Erica Livingston is a doer of things, especially theater. Originally from Jackson, MS, Erica now calls Brooklyn her home. She is an ensemble member and co-artistic director of The New York Neo-Futurists, recipients of the 2010 Café Cino Fellowship Award, named 2009 People of the Year by nytheater.com and winners of The Village Voice Reader’s Poll for Best Performance Artists. As a Neo-Futurist she writes, performs and directs in the NYNF’s signature show, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” an ongoing ever-changing attempt to perform 30 original plays in 60 minutes every Friday and Saturday night in the East Village which the New York Times says, “Is the ideal entertainment for an audience with eclectic taste” and Backstage says, “Like the glory days of Saturday Night Live only funnier and slightly surreal.” She has been a Neo for four years and has written 103 plays for “TMLMTBGB” and also wrote and performed in “The Soup Show,” which ran throughout March at Here Arts Center and was nominated for Best Performance Art Production 2010 by The Innovative Theater Awards.
Erica was a resident at St. Ann’s Warehouse in their The Puppet Lab for the 2010-2011 season. She is built a piece about the Death of Sam Cooke using puppets, quantum mechanics and synethesia that performed June 2nd and 4th, 2011 at St. Ann’s in their annual Labapalooza! Festival.
Erica’s directing credits include Young Jean Lee’s Pullman, WA for the summer intensive at The Atlantic Theater, Joseph Fink’s one woman show Pro-Life at The Living Theater and Chronicles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass by Rolin Jones for The Atlantic Theater’s second year NYU students.
Erica used to solely perform in plays before she ventured into writing and directing. Some of her favorite performance credits include Week 52 of Suzan Lori Parks 365 Plays/365 Days under the direction of Joanna Settle at The Public Theater, Pandora in Beth Henly’s Impossible Marriage and Jackie O’ in Wendy MacLeod’s House of Yes.
There was a brief period where Erica left New York and moved to Chicago to study Improvisation. She studied at the Improv Olympic and other improv houses under some really brilliant people like Charna Halpern, Ali Farahnakian and Mick Napier. Erica’s Improv and sketch credits include Rash Behaviour, Wink and a Gun, La theatre de la Fleur (Commedia Del Arte), South, and Capitol City Improv.
Besides writing, performing and directing Erica also spends a great deal of her time as a Teaching Artist working with Queens Theater in the Park’s Center Stage Program and Onstage Program, The Atlantic Theater’s Program for Teens and their Create Your Own Theater Program, directing NYU’s Second Year One Acts. She also creates the curriculum for and teaches the aesthetic of Neo-Futurism to adults and seniors.
She is a member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters, Fractured Atlas, A.R.T./New York, The Freelancers Union and The League of Independent Theaters.
Erica graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She is a proud dog owner and a full time mom.
