RENO is a stream of consciousness style solo comedic performer living in New York City. Her evening length shows have had several runs Off-Broadway, both commercially and at non-profit venues and tour regularly to the leading regional theaters, museums and performance spaces. She adapted her show RENO IN RAGE AND REHAB into an ACE Award nominated ("Best Writing for an Entertainment Special") HBO comedy hour. Her show, RENO ONCE REMOVED was commissioned by Lincoln Center for their Serious Fun Festival and sold out with rave reviews. It subsequently moved to the Joseph Papp Public Theater and continued on around the country. She has made other, short-form tragi-comic "essays" for various outlets such as PBS, VH-1, Comedy Central and National Public Radio, and occasionally contributes written articles to magazines, such as MS.
Reno has done some non-solo acting as well, most notably in Tony Kushner's "A Bright Room Called Day" also at the Public; as Edith Ann's shrink (Voice) in Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner's series of animated specials, Edith Ann on ABC TV; as Shapiro, a member of the regular cast in 1996's Witt/Thomas unscheduled CBS sitcom, Hollywood PD; and as the clown (voice) in Rosie O'Donnell's "Kids Are Punny" for HBO. k She has also made appearances in several motion pictures including Robert Redford's Quiz Show, Twenty Four Hour Women by Nancy Savoca, and Fear of Fiction by Charley Ahearn.
Reno's four episode pilot for Bravo, CITIZEN RENO, a kind of non fiction sit-com, premiered April 6th, 2001 to great reviews. Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner are the executive producers. In 1998, she made her first feature film, RENO FINDS HER MOM. In it, Reno tracks down the mother who gave her up at birth, and uses this verité footage in combination with fictional material she wrote as the search was unfolding. The film was made for HBO, and features special appearances by Mary Tyler Moore and Lily Tomlin. It was produced and directed by Lydia Pilcher, written and produced by Reno, with Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner and Paula Mazur as executive producers.
Reno's newest show, REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE: Unrestrained Reflections on September 11th, opened on October 4th, 2001, at La Mama ETC in New York City, where it was extended twice due to critical acclaim. Soon after, it reopened for a commercial run Off-Broadway, with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner as Executive Producers. Reno put the NYC run on hiatus in late July so that she could tour the show around the country. REBEL is her rapid-fire witness of the events of September 11th, how they affected her personally and in the context of the world at large. As political events keep changing, as does her show and summer of 2003 finds her continuing to tour with this show.
Nancy Savoca's (HOUSEHOLD SAINTS, TRUE LOVE, DOGFIGHT) performance film of REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE had it's world premiere September 11th 2002 at the Toronto International Film Festival, was honored by the centuries old Florence Peace Prize, went to the Havana Film Festival (where the film will now be shown on TV, and Reno has been asked to tour), is screening at various festivals currently and had its New York City premiere at Cinema Village Thursday May 1 2003 with a benefit for the ACLU.
A performance piece she is collaborating on with Joan Baez got its feet wet this February 7th at the San Francisco premiere screening of Rebel at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The evening was a HUGE success: Daniel Ellsberg was a surprise guest.
Reno is among fifteen other distinguished solo performer/writers (Lily Tomlin, Eric Bogosian, Danny Hoch, Spalding Gray, Whoopie Goldberg, etc.) whose work was published in Theatre Communications Group's Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century, edited by Jo Bonney.
Originally, Reno traveled a bit with Lilith Theatre Company out of San Francisco, then started performing solo every once in a blue moon in New York in 1983 at the WOW Cafe, Limbo Lounge, and various funky dives. A couple of years later, she accelerated her performance schedule and played maybe once or twice a month at such wonderful spaces as Dixon Place, the Wah Wah Hut, St. Marks Poetry Project and of course, P.S. 122.
FOR MORE BIO, INFO, CLIPS, PRESS, ETC, PLEASE GO TO www.CitizenReno.com |
