SYNOPSIS

Four casual tourists go on an Antarctic vacation that goes horribly wrong.

PLAYWRIGHT’S BIO

Lia Romeo is a playwriting fellow at Juilliard. Her plays have been developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, La Jolla Playhouse, the Lark, LAByrinth Theatre Company, and elsewhere. She has been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and ART/NY as well as regionally around the country. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays are published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and others. She is a previous winner of the National Short Playwriting Award. She teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and is also the author of a novel, Dating the Devil (BelleBooks), and a humor book, 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, which has sold over 35,000 copies worldwide.

A BIT ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

1. When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?

When I was in elementary school I wrote and directed an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk in my backyard, starring me as both Jack and his mother (I took a wig on and off) and my dog as the cow.

2. How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?

This particular play was a commission from Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado through a project called Science Shorts. They matched up four playwrights with four scientists, and we wrote plays inspired by the research the scientists were doing. My scientist, Dr. Ted Scambos, had taken several trips to Antarctica to study Thwaites Glacier – also known as the Doomsday Glacier, due to its potential effects on sea level rise.

3. What are 5 words that describe who you are as a playwright?

funny, sad, quirky, magic, human

4. What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?

David Lindsay-Abaire and Tanya Barfield at Juilliard and Lee Blessing at Rutgers (all amazing mentors and writers). Also: Annie Baker, Lucy Kirkwood, Martin McDonagh, weird New Yorker articles, and all the things that I don’t understand.

5. What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?

I don’t know how to whistle, or do cartwheels, or blow bubbles in bubble gum.

6. What are some of your favorite plays?

This question is too hard, there are too many of them!

7. Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?

Projects this summer:
YOGA WITH JILLIAN (a play that’s also a yoga class!) at ART/NY in June and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, produced by Project Y Theatre Company
STILL at Dorset Theatre Festival in July