MMN- Bio

Marianna Mott Newirth is a librettist, playwright and creative producer. An Emmy-nominated maker of TV documentaries and creator of unique video content for small businesses and 501(c)3’s, she now devotes her time to writing libretti, plays and short stories while also serving as Executive Producer and Co-Founder of New York City’s first disability-affirmative opera company, Opera Praktikos.

She is premiering two new operas in 2024: touch with co-librettist/ composer Carla Lucero about the radical life of Helen Keller (Opera Birmingham 2024) and Mechanisms with composer J.E.Hernandez about a neurodivergent girl making her way through 5th grade math. (Opera Theatre of St Louis’ New Works Collective 2024.) Marianna’s earlier staged operatic works include; Transmission II, a collaboration with Rabbi Bronwen Mullin; Musical Tales Concerto and Alexa the Dyslexic Angel in collaboration with composer, Peter Michael von der Nahmer. Their other works include Blue Hum at Tapestry Opera in Toronto, ON; Where Is The Stillness, published by Editions Musica Ferrum for the 250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven project and When Falling…Dive, an unfinished VideOpera that was Covid interrupted and never completed.

Marianna served as librettist for Transportation Transformation commissioned by the New York Opera Alliance, performed at WQXR/WNYC studio The Greene Space. Her straight theatrical pieces, Bachelor’s Agreement and Correspondence Theory were produced in midtown Manhattan in 2018; with a staged reading of Interabled presented at Queens Theatre For All festival in May 2019. She was dramaturg for Princess Maleine by librettist Bea Goodwin, composition by Whitney George, commissioned by dell’Arte Opera Ensemble performed at La Mama.

Marianna was Executive Director of dell'Arte Opera Ensemble (dAOE) through the pandemic and subsequently became president of the New York Opera Alliance (NYOA) and a member of the Creative and Independent Producer’s Alliance (CIPA.) She’s curated a series of articles for the theatrical commons HowlRound, served as treasurer of the NY chapter of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Club (NFBPWC-NYC) and is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild as well as Opera America.

She has studied with the Dramatist’s Guild Institute, participated in Guerilla Opera’s libretto writing lab, learned puppetry with Sandglass Theater, and was in the first cohort of the Beth Morrison Projects BMP Producer Academy in summer of 2020. She was a Librettist Fellow with the Really Spicy Opera Aria Institute in 2022 and is looking forward to an exciting 2024 of world premieres with news of new projects emerging on the horizon.

List of works

PUBLICLY PRESENTED LIBRETTI

Lady of the Shield Arm, Rise Up - Composer Del’Shawn Taylor commissioned by Really Spicy Opera presented at New York Opera Alliance NYOANext event in The Bronx April 22, 2023 based on a character from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Featuring Deaf actress - Amelia Hensley, Mezzo soprano - Shanley Horvitz and Pianist - Saffron Chung. Produced by Opera Praktikos

Transportation Transformation - A modern story set to the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Commissioned by NY Opera Alliance & performed at WNYC/WQXR’s Jerome L Green Space streamed live on Facebook April 2019

Nia Wa Ja Shu|Be A Hero Where - Composer Peter Michael von der Nahmer | co-librettist with Tatiana Wechsler & Anita Prestidge
Commissioned by Camerloher Gymnasium performed in Freising, Germany 2020

Where is the Stillness - Composer Peter Michael von der Nahmer
Commissioned by Susanne Kessel for ‘250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven’ published and performed in Bonn, Germany 2020

Blue Hum - Composer Peter Michael von der Nahmer | co-librettist Anita Prestidge
Commissioned by The Art Song Collaborative Project and performed at Tapestry Opera in Toronto, ON 2018

Transmission II - Composer Rabbi Bronwen Mullin
The Artist’s Beit Midrash at T&V Synagogue, NYC 2015

IN WORKSHOP:

touch at the Seagle Festival Summer 2022 & The Human Rights New Works Festival at Red Mountain Theatre, Birmingham, AL. Fall 2022.

SELECTED PLAYS

Bachelor’s Agreement - Manhattan Repertory Theatre New Works Festival NYC 2018

Interabled - Queens Theatre for All Festival NYC 2019

Correspondence Theory - The Workshop Theater Space 2018

God & Mrs. J - The Artist’s Beit Midrash at T&V 2017

DRAMATURGE

Princess Maleine | world premiere by dell’Arte Opera Ensemble
Music by Whitney George - Libretto by Bea Goodwin

GALLERY EXHIBITIONS - Visual Art

WomensWork. Art - Shown From Afar: Art During the Pandemic 2020

WORKS IN DEVELOPMENT

When Falling...Dive | a video/graphic opera that was in final stages of production 2020
Interrupted by COVID and in redevelopment for post pandemic times - potential date of new release will be early 2023
Music by Mike von der Nahmer - Libretto by Marianna Mott Newirth

touch | an opera on the life and works of Helen Keller
Music by Carla Lucero - Libretto by Carla Lucero & Marianna Mott Newirth
Commissioned by Opera Birmingham for a January 2024 premiere
Workshop at the Seagle Festival Summer 2022

The Ayes Have It | opera on the birth of the women’s movement (in very early development)

ART MANAGEMENT WORK

Executive Director/Founder - Opera Praktikos 2022 - present
Executive Director - dell’Arte Opera Ensemble 2020 - 2022
Office Manager - KeyBank Real Estate Capital 2007 - 2020
Producer of Radio & TV - Jewish Theological Seminary 1999 - 2007

VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT WORK

Executive Committee for New York Opera Alliance / 2020 - Currently serving as President
Selection Panelist for the JMK Innovation Prize of the JM Kaplan Fund 2021
Selection Panelist for Queens Arts Fund New Works Grant 2020
Program Assistant for Women Between Arts Curated by Luisa Muhr 2018
Board President of Town & Village Synagogue 2014-2016
Board Member of New York YMCA Summer Camps 2007 - 2011
Vice Chair for the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission 1998 - 2007

HONORS / AWARDS
New York Emmy Award Nominee 2001 & 2002

EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Really Spicy Opera Aria Institute - 2022
Sandglass Theater Puppetry Intensive - 2021
BMP Producer’s Academy (cycle 1) - 2020
Guerilla Opera Libretto Writing Lab - 2020
Dramatists Guild Institute 2018 - present
The New School - MA in Media Studies -2009
Stephen’s College - BFA Theatre Arts - 1985

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

DG - Dramatists Guild of America
OA - Opera America
NYOA - New York Opera Alliance
NFBPWC - National Federation of Business
& Professional Women’s Club - NYC