Nancy Rhodes is a librettist and Artistic Director of Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York, which she founded in 1975. A champion of American opera, Ms. Rhodes staged the world premiere of Kirke Mechem's TARTUFFE for San Francisco Opera, Virgil Thomson's LORD BYRON at Alice Tully Hall, new operas for the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and Pittsburgh Opera Theatre. Internationally, she directed DEATH IN VENICE (Stockholm), CARMEN (Oslo), HAPPY END (Finland), KISS ME KATE (Ankara, filmed for TV), WEST SIDE STORY (Istanbul), and ECCENTRICS, OUTCASTS AND VISIONARIES: A CENTURY OF AMERICAN OPERA for the Holland Festival (Amsterdam). At Encompass she staged over 50 operas, including Virgil Thomson's THE MOTHER OF US ALL, Blitzstein's REGINA, Britten's PHAEDRA, and Antheil's TRANSATLANTIC. She co-conceived/directed ONLY HEAVEN with composer Ricky Ian Gordon, with poetry by Langston Hughes. Her acclaimed production of Grigori Frid's opera THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK toured to Cleveland Opera. As Vice President/U.S. Delegate to the International Theatre Institute, Rhodes has conducted workshops and been a guest speaker in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Venezuela, Argentina, Korea, Holland, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Estonia. In June 2004, she was invited to direct the first American musical ever staged in the country of Albania at the National Opera House and filmed for television. She is currently the commissioned librettist of THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, a new opera inspired by physics' superstring theory of multiple dimensions and alternative universes.