How to make it real, compared to what? Lisa D'Amour makes New Orleans feel real - the beauty and the ugly of it all is just a touch away. -dp
From the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/theater/lisa-damour-juggles-airline-highway-and-milton-a-tale-of-five-towns.html):
Glitter-strewn and bawdy, “Airline Highway” follows the residents of the Hummingbird Motel (located on the real strip that gives the play its name) as they plan a “living funeral” for Miss Ruby, a bedridden former burlesque queen and den mother to a motley set of hustlers, strippers and bike-riding poet-philosophers....
The connecting thread is work about people and issues that don’t normally get a dramatic spotlight. “One of the great strengths is her ear,” said Martha Lavey, artistic director of Steppenwolf. “She’s bearing witness, and I think she does it without judgment, and in a way that’s poetic and compassionate."
