Performances
Dec 2, 2011 -
Dec 23, 2011
Cast & Personnel
Director
Music Direction
Cast
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Prop Design
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
The Play
Described as “a ghost story for three bodies with three voices,” Anna Bella Eema is the story of a mother, her girl and her girl’s girl: a twin she crafted from the mud outside their trailer park home. D’Amour presents the tale in a profoundly theatrical style in which words and actions become music and music becomes story. The production continues the Catastrophic tradition of introducing Houston audiences to the most original voices writing for theatre today. Ms. D’Amour’s work has been performed extensively throughout the country and in Canada and she was the 2008 recipient of the Alpert Awards in the Arts in Theatre. The New York Times called Anna Bella Eema “A skillfully stylized…wise comment on identity, the violence and inevitability of separation, and the value of both adaptation and detailed self-awareness.”The Playwright
LISA D'AMOUR
is a playwright and interdisciplinary artist. She received her M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a core member of the Playwrights' Center and a recent alumna of New Dramatists.
Lisa is an Obie award-winning playwright and one half of PearlDamour, an interdisciplinary performance company she runs with Katie Pearl. Her work has been produced by Theaters such as Steppenwolf Theatre, Children's Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, the Walker Arts Center, and the Kitchen. D'Amour received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and currently splits her time between Brooklyn and New Orleans.. M.F.A., Playwriting, University of Texas at Austin, 1996; B.A. in Theater and English, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS, 1991. 2005/6 TCG Playwright's Residency for work with Infernal Bridegroom Productions; 2004/5 Rockfeller MaP grant for LandMaRK; 2003 Village Voice OBIe award for Nita and Zita, written and directed by Lisa D'Amour; Playlabs participant (Playwrights' Center), Summer 2003 and 1999; McKnight advancement Grant from the Playwrights' Center, 2002-03, 1998-99; A.S.K. New Play Retreat participant, March, 2002; MacDowell Colony Fellow, Peterborough, NH, September, 1999; Member, New Dramatists, New York, NY, 1999; Career Opportunity Grant, Video Documentation Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, 1999; Jerome/Intermedia Performance art Commission, Minneapolis, MN 1998-99; Jerome Fellowship for emerging Playwrights, the Playwrights' Center, 1997-98; James Michener Playwriting Fellow, the University of Texas at Austin, '94-95, '95-96, '96-97
Her plays have been commissioned and produced by theaters across the country, including The Women's Project, Playwrights' Horizons, Children's Theater Company (Minneapolis), Steppenwolf Theater Company (Chicago) and the Royal National Theater (London). She is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert Award for the Arts in theater and the 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award. Lisa has also received fellowships from the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, an independent artist commission from NYSCA (for Stanley 2006, created with her brother Todd D'Amour) and an NEA / TCG Playwrights' Residency (to create Hide Town with Infernal Bridegroom Productions).
In 2008, Lisa wrote and directed a performance for visual artist SWOON's Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a flotilla of six boats created from salvaged materials that navigated the Hudson River in August 2009, performing in riverfront parks from Troy, NY to New York City.
D'Amour sits on The Catastrophic Theatre's advisory board. She lives with her husband, Brendan Connelly, in New Orleans and Brooklyn.
The Composer
In the Media
The Catastrophic Theatre – “Anna Bella Eema” by Lisa D’Amour
December 14, 2011 |
KUHA The Front Row
| Chris Johnson
Anna Bella Eema from Catastrophic Theatre: A Startling Piece of Theater
December 7, 2011 |
Houston Press
| D.L. Groover
Catastrophic Theatre keeps it wonderful and weird with ‘Anna Bella Eema’
December 6, 2011 |
Houston Chronicle
| Everett Evans
Finding Mythic Spaces: Q + A with Lisa D’Amour
December 1, 2011 |
Arts + Culture Texas
| Zachary Doss
