BIOGRAPHY
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Alan Olejniczak is an opera librettist and playwright based in San Francisco. His operas include Atlas of Remote Islands (2023) and Unbound (2021), with music by Nathan Hall; Death of Ivan Ilych (2021), with music by John Young; and End of the Line (2024), a short comic opera by Nathan Wasner. In 2023, Alan premiered his first oratorio, Yosef and the Counseling Angel, with music by Cole Thomason-Redus, and his musical-drama Concerto with The Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma in partnership with The Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
In June 2024, Alan will workshop his opera Midnight to Midnight with Dante de Silva and Synchromy at the Wende Museum in Culver City during the World Opera Forum and the Opera America Conference in Los Angeles. In July, he will also premiere his short opera, On Our Way, with music by Nathan Wasner with Opera on Tap Colorado. Alan's creative journey continues with The Proscenium, a London-based online theatre company, where he serves as the Playwright in Residence. Their first season features his plays Next of Kin and Helt Texas and his adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with David Ricardo-Pearce. Next season will include his play Workforce and Plunder, which he is co-writing with lead writer Carl Prekopp. Artist residencies are an essential part of Alan's writing practice. Alan was the Artist in Residence for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and the first playwright ever selected by the National Parks Arts Foundation. His other artist residencies span the globe, including Micro Galleries in Pātan, Nepal; Nes Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland; Nocefresca in Milis, Sardinia; and the prestigious The Arctic Circle Residency, where he sailed the icy waters around Svalbard. Alan returns to Svalbard in August 2024 for another residency as part of their Alumni Expedition. Alan is a member of Opera America and the National Opera Association and currently sits on the Dramatist Guild's Opera Committee. Alan was a former board member of Opera Parallèle and Theater Bay Area. Full Resume Storytelling is another reinvention. Prior to being a writer, Alan spent twelve years in the wine industry, starting at the City Grill in Atlanta and culminating as the Sommelier of the Dining Room at the Ritz Carton—Buckhead, a Mobil Five-Star, AAA Five-Diamond restaurant. Following this, he transitioned into the field of education, working as a special educator for sixteen years, focusing primarily on reading acquisition for elementary and middle-school students. "How in the heck do you pronounce that last name?" OH/la/KNEE/check |