Playwright & Artistic Director, PearlDamour
Lisa D’Amour has had a big year.
With Airline Highway earning multiple Tony nominations on Broadway, Cherokee opening at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C., and Detroit opening at Southern Rep Theater home in New Orleans, D’Amour’s work has traveled far and wide, earning rave reviews along the way.
“Each production had very different needs, and these needs often required me to be in two places at once,” she says. “So the challenge of this year was staying grounded as I hopped between cities, trying to give my all to each production.”
And while Airline Highway earned four Tony nominations, D’Amour herself took home the Lilly Award, which recognizes extraordinary contributions by women to the American Theater.
Despite the rocketship of a year, D’Amour has stayed connected to what she truly loves.
“I love bringing people together and working with them to create seemingly impossible feats of theater,” she says. “I love writing new worlds filled with nuance and idiosyncrasy. I love thinking out loud through my plays about how we humans live in this world, and how we can live better, clearer, louder, deeper.”
With the Contemporary Arts Center presenting PearlDamour’s eight-hour performance installation How to Build a Forest in October, marking the first performance of the piece in New Orleans, D’Amour is gearing up for another big year with a decidedly local focus.
“I’m so proud to be a part of the fierce and innovative New Orleans theater community,” she says.
