Amy Woodruff is a Louisiana theatre artist specializing in actor-created intermedia performance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from McNeese University, and she is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Goddard College's innovative low-residency Interdisciplinary Arts program in Vermont. Woodruff has trained with Dah Teatar of Serbia, Odin Teatret of Denmark, Shakespeare & Company of Massachusetts, and Vortex Repertory Theatre of Austin, Texas. She created Theatre Louisiane, Inc. in New Orleans in 1999, an artistic laboratory where she has launched a variety of provocative, critically-acclaimed performance pieces. Her works have been seen at New Orleans spaces such as the Voodoo Mystère, Zeitgeist, the Pickery, the State Palace Theatre, and the Dramarama festival at the Contemporary Arts Center. Woodruff has received artist grants from the Louisiana Division of The Arts and the Jazz & Heritage Foundation of New Orleans, and her works are fiscally sponsored by the NYC artists’ service organization Fractured Atlas. She appeared as a Guest Artist in her multimedia stage adaptation of Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann at McNeese University Theatre, and in her one-actor project dis+graced at the St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival in Canada. She is also a member of Four Humours Theatre Company of New Orleans, and New Orleans magazine honored Woodruff and her collaborating artists from Theatre Louisiane as "People to Watch" in 2006. At this time she is performing and developing her original mixed media solo work Moon Cove.

"I was first introduced to the arts through the study of visual art and classical music in my childhood, long before I knew anything about the theatre," Woodruff explains. "So I approach theatre from the perspective of a landscape painter or a musical performer, and as a result my work has elements of visual design and symphonic composition. My work doesn't always comply with traditional theatre methods, but for audiences who are more open, it can introduce them to something entirely different ."

A tenth-generation Louisianian of Cajun French and Cherokee Indian heritage, Woodruff is the first member of her family to graduate from college. Born in 1973, she grew up along the prairies and rice fields of the Mermentau River Basin. Woodruff began lessons in folk violin in 2007. In the early 1990s she spent two months in the Republic of Panama working as a photographer’s assistant, and in 2004 she attended the United Nations World Theatre Congress in Tampico, Mexico on a Louisiana Division of The Arts mini-grant.

“My performance material consists of a variety of existing literary works that I adapt for onstage use, which has included both traditional western literature and ancient epic tragedy. As an artist, I'm preoccupied with the human condition, and more recently, with the intimacy of physical contact. I enjoy juxtaposing the intimate with the epic. And I like toying with stillness as an interpretive element. Mediums I have used include alternative performance techniques (Jerzy Grotowski, the Biomechanics of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Tadashi Suzuki method) as well as movement and dance, strategic spatial relationships, experimental music/sound/voice, and visual art such as handmade costume, painting/sculpture (masks, props), and the projection of video, photographic images, light, and color.”

Reviews and Feature Stories : :

Ghostly 'Moon Cove' Appears at Voodoo Mystere (Review) By David Cuthbert, New Orleans Times-Picayune (2008) OUTSIDE LINK

People To Watch for 2006 (Feature) By New Orleans Magazine (2006) HTML

Magazine Spotlights Theatrical Couple (Feature) In Lake Charles American Press (2006) HTML

dis+graced (Review) By Michael Faciejew, Montréal Gazette (2006) HTML

State of Grace (Feature) By Dalt Wonk, Gambit Weekly New Orleans (2006) HTML

Horror Story Sparks McNeese Graduate's Imagination (Feature) By Warren Arceneaux, Lake Charles American Press (2005) HTML

The Music of Erich Zann (Review) By Patrick Shannon III, Ambush Magazine (2005) HTML

The Music of Erich Zann (Feature, Italian) By Andrea Bonazzi, HorrorMagazine (2005) HTML

The Seven (Review) By Dalt Wonk, Gambit Weekly New Orleans (2004) HTML

The Seven (Review) By David Cuthbert, New Orleans Times-Picayune (2004) HTML

BloodReign (Review) By Patrick Shannon III, Ambush Magazine (2003) HTML

Wings of Desire: Portrait of an Underground Producer (Feature) By mikko, Where Y'at Magazine New Orleans (2001) HTML

Laughing Wild (Review) By David Cuthbert, New Orleans Times-Picayune (2001) HTML

Laughing Wild (Review) By Roberts Baston, Southern Voice Magazine (2001) HTML

The Music of Erich Zann (Review) By Dalt Wonk, Gambit Weekly New Orleans (2001) HTML

McNeese's "Faustus" is a Hell of a Show (Review) By Ed Alderman, Lake Charles American Press (1995) HTML

MSU Has Star Turn in "Conduct of Life" (Review) By Ed Alderman, Lake Charles American Press (1993) HTML

Amy Woodruff's Profile | Create Your Badge
 

amy's highly experimental video channel :: http://www.youtube.com/AmyWoodruff (you've been warned)

amy's selected links ::

THEATRE ART: Louisiana Division of The Arts | Fractured Atlas a national organization for independent artists. | Theatre Without Borders really excellent networking site for international artists. | Zeitgeist Arts Center | St-Ambroise Montréal Fringe Festival | McNeese University Theatre | Goddard College of Vermont | Costumer's Manifesto

LAND: America's Wetland please support the conservation of my south Louisiana home: sign petitions, send donations. | Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society | Atchafalaya Basin Program | American Forests

HERITAGE: Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History a top site for great info. | Action Cadienne | NativeWeb a top site for American Indian info/links.

ALSO: National Alliance for The Mentally Ill patient advocacy. | Amnesty International | thecure.com.| duranduran.com | classical.net | ZomboCom highly recommended; probably the best site on the entire internet.