production team

Whitney McAnally is delighted to return to LA Opera for her 13th season with the company, her sixth as Production Stage Manager for the department. During her time with the production staff, she has worked on over 30 productions, including Eurydice, Akhnaten, Candide, Omar, The Ghosts of Versailles, La Cenerentola, Aida, Il Trovatore and El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego.

During the summer, Whitney is a stage manager at Santa Fe Opera (eight seasons) and she enjoys stage managing theater as well, something she has done throughout her career. Other companies Whitney has worked with include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Opera (15 summer seasons), Milwaukee Repertory Theater (10 seasons), Boston Lyric Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Atlanta Opera, Utah Shakespeare Festival and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, among others, across her 25 years as a professional stage manager.

A proud graduate of Texas Tech University, Whitney and her husband Raymond are happy to call Los Angeles their home.

Hannah Blaile is a stage manager from Phoenix, Arizona, with a career in both opera and musical theater. A graduate from the University of Arizona with a BFA in stage management, she has worked most recently on productions with Santa Fe Opera, San Diego Opera, and Yale Opera. She is returning to LAO after working on Omar in 2022.

Born in Santiago, Chile, and adopted at birth, Gregory Luis H. Boyle is grateful to have lived and traveled all around the United States to pursue his passion for opera. He happily calls Philadelphia his home.

Boyle will be the stage director of Tomer Zvulun’s production of Macbeth at the Atlanta Opera, where he was the stage director for Zvulun’s production of La Bohème as well as the associate director of Rigoletto. Boyle made his Atlanta Opera debut as the assistant director on Tomer Zvulun’s new production of Das Rheingold, which Boyle helped originate at the Dallas Opera, and he continued the journey on Die Walküre in the spring of 2024. He looks forward to the continuation of the cycle with Siegfried in spring of 2025.

Most recently, Boyle directed Don Pasquale for Inland Northwest Opera in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Other credits include associate director of a new production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci with Shawna Lucey at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, revival director for Michael Shell’s The Barber of Seville at Austin Opera, director for a semi-staged concert version of Tosca for Opera Philadelphia’s outdoor series at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, director of a new production of La Favorite at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and assistant director of Stephen Barlow’s new production of Don Giovanni at the Santa Fe Opera.

Boyle has also worked with the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists at Central City Opera as a director giving young students the opportunity to explore and develop new roles in opera through a scenes program. Highlight from that summer include Die Fledermaus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elixir of Love, Dialogues of the Carmelites and A Little Night Music. Boyle has also worked with young professionals at programs including at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera, and the Herndon Foundation of Emerging Artists of Virginia Opera.

Previously, Boyle has held associate and assistant director engagements at companies including Opera Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera Association, the Dallas Opera, Central City Opera and Virginia Opera among others.

Barbara Donner has been a stage manager at LA Opera since 1990 and recently completed her 90th production for the company.

Highlights of her time with the company include Achim Freyer’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Phelim McDermott’s production of Satyagraha and Francesca Zambello’s production of Candide.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Barbara moved into the world of professional opera, working with San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Barbara has worked with the LA Philharmonic, stage managing their productions of Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan tutte—all under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel—as well as Yuval Sharon’s productions of Young Caesar, Europeras, Das Lied von der Erde and Meredith Monk’s opera Atlas. She has also stage managed a highly acclaimed production of Bernstein’s On the Town with the San Francisco Symphony and 11 productions of the summer musicals at the Hollywood Bowl.

In 2019, Barbara was awarded the Del Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Art of Stage Management by the Stage Managers’ Association.

Arturo Fernandez, Jr., is a stage manager based in Los Angeles and South Florida with a background in opera, special events, and live televison.

Arturo made his LA Opera debut in the 2021/22 season with On Gold Mountain, an immersive production in the Huntington’s Chinese Garden. He is happy returning to LA Opera for Lucia di Lammermoor, Tosca and Pelléas and Mélisande in the 2022/23 season.

His other credits include productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, La Rondine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring, and Mozart and Salieri. Highlights include an immersive production of Das Rheingold for the Miami Music Festival, featuring 360-degree projections, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West at Opera Saratoga.

Arturo is a proud graduate of the University of Southern California, where he graduated cum laude with a BFA in stage management and a minor in cinematic arts.

To see what other projects Arturo is working on, check out his website: jrfernandezarturo.com

Erik Friedman has been an Assistant Director with LA Opera for several seasons and numerous productions.

A Chicago-based director, he has worked with Lyric Opera of Chicago as a member of the directing staff and an instructor with Lyric's Ryan Opera Center Young Artist Program. Mr. Friedman has worked previously with Wolf Trap Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater and the Spoleto Festival USA, among others. He has also worked with companies including Steppenwolf Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville. He holds degrees in music and theatre from Indiana, DePaul and Butler Universities.

Hannah Holthaus has worked with LA Opera since 2021. Highlights of her time here have included the company's productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, Pelléas and Mélisande and Il Trovatore.

Since graduating from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Hannah has worked at different opera companies across the country, including Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Opera Philadelphia to name a few. During the summers, she is currently the Production Stage Manager at Cincinnati Opera. She has worked there for the past 11 summers and her notable projects with that company include Castor and Patience, Fellow Travelers, Another Brick in the Wall and La Calisto, among many others.

Hannah is proud to return to LA Opera again for the 2024/25 season.

Lisa Kable Blanchard has worked as a stage manager and assistant director at LA Opera since 2001 and will hit 90+ productions for the company during the 2024/25 season.

Highlights of Lisa’s work onstage include Achim Freyer’s Damnation of Faust and Der Ring des Nibelungen, Phelim McDermott’s Akhnaten, and Kaneza Schaal’s Omar. Lisa has loved working with the LAO Connects Department on projects ranging from On Gold Mountain at the Huntington Gardens, to world premieres at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels by composers Carla Lucero and Jack Perla, as well as teaching future artists at LAO Opera Camp.

Other career highlights: Lisa has directed the screen versions of La Cenerentola, Otello, Aida and Don Giovanni for streaming and simulcast at LAO. In 2023, Lisa worked as Assistant Director at Lyric Opera of Chicago on the broadcast of Yuval Sharon’s world premiere of Proximity. In 2019 Lisa directed the world premiere of Eric Whitacre’s chamber opera The Gift of the Magi at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Master Chorale. Fun fact: in 2008, Lisa called the opening night of La Rondine while in labor with her second son. Nevertheless, she declined suggestions to name him Giacomo.

Lisa graduated from Williams College and holds a Master of Music from USC.

In addition to his work with LA Opera, Anderson Nunnelley has served on the directing staff at Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Omaha, and Boston Lyric Opera, with additional production credits at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, San Diego Opera and the PROTOTYPE Festival.

Anderson has collaborated on several world premieres, including most recently working as the associate director on Roya Sadat's production of Sheila Silver's A Thousand Splendid Suns (Seattle Opera), associate director on Tazewell Thompson's production of Jeanine Tesori's Blue (Seattle Opera), assistant director on James Darrah's productions of Missy Mazzoli's Proving Up (Opera Omaha) and Academy Award-winner John Corigliano's opera The Lord of Cries (Santa Fe Opera). Passionate about opera film, Anderson was the associate producer for the Grammy-nominated film Soldier Songs (Opera Philadelphia). Anderson was part of the production team for Svadba (Boston Lyric Opera/Opera Philadelphia), which won the 2023 Digital Excellence Award in Artistic Creation presented by Opera America. Additional film credits include serving as the creative director and producer for the concert docuseries titled B. (Boston Lyric Opera).

In addition to returning to LA Opera in the 2024/25 season, his engagements include serving as associate director for Matthew Ozawa's production of Madama Butterfly at Pittsburgh Opera and Utah Opera and directing concert performances of Les Troyens at Seattle Opera in early 2025.

Anderson is a former Boston Lyric Opera Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artists Stage Director, holds a Bachelor of Music from Chicago College of Performing Arts, and is a former Peace Corps volunteer, having served two years in Mali, West Africa.

Miranda Wilson is excited to be back for her third season with LA Opera! She hails from Fargo, North Dakota, but spends her time traveling around the U.S. to a variety of opera companies, working on their stage management teams. In the 2024/25 season, in addition to her work at LA Opera, Miranda will be working at the Dallas Opera. For the last 19 seasons, she has been the Head Props Run Crew Chief at the Santa Fe Opera, working on all the incredible productions and helping to train the next generation of stage managers and theater technicians.