ANNA ABHAU ELLIOTT
Performing Artist
AnnaAbhau at gmail.com // www.AnnaAbhau.com

Bio
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Anna works as playwright, actor, director, producer, and amateur historian to create new performances both on and far, far off stage. She seeks to create a radical community theater: how can a performance serve the citizens where it takes place? She was born in Philadelphia, PA, and attended New York University’s drama program, where she studied at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, The Classical Studio, and went abroad to the Moscow Art Theatre. She interned with The Debate Society and Pig Iron Theatre Company.

From college until 2015, Anna lived in New York City, where she has performed at The Whitney Biennial (Andrea Geyer’s Comrades of Time), The Public Theater (600 Highwaymen’s The Record), PS122, The Living Theatre, The Bushwick Starr, and many others. She has worked with The Assembly since 2010, with whom she devised "Seagullmachine" (in-progress) and HOME/SICK (New York Times Critic’s Pick).

In 2015, Anna was awarded a residency with Hub-Bub in Spartanburg, SC. In South Carolina, Anna has participated in many firsts: she has debuted new plays at the Spartanburg Little Theatre (Ghost Variations & Untitled Reconstruction Play), founded an improv troupe called Sparkle City Improv, co-founded Scrappy Shakes, which produces free outdoor Shakespeare, & created the first ever evening of performance art in the Spartanburg Art Museum.

Sparkle City Improv, with Anna at the helm, has remained an active improv troupe in the Upstate. Sparkle City Improv offers pay-what-you-can workshops at the West Main Artists Co-op, and has performed with Hub City Comedy, Hub-Bub, Upstate Pride, Spartanburg Democrats, and Alchemy Comedy.

With her cohorts Robin Schwartzman and Desiree Moore from Hub-Bub, Anna is 1/3 of Radar Art Collective, a multi-disciplinary group that bridges the gap between contemporary art and the general public. Created with Moore on a frozen lake, Cold War/M Up (Art Shanty, Minneapolis) asked visitors to decode riddles and tell stories. With Moore and Schwartzman, Barter Boat (Northern Spark, Minneapolis & INlightIN, Indianapolis) asks passersby to barter for miniature sculptures.

Anna has completed projects all over the country: in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Indiana. She remains a proud Associate Artist with The Assembly.

Education

New York University: Tisch School of the Arts - BFA in Drama, 2011
Founder's Day Award

Selected Performances

BARTER BOAT (with RaDaR Art Collective)
IN light IN Festival, Indianapolis IN, August 2016
Northern Spark Festival, Minneapolis MN, June & July 2016

HOME/SICK (devised with The Assembly)
The Odyssey Theatre, Full Production, Los Angeles, June 2016 (dir. Jess Chayes)
Wesleyan University, Full Production, Middletown CT, January 2014 (dir. Jess Chayes)
The Living Theatre, undergroundzero festival, New York City, Full Production, October 2012

UNTITLED RECONSTRUCTION PLAY (with Speaking Down Barriers)
Spartanburg Little Theatre, Full Production, May 2016 (dir. Chandler Crawford)

TAKING TEA (with Patric Phillips)
Spartanburg Art Museum, Spartanburg, SC 2016

COLD WAR/M UP (with Desiree Moore & Robin Schwartzman)
Art Shanty Projects, Minneapolis, MN 2016

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Scrappy Shakespeare Theater Collective, Full Production, Spartanburg, SC 2015

OLDIES BUT GOODIES (with Desiree Moore)
Hub-Bub Showroom, Spartanburg, SC 2015

GHOST VARIATIONS
Dutch Kills Theater Company, Reading, New York City, November 2015 (dir. Daniel Dabdoub)
Fresh Ground Pepper, Reading, New York City, August 2015
Spartanburg Little Theater, Workshop Production, June 2015

KEEP THIS FOR YOUR RECORDS
Dutch Kills Theater Company, Reading, New York City, September 2014 (dir. Annie Tippe)

Grants & Awards
  • The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg Community Grant: Untitled Reconstruction Play, 2015
  • Finalist: Fresh Ground Pepper Artist-in-Residence, 2015
  • New York University: Founder’s Day Award, 2011

Residencies
  • 2016: Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts: Multi-Disciplinary Artist, Nebraska City, NE
  • 2016: West Main Artists Cooperative: Artist in Residence, Spartanburg, SC
  • 2015: Hub-Bub Theater Artist-in-Residence, Spartanburg, SC
  • 2013 & 2015: Fresh Ground Pepper BRB Retreat, New York City/Bethlehem, PA
  • 2013: Pilot Balloon Pop-Up Artist Residency, Lawrence, KS