Mexican Artist Laura Anderson Barbata To Develop New Performance About 'The Ugliest Woman In The World' At Amphibian Stage Productions

Amphibian Stage Productions is proud to host internationally-renowned artist Laura Anderson Barbata as she develops her one-woman play, The Eye of the Beholder. Performances will be Friday, March 23rd, and Saturday, March 24th at 8:00 pm.

About the Play:

Amphibian Stage Productions continues its dedication to the story of "The Ugliest Woman in the World," Julia Pastrana, with an original work from international artist, performer and author, Laura Anderson Barbata. This world-premiere play blends traditional theatrical storytelling, lecture and immersive performance art to share what she learned about perceptions of beauty, human rights, and the treatment of women throughout history during her ten-year quest to repatriate the body of Pastrana from her unlikely resting place as a specimen in an Oslo anatomical collection to her rightful home in Sinaloa, Mexico.

When she was merely an infant, Julia and her mother were cast out of their Mexican village over fears that her strange appearance was the work of werewolves believed to dwell in the nearby mountains. Because she was covered with hair and had protruding jaw, while at the same time had a beautiful singing voice, medical experts openly debated whether she was fully human. Pastrana toured Europe -- seen by thousands as a living sideshow exhibit. In an effort to secure his investment, Julia's manager married and impregnated her. Julia's son had her same rare condition, but tragically both mother and newborn child died from complications days after childbirth. Their embalmed bodies continued to travel for many years as a sideshow, seemingly ending its journey in the collection of a Norwegian university.

Amphibian Stage Productions first took on Pastrana's story with its 2003 American premiere of The True History of the Tragic Life and Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World by Shaun Prendergast. Performed entirely in the dark, the ambitious production brought the relatively unknown new troupe to the attention of critics and audiences. The play was so compelling that Amphibian revived it in 2012 as the first show in its permanent location on South Main Street.

That 2003 premiere of Julia's story held special significance for Laura Anderson Barbata, who designed costumes for the. During a residency in Norway in 2005, she realized she had a unique opportunity to change Pastrana's history for the better. She began a concerted effort to return Julia's body to the home she had been forced out of as a girl. Barbata succeeded when, in 2013, a white coffin containing Pastrana's remains was covered with roses and buried in the mountains near her hometown.

Performances will run on Friday, March 23rd and Saturday, March 24th at 8:00 pm. The box office will open at 7:00 pm prior to curtain. Tickets will be $25 for general admission. Discounts are available for seniors, veterans, teachers, students, and groups of ten or more. Tickets for Amphibian Members are included with their subscription package.

For more information on ticket pricing and availability, please contact the Amphibian Box Office at 812-923-3012 or boxoffice@amphibianstage.com, or visit our website: www.amphibianstageproductions.com. Amphibian Stage Productions is located at 120 S. Main St., Fort Worth, TX 76104.

Biographies:

Laura Anderson Barbata (Writer/Performer) Transdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn and Mexico City, born in Mexico. Since 1992 she has worked primarily in the social realm, and has initiated projects in the Venezuelan Amazon, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Norway, and the United States. In 2005 she campaigned for the repatriation of Julia Pastrana, which resulted in the removal of Pastrana's body from the Schreiner Collection in Oslo and its successful repatriation and burial in Sinaloa, Mexico, Pastrana's birth state. The project continues with upcoming publications, exhibitions and performances. Her work is in various private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; el Museo de Arte Moderno, México D.F.; Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany; Fundación Cisneros, American Express Co., México; Museo Carrillo Gil, México; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California; Museo Jaureguía, Navarra, Spain and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. She is the recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman 2016 Award; Defense of Human Rights Award 2017, Instituto de Administración Pública de Tabasco, México; honorary fellow of LACIS (the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program), University of Wisconsin, Madison; fellow of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary TBA21 The Current program; member of Sistema Nacional de Creadores, México (2014-2017) and professor at Escuela Nacional de Escultura, Pintura y Grabado La Esmeralda of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (2010-2015).

Tamilla Woodard (Director) is an alumnus Time Warner Fellow at WP Theatre Director's Lab (formerly The Women's Project Theatre), an Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, alumnus of The Lincoln Center Director's Lab and former Audrey Fellow at New Georges. This season her work on the critically acclaimed Immersive '3/Fifths' was called "Visually and conceptually stunning" by the New York Times. The Miami Herald called Tamilla's work on the site specific immersive, "Miami Motel Stories" "An ingeniously sculpted experience ...that doesn't ask us to suspend disbelief; it begs us to believe in our humanity". She is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama's Acting program and is the recipient of The Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women and The Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatists. Currently, she proudly serves as the Artistic Director of The Five Boroughs/One City Project, a multi year initiative of The Working Theater.

Katherine Freer (Multimedia Designer) works in theatre, events, and installation. Frequent collaborators include Ping Chong, Liz Lerman, Tim Bond, Kamilah Forbes, and Talvin Wilks. Recent designs include Generation NYZ (New Victory, dir. Sara Zatz and Kirya Yvonne Traber), The Wizard of Oz (Syracuse Stage, dir. Donna Drake), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Syracuse Stage, dir. Risa Brainin) Detroit 67 (Chautauqua Theater Company, director Steve Broadnax). Katherine is a Helen Hayes nominee and an Innovative Theater Award nominee.

About Amphibian Stage Productions:

Amphibian Stage Productions is a non-profit theatre company founded in 2000 by three alumni of TCU's Department of Theatre who strive to produce innovative and engaging works of theatre that challenge the way we see the world around us. Now in its nineteenth season, Amphibian has produced numerous groundbreaking and challenging plays (some regional premieres, others US or world premieres) that foster a deeper understanding of ourselves as members of the global community. The company is widely recognized for its stylistically and thematically varied scripts.

Committed to nurturing young and diverse audiences, Amphibian has developed a strong internship program, a summer acting workshop for teens, and a dynamic outreach project, Tad-Poles, that is steadily increasing the company's visibility and following. New to Amphibian in 2018 is a multi-faceted outreach program designed for veterans of the US armed forces. The program includes workshops, special performances, and discounted tickets.

Amphibian is generously funded by the Amon G. Carter Foundation, Ann L. and Carol Greene Rhodes Charitable Trust, Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Dramatists Guild Fund, Fifth Avenue Foundation, Fort Worth Promotion and Development Fund, Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation, Pier 1 Imports, Mary Potishman Lard Trust, Pangburn Foundation, Rea Charitable Trust, Thomas M., Helen McKee & John P. Ryan Foundation, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Guido & Ruth Shumake Charitable Trust, Smallwood Foundation, Southwest Bank, Texas Commission on the Arts, Wells Fargo Bank, William E. Scott Foundation, and the Devonian Society, a group of Amphibian's devoted donors who are proud to be the force behind nurturing the next generation of artists and audiences.

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