Woodberries

As The Globe Warms the Low carbon Deep Drama Serial:Final Season

2011-01-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fomenting ARTS and Bootleg Theater present:

As The Globe Warms

The low-carbon deep drama serial! HBO without the TV!

The final season of Heather Woodbury’s weekly dramatic serial As the Globe Warms

begins Tuesdays in February at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.

Woodbury, an OBIE Award-winning actor and NEA Playwriting Fellow known for her sprawling theatrical sagas, writes and performs the final season from week to week, as she goes, with no safety net.

Heather Woodbury’s As The Globe Warms- a one-of-a-kind solo performance narrative about God, sex and ecological disaster starts its final season:

ALL EPISODES TUESDAYS AT 7:30 p.m.

Episodes 1-6: February 1^st-March 8^th at Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd. 90057

213-389-3856 No Reservations/ Tickets $5 & $10 Time: 30 minutes

Episode 7: March 15th at Word Space 3191 Casitas Ave #156 in Atwater 90039

No Reservations/ Tickets $5 & $10 Time: 30 minutes

GALA MONDO FINALE April 5^th at Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd. 90057

No Reservations/ Tickets $5 $10 & $20 Time: 90 minutes

A Pentecostal teen possessed by endangered animals, a lustful zoologist fighting to save an endangered sub-species of Nevada frog, and a working class American family on the brink of extinction all converge in this low-carbon deep drama serial created week to week by veteran theatrical innovator Heather Woodbury.

Heather Woodbury is a theater artist known for solo and ensemble works that combine the immediacy of performance art with a novel's scope. Her champions include This American Life’s Ira Glass, performance artist Laurie Anderson and filmmaker Richard Linklater. Her novel-length plays have been published by Farrar, Straus&Giroux and Semiotext (e). Her 8-part solo play What Ever, originally performed in the back of a New York City bar in the East Village, toured widely from Chicago’s Steppenwolf to London’s Royal Festival Hall and was broadcast as a radio-play, hosted by Ira Glass. Her ensemble play Tale of 2 Cities: An American Joyride won an OBIE for performance; She has been awarded an NEA for Playwriting and was the first recipient of the Spalding Gray Award for “fearless theatrical innovators.”

This latest high-wire dare - inventing 34-weeks of narrative drama in public, live and on-line - is funded exclusively by online donations from supporters across the USA who subscribe to an on-line broadcast of the live stage serial.

Short video clips:

http://www.vimeo.com/9148054 Mommy Gone 3 minutes

http://www.vimeo.com/9286659 Frog Speaks 3.5 minutes

http://www.vimeo.com/16906877 Web-Cam’d! 5 minutes

The first 24 episodes - created 2010 - http://www.vimeo.com/album/165248

Praise for Heather Woodbury’s What Ever: An American Odyssey

“There is…romance, magic, tragedy and a bracing liberal critique of the world that somehow manages to avoid pessimism and didacticism.”
Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES

“ What if the great American novel turned out to be a piece of theatre? Wildly funny, infinitely sad… as urgently relevant as it is deliriously enjoyable.”
Fintan O’Toole, IRISH TIMES

“Remarkable, funny, outrageous, profoundly moving and often scarily brilliant...”

Hedi Weiss, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

“Incredible! A one-woman Dickens.”

Laurie Anderson

“Like living inside a novel”

Richard Linklater

“One of the greatest works you’ve never heard of.”

Ira Glass

Praise for Heather Woodbury’s Tale of 2Cities:An American Joyride

“Breathtakingly expansive…the canvas on display here has a scale that bears comparison to the titanic undertakings of Anna Deavere Smith and Tony Kushner… her vision has a sweep and maturity that's just as thrilling to behold."

Charles McNulty, LA TIMES

“A reminder of what a vibrant and endlessly inventive thing theater can be… a triumph of unfettered creativity.”

Terry Morgan, VARIETY

An Eco-Soap Opera for The BP Era

2010-06-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

Heather Woodbury, winner of OBIE, Kennedy, NEA, COLA, and Spalding Gray Awards and LA Weekly’s Best Solo Performance of the Year Award returns with new weekly installments of her one-woman eco-activist soap opera

AS THE GLOBE WARMS, for 12 weeks, July 10^th- October 2nd, live in Los Angeles

and on-line at http://www.vimeo.com/album/165248

Heather Woodbury’s AS THE GLOBE WARMS - a one-of-a-kind topical drama about panting Pentecostal teens, ecological disaster, desperate scientists and the endangered working class starts its fourth month as one of the best kept secrets in print and radio.

A Pentecostal teen possessed by endangered animals, a dead NY video artist broadcasting posthumously, a love-starved Emma Goldman scholar, a family of single women living in a casino parking lot and a lustful zoologist fighting to save an endangered species of Nevada frog, all converge in this timely, eco-activist soap opera.

AS THE GLOBE WARMS is a multi-character serial drama performed in live weekly solo installments and then posted on-line.

Heather Woodbury is renowned for combining the immediacy of performance art with a novel's scope. Her champions include This American Life’s Ira Glass, performance artist Laurie Anderson and filmmaker Richard Linklater. Her novel-length plays have been published by Faber/Farrar Straus and Giroux and Semiotext (e). Her 8-part solo play WHAT EVER was also a radio-play broadcast on NPR stations and hosted by Ira Glass.

View really short video clips-

http://www.vimeo.com/12345605

http://www.vimeo.com/9286659

Download photo- http://www.heatherwoodbury.com/asts/extraredlips.jpg

Press contact- heather@heatherwoodbury.com

more info- www.heatherwoodbury.com

Episodes 13-24 of the live, on-going serial AS THE GLOBE WARMS

*Saturdays from 8:00- 8:30 PM July10th- October 2nd

*Except Saturday, July 31^st(venue is closed)

Echo Curio 1519 Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park, CA 90026

Admission FREE / DONATIONS accepted

AS THE GLOBE WARMS on-line at http://www.vimeo.com/album/165248

What critics wrote about (my) Heather Woodbury’s earlier epic plays:

“There is…romance, magic, tragedy and a bracing liberal critique of the world that somehow manages to avoid pessimism and didacticism.”
Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES

“Wildly funny, infinitely sad… as urgently relevant as it is deliriously enjoyable.”
Fintan O’Toole, IRISH TIMES

“Bears comparison to the titanic undertakings of Anna Deavere Smith and Tony Kushner…her vision has a sweep and maturity that's just as thrilling to behold.”

Charles McNulty, LA TIMES

“Remarkable, funny, outrageous, profoundly moving and often scarily brilliant...”

Hedi Weiss, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

2010-01-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

Fomenting ARTS unlimited, Inc. presents:
Heather Woodbury’s AS THE GLOBE WARMS
the new meta-serial for the age of DIY, live and on-line
January 9th, 2010: The episodic marathon begins at Echo Curio in Echo Park, Los Angeles!
A Live, Brand New Half-hour solo performance every Saturday night at 8:00p.m. for 12 weeks. (Resuming for 12 weeks in July, August, Sept.)
AND On-line from January12th, 2010, continuously every week for 48 weeks
@ www.heatherwoodbury.com
On-line subscribers get in on the (under)ground floor with live local audiences:
Award-winning independent performer Heather Woodbury will create a brand new show, every week live at Echo Curio in Echo Park, Los Angeles for 24 weeks out of the year. And international on-line fans are already subscribing, claiming their place in the audience, and joining the cognoscenti of Los Angeles to watch Heather Woodbury’s new serial grow before their eyes.
Who: Heather Woodbury is a performance artist and playwright best known for originating epic-length theatre pieces for both solo and ensemble productions. She generates these works by making them up as she goes along - writing at the last minute and then performing semi-improvisational installments for live audiences.
What’s As the Globe Warms?
Heather Woodbury’s AS THE GLOBE WARMS is TODAY’S expansion of this experiment: The live performances are a half-hour, 24 weeks a year.
Meanwhile ON-LINE, it happens continuously in weekly 15-minute installments, 48 weeks a year.
Heather Woodbury’s As the Globe Warms promises to be a character-driven, recession-era free-for-all, riffing on our technology-besotted psyches and our relationship to the eco-system—with lots of lust, adventure and weird encounters for good measure.

Get to this party early: you never know what will unfold moment by moment, week by week. This is an Unpackaged, Unfiltered Entertainment Extravaganza—sponsored exclusively by online-subscribers- the MacEverybody Foundation.
What are these live performance serials like?
“Phenomenal” Chicago Sun-Times
“Like living inside a novel.” Richard Linklater, Filmmaker
“Incredible! A one-woman Dickens!” Laurie Anderson, Multi-Media Artist
“A triumph of unfettered creativity!” Terrie Morgan, VARIETY
Woodbury’s engrossing sagas What Ever: An American Odyssey and Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride, broadcast as radio-serials, published as novels and lauded as award-winning epic plays, started out as underground serials- punkish experiments in Downtown NY and East Side L.A. hole-in- the wall spaces where week by week Heather generated new episodes for a tiny group of on-lookers. The original audience for what began as solo marathons written and performed week by week, grew—along with the story—and became part of an ever-expanding cast of characters, on-stage and off.
A Live, Brand New Half-hour solo performance every Saturday night from
8-8:30 p.m. for THREE MONTHS starting Saturday, January 9th, 2010 through Saturday, March 27th, 2010.
at Echo Curio 1519 Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park, CA 90026
Admission FREE / DONATIONS accepted.
(The live serial resumes July, August, and September, 2010, TBA.)
This project is funded by the MacEverybody Foundation- subscriber-donors to
Fomenting ARTS unlimited Incorporated.
On-line subscribers are receiving:
Weekly emails w/ the latest 15-minute episode, broken into short bits
Instant access to the entire on-going serial and
Weekly invites to on-line chats with Heather and special guests.
Visit www.heatherwoodbury.com to subscribe.
About Heather’s earlier works:
“Wildly funny, infinitely sad… as urgently relevant as it is deliriously enjoyable.”
Fintan O’Toole, IRISH TIMES
“ There is…romance, magic, tragedy and a bracing liberal critique of the world that somehow manages to avoid pessimism and didacticism.”
Jason Zinoman, NY TIMES
“A mesmerizing affirmation of the generous, liberal humanity of characters steeped in the tradition of anarchistic radicalism.”
Patrick Brennan, IRISH EXAMINER DUBLIN
“Demonstrates the power of the solo artist in tantalizing flight”
Charles McNulty, LA TIMES
“They think and so they are fans.” Harold Goldberg, THE VOICE

BIO:
Heather Woodbury is a performance artist and playwright best known for originating epic-length theatre pieces for both solo and ensemble productions. She generates these works by making them up as she goes along - writing at the last minute and then performing semi-improvisational installments for live audiences. These works combine the narrative and thematic scope of a novel with the immediacy of performance. Her two major pieces also have manifestations in other media: as published novels and as an NPR-broadcast radio serial. In 2006 she received the Spalding Gray Award, which recognizes “fearless innovators” who “fully realize both the performing and writing aspects of Mr. Gray’s legacy.” Other honors include publication by the legendary George Plimpton in his final edition of the Paris Review and publication of What Ever and Tale as “living novels” by Faber/Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux and Semiotext(e). She was a City of Los Angeles Performing Artist Fellow, an N.E.A. Playwright Fellow in residence at the Public Theatre in NYC, and the recipient of a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for Tale of 2 Cities: An American Joyride, and an LA Weekly Best Solo Performance of the Year Award for her 4-night, 8-Act, 100-character solo play What Ever: An American Odyssey. She received an OBIE for ensemble performance in the L.A.-N.Y. premiere of her 2-night, 6-Act play Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks.

“THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND ‘NANI’ REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World”

2009-01-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

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

-

CONTEMPORARY SOLO w/ Heather Woodbury

2008-12-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

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

NEW SHOW ON TOUR IN SPRING

2008-05-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

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

NEW SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY ONE NIGHT ONLY AND ON TOUR IN SPRING

2008-04-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

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

NEW SHOW IN LA AND ON TOUR IN SPRING

2008-03-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

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 L.A. PREMIERE on January 19th

2008-02-07T13:03:00.000-08:00

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.

BRAND NEW PIECE PREMIERES MAY 26th, 07

2007-05-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Saturday, MAY 26th, 8 pm (Memorial Day Weekend- )
Please come and share the FREE!!!!!! debut of my brand new one-woman playette:

“THE LAST DAYS OF DESMOND NANI REESE: A Stripper’s History of the World”
written and performed by Heather Woodbury
A series of encounters 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.

Saturday, May 26th at 8pm
FREE ADMISSION, FREE PARKING (paid for by your tax dollars!!!)
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (in the Barnsdall Art Park) 4800 Hollywood Blvd.
Aprroximate Length: 75 minutes.

About past work, critics say:
“Breathtaking.”
-NY TIMES
“A tender writer…vivid and assured ..”
-VILLAGE VOICE
“Thrillingly poetic and daring”
-VARIETY
“Her vision has a sweep and maturity that is…thrilling to behold”
-LA TIMES
“Wildly funny and infinitely sad.”
-THE IRISH TIMES

Currently I am a 2007 recipient of the City of LA Fellowship for Performance (paid for by the Department of Cultural Affairs-- your tax dollars!!!)
2006 recipient of the Spalding Gray Award which “recognizes fearless innovators who fully realize the writing AND performing aspects of Gray’s legacy.”
1998 Best Solo Performance from the LA Weekly
2001 Kennedy Award Winning Playwright

Saturday, May 26th at 8pm
FREE ADMISSION, FREE PARKING (paid for by your tax dollars!!!)
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre (in the Barnsdall Art Park)
4800 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-644-6272

Paid for, in part, by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

TALE OF 2CITIES WORLD PREMIERE LA/NY 9/06

2007-05-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

Tale of 2Cities premieres this September 30th - October 29th in a bicoastal production at UCLA Liveand at Performance Space 122 in New York with an extraordinary seven-member ensemble cast featuring actors Winsome Brown, Michael Ray Escamilla, Tracey A. Leigh, Leo Marks, Diane Rodriguez, Ed Vassallo, and Heather Woodbury.

ABOUT TALE OF 2CITIES (while it was in development)
"Entrancing and exhilarating molding gut-wrenching truths and hilarious caricatures into a portrait of the family of man-past and present."
--Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

Tale of 2Cities:An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks is a six-act, two-part play about contemporary urban displacement and the reverberations caused by the Dodgers' historic 1957 transplant to L.A. Tale won both an NEA Fellowship and a Kennedy Award while in development at the NY Public Theater. It premieres this October at UCLA Live in Los Angeles and Performance Space 122 in New York with a multi-racial ensemble cast.
It is published in September, 2006 by semio(e)text/MIT press

Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic mix by a young Echo Park DJ mourning his grandmother's death and traces the impact of displacement on three generations of characters on both coasts when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved across country. From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers, "Tale swoops through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and minor characters." (David Cote, Timeout NY)

BROOKLYN BALL TEAMS AND WRECKING BALLS 7/06

2007-05-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

x

Fomenting ARTS' bicoastal series of "re-collection events" moves to New York with:

BROOKLYN BALL TEAMS AND WRECKING BALLS

Sunday, August 6th. 3 p.m., Brooklyn Baseball Gallery at KeySpan Park in Coney Island

Theater meets baseball as the TALE OF 2CITIES Project moves to New York for the third in its series of bicoastal "re-collection events".
TALE OF 2CITIES: AN AMERICAN JOYRIDE ON MULTIPLE TRACKS is a soon-to-debut play by Heather Woodbury that looks at the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957 and the lasting effect the move had on three generations of characters in the neighborhoods affected by that move. The multi-actor play has a bicoastal world premiere in October, 2006 at UCLA LIVE'S FIFTH INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL and in New York City at Performance Space 122.

What's a "re-collection event"? The "re-collection events" are designed to bring theater to the community and the community to the theater. Each event includes a sneak-preview reading of selections from Tale of 2Cities by prominent actors, presentations by local community groups and a public forum on the subject of urban redevelopment and the importance of neighborhoods, past and present. Audience members are encouraged to bring photographs, accounts of neighborhoods past and present and other memorabilia that speak to the play's central concern of shifting urban landscapes. These will be duplicated and collected in the growing bicoastal “community scrapbooks" and make up a companion display that will travel with the play through its production, with some elements contributing to the projection-based set design. A LIMITED NUMBER OF FREE TICKETS TO THE CYCLONES GAME TO FOLLOW THE EVENT WILL BE AVAILABLE TO THOSE WHO BRING A PHOTO OR OTHER PIECE OF MEMORABILIA.

Sunday, August 6th, 3pm - FREE
Brooklyn Baseball Gallery at KeySpan Park
1904 Surf Avenue in Coney Island - Parking is available
Directions: www.brooklyncyclones.com or (718) 499-8497
Limited number of Tickets available for Cyclones game following the event - for information write americanjoyride@aol.com

A six-act, two-part saga, Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from
New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic mix by a young Echo Park DJ
mourning his grandmother's death. Flashing back to 1957 when the
Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned one neighborhood while in LA another was
lost to make way for the transplanted team's new stadium, Tale creates a
live séance among generations of interwoven characters on both coasts.
From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers," Tale swoops
through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and
minor characters."

“Entrancing and exhilarating…molding gut-wrenching truths and hilarious caricatures
into a portrait of the family of man—past and present.”
— Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

The Tale of 2Cities "re-collection events" series started in Los Angeles with THERE GOES THE BARRIO on May 31st at the Los Angeles Central Library and THE CITY NOW AND THE CITY WE KNEW on July 9th at the Skirball Cultural Center. Following BROOKLYN BALL TEAMS AND WRECKING BALLS, the final event in the series, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS, will be held at the Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO on August 22nd.

Cultural Sponsors of the 2Cities “re-collection” project: ALOUD at Los Angeles Central Library,
The Baseball Reliquary, Boyle Heights Poets/Dolores Mission School, Brooklyn Baseball Gallery,
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Casa 0101/LA THEATRE PROJECTS, Casa Del Pueblo,
Consejo Popular de Echo Park, Councilman Eric Garcetti, Councilman Bill Rosendahl, Da'hui Man'gu-Community
Land Trust, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, The Eagle Rock Arts Center, Echo Park Film Center,
Inside Out Community Arts, Performance Space 122, Progressive Jewish Alliance, semiotext(e),
Skirball Cultural Center, South Central Farmers Feeding Families, UCLA Live, The Virginia Avenue Project.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

2007-05-08T14:19:00.000-07:00

“Breathtakingly expansive, bears comparison to the titanic undertakings of Anna Deavere Smith and Tony Kushner." - Charles McNulty, The L.A. Times

New York Times Review http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/theater/reviews/19joy.html

Heather Woodbury's
Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks

Tuesday-Sunday performances at P.S. 122 running until October 29
Reservations STRONGLY Recommended!

Directed by Dudley Saunders
With Winsome Brown, Michael Ray Escamilla, Tracey A. Leigh, Leo Marks, Diane Rodriguez, Ed Vassallo and Heather Woodbury

Tale of 2Cities opened to great reviews in Los Angeles:

Los Angeles Times Review
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-tale2oct02,0,3206311.story?coll=

Variety Review
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931763?categoryId=33&cs=1

Tale of 2Cities is seen in two parts:
Part I "Grifters, Drifters and Dodgers"
Part II "Mega Mixicana Waltz"

Schedule:
Tuesdays and Thursdays: Part 1 at 8 p.m.
Wednesdays and Fridays: Part 2 at 8 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays:
Part 1 at 2 p.m., Part 2 at 7 p.m.
$20, $15 (students/seniors),
$10 (members)

For Tickets: www.theatermania.com or call 212-352-3101

More information: www.heatherwoodbury.com or www.ps122.org

Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic mix by a young Echo Park DJ mourning his grandmother's death. Flashing back to 1957 when the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned one neighborhood while in LA another was lost to make way for the transplanted team's new stadium, Tale creates a live séance among generations of interwoven characters on both coasts. From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers," Tale swoops through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and minor characters."

“Entrancing and exhilarating…molding gut-wrenching truths and hilarious caricatures
into a portrait of the family of man—past and present.”
— Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

*To volunteer to sell Woodbury’s books and T-shirts before the show and during intermission in exchange for a ticket, please contact elevy1@verizon.net .
MORE ...

NEW in 2007

2007-05-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hello, this is me, Heather, speaking in the first person. Mostly, you'll notice, this site speaks in the third person omnicient. However, here in this blog, things are different. First, here's my latest, a tv interview about my two living novels, in paperback, check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOMKqK5RrH4
Right now, as a lucky recipient of the City of L.A. Artist fellowship, I'm writing a new piece, which I'll premiere as a work in progress at Los Angeles' fabulous Barnsdall Art Park, May 26th, 2007.

Also, you can read about the recent 2006 bi-coastal premiere of Tale of 2Cities:An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks.

NY Times:
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/theater/reviews/19joy.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1162855781-WasZiqeMs26QyYZHQ49nlw

LA Times:
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-tale2oct02,0,3206311.story?coll=

LA Weekly:
http://www.laweekly.com/stage/theater/theater-reviews/14555/

Variety:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931763?categoryId=33&cs=1

Village Voice:
http://villagevoice.com/theater/0643,soloski,74829,11.html

LA City Beat:
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=4434&IssueNum=174

nytheatre.com:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/tale4139.htm

NY Times Profile:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/theater/18tale.html?ex=1162962000&en=98f5a89dd7494a86&ei=5070

LA Times Profile:
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/suncal/cl-ca-woodbury24sep24,0,1754909.story?coll=cl-suncal

LA Daily News/Long Beach Press Telegram Profile:
http://www.presstelegram.com/stage/ci_4405605

TALE of 2/2006:THE CITY WE KNEW AND THE CITY NOW

2006-06-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Performance and interactive forum about urban erasure and the meaning of community

Fomenting ARTS' bicoastal series of "re-collection events," continues on July 9 at the Skirball Cultural Center with THE CITY WE KNEW AND THE CITY NOW, featuring a new selection of readings from playwright/performance artist Heather Woodbury's soon-to-premiere play TALE OF 2CITIES: AN AMERICAN JOYRIDE ON MULTIPLE TRACKS performed by Ann Magnuson, John Fleck, and others. The event also features presentations by West Side community groups and another open discussion about the absence and presence of neighborhood in our lives. West Side community contributions: a five minute documentary about Lincoln Place evictions by former resident Erin Grayson and a sampling of music related to the event's themes of American diaspora from music critic Josh Kun, author of AUDIOTOPIA: MUSIC, RACE, AND AMERICA.

Sunday, July 9, 2pm, Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Advance tickets: Available via TicketWeb at (866) 468-3399 or www.ticketweb.com, or on site at the Skirball Admissions Desk during regular hours. Tickets also available at the door, subject to availability.
General Information: (310) 440-4500 or www.skirball.org
$8 general admission, $5 Skirball members, students and for those who bring an image that speaks to the project's central concern of urban erasure.
THERE GOES THE BARRIO, the first in Fomenting ARTS' bicoastal series of "re-collection events," was held on May 31st at Los Angeles Central Library as part of the ALOUD lecture and performance series. The sneak preview reading of selections from Tale of 2Cities featured, among a stellar cast, beloved film actor John C. Reilly and sardonic Six Feet Under writer Jill Soloway. The actors also read poems by 7th grade students from Boyle Heights' Dolores Mission School, and films by the Echo Park Film Center's �Young Filmmakers� were screened. Spontaneous participants in the open forum included Dion Neutra, the architect who planned a public housing project where Dodgers Stadium now sits, partisans of the South Central Community Farm, and the visibly moved teacher of the �Boyle Heights Poets�. The event was called "visionary" by one audience member. Another said the evening "rejuvenated my hope for theater in LA."

On July 9th, audience members are encouraged to bring photographs, accounts of neighborhoods past and present and other memorabilia that speak to the play's central concern of "urban erasure." These are duplicated and collected in NY/LA �community scrapbooks" and grow as the series continues. They will travel with the upcoming bicoastal production of the play, with some elements contributing to the projection-based set design.

Following THE CITY NOW AND THE CITY WE KNEW, the "re-collection" series will move to New York with BROOKLYN BALL TEAMS AND WRECKING BALLS on August 6th at the Brooklyn Baseball Gallery in Coney Island and THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS on August 22nd at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy's Tobacco Warehouse.

Cultural Sponsors of the 2Cities �Re-collection� project: The Baseball Reliquary, Boyle Heights Poets/Dolores Mission School, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Brooklyn Baseball Gallery, Casa 0101, Casa Del Pueblo, Councilman Eric Garcetti , The Eagle Rock Arts Center, Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles Central Library, Performance Space 122, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Semio(e)text, Skirball Cultural Center, UCLA LIVE.

ABOUT TALE OF 2CITIES
�Entrancing and exhilarating�molding gut-wrenching truths and hilarious caricatures into a portrait of the family of man�past and present.�
--Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times
Tale of 2Cities:An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks is a six-act, two-part play about contemporary urban displacement and the reverberations caused by the Dodgers� historic 1957 transplant to L.A. Tale won both an NEA Fellowship and a Kennedy Award while in development at the NY Public Theater. It premieres this October at UCLA Live in Los Angeles and Performance Space 122 in New York with a multi-racial ensemble cast. It will be published by semio(e)text/MIT press in September, 2006.

Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic mix by a young Echo Park DJ mourning his grandmother's death and traces the impact of displacement on three generations of characters on both coasts when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved across country. From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers, "Tale swoops through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and minor characters." (David Cote, Timeout NY)

Heather Woodbury is the founder and artistic director of Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc., which was founded upon the belief that sharing the "foment" of theatrical and literary work as it develops is a means of drawing together people of various ages, ethnicities, regions and economic status, as well as bridging the gap between artist and community. Her first living novel, What Ever (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003) was a ten-hour solo theater piece, directed by Dudley Saunders, which toured the U.S and Europe, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass. Woodbury recently won the inaugural Spalding Gray Award, initiated by UCLA LIVE and PS 122 and Kathleen Russo, Gray's widow, for "writer/performers who fully realize both aspects of Gray�s legacy" and are "fearless innovators". Directed by Saunders and featuring a cast from both cities, 2Cities co-premieres in LA (at UCLA Live's Fifth Annual International Theatre Festival) and in NY in October 2006.

TALE READING & FORUM @ ALOUD DOWNTOWN LA

2006-05-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

ALOUD at Central Library and Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc. present:

TALE OF 2CITIES: AN AMERICAN JOYRIDE
A performance, and THERE GOES THE BARRIO, an Interactive Forum about Urban Erasure

Wednesday, May 31, 7pm, Central Library Mark Taper Auditorium
Reservations: www.aloudla.org or (213) 228-7025
FREE

“Entrancing and exhilarating…molding gut-wrenching truths and hilarious caricatures into a portrait of the family of man—past and present.”
Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

A six-act, two-part saga, Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic stew by a young Echo Park DJ mourning his grandmother's death. Flashing back to 1957 when the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned one neighborhood while in LA another was lost to make way for the transplanted team's new stadium, Tale creates a live séance among generations of interwoven characters on both coasts. From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers, "Tale swoops through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and minor characters." (David Cote, Timeout NY)

The first in Fomenting ARTS' bi-coastal series of "re-collection events," THERE GOES THE BARRIO, will feature a sneak preview reading from playwright/performance artist Heather Woodbury's award-winning Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks with Academy Award nominated actor John C. Reilly, SIX FEET UNDER alumnae Jill Soloway and Justina Machado, and actors Tracey Leigh, Christopher Michael Rivera, Monica Fourozesh, Hugo Armstrong, Leo Marks, and Heather Woodbury. A co-presentation of the ALOUD at Central Library lecture and performance series, the reading will precede an open forum that engages audience participants with the play’s central concern of on-going urban upheaval and how it continues to affect our sense of community.

THERE GOES THE BARRIO will focus on collecting images of people and places that define "neighborhood" for those who attend. All who attend are invited to bring a photograph or other image from their environment that speaks to them about their sense of neighborhood, place, and community, and the questions it raises. Will this place, object, or person endure or is it/he/she in danger of disappearing from the landscape? What is replacing it? “The purpose,” says Woodbury, “is to try to induce, in a sense, a nostalgia for the present.” These images and accompanying writing will be gathered in "community scrapbooks" that will travel as a companion display and be integrated into the production design with the bi-coastal premiere of Tale of 2Cities at UCLA LIVE and PS 122 (in New York) in October.

In addition to the reading and display of collected images, attendees of THERE GOES THE BARRIO will be invited to take part in an open discussion about the changing face of LA's East Side neighborhoods. Invited community participants include a youth poetry class from Dolores Mission School, the “Boyle Heights Poets” and Echo Park Film Center’s young filmmakers program, who will provide their own takes on changing urban landscapes.

Heather Woodbury is the founder and artistic director of Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc. which was founded upon the belief that sharing the “foment” of theatrical and literary work as it develops is a means of drawing together people of various ages, ethnicities, regions and economic status, as well as bridging the gap between artist and community. Her first living novel, What Ever (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2003) was a ten-hour solo theater piece, directed by Dudley Saunders, which toured the U.S and Europe, and was adapted as a radio play hosted by Ira Glass. Directed by Saunders and featuring a cast from both cities, 2Cities co-premieres in LA (at UCLA Live's Fifth Annual International Theatre Festival) and in NY in October 2006. Heather is the recent recipent of the first ever Spalding Gray Award, honoring writer/performers who fully realize both of these aspects of Gray’s legacy.

ALOUD at Central Library is a presentation of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, which secures private support to help provide the Los Angeles Public Library with everything from books and materials to reading enrichment programs, technology, cultural events, exhibitions, and select capital improvements. With over 75 programs each year, the critically acclaimed ALOUD series of public lectures, readings, performances, and discussions spans a multitude of disciplines, winning national recognition for its outstanding and innovative literary and arts programming.