TERRA FIRMA
by Barbara Hammond
About the Play:
Inspired by a real life event, Terra Firma uses an audacious act of aggression, a family’s armed takeover of an abandoned anti-aircraft platform — that is surrounded by land mines and appears to be slowly sinking into the sea — to wrestle with the questions: What is a nation? Who is the enemy? And what price freedom?
Playwright Bio
Barbara Hammond (she/her) is a citizen of both the United States and Ireland, and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. The Royal Court Theatre commissioned TERRA FIRMA which had its off-Broadway world premiere with Andrus Nichols’ The Coop in October 2019 and was published by Oberon Books. Her research took her into international waters seven miles off the coast of Essex to one of the world’s smallest countries, the Principality of Sealand. Her play, WE ARE PUSSY RIOT OR EVERYTHING IS P.R., published by Dramatists Play Service, was originally a commission for the Contemporary American Theatre Festival and took her to the world’s biggest country, and its courts, cathedrals and counter-culture. THE EVA TRILOGY had its world premiere at The Magic Theatre in the fall of 2017 directed by Loretta Greco, and will soon be presented at The Glens Centre in Ireland directed by Ray Yeates. Her play VISIBLE FROM FOUR STATES was produced by The Magic Theatre in July 2019. Her new play DRIVE explores the ethics of organ donation and the emotional burden carried by survivors. She and her plays have won recognition, awards and funding from many national and international sources, including the National Endowment of the Arts, PBS, Emerson College, Duke University, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, VGLAZ, The Venturous Theatre Fund, the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. Playlist: TERRA FIRMA; we are pussy riot or EVERYTHING IS P.R.; VISIBLE FROM FOUR STATES; THE EVA TRILOGY; JAMES; BEYOND THE PALE; NORMAN AND BEATRICE and a collection of three one-acts entitled NEW YORK IN JUNE. Film: JUNE WEDDINGS. Musical: YOU AND ME, with composer Marc Chan.
