LILLIAN ISABELLA
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Hi! I'm Lillian. 
I'm a playwright, actor, and advocate. 

While growing up in the Bronx, I sweat my way to a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and won first place in a local NYPL poetry contest. I also got my first taste of documentary theatre in high school when a teacher asked a group of us to turn personal writing from homeless teens into monologues. Then we performed the monologues to a large audience at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. I had a realization while I was on stage sharing the words of a teen who had gotten lost in the system, that I felt deeply connected to her and felt a responsibility to channel her energy and to share her story. 

Years later, after graduating from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Theatre, I was commissioned by the Metropolitan Playhouse to create a short documentary theatre piece about an East Village regular. I found out about Jonas Mekas, known as the Godfather of Avant-Garde Cinema and founder of Anthology Film Archives, and I reached out. He agreed to let me interview him for the project.

Meeting and interviewing Jonas changed my life completely, his joie de vivre is infectious. I wanted the inspiration he shared with me to extend beyond my performance at that small theatre in NYC so I published my short play about him, That's How Angels Arranged. Then to my great surprise John Leland wrote about both the play + the performance he'd seen in his NY Times Bestselling book Happiness is a Choice You Make. It can be challenging to know where your artistry and voice fits in and is needed, but I remember walking out of a West Village bookshop clutching Leland's book in hand pretty sure I was on the right path.

By that time I was already working on my first full length documentary play. I was creating it as a response to the #MeToo movement and exploring sexuality from a positive perspective. The play, How We Love/F*ck was inspired by my interviews with 28 different female-identifying individuals. I got to act with an ensemble of amazing women in its World Premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre from Sept 2019 - Oct 2019. Another life-changing moment. It occurs to me that many of my life-changing moments have happened in tandem with my documentary theatre work. Interesting... 

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I also work as the Community Manager at Committed Impulse, and freelance as a Standardized Patient at Pace University. I'm honored to volunteer on the Board of Directors for the National PKU Alliance, a national non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of those with Phenylketonuria (PKU). 

Stay connected with me on Instagram. 

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  • Who I Am
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