Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, and former Carnival Queen from

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. D'Amour is an alumna of New Dramatists. Her play ''

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

'' was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for Drama.

Biography

Education

D'Amour received a B.A. in English and Theater from

Millsaps College Millsaps College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. History The college was founded ...

in Jackson, Mississippi and her M.F.A. in playwriting from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

."Biography"
playscripts.com, accessed May 4, 2015

Personal life

Born in Minneapolis, Lisa was raised for most of her life in River Ridge and New Orleans, LA.

Work

D'Amour's plays include ''Hide Town'' produced by Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Houston (2006), ''Anna Bella Eema'' produced by New Georges, NYC (2003), Blue Theater/Physical Plant, Austin, TX (2001), and ''Ten Thousand Things'', Minneapolis. Winner, Best New Play, Austin Critics’ Table (2002). ''Stanley 2006'' was to be produced at HERE Arts Center in SoHo, NYC but was withdrawn due to an intellectual property dispute involving the character

Stanley Kowalski Stanley Kowalski is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' play '' A Streetcar Named Desire''. In the play Stanley lives in the working-class Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans with his wife, Stella ( DuBois), and is employe ...

. ''The Cataract'' was produced Off-Broadway at the Women's Project, running from March 22, 2006, to April 15, 2006, directed by Katie Pearl. The ''CurtainUp'' reviewer wrote: "D'Amour's voice is a vibrant new addition to the American theatre, and Women's Project has assembled an exciting team in this brave production." It was originally produced by PlayLabs, Minneapolis, MN, in 2003 and then in Providence, Rhode Island by Perishable Theatre. Her play ''Nita & Zita'', written and directed by D'Amour, premiered at the State Palace Theater, New Orleans, in June 2002, and was produced Off-Broadway at the HERE Arts Center in 2003. The play won an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

. The play relates the story of two sisters from Romania from the 1920s to the 1940s. In August 2008, she collaborated with the printmaker / installation artist SWOON on "Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea", a fleet of seven intricately handcrafted vessels that navigated the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

in August 2008. D'Amour made a performance to be presented by the crew in towns along the Hudson. Her play ''

'', was originally set to première on Broadway in September 2010, after the production at the

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theater company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry (American actor), Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Immaculate Conception grade school in Highland Park, Illinois and is now located in Chica ...

, directed by

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. Pendleton is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen, whose six-decade career has included roles in films i ...

. Afterwards, the play opened Off-Broadway at

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. ...

in September 2012. On March 8, 2014, ''Cherokee'' premiered at the Wilma Theater, it was the Woolly commissioned companion piece to ''Detroit,'' which was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, a 2013 Obie Award-winner (Best New American Play) and the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn prize. This heartfelt and comedic play was D’Amour's examination of what it means to lead an authentic life. '' Airline Highway'' premiered on Broadway in April 2015, marking her Broadway debut. The play was commissioned by the Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago, and opened there in December 2014.Ryzik, Melena
"Lisa D’Amour Juggles 'Airline Highway' and 'Milton,' a Tale of Five Towns"
''The New York Times'', March 19, 2015 ''Airline Highway'' received four 2015

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nominations. The play received three 2015

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

nominations, including Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Julie White), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (K. Todd Freeman) and Outstanding Play. This play examines a tight knit community of “outsiders” over the course of a single, legendary day. The Hummingbird Hotel is the figurative or literal home for a group of strippers, French Quarter service workers, hustlers, and poets who are bound together by their bad luck, bad decisions, and complete lack of pretense. In 2018, D'amour wrote
La Traviata
'' a short adaptation of Verdi's opera of the same title set in New Orleans, commissioned b
Playing on Air
The episode was released in Fall 2019 featuring Debra Monk, Johanna Day, Katie Finneran, Zach Appelman, and directed by Michael Wilson.

Collaboration

She is co-artistic director of PearlDamour, wit
Katie Pearl
making collaborative, often site-specific performances For 20 years, they have been an Obie-Award-winning collaborative team who are known for large-scale performances that mix theater and installation — such as ''How to Build a Forest'', an 8-hour performance in which they assemble and disassemble a simulated forest on an empty stage over 8 hours. Their work has been honored with the Lee Reynolds Award (2011), an

(2003) and two “Best Site Specific Performance” citations from the Gothamist for Bird Eye Blue Print (2007) and from the Minneapolis City Pages for LandMARK (2005). Their work is intensely

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

– crafted by extensive collaborations with artists of other fields. D'Amour teaches playwriting, collaboration, workshops on interdisciplinary performance and serves as a mentor to individual playwrights and groups looking to devise their own work. Her workshops incorporate examples from her own work and process as well as in-class exercises and writing games. She has taught in universities, writing centers, theaters and high schools. Places she has taught workshops are

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

University of Houston
and University of Rochester, to name a few. Lisa D'Amour currently holds the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in the Performing Arts, in th
McGovern College of the Arts
at th
University of Houston

Awards

*2002: Best New Play from Austin Critics’ Table for ''Ten Thousand Things'' *2003 Obie Award for ''Nita & Zita'' *2008: A grant from the Alpert Awards in the Arts in Theatre, a $75,000 mid-career grant *2008: 'MAP' fund award for ''Terrible Things'' with collaborator Katie Pearl *2009:

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...

Award for ''How to Build a Forest'' *2011: Steinberg Playwright Award with

Melissa James Gibson Melissa James Gibson is a Canadian-born playwright based in New York. Life The child of former British Columbia Liberal Party, BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly, MLA Gordon Gibson (politician, born 1937), Gordon Gibson and journalist ...

References

External links

*
New Dramatists

Women's Project

The Children's Theatre Company
*
Lisa D'Amour
at Internet Off-Broadway Database {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Amour, Lisa American women dramatists and playwrights Living people Obie Award recipients Writers from New Orleans Actresses from New Orleans Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American women writers American stage actresses Millsaps College alumni Moody College of Communication alumni