Lisa Ramirez

LISA RAMIREZ is a mixed-race Latina writer/actor and activist whose writing lays claim to creating work influential enough to transcend the theatrical arena. Her solo-performance EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland)—which explored the role of women who work as “nannies” — offered Ramirez (herself a former nanny) the opportunity to work with Domestic Workers United in New York, converse with legislators in Albany, and experience the thrill of hearing Senator Diane Savino quote her piece on the Senate floor- while fighting for New York’s 2010 passing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the first legislation of its kind in the country. Lisa wrote and directed, INVISIBLE WOMEN-RISE. The play was performed by 12 Domestic Workers in in Spanish and English at the historic Riverside Church in New...

LISA RAMIREZ is a mixed-race Latina writer/actor and activist whose writing lays claim to creating work influential enough to transcend the theatrical arena. Her solo-performance EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland)—which explored the role of women who work as “nannies” — offered Ramirez (herself a former nanny) the opportunity to work with Domestic Workers United in New York, converse with legislators in Albany, and experience the thrill of hearing Senator Diane Savino quote her piece on the Senate floor- while fighting for New York’s 2010 passing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the first legislation of its kind in the country. Lisa wrote and directed, INVISIBLE WOMEN-RISE. The play was performed by 12 Domestic Workers in in Spanish and English at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Other plays include, ART OF MEMORY, presented at the 3-Legged Dog, New York; Pas de Deux (lost my shoe), Cherry Lane Theatre; DOWN HERE BELOW, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s, THE LOWER DEPTHS, Oakland Theater Project; IN THE MOUNTAINS, The Workshop Theater, New York; MORE THAN GRAPES, Theatre-First in Berkeley; sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn), Oakland Theater Project; Book of Sand (a fairytale), Oakland Theater Project; TO THE BONE received its world premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won the prestigious Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. During the pandemic, Lisa organized the digital reading of TO THE BONE, with the original New York cast. The event was hosted by V (formally known as Eve Ensler), Maria Hinojosa and Rosa Clemente and was simultaneously translated into Spanish. Over 20K was raised for the Rural and Migrant ministry up in Sullivan County New York to support poultry plant employees affected by the pandemic. Currently, Lisa is part of the 2021/22 Writers Workshop at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, led by playwright Luis Alfaro, where she is working on a new play, ALL FALL DOWN. She is also working a new play, CHORUS OF HUERTAS, (funded by the Gerbode Foundation) about the life of activist and icon, Dolores Huerta.

Scripts

sAiNt JoAn (burn/burn/burn)

by Lisa Ramirez

1

Cast Size

5

Genre

adaptation,

drama,

immersive,

political

A contemporary re-imagining of the Joan of Arc story seen through the lens of teenage girls in Oakland. Stories and timelines combine as moments from the past reverberate into the present, illuminating the revolutionary vision of Joan of Arc, exploring solidarity in the face of oppression, and revealing the way this classic heroine’s spirit continues to permeate our world today.
At once humorous and harrowing...

A contemporary re-imagining of the Joan of Arc story seen through the lens of teenage girls in Oakland. Stories and timelines combine as moments from the past reverberate into the present, illuminating the revolutionary vision of Joan of Arc, exploring solidarity in the face of oppression, and revealing the way this classic heroine’s spirit continues to permeate our world today.
At once humorous and harrowing, this 60-minute chamber piece unravels at a break-neck speed, alternating between realism and an avant-garde theatrical style as the past and present collide, turning the Saint Joan myth on its head and revealing the ways in which each of us is both the savior and destroyer of a world that is burning.

Book of Sand (a fairytale)

by Lisa Ramirez

Cast Size

2

Genre

adaptation,

drama,

experimental,

immersive,

movement/physical

Based on Jorge Luis Borges’ 1975 short story and inspired by countless works of literature, philosophy, and music, the tale follows a former librarian who is sold a mysterious book with an infinite number of pages—known as the Book of Sand because “neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end.”
As the man reads, stories unfold in a magical dreamscape, and he is drawn again and again to the pages of the...

Based on Jorge Luis Borges’ 1975 short story and inspired by countless works of literature, philosophy, and music, the tale follows a former librarian who is sold a mysterious book with an infinite number of pages—known as the Book of Sand because “neither the book nor the sand has any beginning or end.”
As the man reads, stories unfold in a magical dreamscape, and he is drawn again and again to the pages of the Book which, once read, seem to disappear forever. Fascination soon turns to obsession and fear, as the stories lead the man deeper into his own story, asking him to confront one internal world after another.
As the story moves from one tale to another, larger questions arise: of existence, loss, longing and regret. Does the Book truly contain an infinite number of pages and stories? Can peace be found within them? And if so—how?
Book of Sand (a fairytale), Contains excerpts from: The Library of Babel- Jorge Luis Borges, Mirror of the Sea, Joseph Conrad, When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams, Ulysses, James Joyce, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe, The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector, THE ART OF THE SALE, Philip Delves Broughton, Tell Tale Brain, V.S. Ramachandran, Richard III, Shakespeare, Meditation, Osho, Dreams, C.G. JUNG, In the Desert, Stephen Crane, Looking Out For #1 by Robert Ringer, Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, The Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury, Funes the Memorious, Jorge Luis Borges, What They Don’t Tell You by Kevin Rebultan

EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland)

by Lisa Ramirez

Cast Size

1—3

Genre

dark comedy,

drama,

political

A play by Lisa Ramirez which charts the lives of nannies, mothers and children trying to get by in a complicated social-political matrix that makes the responsibility of parenting and child care a difficult emotionally tangled legal and moral web. Based on the authors own experience as a nanny and member ofv Domestic Workers United in NYC.

TO THE BONE

by Lisa Ramirez

1

Cast Size

8

Genre

docudrama/historic,

drama,

experimental,

political

TO THE BONE, by Lisa Ramirez is a contemporary American drama written in the tradition of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, which gives the audience a close up look into the lives of the invisible work force that puts food on our tables. The play examines the very nature of equality and justice in contemporary America through the eyes of five Central American women whose migration to the U.S. in search of a...

TO THE BONE, by Lisa Ramirez is a contemporary American drama written in the tradition of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, which gives the audience a close up look into the lives of the invisible work force that puts food on our tables. The play examines the very nature of equality and justice in contemporary America through the eyes of five Central American women whose migration to the U.S. in search of a better life brings its own test of the human spirit. Ramirez spent six months interviewing immigrant poultry workers in the Catskills of upstate New York.