About the Play:

Expecting Isabel has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Expecting Isabel is a full-length comedy by Lisa Loomer. When Miranda finds herself moderately happily married and about to turn forty, she and her husband decide to have a child. But their struggle with infertility puts their marriage, not to mention their sanity, to the test. Striving for the impossible, Miranda has to learn how to love...again.

Expecting Isabel is about the adventures of a New York couple trying to have a baby – by any means necessary. Miranda and Nick, a couple nearing forty, are at last ready for a family, but are not so naturally successful. Their difficulties in conceiving lead them on an "Alice in Wonderland-esque" odyssey through the booming baby business as they negotiate the fertility trade, the adoption industry and their own families. This very contemporary comedy examines the frustration, pain and confusion of a modern couple as they try various fertility techniques, new and old, simple and strange. They consider adoption and every other way to experience the final joy of becoming a modern parent.

Expecting Isabel premiered in 1998 at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and won the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award. Its West Coast premiere was in 2000 at the Mark Taper Forum. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions..

Cast: 5 female, 3 male

What people say:

"…Lisa Loomer uses laughter to soothe the ache of infertility … Anyone who scores this many good-sized laughs in her protagonist's opening remarks to the audience knows what she's doing … Loomer has crafted a savvy comedy…." — Los Angeles Times

"…humorous and extremely well-researched … a tart tour of the emotional horrors that can come with trying to make a miracle … Loomer wants you to listen to her front-line report, and comedy is her bait." — Washington Times

"…[an] intriguing new play … It's a tragicomic story that's painfully familiar to a distressingly large number of people … germane and deeply affecting…." — Orange County Register

"…a sweet and very knowing story … keen satire on the fertility industry and the extreme lengths to which some people will go…." — LA Life

About the Playwright:

Lisa Loomer is an American playwright and screenwriter of Spanish and Romanian ancestry who has also worked as an actress and stand-up comic. She is best known for her plays The Waiting Room and Living Out, which are taught in university drama programs, Women's Studies programs, and Latino Studies programs. She was twice nominated for a Pulitzer and also has received an Imagen Award for positive portrayals of Latinos in all media.