Anna Bella Eema

ANNA BELLA EEMA by Lisa D’Amour
a ghost story spoken and sung in 3 voices

by Lisa D'Amour
Directed by Kym Moore
October 16-November 7
Tickets $15 - $20

Perishable opens its 2009-2010 season with the regional premiere of Anna Bella Eema by Lisa D’Amour. Lisa D’Amour’s work was last seen on the Perishable stage with her critically acclaimed production of The Cataract. Lisa D’Amour’s richly imagined tale of a fierce mother/daughter bond, Anna Bella Eema is spoken and sung by three women and is being performed at Perishable Theatre Oct. 16-Nov. 7.

Ten-year-old Anna Bella and her hermetic mother Irene live in a ratty trailer on the edge of town. When their trailer park is slated for demolition because of interstate highway expansion, Irene refuses to leave. In this moment of crisis, her ten-year-old daughter Anna Bella creates a new girl out of the mud behind their trailer home. This mud-girl helps Anna Bella and Irene channel the supernatural and face the life they must live in the world outside their trailer home. A spoken-and-sung three-character gothic, Anna Bella Eema asks us to listen, and listen carefully.

''To be more than another set of bones wandering across the earth is to realize that you are just another set of bones wandering across the earth.''

Lisa D'Amour-(Playwright)writes plays and creates collaborative, often site-specific theater. Recent projects include Nita and Zita, created with Katie Pearl and Kathy Randels (for which they received a 2003 OBIE Award); 16 Spells to Charm the Beast, produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin); and LIMO, a performance installation commissioned by the Whitney Museum of Art. Ms. D'Amour has received funding from the Jerome and McKnight foundations, the Minnesota and Louisiana State Arts Boards, and the MacDowell Colony, and has received commissions from Children's Theater Company, The Guthrie Theater, and Playwrights' Horizons. She is a core member of the Playwrights' Center and a member of New Dramatists. Ms. D'Amour received her M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Playwriting Fellow. She currently teaches playwriting in the Brown University Theatre Arts and Performance Studies department.

Kym Moore-(Director)is a multidisciplinary stage director, writer and producer. She is currently the Gerard Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre, speech and Dance at Brown University where she teaches acting and directing. She has taught at various colleges and universities across the US including Swarthmore, Hampshire and Sarah Lawrence Colleges.

“Skillfully Stylized…Ms. D’Amour’s inspiration make(s) for a wise comment on identity…”

—The New York Times

“It’s beauty and depth are almost beyond language other than its own.”

—The Austin Chronicle

Tickets available at www.arttixri.com or 401-621-6123

Or for more information go to www.perishable.org

Special group rates make this a VERY affordable, exciting theatrical experience for your group. Groups of 6 or more, tickets $15 each, student groups only $12 each.

Call 401-331-2695 X 103.

*There is adult language in this production.

Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St., Providence, RI