ANGELA HINES GOOCH, Musical Director/Pianist
Angela Hines Gooch, from Needham Heights, MA., has been with Opera Theatre of Weston since 2005. Ms. Gooch has worked as a pianist and music director for the Birmingham Opera Theatre, Birmingham Summerfest, Birmingham Children’s Theatre, The Walnut Hill School, as well as Opera Boston, NorthEastern, Boston and Samford Universities. Ms. Gooch has also spent a great deal of her career as an operatic soprano. An avid performer, Ms. Gooch has appeared in many operas with Boston’s most innovative company, Opera Boston, dedicated to presenting innovative repertoire choices and important but rarely performed works. From Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito to Verdi’s Ernani, She has performed and covered a variety of roles in operas including Der Freischütz, Fidelio, Les pêcheurs de perles, The Nose, The Bartered Bride, Candide, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Le Grande Duchess of Gérolstein, Cardillac, the world premiere of Zhou Long’s Madame WhiteSnake and Robert Ward’s Pulitzer prize winning opera The Crucible. Other credits also include Gianni Schicchi, Don Pasquale, Der Rosenkavlier and The Telephone. Ms. Gooch performed as the Voice of the Fountain in Golijov’s Grammy award winning Ainadamar under the direction of Peter Sellars. She also created the role of Mary Lincoln in Eric Sawyer’s Our American Cousin which recently had its World Premier with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and can be heard on the BMOP/sound label. Ms. Gooch has performed with various symphonies including the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, as well as The Florestan Project in Boston. She has appeared as a featured performer at international venues including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the United States Presidential Yacht, the U.S.S. Sequoia and in Italy at the Casa Verdi. Ms. Gooch is the Head of Voice and Opera at The Walnut Hill School and has served on the faculty at Boston University, the Tanglewood Young Artist Vocal Program and has committed many years of her work to teaching young students the exciting, dramatic world of opera. She has been honored by the NFAA and named in the Who’s Who Among American Teachers as one the arts most distinguished teachers. Ms. Gooch has also served as faculty and staff at North Eastern University, Montevallo University, and Samford University.
DIANA STUGGER, Stage Director
Diana Stugger, from Stratton, Vermont, appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and various theatres in Vermont and New Hampshire. She serves on both Opera Theatre of Weston’s and Dorset Theatre Festival’s Board of Directors. Favorite roles over the years include Hedda in Hedda Gabler, Birdie in Little Foxes, Natalia in A Month in the Country, Mabel in Pride’s Crossing, Kate in Dancing at Lughnasa, and Lettice in Lettice and Lovage. Diana has been the stage director for Opera Theatre of Weston’s productions of Die Fledermaus, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hansel and Gretel, The Coffee Cantata, The Magic Flute, Help, Help, The Globolinks!, The Little Prince, (2006 Vermont premiere), and The Impresario. Productions directed at the Memorial Hall Center for the Arts in Wilmington have included Pippin, Guys and Dolls, Annie Get Your Gun, The Secret Garden, and Into The Woods. Diana lives on Stratton Mountain with her husband, Walter, and 2 Irish Terriers, Katie and Maggie.
ASHLEY HENSEL-BROWNING, Choreographer
Ashley Hensel-Browning, from Chester, Vermont, works as a dance educator, community artist, and choreographer throughout New England and is thrilled to be working again with OTW. For OTW she has choreographed The Little Prince and Die Fledermaus, directed and choreographed Hansel and Gretel, The Happy Prince and The Child and the Magic. She is the co-artistic director/founder of the modern dance company, ZoAsh Dance. Her work has been presented at Harvard University, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College. She is an avid performer and has performed in works by Trisha Brown, Agnes DeMille, Elizabeth Bergman, Amie Dowling, Jim Coleman, Terese Freedman, and many others at venues such the International Festival of Art and Ideas, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, MA, and MassMOCA. Ashley has received multiple grants for her work in public schools and community sites and is a Juried Teaching Artist on the Vermont Arts Council Teaching Roster. Ashley received her Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her BA from Hampshire College where she designed her own concentration in Dance Education and Community Development through the Arts. Recent projects have included a teacher training in incorporating math in movement in the Berkshires, choreography residencies through Vermont, and guest teaching with Boston Ballet's CityDance. She received her early dance training from Susan Hagan at the Dance Factory in Springfield where she now very happily teaches modern, jazz/hip hop, and ballet.
ROBINA D’ARCY-FOX, Costume Designer, Costume Historian
Robina D’Arcy-Fox owns Fancy Felix Theatrical in White River
Junction, Vermont. She has created costumes for opera, ballet,
and theatre for 25 years, including the Albany-Berkshire Ballet,
Opera North, Green Mountain Opera Festival, Revels North,
Northern Stage, City Center Ballet, NorthEast Shakespeare
Ensemble and other companies throughout the United States
and Europe. Her costumes travel to Venice for Carnevale and Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival. For over 5 years Robina worked closely with the extraordinary dancer/ choreographer Ruth Mayer, formerly of American Ballet Theater, in creating exquisite costumes for Ms. Mayer's ballets with City Center Ballet. Robina has created an internship program at Fancy Felix where for 15 years she has provided high school students the opportunity to gain in depth and long term experience in costume design and construction. This program has recently been extended to include middle-school students. She is proud to say in The Magic Flute they have contributed hours of hard work and research.
