her own country, only to die at the hands of her own sisters. In the social and political environment of the United States, this theme resonates.

Elemental Movement features a world premiere from in-demand choreographer Danielle Rowe, in partnership with New York City-based Satellite Collective, entitled Liar Lear King, which loosely tells the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear through contemporary movement and music, set in New York City in the 1970s.

100 Offerings of Peace (2020)

Philip was engaged by The Peace Studio to curate, commission, and produce the “100 Offerings of Peace” Campaign. Between July 1st and November 1st, 2020, this campaign commissioned over 100 creatives from around the world to generate new works of art around what peace means to them amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the impassioned protests over racial injustices across our globe.

Throughout the campaign: 25 countries were engaged worldwide; brand-new daily content garnered over 1 million unique views across digital platforms; over $25,000 was invested in out-of-work artists and storytellers; 14 different partnerships were forged with nonprofits on co-commissions in the United States, Africa and Europe; with special media coverage by NowThis News and CNN and in The Boston Globe, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and numerous others

Collaborative Arts Ensemble (2018-2020)

Stoddard served as Artistic Director of Collaborative Arts Ensemble, an arts production organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of world-class emerging artists and enacting positive social transformation through cross-disciplinary programming. CAE provides a home for citizen-artists of diverse backgrounds to refine and expand the craft of interdisciplinary creation through public performances, education and community building initiatives. Our vision is to radically rethink the way emerging artists are engaged and employed by acknowledging the demand society has put on its artists to be self-starters and the urgent need for artists to be the motor behind social change in the world. To that end, we function as a creative engine and producing house, providing space and resources for artists to create powerful programs that engage difference to spark community building dialogue in diverse venues around the world.

“The Workshop of Broken Faces” at the Beyond The Machine Festival (2019)

Perhaps the most tragic casualties of the Great War were the soldiers whose faces had been horribly disfigured in battle. For these mutilés, the war would never be over. Shunned for their grotesque appearance by the very communities they fought to protect, many refused to leave the hospital; some committed suicide. Inspired to help when the medical community turned their backs, Anna Coleman Ladd, an American sculptor living in Boston, voluntarily moved to Paris and established the Studio for Portrait-Masks in 1918. Here she developed a unique method that used her artistic talent to create cosmetic masks so life-like that they “gave life back to them that prayed for death.” Through music, dance, film and innovative technology, The Workshop of Broken Faces brings the remarkable true story of Anna’s transformational encounter with a wounded young soldier to life on stage for the very first time.

“The Bach Project” with Collaborative Arts Ensemble (2019)

The Bach Project re-contextualizes Cantata 97, In Allen Meinen Taten, of Johann Sebastian Bach for four singers, cello, violin, keyboard and vibraphone. The program poses questions and responses to the the major themes at work in Bach’s worldview as well as contemporary society: doubt and faith, hatred and tolerance, injustice and peace. The cantata is interrupted with material that is contrapuntal to Bach’s statements of faith — including poetry and dramatic text from Kaveh Akbar, Adam Zagajewski, Lilian Hellman, and Rainer Maria Rilke and musical material such as Haitian folk songs, gospel, Arvo Pärt, and original compositions. Created to celebrate and challenge our collective humanity, The Bach Project is a kaleidoscopic journey through profound expressions of what it is to be human.

“Echo & Narcissus” with Satellite Collective (2018)

“… the artists of Satellite Collective vividly and memorably reinterpreted the myth at BAM Fisher. It is too bad that there were only two performances of this imaginative production directed by Philip Stoddard.”

—Stagebiz.com

Featuring original music, live chamber performance, visual art, ballet, multimedia, opera, and lighting design, Echo & Narcissus illuminates the unrest and discord of our current political moment. This ambitious interdisciplinary project by the Satellite Collective showcases the deftness of its team. Live music of original score performed by ShoutHouse. Co-written and Directed by Philip Stoddard.

OperaComp at National Sawdust (2018 and 2017)

Philip is a co-founder of OperaComp: the first interdivisional opera development laboratory at Juilliard, which culminated in the world premiere of six new operas at National Sawdust in 2018. This successful experimental program has become a launching pad for the next generation of creative voices in opera, as well as becoming a new tenet in the composition curriculum at Juilliard. In addition to the serving on the inaugural leadership team, he directed the world premieres of The Magician and the Magician’s Assistant by Jack Gulielmetti and Vulnerable City by Yihan Chen.