stage director 

As a stage director for Peabody Conservatory's Opera Department from 1998-2016, Ms. Blades directed more than 25 productions including the US premiere of Anna Sokolovic's Svadba - Wedding, a six-women, unaccompanied, Serbian language opera, as well as productions of Così fan tutte, Cendrillon, A Postcard from Morocco, Trouble in Tahiti, Transformations, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Amy Beth Kirsten's Ophelia Forever, and L'enfant et les sortilèges. Her directing has been praised as "fluid," "confident," and "focused." 

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As co-director of Opera and Musical Theatre Workshop at Goucher College since 2015, Ms. Blades has directed productions of Heathers, the Musical, Dido and Aeneas, Little Women, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Suor Angelica, From Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Songs for a New World, and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

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Her freelance credits include The Medium for Music Off Main, My Lovely Galathea and Le nozze di Figaro for Bel Cantanti Opera, as well as the world premiere of Briscula the Magician by Bob Misbin and Frances Pollock for Bel Cantanti Opera. She has also directed The Mikado for Opera AACC, and will direct a world premiere based on Alice in Wonderland for Music Off Main in the coming year.