Mary Duncan Steidl, stage director, recently directed the premiere of Time and Chance, by Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff. She has directed over 50 operas at venues across the U.S. At the Kennedy Center, with Christopher Hogwood conducting the National Symphony Orchestra, Duncan Steidl directed Der Schauspieldirektor, Bastien und Bastienne, and La clemenza di Tito. She has directed at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Aspen Music Festival, and Sarasota Opera.

Duncan Steidl was Associate Artistic Director of the Berkshire Opera for nine seasons with conductor Joel Revzen where she directed 15 operas. Highlights include the world premiere of Stephen Paulus’ Summer. Other highlights include The Rake’s Progress, Turn of the Screw, Susannah, and The Consul which was released on CD. Other notable collaborations include the Rape of Lucretia with the iconic designer Massimo Vignelli at BAM, and The Magic Flute with designs by acclaimed illustrator, Eric Carle.

During a long association with The Aspen Music Festival, she directed the operas Victory Over the Sun, Comedy on the Bridge, Renard, The Marriage of Figaro, Seven Deadly Sins, Trouble in Tahiti, Proving Up by Mazzoli/Vavrek, and the American premiere of Luke Bedford’s Seven Angels. 

She has taught at The Juilliard School, Rice University, and The University of Arizona. She is a graduate of Juilliard and studied at The American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University where she worked with Robert Brustein. Duncan Steidl is the recipient of a Sandoz Corporation grant for her adaptation of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, a project mentored by The Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference.