Bari is a two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee. An experienced opera librettist, Bari wrote the English adaptations for the In Series’ critically-acclaimed productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni; Abduction from the Seragli Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (originally commissioned by Poor Richard's Opera of Philadelphia) and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.  Bari wrote the English lyrics and dialogue for GALA Hispanic Theatre’s bilingual production of Las Polacas: The Jewish Girls of Buenos Aires, which was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as Outstanding Resident Musical. Bari was also a performer/lyricist with the political satire troupe, the Capitol Steps.

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Bari's latest commission is an English adaptation of RIGOLETTO produced by the INSERIES. Voted as audience choice for IN Series’ 2019-20 season, this circus version of Rigoletto, complete with a circus band and bawdy new text by Bari Biern, became a victim of COVID-19, but before that, victim to 19th-century censors that found its exploration of the misdeeds of the powerful too dangerous for the public eye. The production will finally roar to life on the stage December 7-15 at the Goldman Theater DCJCC and the Baltimore Theatre Project. At once darkly devilish, toe-tappingly infectious, and horrifically funny, Verdi’s masterpiece is made intimate, in-your-face, and inescapably enjoyable under the big top, with a cast of fan favorites returning from IN Series’ 2023 production “The Promised End,” and led once more by Emily Baltzer.

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