![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/A_River_Runs_Through_It_014-Edit.jpg\")
Michael Kuhn portrays the character Paul Maclean in Opera Montana\u2019s ‘A River Runs Through It.\u2019 Photo credit: Nile Scott Studios.<\/p><\/div>\n
That dream finally came to fruition in mid-September when UToledo faculty collaborated with Opera Montana to stage a world premiere of \u201cA River Runs Through It\u201d that received positive reviews in high-profile outlets including The New York Times<\/a>, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> and The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Foss directed and co-wrote the libretto for the opera, while Stephen Sakowski, a professor and chair of the Department of Theatre and Film, served as lighting director and Abby Glanville, an adjunct instructor in dance, served as choreographer.<\/p>\n “It is an incredible honor to help bring such a quintessential American story to the operatic stage,” Foss said. “At its heart, \u2018A River Runs Through It\u2019 is a universal meditation on love, loss and how we care for the people closest to us \u2014 even when we don’t know how. Bringing this project from the page to the stage alongside my UToledo colleagues made the achievement all the more meaningful.”<\/p>\n Opera Montana commissioned the opera in honor of the 50th anniversary of the novella’s publication in 1976. Foss\u2019s stage direction and Sakowski\u2019s lighting design worked in tandem to craft a visually striking production that lifts the work off the page, shifting between quiet moments inside the family home and fly-fishing scenes on the Blackfoot River.<\/p>\n “The creative collaboration on this production reflects the caliber of professional creative research happening within our department,” Sakowski said. “Lighting a story so deeply rooted in natural landscapes required balancing the warmth of home with the luminescence of the river, and it has been a privilege to share that vision on a national stage.”<\/p>\n Opera presented a new medium for Foss and Sakowski, each of whom drew on extensive experience with stage and screen. This includes 2019\u2019s \u201cAll Quiet on the Western Front\u201d and 2020\u2019s \u201c20K Leagues Under the Sea,\u201d two works on which they collaborated and premiered at UToledo\u2019s Center for Performing Arts before receiving Joseph Jefferson Awards, recognizing excellence in Chicago-area theater, as well as accolades from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n Foss most recently wrote and collaborated on an independent film, \u201cMethod,\u201d that\u2019s expected to hit the festival circuit in 2027. Several UToledo students and alumni joined the crew during production on campus in June.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s vital as a professor in the arts to actively be practicing what I profess so my students can see me taking the same risks and reaching for the same expectations of excellence I ask of them in my class,\u201d Foss said. \u201cI am committed to integrating students into my work in whatever ways are possible. \u2018River\u2019 is expected to have a life after the premiere, both in opera companies and reorchestrated for Broadway-style stages, so I\u2019m hoping this is just the beginning of our involvement with a project of this caliber.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Matt Foss, Stephen Sakowski and Abby Glanville helped stage \u201cA River Runs Through It,\u201d which received positive reviews in high-profile outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":908,"featured_media":101158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,498,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101195,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101157\/revisions\/101195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/A_River_Runs_Through_It_014-Edit-150x150.jpg\")
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