BIOGRAPHY
Lisa Loomer
Lisa Loomer’s play Roe, about Roe v. Wade, was commissioned through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions program in a production that traveled to Arena Stage and Berkeley Rep. It has been produced across America from Houston and Austin, to the Goodman in Chicago, to Alaska. It received the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and the Pen Award. Her play Homefree was commissioned by the Denver Center before receiving its world premiere in Los Angeles at The Road Theatre. Café Vida, about female gang members, was presented at the Los Angeles Theatre Center by Cornerstone Theater in partnership with Homeboy Industries, and was nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Play. Two Things You Don’t Talk About at Dinner had its world premiere at the Denver Center. Distracted had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and was subsequently produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The play was produced at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York in a production starring Cynthia Nixon, and has subsequently been produced in theaters throughout the US. Living Out had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum and was produced at Second Stage in New York. It has been produced at such theaters as Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, the Denver Center, and TheaterWorks, often in bilingual productions, as well as in Israel, Europe, and Mexico. Her play The Waiting Room went from the Williamstown Theatre Festival to the Mark Taper Forum to highly successful productions at Arena Stage and Trinity Rep, and then to the Vineyard Theatre in New York. It has been widely produced nationally and internationally. Expecting Isabel had its world premiere at Arena Stage and its west coast premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. It has been produced in New York and nationally. ¡Bocón!, 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 and the La Jolla Playhouse, as well as in Germany, Alaska, and Mexico. For the Cornerstone Theater Company, she also wrote Broken Hearts, produced at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Ms. Loomer began her career as an actress and comedienne. Her first work for theater was 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 María Irene Fornés. Her first play, Birds, was produced by South Coast Rep. Other works include: Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria!, Mixed Blood; Accelerando, The Odyssey; Looking for Angels, The Public Theater. Ms. Loomer is an alumna of New Dramatists. Awards include the Jane Chambers Award (twice), the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, a Garland Award, a Lurie Foundation Award, an Ovation Award, and the American Theatre Critics Association Award (twice). She has 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 2003-2004, and are published by Dramatists Play Service, TCG, Dramatic Publishing, and Arte Público Press. Her plays are taught in university drama programs, women’s studies programs, and Latino studies programs. She also writes for film and television, both comedy and drama. She recently served as supervising producer for season 2 of “Love Is ___” on OWN. Films include Girl, Interrupted. And she has written TV pilots for HBO, CBS, Apple, Fox, and Showtime. She is currently writing the book for the musical adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate. Her newest play, Side Effects May Include…, is about pharma and the cost of the American Dream.