Untold Stories from Lindsey Ferrentino (TSOA ’09)
March 15, 2018
When you imagine the story of a veteran returning home from war, you probably don’t imagine a stage performance that explores the use of virtual reality and video game therapy, but these are the frontiers that Lindsey Ferrentino (TSOA ’09) explored in her critically-acclaimed Ugly Lies the Bone. The playwright is being honored with the Distinguished Young Alumna award at 2018 NYUAA Alumni Awards luncheon on Friday, April 20.
The show ran at the National Theatre, where the director, projection designer, and set designer worked to bring the virtual world Ferrentino wrote about to life on stage with exhilarating results.
Her current play, Amy and the Orphans, tells the story of three siblings who take a road trip after the death of their father. One of the siblings, Amy, has Down syndrome. Ferrentino has never shied away from telling stories of underrepresented populations, saying she is especially interested in the stories of the women in these populations. The show is having its premiere at Laura Pels Theatre.
“Ms. Ferrentino possesses a muscular empathy which seeks to enter the minds of people for whom life is often a struggle of heroic proportions”
—Ben Brantley, The New York Times
The inspiration for Amy and the Orphans was Ferrentino’s Aunt Amy, who had Down syndrome and was placed in foster homes and state-funded institutions. Ferrentino says she wrote the play in an attempt to better understand her family’s relationship with her aunt and what it meant.
Amy has been recognized for her outstanding work, winning the National Arts Club’s Kesselring Prize in 2016 and NYU's Distinguished Young Alumna Award, which she will accept during the 2018 NYUAA Alumni Awards luncheon on Friday, April 20.