Hello! I'm Sydney, a Manhattan-based, Michigan-bred director/performer/writer. I am a huge word nerd, an total travel junkie, and a #NiceJewishGirl with a sense of humor to match - but above all, I am an artist who finds my joy in building brand new worlds on stage with the creative colleagues and friends I have met along the way. You can often find me crossing genre lines and state lines in pursuit of the opportunity to tell a good story, with recent and upcoming projects dipping into the realms of opera, theatre, jazz, audio drama podcasting, improv and sketch comedy, soundpainting, devising, and cantorial work, from coast to coast and across international borders. I love the really old and the really new, and relish the ability to explore a playwright's words for the first time or discover modern meaning in text and music written centuries ago.  

My recent directing credits include Mozart's Così fan tutte and Händel's Rodelinda at Opera Neo; Dear Brain, from Heart with composer/lyricist Michael O'Dell at Green Room 42; and Händel's Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Opera Neo, a production which was called "absolutely brilliant" by the San Diego Union-Tribune. As an assistant director, I have worked at Minnesota Opera on Romeo and Juliet under director Margaret Jumonville, in a co-production of La finta giardiniera between the Hungarian State Opera and Opera Neo under HSO Artistic Director András Almási-Tóth, and at Opera Neo on Ariodante and The Barber of Seville under director Peter Kozma. I am passionate about the development of new works, with recent projects including directing the world premiere of the chamber opera Deed of Trust and writing the libretto of the chamber opera On Our Street in collaboration with composer Zachary James Ritter. My MFA Thesis, From Tolochin to Tin Pan Alley: Irving Berlin and the American Dream, was a one-woman show delving into the life of Russian Jewish immigrant and proud American composer Irving Berlin and looking at the experience of assimilation for Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants through his music and life story. Never one to stick to a single medium, I am currently enjoying tackling the world of new media as I direct The Artisan Who Made Me, a twelve-episode SAG-AFTRA MicroPod audio drama podcast from Bottled Star Productions, which will be released across streaming platforms beginning in December 2025.

As a performer, I thrive in the crossover realm between classical voice and musical theatre with roles including Martha in Heathers (Scotch'n'Soda Theatre), Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (Carnegie Mellon University), Frieda/Betty in Sunday in the Park with George (Theater2020), Fidalma in Il matrimonio segreto (Carnegie Mellon University), Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Todd (Longwood Players), Venus/Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Atlantic Music Festival), and Mother in Hansel and Gretel (Savannah VOICE Festival). I have served for six years as the Cantorial Soloist at Falmouth Jewish Congregation for the High Holy Days, and can be seen singing with church choral ensembles throughout New York City. I love performing improv comedy and musical improv, and my long-form improv team, On Retainer, performs twice monthly at Young Ethel's in Park Slope. I am also a performing member of the Letter of Marque Theater Company, a devising and soundpainting performance ensemble based in Manhattan. 

I received my BFA in Vocal Performance & BA in Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and my MFA in Musical Theater Performance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music. However, I am a lifelong learner who is currently enjoying studying stage combat (Unarmed & Rapier) with New York Combat for Stage and Screen, Meisner-based acting techniques at the Matthew Corozine Studio, improv comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade NYC and the Magnet Theater, and voice under Jared Trudeau at BroadwayVox. During the day, I work as the Marketing Manager for Revels, Inc., a 55-year-old cultural theater and music organization based in Boston, and as the Operations Manager for Camarada, a 31-year-old chamber music organization based in San Diego.

I believe in the magic of live performance, an all-too-rare opportunity to shut out the distractions of our modern world and collectively feel human together. I also believe in an equitable performing industry where artists lift each other up, enabling everyone to create boldly in rooms where the final product is a true melding of minds. If this sounds like you, let's work together! I can't wait to hear your story.