The UCLA Robert U. Nelson Lecture Series, hosted by the Center for Musical Humanities, presents Sarah Taylor Ellis with a talk entitled "The Joy Factor: Embracing Musical Moments on German Stages"
"Frozen meets Kurt Weill" (nachtkritik). Whether collaborating on an original musical for an inclusive theater in Berlin, an anthem for the Women's March on NYC, or songs for a Shakespeare play at the UK's National Theatre, composer, musical director and lecturer Sarah Taylor Ellis aims to embrace the inherent hybridity and multiplicity of music theater as an art form.
Sarah and Niklas Wagner's critically-acclaimed indie folk musical adaptation of Die Mitte der Welt, based on the beloved coming-of-age novel by Andreas Steinhöfel, runs January 24 - February 22, 2026 at Landestheater Linz. Sarah is also the composer and music director of Auf allen Vieren (All Fours), the sold-out world premiere adaptation of Miranda July's novel, which will play at Sophiensæle in February 2026, followed by a European tour.
Sarah is a regular collaborator with Berlin-based Musiktheatergruppe glanz&krawall as a composer and musical director. After a sold-out first run in December 2024, Die Tüten aus der Verwaltung: Das Bürokratie Musical von glanz&krawall und Theater Thikwa was invited to the 2025 Festival Politik im Freien Theater and returns to Berlin for a 3rd Wiederaufnahme in March 2026. Their next collaboration - a retirement revue - will premiere in October 2026. Pop operetta STADT DER TEUFEL played Musiktheatertage Wien in September 2025, and punk opera SCHROFFENSTEIN: In Grund und Boden was invited to the Kleist-Festtage in October 2025.
These Girls Have Demons, an original feminist rock musical with book and lyrics by Ovation Award-winning playwright Meghan Brown, is preparing for a premiere in the '26/27 season. EMMA: No One But Herself, with book and lyrics also by Brown, premiered at Mountview in London in July 2023 and is available for licensing with Uproar Theatrics; Sarah has been invited to UCLA as a Regents' Lecturer surrounding their production of EMMA in March 2026. Four-time Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman starred in the 2019 London reading of The Trojan Women; with libretto by Ellen McLaughlin, this hybrid musical/chamber opera was the recipient of a 2019 OPERA America Discovery Grant.
As a musical director, Sarah has worked on classic and new musicals, plays with music, operas, and concerts in venues ranging from the UK's National Theatre to Stasi-Zentrale (Campus für Demokratie), Heimathafen Neukölln to 54 Below. Music directing and arranging an all-FLINTA* production of Philip Glass's 1000 Airplanes on the Roof at the Neuköllner Oper has been a recent highlight. As a dramaturg, Sarah has supported the development of innovative new plays and musicals ranging from Psittacus Productions' Pulitzer Prize-nominated Cyclops: A Rock Opera to the anarchist song cycle Untuned Ears Hear Nothing But Discord, which Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez premiered in Lincoln Center's 2015 American Songbook Series. Sarah's theater criticism and scholarship have been published in American Theatre, L.A. Weekly, Studies in Musical Theatre, and anthologies with Palgrave and Routledge. Her monograph Doing the Time Warp: Strange Temporalities and Musical Theatre was published by Methuen Drama in 2022.
Sarah has taught at HfS Ernst Busch, UdK and Universität Bayreuth, where she was recognized with the "Goldene Feder" Award for exceptional teaching and mentorship. Prior to her move to Germany, she taught at ArtsEd London, The University of Chester, The Nightingale-Bamford School, The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Roundabout Theatre Company, and UCLA. She is an active member of 1781 Collective and Maestra D-A-CH. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Theater & Performance Studies from UCLA and a B.A. in Theater Studies/Music and English from Duke University, and she is a dual citizen in Germany and the USA.
This program is made possible by the Joyce S. and Robert U. Nelson Fund. Robert Uriel Nelson was a revered musicologist and music professor at UCLA, who, together with his wife, established a generous endowment for the university to make programs like this possible.
Photo credit: Agnes Wiener and Niklas Wagner