Eliza Renner
Artist
Actor, Dancer, Director, Teaching Artist
Eliza Renner is an Austin-based theatre artist. She currently works as a teaching artist with Creative Action, touring a show to elementary schools across the city. In 2018 and 2019 she apprenticed with Rude Mechs (rudemechs.com), through a fellowship made possible by the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network and Middlebury College (VT). Her original work with Sally Seitz won Best of the Fest at the Hyde Park Theatre FronteraFest in 2019 and 2020. In 2022 Eliza was nominated for a B. Iden Payne award for her direction of "freshwater grass" by Ezequiel González Camaño for New Manifest Theatre Company. Collaborators include New Manifest Theatre Company, Rude Mechs, Austin Community College, Austin Shakespeare, Hyde Park Theater, and Physical Plant Theater.
Trained as an actor and director, Eliza is passionate about new-work-development, devised work, improvisational practices, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She believes in art for liberation and world-creation. Theatre is am powerful tool for embodiment, presence, connection and empathy building- essentials for navigating the modern world. There is no room for commercialism, racism, domination, or over-extraction of resources in her visions of theatrical futures.
Please contact Eliza for collaborations and inquiries.
Now What?
Kids Theatre Jam! Spring 2023
Performing is a healthy and generative way to be seen and heard in all our glory, no matter one’s age or stage of life. The focus of Kids Theatre Jam is to develop artistic skills while working as an ensemble. We do this by playing games, improvisation, clowning, puppetry, stage combat, and make-believe! It isn’t about one final product, but instead reveling in the artistic process. Theatre is an especially effective medium for kids to find their voices. It helps them in so many ways, including working as a team, feeding imaginations, building interpersonal skills, in addition to increased confidence and body awareness. As an educator, Eliza brings a warm, attentive focus and takes pride in striking a practical balance between serious and silly.
Midsummer all May
May. 05 - May. 29
We're back with Shakespeare’s most beloved comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Filled with lovers, fairies and comics, “Midsummer” is guaranteed to delight the entire family.
Colorful costumes by Aaron Kubacak and inventive sets and lighting by Patrick W. Anthony set the background for a mix of pop tunes by L. B. Bartholomee. Directed by Ann Ciccolella, the production features a joyful cast of 17 including Eliza Renner, Helyn Rain Messenger, Dane Parker and Max Green as the lovers, Kate Glasheen* and Gabriel Diehl as the queen and king of the fairies, Henry DelBello as Puck, and Gwendolyn Kelso* as Bottom.
More Info on this FREE show here:
Web series and shorts to watch
Bored in quarantine? Her are some oldie-goodies to enjoy.
Watch these GRAGERIART microvideos. Surf the whole channel.
Watch this trailer for good friday by Kristiana Rae Colón
Watch Detour by Sam Kann
Watch The Big Break by Asher Brown
Watch Student Body President Episode 1 and Episode 2 by Brittany Bandoh
Grageriart's Design 4 Everyone: BLACK FRIDAY EDITION
Grageriart is back in the warehouse to celebrate Black Friday weekend with some shows + a video drop. We are launching our YouTube micro-video series and will show a different one each night to prime your $hopping pumps.
Grageriart is a band, a store, an idea, and a collaboration. A sonic exploration of mindless consumption, home shopping catalogues, and desperation. A celebration of our obsession with planned obsolescence. Enjoy vegan snacks if we make them. Browse our clothing line if we bring it. Take in a live performance of the Grageriart audio experience.
See you at CRASHBOX #shop
If you want to stay up to date about all things Grageriart, sign up for our e-newsletter at https://grageriart.com
Fly Girl: A Staged Reading of a New Screenplay
I am THRILLED to be a Fly Girl in Christine Hoang's hilarious new screenplay this Saturday at the Asian American Resource Center! Color Arc Productions, together with the City of Austin’s Asian American Resource Center (AARC), will present a live stage reading of Fly Girl on November 9, 2019 at 7:30pm in the AARC ballroom. Admission is free with RSVP.
"Although narratives centered on Asian American women are growing in mainstream prominence, Austin-based writer & performer Christine Hoang is working to expand the canon to include stories centered on Asians who are not glamorously young, gorgeous, rich, and thin. Hoang’s new comedy Fly Girl spotlights the everyday woman who is a middle aged, middle class, "middle” looking, "Asian fat" (size 14), divorced, single parent.
When protagonist Linh Hoang Williams — a 42-year old, size 12 (or size 14 depending on that week’s carb intake), Vietnamese American, recently-divorced, single mom — attends a Twerkshop (yes, a workshop for twerking), she impresses the dance instructor and gets cast as a hip-hop dancing Fly Girl. But when she discovers she's the chubbiest, oldest, and only Gen-Xer in a dance troupe of thin Millennials, Linh must overcome her inner demons to prove she belongs.
Hoang’s Fly Girl advanced to the Sundance Institute’s second round of the 2020 Development Track for fiction feature work-in-progress screenplays. Finalists will be announced in late December 2019.
Soldier of the Cross lives on!
Sally Seitz and I created our one-woman show Soldier of the Cross in January of 2019. After a successful run and "Best of the Fest" designation at Hyde Park Theatre's FronteraFest, we are doing it again!
The show will be featured in Paradox Players' Saints, Sinners, and Thieves Sept 20-October 6 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church.
The Clifford Symposium
I've been working on a stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s 1983 short story Recitatif for the Clifford Symposium at Middlebury College. Come see the premiere of the work on Friday, September 21 at 7 p.m. and Saturday September 22 at 2 p.m. in the Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre. The performances, as well as all symposium programming is free and open to the public.
"Created by Middlebury faculty members Michole Biancosino, Christal Brown, and Matthew Taylor, this performance treats the story of two girls who become friends despite the racial and social differences of their mothers. As they grow into women and mothers themselves, an old memory comes back to haunt them.
Immediately following the performance, the creators and performers will open a discussion of the challenges of staging Morrison’s unexpected treatment of race, color, and the coded language we use for both."
Moving to Austin, Texas!
I am moving to Austin on October 1st for a one-year fellowship with Rude Mechs. This job is made possible through the Pussycat Foundation, and the affiliated BOLD Women's Leadership Network. Through the generous support, I will be able to support myself as a young artist in a new city. Please reach out for collaborations, dance parties, or rodeo inquiries!
PODCAST: How Did You Get Here?
Middlebury Magazine and Narrative Journalism Fellow Juliette Luini profiled me in the "How Did You Get Here Series." Check out the audio piece below!
Interview: Bread and Puppet, Sourdough and Aoli
Film by Andi Wong:
"Apprentice Eliza Renner takes a moment to share her thoughts about her summer on the Bread & Puppet Farm." Interview recorded on August 25, 2015 in Glover, Vermont.
Performance Reviews
GRAGERIART: Design 4 Everyone
"And, O holy hygge, is that hilarity ever maximized in Design 4 Everyone, as the Grageriartists provide updates on what's trending in the fully stocked store, interspersing their commercial flow with guest celebrity appearances and bits of public commentary that's not unlike what you'd recognize from sites like YouTube, say, or The Austin Chronicle. And while the two harmonic hosts are cutting loose, they're flanked by a pair of dancers – Mari Akita and Eliza Renner – who stalk and strut their time upon the stage like stylish automata, and everybody's been dressed by Leslie Bonnell (who you'd swear came direct from Planet Claire), and it's no wonder that the whole audience is alternately impressed by the skills on display and giggling uncontrollably at the consumerist skewering." Wayne Brenner for the Austin Chronicle
The Possibilities
"The first play, The Unforeseen Consequences of A Patriotic Act...Eliza Renner as “Woman” arrives as the hardline representative of the “community” wanting to praise Judith’s patriotic act. Renner is a force on stage charging the ions of the space with her captivating presence. The trio are delight to watch as they wrestle with asserting their status in the play." Jacquelyn Claire for Stage Biz
"Only Some Can Take the Strain trains the magnifying glass onto preserving knowledge in dystopian times...Eliza Renner takes on another “woman” hell-bent on upholding the rules of the “authorities” with delicious maliciousness... All three deliver strong performances." Jacquelyn Claire for Stage Biz
"In The Unforeseen Consequences of A Patriotic Act, the excellent Kathleen Wise as Judith and the equally excellent Renner go head-to-head with great gusto." Wendy Caster for Show Showdown
"Eliza Renner can be sensitive as well as scary." Mark Savitt and Eva Heinemann for Hi Drama
The After-Dinner Joke
“The After-Dinner Joke,” Cheryl Faraone’s staging of Caryl Churchill’s 1978 BBC teleplay, comprises sixty-six wry vignettes from the life of a quixotic British charity worker who, against a backdrop of creeping Thatcherism, thinks she can avoid “being political.” Both works were daring and provocative when they were written, and they remain so." David Kortava for The New Yorker
"This is a rare show in which the performers seem to be having as much fun putting on the show as we are having watching it." Mark Savitt and Eva Heinemann for Hi Drama
"The rest of the cast vibrantly transform into a myriad of colorful characters like chameleons on a pride flag... [They] play a range of extravagant characters like Hippie Collector, Popstar, Patient, Thief, Knitted Hat Lady, Woman with Catalog to name a few with such commitment it felt they were competing for gold in the actors Olympics. You want these performers on your team –their energy is irrepressible and their versatility with characterization was seriously impressive." Jacquelyn Claire for Stage Biz
Arcadia
“Hannah and Bernard get off on the wrong foot even as they're assisted in their research by a promiscuous Chloe Coverly (the appealing Eliza Renner), her brother who's sweet on Hannah, Valentine Coverly (Jackson Prince), and their younger brother Gus Coverly (Manny Duran) who hasn't spoken since the age of 5 but who has a knack for uncovering pivotal documents at precipitous moments…The three are lively and playful, thoroughly intoxicating to spend time with, and fascinating to connect to what makes their engines roar: “Grouse”, “Sex”, “Literature”, they each state in succession…” Front Mezz Junkies
"You must see this show…Few plays are held in as high esteem as Arcadia, and few companies have the talent and experience to do it justice. The cast is enormous, the text intimidating, and there is no great spectacle. Potomac Theatre Project provides an evening of theatre that transports us and captures our imagination.” Robert Price for The Reviews Hub
"Potomac Theatre Project presents an intimate minimal production that emphasizes the text and the characters as performed by masterful actors. If you've seen other productions of this play, you will be impressed by Potomac's sincerity and intensity. If you are new to this play, you may be overwhelmed by its dazzling intelligence and beauty." Mark Savitt for Hi Drama
"...each actor is obviously a professional at his or her trade...To this phenomenal cast: Caitlin Duffy, Andrew WilLiam Smith, Jonathan Tindle, Megan Byrne, Steven Dykes, Sebastian LaPointe, Manny Duran, Alex Draper, Eliza Renner, Jackson Prince and Stephanie Janssen...you are all quite wonderful." Kristen Morale for Broadway World
"Arcadia is a highlight in the heat of this 2017 New York City summer...Eliza Renner is delightful as Chloe Coverly" Lisa Del Rosso for ONE magazine
"...sister Chloë, the sweetly vacant Eliza Renner, gets flirty with Nightingale." Joel Benjamin for Theatre Scene
"A through-and-through excellent cast artfully directed by Cheryl Faraone makes the longish play fly by with scarcely a slow moment, consistently engaging our visceral spirits and our intellectual muscles alike." Jon Sobel for Blog Critics
Photo by Stan Barouh. Only Some Can Take the Strain by Howard Barker. Marinanne Tatum and Eliza Renner. Directed by Richard Romagnoli.
