I am a writer-director working primarily in contemporary opera. My productions have been commissioned by European theaters like the Bavarian State Opera, the Frankfurt Opera, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In addition to my work for the stage, I have made two virtual reality experiences (Duisburg Philharmonic) and a short film (Düsseldorf Symphony Hall). Currently I am writing a virtual reality chamber opera for the Augsburg State Theater together with composer Hauke Berheide supported by the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire and the Liz Mohn Foundation.

My path into opera was somewhat indirect. After completing a B.A. in History & Literature at Harvard, I received a Fulbright to train at the Berlin Volksbühne where I apprentice-directed for René Pollesch, Sebastian Baumgarten, and Chris Kondek. Over the next decade, I wrote and directed my own productions while pursuing a joint-doctorate in Cinema & Media Studies and Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago. These unlikely stopovers cultivated the artistic values at the core of my work today:

1. Technical precision. (I don't like trash.)

2. Poetic intuition. (I don't like realism.)

3. Critical rigor. (Art is not a means of self-expression, but an alternative means of expressing ideas.)

My commitment to new work occasionally takes the form of institutional intervention. From 2015-2017, I convened Transatlantic exchanges for artists and arts administrators in Chicago and Munich on the topic of new work development. In 2018, composer Hauke Berheide and I co-founded New Opera Dialogues, an artist-led platform to promote international dialogue about aesthetics and best institutional practices for contemporary opera.

I also write about opera, performance theory, and Transatlantic issues for academic journals, trade magazines, and newspapers. These texts can be found in the "THEORY" section of this site.

For more information about me, please consult my C.V. Otherwise, feel free to peruse the medial traces of my work below.

"Director Amy Stebbins relies less on "explaining" the inner and outer conflicts with a pedagogical pointer-finger. Rather, she ties the entanglements of power and love into a very imaginative play of collaboration and confrontation. We see the silhouette of a city, individual houses. These stage-houses are traversable; behind every window there is life, behind every door lives a possible danger. This is beautifully illuminated - and works outstandingly well from a dramaturgical and dramatic point of view."

["Regisseurin Amy Stebbins setzt weniger darauf, die inneren und äußeren Konflikte mit dem pädagogischen Zeigefinger zu "erklären". Vielmehr bindet sie die Macht-Liebe-Verwicklungen ein in ein sehr fantasievolles Spiel des Mit- und Gegeneinanders. Wir sehen die Silhouette einer STadt, einzelne Häuser. Diese Bühnenhäuschen sind begehbar; hinter jedem Fenster ist Leben, hinter jeder Tür wohnt eine mögliche Gefahr. Das ist schön ausgeleuchtet - und funktioniert dramaturgisch-spielerisch hervorragend."]

- Arno Lücker, Opernwelt

"This disorienting thriller is impressively and authentically staged by Amy Stebbins through psychologically clever direction that alternates between tension-charged two-person constellations and ensemble arrangements." 

["Diesen verwirrenden Beziehungskrimi setzt Amy Stebbins durch psychologisch klug disponierte Regie mit einem Wechsel von spannungsgeladenen Zweier-Konstellationen und Ensemble-Arrangements beeindruckend authentisch um."]

- Hildesheimer Algemeine Zeitung