LISA LOOMER

Lisa Loomer’s most recent play, DISTRACTED, had its world premiere at The Mark Taper Forum and went on to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. LIVING OUT had its world premiere at The Mark Taper Forum and was produced at Second Stage in New York in 2003, directed by Jo Bonney. It has subsequently been produced across America at such theaters as Seattle Repetory, Missouri Repetory, Mixed Blood, Borderlands, and Theater Works, as well as abroad, in both English and bi-lingual productions. She is perhaps best known for THE WAITING ROOM which went from The Williamstown Theater Festival to The Mark Taper Forum to highly successful productions at Arena Stage and Trinity Repertory Company, and then on to The Vineyard Theatre in New York. It has subsequently been produced at theaters throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Egypt. Ms. Loomer’s first work for theater was a collaboration entitled A CROWD OF TWO at The American Place Theatre. This was followed by a one-woman show ALL BY HERSELVES at the Westside Arts. She began writing plays at the Intar playwrights lab, under the direction of Maria Irene Fornes. Her first play, BIRDS, was produced by South Coast Repertory. Subsequent works include MARIA, MARIA, MARIA, MARIA!; ACCELERANDO; LOOKING FOR ANGELS; CUTS and CHAIN OF LIFE, which have been produced at such theaters as The Public Theatre, Intar, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, Mixed Blood, The Open Eye and The Odyssey. Her play EXPECTING ISABEL had its world premiere at Arena Stage and its west coast premiere at The Taper. BOCON!, a political fable for young audiences began at the Taper and has been seen throughout the country, from The Kennedy Center, to Seattle’s Group Theater, Stage Left in Chicago, The La Jolla Playhouse, as well as in Germany, Alaska, and Mexico. For The Cornerstone Theatre Company, she wrote BROKEN HEARTS, produced at The Los Angeles Theater Center. The “B.H. Mystery” brought together actors and community people from four “BH” neighborhoods in L.A.: Boyle Heights, Broadway Hill (or Chinatown), Baldwin Hills, and Beverly Hills.

Ms. Loomer is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of two grants from the NEA and a grant from the NYFA. Awards include the Jane Chambers Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, a Glarland Award, and the American Theatre Critics Association Award (twice). She also received an Imagen Award for positive portrayals of Latinos in all media. Her plays appear in THE BEST PLAYS OF 1998-1999, THE BEST PLAYS OF 1994-1995, and THE BEST PLAYS OF 2003-4, and are published by Dramatists Play Service, TCG, Dramatic Publishing and Arte Publico Press. THE WAITING ROOM and LIVING OUT are taught in university drama programs, Women’s Studies programs, and Latino Studies programs.

She is also a screenwriter. Her first film, LOOKING FOR ANGELS, was chosen by Sundance for its first co-lab with the Latin American Film Institute in Cuba where she had the opportunity to work with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Other film credits include GIRL, INTERRUPTED and NAPPILY EVER AFTER for Halle Berry, soon to be in production..