BIOGRAPHY

Photo by Christopher Turner

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 music-drama Concerto with The Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma in partnership with The Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

​Recently, Alan presented a workshop of his opera Midnight to Midnight, music by Dante de Silva with Synchromy, at Sony Studios in Culver City during the World Opera Forum and the Opera America Conference in Los Angeles. In July, he premiered his short opera, On Our Way, with music by Nathan Wasner with Opera on Tap Colorado. 

Alan is also the Playwright in Residence for The Proscenium, a London-based online theatre company. 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.
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Artist residencies are an important 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 for two expeditions.

​Alan is a member of Opera America and the National Opera Association and currently sits on the Dramatist Guild's Opera Committee and the Advistory Board of Opera Parallèle. Alan was a former board member of Theater Bay Area and Opera Parallèle. 
 
​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  ​