ARIELA MORGENSTERN

ACTOR • DIRECTOR • COACH

An award-winning singing actor and experienced coach, Ariela Morgenstern has gained recognition in the world of musical theater, cabaret and opera.  A native of San Francisco, she returned home in 2016 after living and working as a professional actor in New York and across the country for the previous decade.

DIRECTOR & COACH

Ariela is a seasoned acting teacher and coach, and draws upon her extensive stage experience as a director in the Bay Area. She recently directed the Stanford University Music Department’s production of Into The Woods where she was able to utilize her deep commitment to rigor, ingenuity, and collaboration to bring the complex show to life. She was also the vocal director for Woodside Community Theatre’s production of Ragtime.

For the past eight years, Ariela has been the Scenes Director for the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, and a faculty member at the Haas School of Business teaching Active Communicating classes for the MBA students. These two UC-Berkeley based programs utilize acting scenes to enhance leadership communication and coaching skills for business professionals, and working with non-actors in this creative context requires a strong foundation of trust and psychological safety to be built. This work has informed her ethos around directing, where mutual respect, hard work, lack of ego, “clear is kind” communication, and creative risk-taking is valued.

Upon her return to the Bay Area, she opened her own acting studio for singers, the Singing Actor Studio, which continues with regular monthly classes and workshops for the past eight years. In addition to her studio, she has enjoyed teaching at the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and with the Stanford University vocal department. 

Ariela received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a concentration in Theatre at the University of Santa Cruz, and holds a Master’s degree in Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, where she researched Executive Presence and how leaders navigate identity, bias, and dominant culture norms.

For Ariela’s full Directing + Teaching resume with testimonials, please click here.

ACTOR & SINGER

After a break from performing to tackle motherhood, graduate school, and the beast we called the pandemic, Ariela was thrilled to return to the stage this past spring as Trina in 42nd Street Moon’s production of Falsettos.

Ariela was seen before this tackling Momma Rose in Gypsy at Bay Area Musicals (BAM), being featured in the World Premiere of the new musical A Walk On The Moon at A.C.T in San Francisco, and performing her sold-out solo show at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. Before returning home to San Francisco she had the honor of performing the role of Diana in Next To Normal at Baltimore Center Stage, and Franca in The Light In The Piazza at Arena Stage in D.C. as well as at Theatreworks in California. She created the featured role of Ms. Wilde in the new National Tour of Flashdance the Musical, under the helm of director and choreographer Sergio Trujillo.

She is a champion of new music, and was in the original Off-Broadway production of the Award-Winning musical Adding Machine, as well as performing as the soloist in Imant Raminsh’s The Symphony of Psalms at Carnegie Hall. 

After specializing in his music for many years as a cabaret singer, she was honored to win 2nd place in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s coveted International Lotte Lenya Competition.  

Upon returning to home, Ariela immediately collaborated once again with her fellow Rococo Risqué theater company members (voted Best Theater Ensemble by the SF Weekly) to create political satire/sketch comedy videos as the troupe Advantage Personal Hygiene. She returned to the classical world in Pocket Opera’s a Vie Parisienne, and recently made her 42nd Street Moon debut as Baruska in the TBA Award-Winning production of Once (Best Ensemble in a Musical.)

Other theatrical lead credits include Signora Naccareli in The Light In The Piazza (The Rev) Jenny in The Threepenny Opera (Marvel Rep, Drama Desk-nominated, and West Bay Opera), Aldonza in Man Of La Mancha (Flat Rock Playhouse), Kate Haroney in  I Married Wyatt Earp (Prospect Theatre), and last but certainly not least, the title role in Carmen with the Pacific Repertory and the San Francisco Lyric Opera, as well as many other operatic roles in the Bay Area.

Ariela was in the new movie Easter Mysteries, a musical feature filmed live in New York starring Broadway stars and Tony Nominees, Philip Boykin (Porgy & Bess). Wallace Smith (Les Miserables), and Erin Davies (Sideshow), and shown in selected theaters across America.

Resume

You can access my performance resume here, and you can also visit my ActorsAccess full resume page here.

Awards

Lotte Lenya Competition, 2nd Place

Union Affiliation

Actor's Equity Association