Heather Woodbury's AS THE GLOBE WARMS
a new meta-serial for the 20-Teens, live and on the web, . CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS
posted by Heather W at 11:54 AM
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
“THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World”
For Immediate release:
Press contact: heather@heatherwoobury.com
For Photos: http://scottgroller.com/temp/20080324-woodbury
“THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
Award-winning*** Los Angeles playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury, en route to a performance at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre(March 3rd), revives her latest one-woman play at Beyond Baroque on Saturday, February 28th at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10 & $7 /$5(low-income/students) Buy at the door.
Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission.
Beyond Baroque 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA
310- 822-3006, www.beyondbaroque.org
(***Spalding Gray Award Winner, OBIE-Winner, N.E.A. Playwright & Kennedy Playwright Awards)
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-Kelly Hargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
-
Press contact: heather@heatherwoobury.com
For Photos: http://scottgroller.com/temp/20080324-woodbury
“THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
Award-winning*** Los Angeles playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury, en route to a performance at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre(March 3rd), revives her latest one-woman play at Beyond Baroque on Saturday, February 28th at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10 & $7 /$5(low-income/students) Buy at the door.
Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission.
Beyond Baroque 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA
310- 822-3006, www.beyondbaroque.org
(***Spalding Gray Award Winner, OBIE-Winner, N.E.A. Playwright & Kennedy Playwright Awards)
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-Kelly Hargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
-
posted by Heather W at 9:56 PM
0 comments
Thursday, December 11, 2008
CONTEMPORARY SOLO w/ Heather Woodbury
Fomenting Arts Announces:
CONTEMPORARY SOLO
with HEATHER WOODBURY
a four-day workshop for writers and performers on creating from the dramatic imagination
taught by acclaimed playwright/performer of epic plays, & published novelist, Heather Woodbury.
Inaugurate your own imagination: January 2009…
2-weekends 12-6pm, January 10th, 11th, 17th
-final class, Sun., Jan. 18th, 2:30-8pm: performance for invited audience-
AT BANG STUDIO 457 N. FAIRFAX 90036 info@bangstudio.com
register before Christmas: $225/after: $275/ phone 323-653-6886
Starting with the premise that the first impulse is the magic one, Heather will introduce you to her method of “instant performance,” locating your innate capacity of to give life to something that is fully formed from the moment you transmit it. We will then crystallize that initial impulse to point the way toward making work of lasting value.
In order for the originator of solo work to successfully captivate and hold an audience, rigorous demands must be met but also unique opportunities for invention are offered. This intensive workshop explores how these solo performance methods - of conjuring character, inventing natural speech and locating place- can be applied to generating writing of every kind and to infusing performance with live-wire authenticity.
For solo show originators, actors, and for writers of all stripes, this is writing on the tongue and stage, as an alternate to, and enhancement of, writing on the page.
Heather is an award-winning performer and writer known for her groundbreaking multi-character solo and ensemble works, which combine the immediacy of performance art with a novel’s length and scope. Her 10-hour, 100-character solo play, What Ever: An American Odyssey in Eight Acts (published by Faber/Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) was hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] and cited as “a masterwork of the solo form” by the NY Times. It was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass. Woodbury has received multiple awards, grants and fellowships for her subsequent works. Her play Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks won a 2007 OBIE (Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Production) for ensemble performance. And in 2006 she was awarded the inaugural Spalding Gray Award honoring writer/performers who are “fearless innovators.” Heather has taught professional workshops for A.S.K. Theatre Projects in Los Angeles, Northeastern University in Boston, St. Edward’s University in Austin and University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She has conducted performances and lectures for students at Yale, SMU, Northwestern, UCLA and NYU. She will be Master-Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida in 2009.
For more information visit heatherwoodbury.com
CONTEMPORARY SOLO
with HEATHER WOODBURY
a four-day workshop for writers and performers on creating from the dramatic imagination
taught by acclaimed playwright/performer of epic plays, & published novelist, Heather Woodbury.
Inaugurate your own imagination: January 2009…
2-weekends 12-6pm, January 10th, 11th, 17th
-final class, Sun., Jan. 18th, 2:30-8pm: performance for invited audience-
AT BANG STUDIO 457 N. FAIRFAX 90036 info@bangstudio.com
register before Christmas: $225/after: $275/ phone 323-653-6886
Starting with the premise that the first impulse is the magic one, Heather will introduce you to her method of “instant performance,” locating your innate capacity of to give life to something that is fully formed from the moment you transmit it. We will then crystallize that initial impulse to point the way toward making work of lasting value.
In order for the originator of solo work to successfully captivate and hold an audience, rigorous demands must be met but also unique opportunities for invention are offered. This intensive workshop explores how these solo performance methods - of conjuring character, inventing natural speech and locating place- can be applied to generating writing of every kind and to infusing performance with live-wire authenticity.
For solo show originators, actors, and for writers of all stripes, this is writing on the tongue and stage, as an alternate to, and enhancement of, writing on the page.
Heather is an award-winning performer and writer known for her groundbreaking multi-character solo and ensemble works, which combine the immediacy of performance art with a novel’s length and scope. Her 10-hour, 100-character solo play, What Ever: An American Odyssey in Eight Acts (published by Faber/Farrar, Strauss & Giroux) was hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] and cited as “a masterwork of the solo form” by the NY Times. It was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass. Woodbury has received multiple awards, grants and fellowships for her subsequent works. Her play Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks won a 2007 OBIE (Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Production) for ensemble performance. And in 2006 she was awarded the inaugural Spalding Gray Award honoring writer/performers who are “fearless innovators.” Heather has taught professional workshops for A.S.K. Theatre Projects in Los Angeles, Northeastern University in Boston, St. Edward’s University in Austin and University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She has conducted performances and lectures for students at Yale, SMU, Northwestern, UCLA and NYU. She will be Master-Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida in 2009.
For more information visit heatherwoodbury.com
posted by Heather W at 2:38 PM
0 comments
Friday, May 02, 2008
NEW SHOW ON TOUR IN SPRING
WHAT:
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In Los Angeles, New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN:
Austin, Texas running May 8- 18th, May 8-11 Thursday-Sunday, May 14-18 Wed-Sun 8pm at
The Vortex
2307 Manor Road (1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple) Austin, TX 78722
Reservations: 512-478-LAVA (5282)
www.vortexrep.org
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently directed Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In Los Angeles, New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN:
Austin, Texas running May 8- 18th, May 8-11 Thursday-Sunday, May 14-18 Wed-Sun 8pm at
The Vortex
2307 Manor Road (1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple) Austin, TX 78722
Reservations: 512-478-LAVA (5282)
www.vortexrep.org
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently directed Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
posted by Heather W at 10:02 AM
0 comments
Thursday, April 17, 2008
NEW SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY ONE NIGHT ONLY AND ON TOUR IN SPRING
NEW SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY ONE NIGHT ONLY AND ON TOUR IN SPRING
WOMEN CENTER STAGE NEW YORK
WHAT:
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN: Tuesday, April 22nd at 8 p.m. The Culture Project’s annual WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL in New York City.
Culture Project 55 Mercer St., NY, NY, 10013 Box Office 212 925 1900 www.cultureproject.org
WOMEN CENTER STAGE NEW YORK
WHAT:
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN: Tuesday, April 22nd at 8 p.m. The Culture Project’s annual WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL in New York City.
Culture Project 55 Mercer St., NY, NY, 10013 Box Office 212 925 1900 www.cultureproject.org
posted by Heather W at 1:32 PM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
NEW SHOW IN LA AND ON TOUR IN SPRING
WHAT:
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In Los Angeles, New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN:
LAST DAYS returns for two nights only at BANG, Saturday, April 12th and *Sunday April 13th at 8 p.m. These are last performances in Los Angeles prior to a three-city tour.
Admission: $10. Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission.
(*Sunday, April 13th will benefit Heather Woodbury’s Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc. All donations over the $10 admission will go to the non-profit and are fully tax deductible.)
Location: 457 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
Box office: 323.653.6886
Next: Tuesday, April 22nd at 8 p.m. The Culture Project’s annual WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL in New York City.
Culture Project 55 Mercer St., NY, NY, 10013 Box Office 212 925 1900 www.cultureproject.org
Next for the first time in Albuquerque in a special one-night-only presentation at VSA North Fourth Arts Center Saturday, April 26th at 8 p.m.
Admission: $15.
4904 Fourth St. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107, Box Office 505-344-4542, www.vsartsnm.org
finally, we continue on to Austin, Texas running May 8- 18th at The Vortex , 2307 Manor Road (1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple) Austin, TX 78722 Reservations: 512-478-LAVA
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently directed Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
-
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE:
A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury, directed by Abigail Deser
A series of interviews between a one hundred and eight-year old stripper, holed up in a bramble-covered shack in Los Angeles and a young feminist academic, in the year 2014.
WHERE:
In Los Angeles, New York City, Albuquerque, Austin.
WHO:
Award-winning playwright and solo performer Heather Woodbury (*winner of the first Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE-Outstanding Achievement in Off-Broadway Theatre- recipient), performs her new one-woman play , directed by Abigail Deser, in four cities.
WHY:
About Last Days…critics say:
"MESMERIZING....not only vibrantly performed but also delicately written....Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit....the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
--Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Woodbury remains A LOS ANGELES TREASURE....(the play) captivates and challenges--while including plenty of laughs....(with) fascinating and detailed characters....Woodbury packs plenty of punch."
--Jeff Favre, BACKSTAGE WEST, PICK OF THE WEEK
"Flat out: SHE'S BRILLIANT!”
-KellyHargraves, EYESPYLA.COM
About Woodbury’s past work:
“Breathtaking.”-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured...”-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring.”-Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.” -Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
WHEN:
LAST DAYS returns for two nights only at BANG, Saturday, April 12th and *Sunday April 13th at 8 p.m. These are last performances in Los Angeles prior to a three-city tour.
Admission: $10. Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission.
(*Sunday, April 13th will benefit Heather Woodbury’s Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc. All donations over the $10 admission will go to the non-profit and are fully tax deductible.)
Location: 457 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
Box office: 323.653.6886
Next: Tuesday, April 22nd at 8 p.m. The Culture Project’s annual WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL in New York City.
Culture Project 55 Mercer St., NY, NY, 10013 Box Office 212 925 1900 www.cultureproject.org
Next for the first time in Albuquerque in a special one-night-only presentation at VSA North Fourth Arts Center Saturday, April 26th at 8 p.m.
Admission: $15.
4904 Fourth St. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107, Box Office 505-344-4542, www.vsartsnm.org
finally, we continue on to Austin, Texas running May 8- 18th at The Vortex , 2307 Manor Road (1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple) Austin, TX 78722 Reservations: 512-478-LAVA
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,0000 page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who lives in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998.This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER most recently directed Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
About Deser’s past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
-
posted by Heather W at 12:09 AM
0 comments
Thursday, February 07, 2008
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World L.A. PREMIERE on January 19th
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World L.A. PREMIERE on January 19th
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World
Heather Woodbury, winner of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE recipient, premieres her new one-woman play, directed by Abigail Deser, at BANG, running three more weeks on Saturdays only at 8pm.
Through February 23rd. Admission: $10 ($5 valet parking avail @ Rosewood & Fairfax)
Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission. Location: Bang Studio Theatre 457 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
Make your reservations now: 323.653.6886
Closing night party Feb. 23rd hosted by OB-JECT visit sayobject.com featuring superb songstress Nellie McKay.
Schedule: April 23rd WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL at Culture Project NYC
April 26-27th TRICKLOCK THEATER COMPANY hosts in Albuquerque, NM
Running May 8-18th at VORTEX REP in Austin, TX
"Heather Woodbury has that gift common to all mesmerizing performance artists -- an ability to capture an audience's imagination as much with her story as her singularly flamboyant way of telling it [...] Like Karen Finley and Dael Orlandersmith, Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit... the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,000-page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing
recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
About Woodbury’s past work, critics say:
“Breathtaking.”
-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured ..”
-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring”
- Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Her vision has a sweep and maturity that is…thrilling to behold”
-Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.”
-Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
About Deser's past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The piece was originally inspired by, but is in no way based upon the true story of, Lemoyne Redmond - an actual Echo Park resident who lived and died in a house surrounded by overgrowth, down the block from where Ms. Woodbury lives. Lemoyne was rumored, among other scandals and eccentricities, to’ve been a “show-girl” in her youth…
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who currently resides in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998 .This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER is currently directing Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World
Heather Woodbury, winner of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award, and a 2007 OBIE recipient, premieres her new one-woman play, directed by Abigail Deser, at BANG, running three more weeks on Saturdays only at 8pm.
Through February 23rd. Admission: $10 ($5 valet parking avail @ Rosewood & Fairfax)
Show Length: 90 minutes plus intermission. Location: Bang Studio Theatre 457 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
Make your reservations now: 323.653.6886
Closing night party Feb. 23rd hosted by OB-JECT visit sayobject.com featuring superb songstress Nellie McKay.
Schedule: April 23rd WOMEN CENTER STAGE FESTIVAL at Culture Project NYC
April 26-27th TRICKLOCK THEATER COMPANY hosts in Albuquerque, NM
Running May 8-18th at VORTEX REP in Austin, TX
"Heather Woodbury has that gift common to all mesmerizing performance artists -- an ability to capture an audience's imagination as much with her story as her singularly flamboyant way of telling it [...] Like Karen Finley and Dael Orlandersmith, Woodbury has a poet's way with words and a comic's naughty wit... the show demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight."
Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
It's the year 2014 and a young “ethno-femino-dance anthropologist” travels to a post-quake, post-drought afflicted Los Angeles to research her 10,000-page dissertation on “The History of the World, as Told by Loose Women.” Her final subject: the half-mad, 108-year old legendary stripper Desmond “Nani” Reese, who is holed up in a shack on an Echo Park hillside overlooking the five freeway. With some prodding, the profanity-spewing
recluse -who often insists on conversing with her 27 cats- unfurls a life story which includes surviving the Oklahoma dust bowl, riding the rails as a girl wrestler and close encounters with Salvador Dali at the 1939 World’s Fair. As tensions rise, Amber, the young academic, is at last compelled to confront her own hidden life as a dabbler in the erotic underworld. In the process, these two unlikely heroines puzzle out the history of the 20th century and the future of our planet, and what that has to do with outlaw females throughout human kind’s history- from high priestess oracles in the caves of ancient Greece - to forgotten “show-girls” in bramble covered shacks.
About Woodbury’s past work, critics say:
“Breathtaking.”
-Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured ..”
-Alexis Soloski,VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring”
- Terry Morgan, VARIETY
“Her vision has a sweep and maturity that is…thrilling to behold”
-Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.”
-Fintan O’Toole, THE IRISH TIMES
About Deser's past work:
“…Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of blazing young directing talent, but the proper appreciation of the director's vital role. Abigail Deser, who extracted maximum quirky delight out of Adam Bock's capricious "Thursday," in the Echo Theater Company production last winter, strikes me as someone worth investing in every bit as much as the current flavor of the month in playwriting.”
- Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
This piece was initially developed with funding from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The piece was originally inspired by, but is in no way based upon the true story of, Lemoyne Redmond - an actual Echo Park resident who lived and died in a house surrounded by overgrowth, down the block from where Ms. Woodbury lives. Lemoyne was rumored, among other scandals and eccentricities, to’ve been a “show-girl” in her youth…
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Heather Woodbury is a native of northern California who currently resides in Echo Park, Los Angeles. In her late teens, she moved to New York City’s East Village and became involved in the early 80s performance art scene where she developed her method of generating material via improvisational writing and performance. Woodbury has since earned multiple awards in both areas. Most recently, she was awarded a C.O.L.A. –a 2006-7 Performing Artist’s Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles – commissioning her to develop The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper’s History of the World, which debuted as a work-in-progress on May 26th, 2007. In 2006 she was the recipient of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award awarded by Gray’s widow, Kathleen Russo and by UCLA LIVE and Performance Space 122 in NY, honoring writer/performers who “fully realize” both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy and are “fearless innovators.” Her ensemble play, Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks, premiered at both venues in the fall 2006 season and went on to win a 2007 OBIE for ensemble performance.
Woodbury first entranced audiences with her living novel, “What Ever: An American Odyssey” (published by Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003), a 100- character, 8-act solo play hailed as a “Whitmanesque vision of America” [Chicago Sun-Times] which won the LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award in 1998 .This epic four-evening mini-serial-for-the stage, directed and edited by Dudley Saunders, toured the U.S and Europe to critical acclaim, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass and broadcast on several NPR and PRI affiliates nationwide.
For more information, visit: www.heatherwoodbury.com
ABIGAIL DESER is currently directing Timberlake Wertenbaker’s THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE for the USC School of Theater. Last season she directed the Los Angeles premiere of Adam Bock’s THURSDAY for the Echo Theatre Company. Deser is the Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. In Chicago, her credits include CLOSER by Patrick Marber (Steppenwolf Mainstage) with Gary Cole, THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan (Steppenwolf/Roadworks), DISAPPEARED (Steppenwolf/ Roadworks), SERENADING LOUIE by Lanford Wilson, DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick Marber, THE SOLDIER DREAMS by Daniel McGivor and TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION by Anthony Minghella. Her work has been honored with two After Dark Awards for Best Director and numerous Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Best Director and Best Ensemble, among others. Abigail directed the pilot of BLOGLAND for MTV, coaches actors for theater, film and television and teaches acting for Steppenwolf West.
posted by Heather W at 1:03 PM
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