SHOWS

Expecting Isabel

Written by Lisa Loomer
Directed by Beverly Brumm

Presented by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble

January 30, 2005 — March 05, 2005
Storefront Theater
$15

Expecting Isabel is a comedy about the adventures of a New York couple trying to have a baby —by any means necessary. Their difficulties in conceiving lead them on an odyssey through the booming baby business of the late ‘90s as they negotiate the fertility trade, the adoption industry and their own families.

Playwright Lisa Loomer’s most recent work is Living Out, which received its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and will be produced this spring in Chicago by the American Theatre Company.  One of her best known plays is The Waiting Room that has received highly successful productions throughout the U.S. and as far away as Egypt.  Her first work for theater was A Crowd of Two at American Place Theatre Off-Broadway, which was followed by a one-woman show All By Herselves at Westside Arts Theatre.  Her other plays include Birds; Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria!; Accelerando; Looking for Angels; Chain of Life; Broken Hearts; and Bocón!  She has received numerous awards and has written for television and film.  Her first film script, Looking for Angels, was chosen by the Sundance Institute for its collaboration with the Latin American Film Institute in Cuba, where she worked with Gabriel García Márquez.  She was also a screenwriter for the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted.

Director Beverly Brumm is the newest member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, and a theater teacher, director, and sometime playwright who recently moved to Chicago from the East with an MFA from Yale Drama School and a Ph.D. from NYU.  As a director of over 90 productions, Brumm has worked in various venues, including theaters in Santa Fe, Northampton, Chicago, and both Off-Broadway theater and around the Hudson Valley in New York.  She also served as staging director of the annual “Village Voice” Obie Awards for eight years.  Her most recent productions are The Laramie Project, A Doll House, and Grapes of Wrath.