Venus
Finalist, Next Generation Playwriting Prize 2012
Reverie Productions, NYC
Venus is a love story loosely based on actual events. It is the story of Lee, a Marine sergeant in Iraq in 2004, and his Iraqi translator, Munira. They fall in love, marry, and return to the States, where they have a child. Lee is depressed and unable to find work and Munira takes a job as a dancer to support the family. The violence they were both forced to absorb during the war inevitably expresses itself in their family life. Their abused child is taken from them and they are sent to counseling. One day Munira simply disappears. The play explores male/female dynamics across cultures, the sociological fallout of war, and the ways in which trauma interacts with love.
Anna Steers as Munira and Lysa Fox as the Nurse
Venus
Finalist, Next Generation Playwriting Prize 2012
Reverie Productions, NYC
Venus is a love story loosely based on actual events. It is the story of Lee, a Marine sergeant in Iraq in 2004, and his Iraqi translator, Munira. They fall in love, marry, and return to the States, where they have a child. Lee is depressed and unable to find work and Munira takes a job as a dancer to support the family. The violence they were both forced to absorb during the war inevitably expresses itself in their family life. Their abused child is taken from them and they are sent to counseling. One day Munira simply disappears. The play explores male/female dynamics across cultures, the sociological fallout of war, and the ways in which trauma interacts with love.
Anna Steers as Munira and Lysa Fox as the Nurse
Venus
Finalist, Next Generation Playwriting Prize 2012
Reverie Productions, NYC
Venus is a love story loosely based on actual events. It is the story of Lee, a Marine sergeant in Iraq in 2004, and his Iraqi translator, Munira. They fall in love, marry, and return to the States, where they have a child. Lee is depressed and unable to find work and Munira takes a job as a dancer to support the family. The violence they were both forced to absorb during the war inevitably expresses itself in their family life. Their abused child is taken from them and they are sent to counseling. One day Munira simply disappears. The play explores male/female dynamics across cultures, the sociological fallout of war, and the ways in which trauma interacts with love.
Anna Steers as Munira and Lysa Fox as the Nurse
Nancy Bell
Playwright/Actor/Director
August 2023
Many thanks to The Disappointed Housewife for publishing my first nonfiction work, Expedition, a flash piece that explores the tension between safety and wildness as it details some of the history of one of St. Louis' brick-filled neighborhoods, DeMun. Gratitude to editor Kevin Brennan for his thoughtful input, and to my amazing professor at Mississippi University for Women, Mary Miller for her guidance. (Mary's great novel Biloxi, was just featured in the Los Angeles Times "Literary Map of the US.")
July 2023
Just directed my first opera, Benjamin Britten's masterpiece Turn of the Screw at Union Avenue Opera. Loved every minute directing a wonderful cast: Meroë Kahlia Adeeb, Christine Brewer, Cecilia Hickey, Alexandra Martinez-Turano, James Stevens, and Sophie Yilmaz. Scott Schoonover conducts. Through July 14th. Tickets here.
Photo, left, by John Lamb
March 2023
Thrilled to hear my short play, Student, will be published in the Spring 2023 edition of New Plains Review.
Also busy rehearsing What the Constitution Means to Me at Max and Louie Productions. Opens April 5. Reserve tickets here.
July 2022
Thrilled to be reunited with my former collaborator Rick Dildine at Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writer's Festival to workshop a wonderful new one-woman show, Zelda in the Backyard by my new favorite playwright/friend Elizybeth Wilder.
(Photo left courtesy of Alabama Shakespeare Festival)
April 2022
Big Machine is the second musical I've directed recently about the realities of American labor, brand new from Colin Healy of Fly North Theatricals. This cast was made up of a crack professional company working alongside mentored COCA students, produced as part of the incredible COCAWrites program, led by Delaney Piggins. (Photo left by Phillip Hamer)
July 2021
Proud to direct Billy Elliot at COCA, using the Professional Workshop Model-professionals working alongside apprentices alongside students of all ages. A beautiful musical about the power of community and a heroic British miners' strike.
July
June 2021
My radio play, SHE, produced by ERA Theatre with amazing music by Joe Taylor and directed by Lucy Cashion, premiered at Off Broadway in STL. Full album available for purchase on Bandcamp here. (Graphic Design by Martin Brief.)
August 2020
The film version of my play, MUTE is going to the PRESS Film Festival in Croatia (September) and the Rieti & Sabina Film Festival in Italy (November). Congrats and thanks to my collaborators for saying yes to that crazy project.
April 2020
My new play, MUTE: A Play for Zoom was featured in American Theatre magazine!
In a world much like ours, there exists a video conference call. And in this call, there are academics, confusion, fire and...one hamster. An experimental theatre piece that steals rabidly from Ionesco, Beckett, real life and Chekhov. Written for performance on Zoom by Nancy Bell and directed by Lucy Cashion. Premiered on Zoom April 5, 2020.
January, 2020
Just began rehearsals for the English-language premiere of Wildfire by David Paquet at Upstream Theatre. It's a dark comedy exploring cookies, desire, motherhood and generational trauma. Never done anything quite like this heartbreaking little gem of a play. Opens January 24, 2019. Tickets here.
My play, The People in the Cabin, was selected for the 2019 Great Plains Theatre Conference, and is currently a semi-finalist for the 2019 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.
2019 STL Theatre Circle Nominations for Into the Breeches! at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
I am thoroughly chuffed that we were nominated for six awards:
Best Production of a Comedy **WE WON, YAY!***
Best Ensemble of a Comedy***WE WON, YAY!***
Best Director of a Comedy***I WON, YAY!***
Best Actress in a Comedy (Michelle Hand)***SHE WON, YAY!***
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Kari Ely)
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy (Gary Barker)
Many thanks to the Theatre Circle for honoring us!
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