How can I explain change? It’s something that makes me feel hopeful…that audiences, and as people, and most importantly as human beings, we can, by looking at the big picture, be much better equipped, I think, at making change…we have to look at how can we work together to make change in the world.
CATHERINE FILLOUX (Playwright/Librettist/Activist) is an award-winning French Algerian American playwright and librettist who has been writing about human rights for many decades. Filloux’s world premiere play “How to Eat an Orange” opens in Spring 2024 at La MaMa in New York City. The play was commissioned by INTAR.
“I have always had an affinity for underdogs and their stories,” writer Catherine Filloux told Ms.
World premiere How to Eat an Orange A new one-woman play about the visual artist and activist Claudia Bernardi, her childhood in Argentina under the military junta, and her subsequent work digging up the past. Histories are woven together in a kaleidoscopic play that depicts how both families and justice may be reconfigured. Featuring Paula Pizzi.
Set and Prop Design by Daniel Landez; Projection Design by Milton Cordero; Lighting Design by Maria-Cristina Fusté; Sound Design by Nathan Leigh; Co-Costume Design by Suttirat Larlarb and Brynne Oster-Bainnson; Stage Manager Milan Eldridge; Assistant Director Fabiola Arias; Press Representative Emily Owens; Production Manager Karen Oughtred
For the past three decades, Catherine Filloux, French Algerian American award-winning playwright, librettist and activist has been traveling to conflict areas writing plays that address human rights.
Saturday, June 1: Brief post-performance conversation with Connie Winston with members from the artistic team
Connie Winston has performed with The Talking Band, in Filloux’s play “Lemkin’s House” and as Judge Shirley Taylor on TV’s Conviction; she is also a writer and dramaturg.
Sundays June 2 and 9: Post-performance conversations with Alexander Santiago-Jirau (New York Theatre Workshop) and Marguerite Feitlowitz (author of A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Terror) with the playwright
HOW TO EAT AN ORANGE, written by Catherine Filloux, directed by Elena Araoz featuring Florencia Lozano. A new play about the visual artist and activist Claudia Bernardi, her childhood in Argentina under the military junta, and her subsequent work digging up the past. Histories are woven together in a kaleidoscopic play that depicts how both families and justice may be reconfigured. Catherine Filloux is a French/Algerian/American award-winning playwright, librettist, and activist. (May 30-June 16, 2024)
Catherine’s new musical “Welcome to the Big Dipper” (composer Jimmy Roberts, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”) will premiere Off-Broadway next season at the York Theatre in New York City; it is a National Alliance for Musical Theatre finalist and received a workshop at the Redhouse Arts Center in Syracuse, NY (Hunter Foster, AD). Her new play “White Savior” is nominated for The Venturous Play List. Filloux’s plays, produced around the U.S. and internationally, include: “turning your body into a compass” her livestream web drama at CultureHub, NYC; “whatdoesfreemean?” at Nora’s Playhouse, NYC; “Kidnap Road”, La MaMa, NYC; “Selma ‘65”, NYC and U.S. tour; “Luz”, La MaMa and Looking for Lilith in Louisville, KY. “Dog and Wolf” (59E59 Theaters/Watson Arts, NYC and “Dog and Wolf” Community Outreach Project.); “Killing the Boss” (Cherry Lane Theatre, NYC); “Lemkin’s House” (Rideau de Bruxelles, Belgium; McGinn-Cazale Theatre & 78th Street Theatre Lab, NYC; Kamerni teatar 55, Sarajevo, Bosnia).
Catherine’s play “The Beauty Inside” received its co-premieres at New Georges and InterAct Theatre and was produced in Iraq in Kurdish by ArtRole, and translated into Arabic for a workshop at ISADAC in Morocco. Other plays include: “Eyes of the Heart” (National Asian American Theatre Co., NYC); “Silence of God” (Contemporary American Theater Festival [CATF], WV); “Mary and Myra” (CATF and Todd Mountain Theater, NY); “Arthur’s War” (commissioned by Theatreworks/USA, NYC); “Photographs From S-21”, a short play produced throughout the world; and “Escuela del Mundo” (commissioned by The Ohio State University for an Ohio tour.)
Filloux is the librettist for four produced operas: “New Arrivals” (Houston Grand Opera, composer John Glover); “Where Elephants Weep” (Chenla Theatre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, composer Him Sophy), broadcast on Cambodian national television and Broadway on Demand; “The Floating Box” (Asia Society, NYC, composer Jason Kao Hwang) an Opera News Critic’s Choice and released by New World Records. Catherine is co-librettist with composer Olga Neuwirth for the opera “Orlando”, premiere at the Vienna State Opera and 2022 Grawemeyer Award winner. “Orlando” is the first opera by a woman composer and woman librettist in the history of the Vienna Staatsoper. Filloux is the librettist for the new operas “Blued Trees” (producer Aviva Rahmani; composer Julia Schwartz) and Thresh’s “L’Orient” (composer Kamala Sankaram and choreographer Preeti Vasudevan.) Catherine has traveled for her plays to countries including Bosnia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Morocco; and to Sudan and South Sudan on an overseas reading tour with the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Filloux was invited to Belfast, Northern Ireland for the Henry Smith Artist in Residence Programme with The Derry Playhouse. She served as a Juror for Sarajevo’s MES International Theater Festival and developed the Oral History Project “A Circle of Grace” with the Cambodian Women’s Group at St. Rita’s Refugee Center in Bronx, NY. Her plays have been widely anthologized and written about. Filloux was Playwright Facilitator for the International Playwright Retreat at La MaMa Umbria in Italy and is a Fulbright Senior Specialist. She received her French Baccalaureate in Philosophy with Honors in Toulon, France, and her M.F.A. at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing, NYC. Catherine is featured in the documentary film “Acting Together on the World Stage” and is the co-founder/co-director of Theatre Without Borders.
Interview with Catherine Filloux by theater artist Jan Buttram
Cambodia – Theatre, Memory and Grappling with Complicity, Catherine Filloux; Acting Together – Performance & Peacebuilding
“turning your body into a compass” Catherine Filloux’s web drama about children and U.S. deportation – watch freehere
First Online with Fran 
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