Amelia Parenteau

I'm a writer, French-to-English translator, and theater maker with a passion for social justice and a penchant for travel.

South African woman on stage in petticoats

My View by Robyn Sassen and other writers • 18th July 2023

1789 at Sibikwa

VERY OCCASIONALLY, YOU feel that sense of privilege in the presence of an artwork that brings tears and goosebumps. From the very first roll of the snare drum with the thunder of a jembe and a dun-dun behind it, Sibikwa’s 1789 will have you transfixed. It’s immersion theatre like nothing you may have experienced before, and it will take your heart and spirit and shift it all seismically for an unspeakably fine 90 minutes.

BroadwayWorld.com • 24th May 2021

The Phoenix Theatre Will Celebrate Artists and Theatre With Origins Theatre Festival in June

Some featured panelists include; Rashad Chambers (Broadway Producer of American Son, Ain't Too Proud), Lauren E. Turner (Producing Artistic Director of No Dream Deferred), Luis Salgado (Founding Artistic Director of Revolución Latina), Michael J. Bobbitt (Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council), Amelia Parenteau (Writer, Translator, Theatre Maker)...

Tremblant Express • 14th May 2021

Nicolas Picq: an independent writer in the digital age

There’s a new author in the literary world of the Laurentians. Nicolas Picq self-published his first five novels, which are stories nicely woven with characters from our own region. His most recent work, was recorded as an audio book as well as being translated into English.

BroadwayWorld.com • 16th March 2020

Climate Change The Focus Of American Theatre's March Issue

American Theatre magazine, published by Theatre Communications Group (TCG), is proud to announce the publication of its March 2020 theme issue on Theatre & Climate Change.

Broadway World • 11th October 2018

Playwright Sedef Ecer Debuts New Translation

Voyage Theater Company/PARTS UNKNOWN Play Reading Series will present a staged reading of acclaimed Turkish playwright Sedef Ecer's e-smuggler.com, in a new English-language translation by Amelia Parenteau, directed by Lisa Rothe, at the 53rd Street New York Public Library...

Ping Chong + Company in the Field • 21st September 2015

AMELIA PARENTEAU Community Spotlight

As we head into the fall season here at PC+C, we’re thinking about the impressive community of past interns who’ve worked with us in our office and in rehearsal rooms....

Tussaud/Antoinette

I served as dramaturg and French language coach for this queer feminist horror play exploring the real (and not-so-real) relationship between Madame Tussaud and Marie Antoinette. (Jody Christopherson, 2021-2023)

The Theatre Times • 22nd October 2021

Sensation and Documentation: Jody Christopherson's "Tussaud/Antoinette"

The name “Tussaud” has always been linked to sensationalism and popular culture: now synonymous with the celebrity-studded wax “museums” known from London to Bangkok to Times Square, in the late eighteenth century the waxworks of Madame Marie Tussaud bore testament to the fervor, excess, and brutality sweeping through her native France.

Travalanche • 9th October 2021

Musings on Madame Tussaud

We hope you will forgive the split nature of this portmanteau-post, which is intended to do double duty as a capsule biography of Madame Tussaud (Anna Maria Grosholtz, 1761-1850) and a review of the terrific new show about her, Tussaud/Antoinette, by Jody Christopherson which is playing at I.R.T. through October 17.

TheaterMania • 2nd September 2021

Tussaud/Antoinette tickets | TheaterMania

Tussaud/Antoinette, inspired by outrageously unreliable legends and claims, this story reimagines the historical fantasy of Madame Marie Tussaud's relationship with one of her most famous subjects, Marie Antoinette.

BroadwayWorld.com • 30th August 2021

TUSSAUD/ANTOINETTE To Open IRT Theater's Fall Season

IRT Theater presents the premiere of Tussaud/Antoinette written and directed by Jody Christopherson Oct 1st- 17th to open their Fall season. This marks the theater's return to presenting in person performances.

Autophagies (Self-Eaters)

I translated Eva Doumbia's Autophagies from French into English and produced the US premiere productions of the English language version in a multi-city tour. (Cie La Part du Pauvre/Nana Triban, 2019-2023)

Men kneeling ladle stew out of a big pot on the floor, woman speaks at microphone

Poppy Tooker's Louisiana Eats! • 21st October 2023

Food Origins & Evolution

The way we eat and talk about food is linked to our individual and collective identities. On this week's show, we look at the origins of some of our favorite foods and common misconceptions about them. We meet playwright and stage director Eva Doumbia. Her performance piece, Autophagies (Self-Eaters), which was performed in New Orleans in March, explores food history, its colonial legacies, and human cost. Eva joined us in our studio, along with interpreter Amelia Parenteau.

Woman places crown on her head made of colorful fabric

The New York Times • 10th January 2023

Gjelina, a Los Angeles Favorite, Opens in NoHo

From Feb. 23 to 26, Alexandre Bella Ola, a Paris-based chef and cookbook author originally from Cameroon, will join a cast performing “Autophagies” by Eva Doumbia, a multimedia theater piece. The 90-minute production, presented at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, in collaboration with the N.Y.U. Skirball Center, covers food, politics, culture and family.

Such Things As Vampires

I served as the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Advocate on this queer feminist punk musical adaptation of Dracula. (People's Light, 2018)

PGN | The Philadelphia Gay News • 11th October 2018

People’s Light reexamines Dracula — as queer and conscientious

A guitarist in blood-red Chelsea boots strums a duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh as a front woman decked in Brit punk plaid struts to the front row and belts out: “We are The Preventers! And we are here to save youuuuuuuu!” The play is “Such Things as Vampires,” a musical adaptation

Broadway World • 11th October 2018

SUCH THINGS AS VAMPIRES Puts A Folk-punk Twist On Dracula

People's Light kicks off its 2018/2019 Season with Such Things as Vampires, a highly theatrical folk-punk twist on the Dracula tale. Infused with lilting ballads, rock anthems, and melodious love songs, this concert-theatre event is an irreverent, bloody, and wickedly fun...

America is Hard to See

I was a member of the three-person research & development team that created this documentary theater project about the lives of convicted sex offenders in Miracle Village, Florida. (Life Jacket Theatre Company, 2015-2018)

Medium • 10th July 2019

SIGHTS UNSEEN

The ‘we’ is all of us (even those fresh and foreign to the process) who’ve worked on America is Hard to See, the ‘here’ is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the question — more complicated than I alone can answer — is:

Logo • 27th December 2018

The Top 10 Queer NYC Theater Productions of 2018

The Great Work truly began in 2018.Theatergoers were #blessed by high-profile Broadway revivals of iconic gay masterworks, controversial lesbian lip-locks, and herstoric trans representation headed in heels by Drag Race darling Peppermint, not to mention innumerable queer scene-stealers sharing New York City’s smaller stages.

Stage Left • 19th February 2018

REVIEW: "America is Hard to See"

It’s hard to imagine a class of people more universally hated than child sex offenders. Even among the most progressive and religious who preach forgiveness of sins there seems to be an agreed upon limit of empathy.

The New Yorker • 16th February 2018

America Is Hard to See

Life Jacket Theatre Company (“Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey”) introduces us to a strange community that could only be American. The writer-director Travis Russ put together this lovely show...

Broadway World • 13th February 2018

BWW Interview: Life Jacket Theatre's Travis Russ Discusses Bringing True Stories to the Stage in AMERICA IS HARD TO SEE

Before a performance of the play America is Hard to See, in its world premiere at HERE, audience members have the opportunity to wander across a canvas map of Miracle Village. What appears as a gridded crisscrossing of rural living quarters is home to a community of men - sex offenders -

Exeunt Magazine NYC • 8th February 2018

Review: America Is Hard to See at HERE

Making documentary theatre takes great discipline and a touch of innovative genius. The Civilians and Anna Deavere Smith are exemplars of how to do it. With its new work, America Is Hard To See, Life Jacket Theatre has proven itself to be a strong new practitioner in this genre.

TheaterMania.com • 5th February 2018

America Is Hard to See Opens Off-Broadway

Life Jacket Theatre Company's America Is Hard to See recently opened at HERE. Travis Russ directs the new play with music and lyrics by Priscilla Holbrook.

Playbill • 30th January 2018

Life Jacket Theatre Company’s America Is Hard to See Begins Off-Broadway

The team behind Gorey shine light on life inside Miracle Village, a rural community for sex offenders. Following its critically acclaimed production of Gorey, Life Life Jacket Theatre Company is back Off-Broadway with a new work about life inside Florida’s Miracle Village, a rural community for sex offenders.

TheaterMania.com • 4th January 2018

Life Jacket Theatre Company to Present America Is Hard to See

Life Jacket Theatre Company will present America Is Hard to See, a new play directed by Travis Russ, with music and lyrics by Priscilla Holbrook. The work also features music and scenic design by Russ. Performances begin January 30 at HERE, with opening night set for February 2.

Broadway World • 2nd January 2018

Life Jacket Theatre Company Presents the World Premiere Production of AMERICA IS HARD TO SEE

Life Jacket Theatre Company (Travis Russ, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the world premiere production of America is Hard to See, a new play with music written and directed by Travis Russ (Gorey: The Secret Lives Of Edward Gorey) with music and lyrics by Priscilla Holbrook (from the band, Susan Jane).

WTLV • 4th December 2015

Florida sex offender story moves to New York stage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Travis Russ says his decision to come to the tiny town of Pahokee draws a common response from natives. "Why would you come to Pahokee? Who comes...

Liminal

I wrote Liminal, a play about a young woman who moves to New York and finds herself grappling with her role in gentrification, the oppression of homelessness, and a budding romance. It premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. (Bedlam Ensemble, 2015)