Glen Sheppard. Works.
Glen Sheppard is a director of opera and music-based theatre. His diverse background and broad life experience give him a distinctive ability to approach scores and texts with unusual insight. In the rehearsal room he offers calm, care, structure, and sensitivity to the artistic and human needs of his collaborators.
His own productions—developed within Berlin’s vibrant independent theatre scene with the support of government cultural funds—have responded to the conditions of extra-institutional work through adaptations, reductions, and inventive approaches to existing repertoire. These projects often bring classical and popular music into collision and combination, employ innovative instrumentation, and incorporate spoken poetry within striking, streamlined aesthetic environments. Designed with agility, they readily adapt to smaller stages, while their core ideas often point toward how he might envision the work in its entirety on a traditional mainstage.
Alongside this independent work, he has contributed to major operatic productions as an associate, revival, and assistant director, where his concentration and attention to detail are highly valued. While continuing to develop independent projects, his focus is firmly on realising productions within institutional settings—reaching broader audiences and contributing to the future of opera by engaging new publics and helping ensure the art form’s sustainable evolution.
His most recent work, So many ideas, an experimental fusion of Baroque music, improvisation, and spoken text, premiered in March 2025 at the English Theatre Berlin—supported by the Berlin Senate. In May 2023, Until the Waters Foam Up, a durational all-night performance based on the opera Rusalka, was performed in Berlin-Schöneweide in cooperation with the Kunststiftung Reinbeckhallen and funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste. From September 1–3, I Furiosi took place at the Uferstudios in Berlin-Wedding—a 60-minute performance assembled from the arias of the “Secondi” characters in three Handel operas from the 1730s, based on Ludovico Ariosto’s Renaissance epic Orlando Furioso. This project was also supported by the Berlin Senate. Une Mystification, based on Debussy’s Les Chansons de Bilitis and featuring poetry by C.P. Cavafy and Frank O’Hara, was presented in April 2022 at the Roter Salon of Berlin’s Volksbühne. Alexandria, a “correction” of Handel’s oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, was shown in May 2019 at Kunstraum Vierte Welt in Kreuzberg. In December 2018 and May 2019, he presented Y is a Question I Keep Asking at HB55 in Berlin-Lichtenberg.
A Tale, produced by Glen Sheppard in collaboration with director and photographer Katrin Thomas, won the Grand Prix du Court-Métrage at the Entrevues Belfort film festival. Films he produced with his partner, video artist Fritz Polzer, have been screened and awarded at festivals worldwide.
In addition to his artistic practice, Glen Sheppard regularly works as a revival and associate director in the international opera scene—particularly at the English National Opera in London, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Danish National Opera, Bard Summerscape, and most recently, frequently in Paris. He has worked consistently with directors Christopher Alden, William Kentridge, Daniel Kramer, and Netia Jones. In February 2020, he directed the revival of Anthony Minghella’s Madama Butterfly at the English National Opera. Most recently, he served as Director’s Collaborator for Netia Jones on her new production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra National de Paris at the Palais Garnier. In 2025, he returned to the Philharmonie de Paris with Netia Jones on a new production of Pascal Dusapin’s Antigone. That same season, he returned to the Opéra National de Paris for the revival of Le Nozze di Figaro, and will later return for the first staging of the Antonia Bembo's Ercole Amante.
Glen Sheppard grew up in Canada and trained as an actor, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ryerson University in Toronto. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
[email protected]
His own productions—developed within Berlin’s vibrant independent theatre scene with the support of government cultural funds—have responded to the conditions of extra-institutional work through adaptations, reductions, and inventive approaches to existing repertoire. These projects often bring classical and popular music into collision and combination, employ innovative instrumentation, and incorporate spoken poetry within striking, streamlined aesthetic environments. Designed with agility, they readily adapt to smaller stages, while their core ideas often point toward how he might envision the work in its entirety on a traditional mainstage.
Alongside this independent work, he has contributed to major operatic productions as an associate, revival, and assistant director, where his concentration and attention to detail are highly valued. While continuing to develop independent projects, his focus is firmly on realising productions within institutional settings—reaching broader audiences and contributing to the future of opera by engaging new publics and helping ensure the art form’s sustainable evolution.
His most recent work, So many ideas, an experimental fusion of Baroque music, improvisation, and spoken text, premiered in March 2025 at the English Theatre Berlin—supported by the Berlin Senate. In May 2023, Until the Waters Foam Up, a durational all-night performance based on the opera Rusalka, was performed in Berlin-Schöneweide in cooperation with the Kunststiftung Reinbeckhallen and funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste. From September 1–3, I Furiosi took place at the Uferstudios in Berlin-Wedding—a 60-minute performance assembled from the arias of the “Secondi” characters in three Handel operas from the 1730s, based on Ludovico Ariosto’s Renaissance epic Orlando Furioso. This project was also supported by the Berlin Senate. Une Mystification, based on Debussy’s Les Chansons de Bilitis and featuring poetry by C.P. Cavafy and Frank O’Hara, was presented in April 2022 at the Roter Salon of Berlin’s Volksbühne. Alexandria, a “correction” of Handel’s oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, was shown in May 2019 at Kunstraum Vierte Welt in Kreuzberg. In December 2018 and May 2019, he presented Y is a Question I Keep Asking at HB55 in Berlin-Lichtenberg.
A Tale, produced by Glen Sheppard in collaboration with director and photographer Katrin Thomas, won the Grand Prix du Court-Métrage at the Entrevues Belfort film festival. Films he produced with his partner, video artist Fritz Polzer, have been screened and awarded at festivals worldwide.
In addition to his artistic practice, Glen Sheppard regularly works as a revival and associate director in the international opera scene—particularly at the English National Opera in London, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Danish National Opera, Bard Summerscape, and most recently, frequently in Paris. He has worked consistently with directors Christopher Alden, William Kentridge, Daniel Kramer, and Netia Jones. In February 2020, he directed the revival of Anthony Minghella’s Madama Butterfly at the English National Opera. Most recently, he served as Director’s Collaborator for Netia Jones on her new production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra National de Paris at the Palais Garnier. In 2025, he returned to the Philharmonie de Paris with Netia Jones on a new production of Pascal Dusapin’s Antigone. That same season, he returned to the Opéra National de Paris for the revival of Le Nozze di Figaro, and will later return for the first staging of the Antonia Bembo's Ercole Amante.
Glen Sheppard grew up in Canada and trained as an actor, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ryerson University in Toronto. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
[email protected]
