Anthony Barilla

In Houston: (832) 816-6193 [email protected] http://truesongs.blogspot.com

Anthony Barilla

Anthony Barilla is a composer, writer, and performance artist currently based in Texas. Between 1998 and 2007 he worked principally with Infernal Bridegroom Productions, a Houston-based theater company widely respected for their challenging ensemble work. He worked as a director, producer, composer and performer on 35 IBP productions, and collaborated with artists as diverse as Suzan-Lori Parks and Daniel Johnston. In 2003 he was named IBP’s artistic director, and in the following years IBP was named “Best Experimental Theater” (Houston Chronicle, 2004) and lauded for “Best Original Show, Production, and Performance Space” (Houston Press, 2005.) In 2007 he moved to Kosovo, where he lived for six years, founded Blackbird Books, a small non-profit library, and worked with the Mitrovica Rock School, a program restoring rock music culture to the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica. He also began to write and produce original work that combined text, music, and live performance. In 2009 he was awarded a residency at the MacDowell Colony and a grant from the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (which he received again two years later). In 2010 he was accepted to the Brown Foundation Fellows Program at the Dora Maar House in Menerbes, France, and in 2012 DiverseWorks Artspace premiered his original monologue and musical work Apocalypse Town. He has composed scores for theater companies in Houston, Atlanta, Austin and Pittsburgh, contributed music to Public Radio International's “This American Life”, and continues to write and record his own songs under the name The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He gives away his music for free at truesongs.blogspot.com, and tours Europe with a SerbianBosnian-Dutch rock band called R.O.T.S. Currently he is at work on a multi-year collaboration with writer/visual artist Lindsay Kayser, and is also writing a new work of his own called Disputed Territories. Experience Consultant, Musicians Without Borders, the Mitrovica Rock School in Kosovo Founding Director, Blackbird Books, a non-profit literary center in Kosovo Artistic Director, Infernal Bridegroom Productions Associate Director, Infernal Bridegroom Productions

2011 – 2012 2007 – 2012 2003 – 2007 1998 – 2003

Education BA, Sociology, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX.

1992

Recent Grants Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans MAP Fund

2011 2009

Residencies The Brown Foundation Fellows Program at the Dora Maar House MacDowell Colony

2010 2009

Recent Works 2012 • Apocalypse Town: a multi-disciplinary performance piece written, directed, and performed by Anthony Barilla and produced by DiverseWorks Artspace. • The She's So Unusual Project: a track-by-track recreation of the classic Cyndi Lauper album, adapted and performed by Anthony Barilla, produced in a home studio and distributed online.

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Orčuša Songs: a small project archiving adaptations of songs of the minority Gorani people of Kosovo, conceived and administered by Anthony Barilla. Easy Songs: a collection of original songs written and recorded by Anthony Barilla and distributed online.

2011 • 3 nga 3: three new works by Lindsay Kayser, Christa Forster, and Michelle Ellsworth. Theatrical staged readings directed by Anthony Barilla in three Kosovo cities, produced by the Swiss Cultural Programme for the Western Balkans. 2010 • Bluefinger by Jason Nodler: arranger and co-music director of the world premiere of a new rock opera produced by the Catastrophic Theatre. • Songs about Dying: a collection of original songs written and recorded by Anthony Barilla and distributed online. Notable productions 2009 and earlier • Daniel Johnston's Speeding Motorcycle, adapted and arranged by Jason Nodler: music director, arranger, and sound designer. Producer: Infernal Bridegroom Productions (IBP). • Hide Town by Lisa D'Amour: director. Producer: IBP • Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks: music director, arranger. Producer: IBP Additional theatrical performances with Infernal Bridegroom Productions, 1998 – 2009: The Tamarie Cooper Show (08) and (09) by Tamarie Cooper, Microscope Maintenance And Repair by Lindsay Kayser, Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Full Circle by Charles Mee, Tamalalia 10 (as well as 9, 8, 7, 6, 2000, 4, and 3) by Tamarie Cooper, Charlie Scott’s adaptation of Medea by Euripides, The Hotel Play by Wallace Shawn, Baal by Bertolt Brecht, Symphony of Rats by Richard Forman, Me-sciah by Troy Schulze, Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, Meat/BAR by Jason Nodler, The Noblest of Drugs by Joel Orr, Actual Air, adapted from the poetry of David Berman by Troy Schulze, A Soap Opera by Ray Davies, Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane, In the Under Thunderloo by Jason Nodler, We Have Some Planes by Brian Jucha, Action and Chicago by Sam Shepard, Mud by Maria Irene Fornes, The Danube by Maria Irene Fornes, Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, Edmond by David Mamet, Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltés Composer, Marie and Bruce by Wallace Shawn, King Ubu is King by Jason Nodler, and Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill. Additional theatrical performances, 1998 – 2009: The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt: directed by Anthony Barilla, and produced by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (Mitrovica, Kosovo); the movement in the bed on the brink of awake or asleep and how it’s all worked out with the threadcount by Lindsay Kayser, produced by Diverseworks Artspace; Trappakeepa & Girth by Lindsay Kaiser, produced by Gypsy Baby (Austin, TX); When the World Was Green by Sam Shepard, produced by Quantum Theatre (Pittsburgh, PA); Camino Real by Tennessee Williams, produced by PushPush Theater (Atlanta, GA); The Crime of The Assistant Master Butler, Corruption of the Species, and Ivan the Fool by Joel Orr, all produced by Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre. Dance: Open Book / Open House by Stephan Koplowitz, 2000. Commissioned by: Rice University. Composer. Radio & Television: This American Life, 1998 – Present. Public Radio International & Showtime. Contributing composer.