Amanda Moody is known as a triple-threat writer/actor/singer with a wide range of comedic and dramatic skills. Her critically acclaimed work, Serial Murderess (a love story in 3 axe), was developed with director Melissa Weaver, with music by Clark Suprynowicz. Serial Murderess enjoyed an extended, sold-out premiere at Venue 9/SF in the winter of 2000/01 and again in 2002, winning the 2001 Dean Goodman’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian's BEST OF 2000 Upstage/Downstage Award for great solo performance. In 2003, Miss Moody wrote and performed the wickedly nutritious Seven Courses in Sin, a cult hit at the 7 Sins Series directed by James Judd, produced by Cellar Full of Noise at Venue 9 and The Shelton Theatre. Previously, she wrote and performed the six-character, music theatre piece, The Winchester Rosary, another collaboration with director Weaver, with music by Joël Lindheimer. This one-woman show was performed at San Francisco's SOMAR Gallery Theatre in 1997 and again in 1998, and was co-presented by Agapé Performance Group and The Paul Dresher Ensemble. She has written the original story and libretto for the opera, Caliban Dreams, composed by Clark Suprynowicz, which she performed with tenor John Duykers in concert at the Magic Theatre in May of 2003. Her latest work, an original oratorio, Bitter Harvest composed by Kurt Rohde premiered in December 2005 with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano. Georgia Rowe of the Contra Costa Times declared Bitter Harvest “Splendid… boldly contemporary and undeniably moving.” Her latest work-in-progress D’Arc; woman on fire is a theatrical evocation of the spirit of Joan of Arc, and those of modern young activists at home and abroad.
Miss Moody is an accomplished songwriter and studio artist. She has performed her original words and music around the Bay Area with a jazz-based ensemble, Lindheimer & Moody, led by her long-time musical collaborator, Joël Lindheimer. Lindheimer & Moody has been presented at the ODC Performance Gallery by City of Tribes as part of their Carta Chroma Music Series, and by The Freight & Salvage, as well as with Emily Bezar & Amy X Neuberg & Men at the Julia Morgan Theatre as part of Avant Cabaret. She is a founding member of the improvised-music group, These Are Not My Hands with performances at Temescal Arts Center, Blue Bear, Expressions Center for New Media, and the Black Box Theatre.
Miss Moody has performed principal roles in the San Francisco premieres of these original multidisciplinary operatic works: City Summer Opera's production of Ariadne, composed by Clark Suprynowicz, book by Ken Prestininzi, and directed by Tracy Ward; Agapé Performance Group's Trespass Knot, written and directed by Melissa Weaver, co-starring John Duykers, composed by Miguel Frasconi; as well as the Paul Dresher Ensemble's Awed Behavior, written and directed by Rinde Eckert with music by Paul Dresher. Other principal roles include Lady Croom in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (2004/Theatreworks); voicing Miranda, Sebastian and Antonio for Shadowlight’s A Balinese Tempest under the direction of Larry Reed; Padraic in The Little Gray Home in the West by Margaretta D'Arcy & John Arden directed by Virginia Reed (2000 Festival of Playwrights in Danger/Magic Theatre/SF); The Witch in The Pope and the Witch (1998 Dario Fo Fest/La Peña Cultural Centre); Jill in Ed Bogas' musical, The Tan Line Cafe at the New Conservatory Theatre; Joanne in Graczyk's Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, produced by the Bedini Theatre Project; and Mary in Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, directed by Terry O'Brien at the Zephyr Theatre. She has also played the parts of Olivia in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Bananas in Guare's The House of Blue Leaves, and Girl in Nancy Fales-Garrett's Surviving Death in Three Acts. Other odds and ends include re-imagining the English subtitles for The Berkeley Opera’s 2005 production of MacBeth.
Amanda Moody received her education at The Dalton School, Sarah Lawrence College and American Conservatory Theatre. She has studied improvisational acting with Marcia Kimmell, Jim Cranna and Bill Bonham. She has studied mask and movement with Leonard Pitt, and completed Tadashi Suzuki and Ann Bogart's Viewpoints actor trainings with the Saratoga International Theatre Institute during their 1996 Bay Area Residency. Continuing her vocal training with soprano Isabelle Metwalli, Miss Moody has also studied voice with John Duykers, Isabelle Metwalli, Kate Rowland and Jane Sharp.
