Biography

Edward Sturm is a director and producer of theatre and opera. He has held a variety of artistic posts at companies including Opera Philadelphia, Bucks County Playhouse, The Glimmerglass Festival, Central City Opera, Arcola Theatre (London), and Music Theatre Wichita. Recent directing highlights include The Glimmerglass Festival’s Vignettes: Ellis Island, a new staging of a song cycle by Alan Louis Smith drawn from the Ellis Island Oral History Project; the regional premiere of Jodi Goble’s chamber opera The Eleanors with Boston University; and an inaugural staged concert at Central City Opera, celebrating “Opera’s Greatest Hits.”

In 2026, Edward collaborated with Opera Philadelphia on two world premiere productions: assisting directors Zack Winokur and Raja Feather Kelly on Michael R. Jackson’s Complications in Sue, and assisting director Jenny Koons on Gregory Spears’ Sleepers Awake. He was also selected as an associate artist for the Atlantic Center for the Arts residency program, where he developed an original dance-theatre piece based on Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 novella Flatland. In the fall of 2026, Edward returned to Wichita, Kansas, to direct the Academy at MTWichita’s production of Sweeney Todd, and serve as associate director for the company’s Les Misèrables.

Edward’s credits as assistant director also include a host of collaborations with Alison Moritz: new productions of Fantastic Mr. Fox at Opera Omaha, Don Giovanni at Opera Philadelphia, and Once Upon a Mattress at Central City Opera. Other recent work includes assisting Francesca Zambello on Madame Butterfly at The Glimmerglass Festival, Sam Helfrich on Handel’s Alcina at the Mannes School of Music, Daniel Pelzig on Kurt Weill’s Street Scene at Central City Opera, and Brenna Corner on Massenet’s Cendrillon at Boston University. In 2024, Edward served as the associate producer of Bucks County Playhouse, supporting producing director Alex Fraser.

Edward is a graduate of the School of Theatre at Boston University, where he also studied history and was distinguished as a Trustee Scholar. At BU, he collaborated widely as a dramaturg, writer, and performer. His full-length play Priscilla, based on a photograph of a 1988 denuclearization protest at the Nevada Test Site, received a developmental workshop at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theater. His work as a dramaturg supported various new and existing plays at BU, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and beyond. Edward grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He fell in love with performance at the age of 7 in a production of Oliver! and has never looked back.