victoria
rue
“Theatre is an arena in which we can dream what we want to create in our society"
I write and direct plays that celebrate the range of human experience—HIV positive persons, women with cancer, Vietnamese and Latinos working in the computer industry, homeless youth. These plays nourish actors and audiences with stories that challenge our daily lives. Just as important as the performance of these plays, the rehearsal process with actors enfleshes the story and creates community.
The theatre is a model for cooperation, community building, and somatic learning. This makes theatre an ethical and social enterprise. Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal says “theatre is a rehearsal for revolution.” Put another way, plays allow us to rehearse, even to dream, the changes we would like to make in the world around us.
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Left to right: Photo 1. "Approaching the Quran" Actors Theatre, Santa Cruz, 2005 Photo 2. in rehearsal for "Who Shot Her" with San Khau Viet Cali, San Jose, 2007 Photo 3. (same as #2) Photo 4. (same as #1) |
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Left to right: JoAnne Henry on the set of Notes from a Pullman Porter's Daughter, Right: JoAnne Henry and Victoria |
SELECTED PLAYWRIGHTING AND DIRECTING
Notes from a Pullman Porter's
Daughter
written by JoAnne Henry
Denison University, 2009
APPROACHING THE QUR’AN
an exploration of three suras of the Qur’an in movement and text
Mosaic Theatre Festival, Santa Cruz, 2005
POLAROID STORIES
by Naomi Iitzuka
California State University Monterey Bay ‘03
LOVE'S SHADOW
bilingual Vietnamese play, co-writer/director
San Jose Stage, Downtown Arts Series, April '03
DO YOU READ ME?
a play about reading and writing, written with high school and college students
of UpstateNew York; funded by a grant from Verizon; toured to high schools in
Upstate New York ‘03
LIKE HEAVEN
Nhu Thien Dang
a bilingual play about Vietnamese immigrant experience in the U.S. Created
with the members of San Khau Viet CALI (2000, ‘01)
San Jose Stage Company 2000
Milpitas Community Theatre 2001
PAULA
A play about memory and death and the mother-daughter relationship
My adaptation of Isabel Allende’s memoir PAULA
California State University at Monterey Bay ‘04
St. Lawrence University, ‘01
Studio American Conservatory Theatre ‘97
ECSTASY IN THE EVERYDAY
a play about everyday mysticism Co-created with Letitia Bartlett
Yale Divinity School, ‘95
Union Theological Seminary , ‘95
The Women’s Ordination Conference in Washington D.C., ’95
Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship throughout the Bay Area, ‘94
POSITIVE WOMEN
A play about women and HIV/AIDS, collaboratively written with the performers
who were HIV+ women,
New Conservatory Theatre and Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco, ‘94
CANCERBODIES: WOMEN SPEAKING THE UNSPEAKABLE
My play about women and cancer
Western Regional AAR, Redlands University, ‘95
National Meeting of American Academy of Religion, San Francisco’94
Tribad Theatre, Petaluma, ’94
Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, Occidental College, Los Angeles, ‘94
Fourth International Women Playwrights Conference, Adelaide Australia, ‘94
Common Stage, Woodstock NY, ‘93
BRAVA! For Women in the Arts, San Francisco, ‘92
GRAPES AND FIGS ARE IN SEASON: A PALESTINIAN WOMAN'S STORY
Co-written with Emily Shihadeh,
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, ’95 ,
Yale Divinity School, ‘96
Union Theological Seminary, ’96,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ‘95
American Conservatory Theatre's Studio Theatre, ‘90
DARLINGHISSIMA
My adaptation of the book by Natalia Danisi Murray
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, ’88
A production of KCRW for National Public Radio, ‘88
Manhattan Theatre Club, NYC ’87
CROSS COUNTRY
by Susan Miller
Mark Taper Forum, ‘76