Liza wrote her first play, The Janitor, an impractical slasher/horror story dramatized for the stage, when she was just 12. Since then she has written over 30 full-lengths, 20 one-acts, and 40 short scripts. Her plays have been produced world-wide, winning honors from The Pinter Review Prize for Drama, Trustus Playwrights' Festival, Playwrights First, Great Platte Playwrights' Festival, the Lillian Hellman Prize for Drama, and the Sienna College International Playwriting Contest, among others. Her works have been produced at the Cherry Lane, the Women's Project, PS 122, and Manhattan Repertory Theatre (where she was Playwright in Residence), to name a humble few. Her works are widely published and consistently produced at colleges and theaters big and small all over the States.
For an extended playwriting bio, please read below.
Rehearsal for The C-Zone, Wheaton College
When she was just nineteen, Liza Lentini’s surreal drama The C Zone was chosen as a Regional ACTF participant alongside John Russell’s Stupid Kids. That same year she received her first professional production in Boston ofThe Low Road to Phoenix, which was selected by the Boston Phoenix as one of their weekly must sees.
In 1994 Liza entered the MFA program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where she focused on historical/biographical drama and took away three Christian H. Moe Awards for the following plays: Little Switzerland, Woodhull, and Ninon & the School of Gallantry. In 2005 she was included in the most recent edition of the book Creating Historical Drama.
She has been Playwright in Residence with both Bowling Green State University (2002) and Silk Rd. Theatre Co. (1999), was a Playwriting Fellow with the Playwrights Theater of New York (1998) and received a commission from the Alliance of Downtown New York (1998) to write a play about 19th Century immigration. She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, such as The Pinter Review Prize for Drama, Trusts Playwrights’ Festival, Playwrights First, Great Platte River Playwrights’ Festival, the Lillian Hellman Prize for Drama, and the Siena College International Playwriting Contest, among others. In 2007, Liza was chosen as Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Playwright in Residence.
Liza came to New York in 1997 and has worked with such companies as The Women’s Project and Productions, CAP 21, Expanded Arts, and The John Montgomery Theatre Company. In December of 1999, she was selected as a featured playwright in the Showbusiness Weekly Discovery Series, where they produced a reading of her play Roxy Font. In 2001 her absurdist comedy Psychotic & Weird (but enough about me) was produced at the Canal Café Theatre in London, where it was hailed by What’s On London as “surreal and sexy”. Over the years, her work has been staged regionally by such theaters as Chicago Dramatists, Camenae Ensemble, Stockyards Theatre Project, The Raven, and the Civic Theatres of Central Florida. In the spring of 2006, Rubicon Theatre Project produced the World Premiere of Brain Children, praised by the Chicago Reader as “convincing and funny...there are plenty of laughs in this flashback to the early 80’s encapsulating pivotal moments of preadolescent angst.”
New York City productions include, Psychotic & Weird (but enough about me) at the American Theatre of Actors,Life in Exodus at the Milagro Theatre, and an extended run of Drowning in Euphoria at Off-Broadway’s McGinn/Cazale Theatre, which Showbusiness Weekly called “poignant and haunting...almost musical.”
In 2007, Roxy Font was produced by Crazytown Productions and FringeNYC at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and was named one of the Top Five Fringe Shows by New York Magazine and also won a Fringe Award for Best Ensemble. (Daily Candy, Time Out New York, BroadwayBullet, Broadway World)
The Enthusiast was produced at New York City's P.S. 122 in the spring of 2008, and Liza had two plays produced in FringeNYC 2008: Thumbelina (FringeJR, New York Sun, NYTheatre.com, Backstage, EDGE) andWoodhull: A Play About the Woman Who Ran for President. (TimeOutNY) In June 2009, Manhattan Rep produced LIZAFEST!, a week-long tribute featuring 9 of her early works. Later that year Rubicon Theatre Project produced the World Premiere of Becoming Ingrid, which was hailed as “… a funny, smart and most cleverly plotted work that smoothly unfolds on several levels” by Chicagocritic.com.
From 2006-2010, Liza founded and managed Elephant Ensemble Theater, a charitable organization which toured New York City hospitals with educational, interactive plays Liza wrote herself.
Liza is a regular panelist and lecturer on women in the arts. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, as well as an undergrad degree in English Dramatic Literature from Wheaton College (Norton, Mass).
Read More About Liza
Publications
Woodhull: Published by Indie Theatre Now
Roxy Font: Published by Indie Theatre Now
Thumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girl: Published by TYA Scripts
The Clyde Fitch Report
June 18, 2009
5 Questions I’ve Never Been Asked: Liza Lentini
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Bylines
Liza Lentini has, according to her bio, written more plays than two Shakespeares-or two Ayckbourns-or maybe three of each, or maybe both combined. The founder of Elephant Ensemble Theater, a company that brings theater to children in hospitals, is being feted by Manhattan Repertory Theatrewith an event called Lizafest!
Running June 24 through June 28, the festival will feature nine of Lentini’s early works, including her first play and a series of one-acts about murderous women in history. Liza ain’t foolin’, y’all.
For tickets, call 646-329-6588 or visit www.lizafest.com.
And now, five questions Liza Lentini has never been asked.And a bonus question.
1) What’s the most perceptive question about your work anyone has ever asked you?Each and every time someone asks me to sum up, in just a few sentences, what my play is about, it’s the most perceptive question they can ask. If you can boil the story of your play down to a sentence or two, you officially own that world. It’s not always easy, but essential to your process.
2) What’s the most idiotic question about your work anyone has ever asked you?Oh, that’s easy: “You write plays? Well, why don’t you write a play about me?” People of all walks of life — including absolute strangers — have been asking me this question for over 20 years. It’s a query I never seem to have an answer for, and one that, somehow, never goes out of style.
3) What’s the weirdest question about your work anyone has ever asked you?
I always find it very weird when people ask me if the play they’ve just seen is based on my own life. It doesn’t seem to matter if the story takes place on the moon or if the main character is a gun-wielding prostitute with a parasitic twin, this question always arises.
Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way and should take it as a compliment, as though I’m creating a reality out of something so truly surreal that it seems so obviously from my own life’s history.
For the record, every word a playwright conceives is based on the fabric of our own being. But that doesn’t mean we’ve lived the lives our characters have lived. I’ve written nearly 100 plays — that would be an awful lot of lives!!! And trust me, I’m just not that interesting.
4) Manhattan Rep is producing nine of your plays in five days in LIZAFEST!-how were the plays chosen? And how on earth is it that you’ve written more than 100 in all?When Ken Wolf approached me about doing a festival of my plays, we sat down together and went over the week’s structure (a full-length here, grouped one-acts there, two shows a night, etc.) In choosing the plays I knew I wanted to pick scripts that were incredibly fun, but also collectively reflective of a specific period of my career. I chose my early works, and inadvertently have discovered a newfound inspiration in being forced back to that exciting time when I was new to my craft and to New York City.
As for all the plays I’ve written…all I can say is I’ve always been a prolific writer, and I use every play as an opportunity to try something new. Not all of my plays are perfect, mind you, but they are inarguably brave. As a result, I’ve developed my own method of playwriting, which I’m actually writing a book about now.
5) You’re also creative director of Elephant Ensemble Theater. Can you talk a little bit about that company-how you started it, what its mission is, and how your work as a playwright fits in?Elephant Ensemble Theaterbrings free professional productions to children in New York City hospitals. I believe whole-heartedly in volunteerism, and in sharing your gifts. I’d wanted to do something like this for so many years, and finally one day, in the fall of 2006, I just stopped thinking about it and jumped right in. I had no start up money, and so I cashed in my pension. The minute I saw the smiles on those kids’ faces, I knew it was the greatest investment I’d ever made.
I hadn’t intended to write and direct all of the plays at first, but as they say, sometimes restriction — in this case, financial — breeds opportunity. I had never written a children’s play before, and had so much fun doing it. The plays are specifically written for our hospital audience, but we believe that the themes of family, friendship and the power of hope are universal.
6) Looking at your bio, you’re also a journalist! Can you talk a little bit about your work as a reporter? What are the intersections of your work as a playwright and reporter? And also, when do you sleep?I firmly believe in the power of words, and strive to bring attention to topics which are sometimes overlooked, such as a rare brain disorder in childrenor the plight of teachers and administration wrestling with religion in the classroom. I collect my facts and then seek to unearth the real story of the people involved.
After writing plays for so long, even my 5,000 word features felt like a cakewalk. We sometimes take for granted how tough it is to write a play. A play has to be a living, breathing thing that can resuscitate itself in the most restrictive of circumstances. Playwrights are word architects, they’re structuralists. If you can write a well-structured play, you can write anything.
As for sleep, I need my minimum 8 hours a night. I’ve been blessed (and cursed) with laser beam focus, so I make the very most of every waking minute.
NewYorkCool.com
June 2008
Elias Stimac Talks with
Liza Lentini
Opposite Photo: Liza Lentini
Photo Credit: Robert Kim
Playwright Liza Lentini Takes on Tough Topics and Flourishes on the Fringe
Liza Lentini is a playwright who has three shows coming to NYC this summer. First up is the provocative new play The Euthanasist, opening May 29 at PS 122 (www.euthanasist.com).
She will also have two plays produced in this year’s Fringe Festival – Woodhull, a biographical play about first woman to run for President in 1872, which features a 20-person cast; and a modern retelling of Thumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girl, being presented as part of Fringe Jr. (She has already had success at the 2007 NYC Fringe Festival with Roxy Front, a critical favorite in last year's Fringe Fest.)
Lentini also runs Elephant Ensemble Theater, a company which produces theater for children in area hospitals (www.elephanttheater.com). You can also check out her personal website at www.lizalentini.com.
Elias Stimac: What was your artistic background?
Liza Lentini:I was born in Boston and, like a lot of little girls, started studying ballet at the age of 3. (I would study throughout college, and eventually take an interest in choreography and modern dance.) I'd been singing and dancing since I was a child, but what interested me most were the stories behind the performance -- both on and off stage. As a very little girl I would write down conversations, cut them up and make stories by arranging the dialogue. I was constructing scenes, but I didn't know it at the time. I would staple them together like little books and hide them in my jewelry box.
At Wheaton College in Massachusetts, I started out as a creative writing major, but wanted to graduate in my third year and they wouldn't allow it. So I switched to an English Dramatic Literature major, and graduated early. By the time I was nineteen, I'd already had a play in the American College Theatre Festival. I just assumed it was a fluke. I never thought I could continue to write plays anyone would want to produce. But while at the Festival, Paula Vogel came up to me and handed me her card and asked me to study with her (at Brown). I feel ridiculous saying this now, but had no idea who she was at the time! Still, I felt encouraged. That same year someone in Boston wanted to produce a play of mine at a legitimate theater. I remember my dance teacher asking me, “Are you the same Liza Lentini whose play was written up as the 'thing to see' in theBoston Phoenix?” I hadn’t seen the paper, and didn’t know anything about the importance of PR. I wasn’t pushing my plays at all, but I seemed to get encouragement from everywhere, and so I kept on writing.
In the fall of 1994 I attended Southern Illinois University's 3-year MFA Playwriting program. I was an absurdist, but the program focused on the well-made play. It was the best thing I ever did, and a great experience. It really helped me to develop a method for my madness, so to speak.
Elias Stimac: How long have you lived in New York, and what is it like to be a working playwright in such a theatrical town?
Liza Lentini:I moved to NYC in May of 1997 from Southern Illinois. Even though I grew up near Boston, I really was that girl who arrived wide-eyed with two suitcases, and planned to stay for a summer. New York is the place to be. All the clichés are true about this place: It's the toughest and the best. Not at all for the faint-hearted. There are some amazing opportunities for any artist who's willing to work for them.
Elias Stimac: Who were your writing inspirations growing up?
Liza Lentini:When I was young I saw a production of Beckett's Happy Days on television, and I remember feeling as though I'd found my calling. I understood this wacky woman, and what she was trying to communicate. What's important to note is that the production was in French, and I don't speak a word. I love Beckett to this day, also Pinter, Ionesco, and Caryl Churchill, to name a few. I think that playwrights have a very special ear, and feel drawn to do something with it. It's a very tough profession; I'm not sure if anyone chooses it, or if it chooses them. But I've always been a writer – even since childhood.
Elias Stimac: How did the script for "The Euthanasist" come about?
Liza Lentini:I had a friend who, very casually one day, mentioned that her uncle had been a euthanasist. He lived in London, and decided he wanted to help terminally ill men and women, at their own pursuance, hasten their death. The other part to his story is that he ended up in a mental institution, and though euthanasists certainly exist, it gave the story a strange, epic fictitiousness. I didn’t know his name, or even any valid details. The conversation stuck with me, and I felt I had no choice but to explore the life of this character on paper, and eventually, stage.
Elias Stimac: Did you set out to write what some are calling a "provocative" piece of theatre?
Liza Lentini:Not at all. This is a story about a woman (in this case, but it was written for either a man or a woman) who, like all great characters, is defined by her actions. It's a very personal topic for most people because, sadly, many have watched a loved one die. The play doesn't take a stance on the issue of euthanasia or doctor assisted dying -- it let's you decide for yourself how you wish to feel about it.
Elias Stimac: What is it like having a production done at the legendary PS 122?
Liza Lentini:I've had a wonderful experience. The play was initially developed and produced by Manhattan Repertory Theatre in December of 2006, and so this process was different, because through a development period, there’s a tremendous focus on the script. With this current production, I've been able to sit back and enjoy the production process as it unfolds. It's been great, and an honor to be in such a reputable theater.
Elias Stimac: Tell us about your two plays in this year's Fringe Festival.
Liza Lentini:The first is Thumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girl, which is the show we're currently touring with in hospitals. This will be in FringeJR. The other is called Woodhull, which tells the story of the first woman to run for President against Grant in 1972. It's pretty timely!
Elias Stimac: What are the biggest challenges of writing a play with a twenty-person cast like Woodhull?
Liza Lentini:Well...I wrote the play at a time when the only books about her were from the 1940s! (There have been many more since -- the play was originally written in 1996.) However, whenever you deal with history you have to remember that to a certain degree, you create perception. History is subjective, whether we like it or not. Many of the sources I was working from were disgusted by her. I think she's amazing, and as flawed as any politician. I got my sources from so many different places. It took a while to research, write, and develop.
Elias Stimac: Is it daunting to rewrite a children's classic such as Thumbelina?
Liza Lentini:Daunting? No! Just the opposite. It was amazing re-creating such a beloved little character. She just needed a slight update, that's all. Our Thumbelina doesn't need a prince -- she's enough of a girl on her own. And boy does she know how to look out for herself. She's a cool little kid.
Elias Stimac: What things did you learn from last year’s Fringe that helped you in preparation for this year's festival?
Liza Lentini:Expect the unexpected! The Fringe is so much fun, and wild, and exciting. It really is its own animal. I can't wait for this year.
Elias Stimac: What was the impetus behind starting Elephant Ensemble Theater, which produces theater for children in hospitals?
Liza Lentini:I'd wanted to do something with my training that went beyond a commercial pursuit. It sounds corny, but I wanted to do something good. I really love kids, so these particular kids were the most obvious audience. They're remarkable, and so inspiring. Every month we bring a show to a New York City hospital, and it's the most amazing experience. Often in the theater you don't get to see the effect you have on people, but when we visit these kids, we know we're doing a great thing.
Elias Stimac: What advice do you have for aspiring playwrights?
Liza Lentini:Like all great artists, perfect the realistic form before you mess with it. Even Picasso perfected his craft before he decided to share his cubist interpretation of the world on canvas. Also, know what you're trying to say, and the importance you're words hold to an audience.
Most importantly, have a life so you have something to write about! The theater can be so absorbing, and while it's a definite lifestyle, don't mistake it for a life. Life is an adventure, the good and the bad of it.
MommyPoppins.com
May 2008
Community Spotlight: Elephant Ensemble Theater
Posted on May 27th, 2008 by Bess
At Mommy Poppins we think being a mother extends to all those actively reaching out to the hearts and minds of children, including Daddies, and the two bold women we are featuring in our second community spotlight. Liza Lentini (Creative Director) and Christine Seisler (Managing Director) run a non-profit theater company, called Elephant Ensemble Theater, that goes into children's hospitals to bring the delight of fantasy and freedom through original live theater to sick kids. Read on, because besides being inspired to do service, Liza gives us tips on how to bring more theatricality into our own homes (as if tantrums weren't enough).
How and Why did you form your organization?I came to New York to "make my mark" on the theater world after getting my MFA and being involved in the theater since childhood. After some modest successes I realized that making your mark is more than what you do for yourself. Since I always knew I would work with children, it followed that I would form a company that would provide a positive experience for kids. They say that when you're on the right path, everything will fall into place, and that's what seemed to happen as I formed Elephant Ensemble Theater. It took a full year to build the foundation for the company--the brand, the website, the actual play itself!--but once our actors were in place we just took off. We didn't have a single penny, and had no idea how we'd buy costumes, but we didn't care. We couldn't wait to get started and perform for these kids.
What kinds of obstacles did you face?People make a lot of excuses as to why they DON'T do things, and often the reason is money. We started Elephant with nothing but our day jobs (I actually cashed in my pension to have money for the website!). That said, it really was just Christine and myself doing everything in our spare time, on our spare dollar. It took longer than it would have if we had funding, but what we didn't have in dollars we made up for with heart -- that I can assure you! Just like any business, we had to build a reputation, and that took time, energy, and persistence.
What has been a powerful experience that has highlighted for you why you started Elephant Theater in other words what positive effect has it had on the sick children?Before the show starts we have some time with the kids. They are all such brave little souls. It's understandable that some are, typically, in a very unhappy state when we first meet them. But once the show starts, we get to see them utterly transform. They laugh, they cheer. If we can help them to feel good then we've done our job. There's truly nothing more gratifying, and nothing more important. At the end of our show at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, one of the little girls rushed up at the end to hug the actress playing Thumbelina. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in my 30-odd years in the theater. The child and the actor were connected.
These hospitals are devoted to healing these children's bodies, and even have programs in place to care for their emotions, but what we do heals their spirit. It gives them a sense of joy and optimism, gives dimension to their day-to-day lives of treatment and combating their illness. Everything in their world is affected when they become sick, including their self-image, and all of the emotions they must feel as a natural part of the process...I'm sure is overwhelming.
We like to believe we encourage their healing. Not in a medical sense, but by reminding them what it means to be a child, through joy and laughter. We believe that play gives them emotional strength and releases tension. It reminds them of the joy in living. It also breaks the silence. In the case of Thumbelina, they're able to be in a group, and participate in Thumbelina's safe return home, via their audience participation. It gives them value, and a sense of belonging. Play keeps their innocence alive.
In your opinion what do chronically ill children need in terms of imagination, creative outlets and expression?Kids need the opportunity to just be kids, regardless of their circumstances. The theater is magical, and unlike any other medium, because it is a live experience. There is a connection between the actors and the audience that can't be achieved through film and television. Theater has the ability to transport those who can suspend disbelief. It's an honor to perform for these remarkable children. I know we feel amazing being a part of their world, and I can only hope they get as much out of us as we do them. They're the most incredible people I've ever met.
How can we bring more theater into our homes?Theater is already in your home! Theater is about two main, basic principles, story and role playing. Kids start very early with role playing, just watch a child give dialogue to a puppet or their favorite doll, and children are read stories when they're still in the womb. You're never too old for a good story, and you're never too old to play. But for a more structured approach, there are so many great children's plays out there, and it's a fantastic experience for a family to sit down and read one.
Theater teaches kids how to collaborate; there must be a give and take in collaboration, and it's never too early for kids to learn this invaluable life lesson. For those more ambitious, it's not as hard as you might think to write a play! All great stories are based on great characters, and great characters have to have one thing: A purpose. It's easier sometimes to think if it as a "goal". What does this character want overall? (They could want to be a better person, they could want to save the world, or they could simply want to find a friend.) And what will they do, scene-by-scene, in order to achieve this? What are the repercussions of these goals? They shouldn't achieve their goal until the very end. That's what a story is all about.
March 2008
By Indu Nepal
February 29, 2008
Last October, playwright Liza Lentini’s production of “Thumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girl” debuted on Mount Sinai Hospital’s Kidzone TV. It was performed in front of a blue screen at the hospital and broadcast live into pediatric patients’ rooms. Throughout the half-hour-long play, Lentini said she was amazed to see the children who sat on the edge of their beds, jumping and screaming as the little lost Thumbelina fights to find her way home safely.
Lentini’s Elephant Ensemble Theater’s “Thumbelina” was to make her appearance this year in the Bronx in a performance at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center on Saturday, March 1.
Elephant Ensemble’s “Thumbelina” is a modern take on the classic tale, which portrays a smart and feisty little girl—the size of a thumb—who is separated from her mother and remains brave through a scary journey to be reunited with her.
“The themes of the play focus on friendship, family, and the power of hope,” said Lentini, who came up with the idea to start the theater with her friend Christine Seisler in the fall of 2006. The name ‘Elephant’ was chosen because it has an immediate positive connotation for people especially in Asian and African cultures, said Lentini.
“Life in the theater is remarkably rewarding on so many levels, but there are times when it can be a purely self-fulfilling pursuit–and that just wasn’t enough for me,” Lentini said. “Theater is supposed to be about community, and there’s no community more important than children.”
At Montefiore Medical Center, the play will be performed in a playroom in front of a live audience. It is participatory and all of the hospital’s younger patients are invited to take part. They help Thumbelina tie up a scary spider, and they avert an incoming storm by blowing the clouds away.
Elephant Ensemble takes its play to children who are in hospitals and clinics in New York. It is also focused on performing at hospitals in the outer boroughs that do not have the funding to provide on-going programs for children under their care.
The performances are free and the theater runs on small private donations. By private, it mostly means Lentini and her friend Seisler, who is Elephant’s managing director. Lentini cashed in her pension so that she could have the initial funds to start the theater. There are four performers, including Seisler, in the play and although all of them are professional actors, they volunteer their time for Thumbelina.
“You get so much from children, you see how happy you make them,” said Seisler, who plays the role of Thumbelina’s mother. “There is so much to give and it’s really fulfilling.”
“When we first performed at Mount Sinai Hospital and the show was over, the children had this awe on their faces,” said Seisler, “and being able to do that is just a great feeling.”
Montefiore is the second hospital to host the performance of Thumbelina since its debut in Mount Sinai Hospital.
“At first, we worked very hard to get our name out there,” Lentini said. “Now we are starting to get inquiries–unsolicited. It’s a great feeling.”
The word has now reached so far and wide that “Thumbelina” was selected as the key performance at National Love Our Children Day, a New York City event organized to promote the fight against child abuse.
Elephant Theater is now looking to expand its program and has launched a musician-in-residence program. In the fall it is scheduled to perform a new show, “Sacajawea,” which is about the young Native American woman who led Lewis and Clark through the Northwest.
“‘Sacajawea’ is also about family, friendships and believing in yourself,” Lentini said. “We are dedicated to providing performances and programs for kids that are positive, uplifting and educational.”
Production Reviews
“Director/writer Liza Lentini has crafted a production of [Hans Christian] Andersen's tale that engages youngsters without condescension, and it's a great, humorous story about staying positive and believing in yourself—good advice at any age.”
NyTheatre.com, August 2008
“There’s a genuine love and respect for children that comes through this production, and real warmth…Thumbelina herself is portrayed as feisty and a bit feminist without getting modern and political…and the numerous other characters have a nice variety of personalities. Imagination is stimulated nicely and nothing is heavy-handed…Thumbelinais a gentle and genial half hour of old-fashioned children’s story theatre with a little modern twist or three.”
EdgeBoston, August 2008
“AlthoughThumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girlis geared primarily to youngsters, there are solid reasons for adults to see this spirited Elephant Ensemble Theater production. That writer-director Liza Lentini opts for the actors to make their costume changes before the audience smartly demystifies theatre for young folks and provides unexpected charms for the adults who might join them. At 30 minutes, the piece is a summer breeze spiced with bits of adult parody…"
Backstage, August 2008
“The Euthanasistmanages to carefully walk the line between morality play and effective emotional drama. It does so without ever being preachy or manipulative and one never feels that Lentini is trying to push one side of the issue or the other….We see some of the same qualities in the Euthanasist that we see in Kevorkian—an almost untouchable pride in what she does and a truthful lack of any regret for ending so many lives. Both are fascinating individuals, but Lentini allows us to take an even deeper look into the psychology and inner struggle of her title character.”
Nytheatre.com, May 2008
“Can a young, orphaned girl with three feet survive in this tough world? She can if she's Roxy Font. In Liza Lentini's witty new play, we follow the adventurous antics of the spirited Roxy (Pepper Binkley), a trailer-park girl whose quick pistol, extra foot and love of dance earn her fame and fortune as she embarks on a worldwide search for her childhood true love:”
Time Out New York, August 2007
“Convincing and funny...there are plenty of laughs in this flashback to the early 80’s encapsulating pivotal moments of preadolescent angst.”
The Chicago Reader on Rubicon Theatre Project’s production of Brain Children, Spring 2006
