IMPACT Written & Performed by Amy Engelhardt

IMPACT
Written & Performed by Amy Engelhardt
Directed by Kira Simring

“Moving, sorrowful, hopeful and ultimately enlightening, Amy Engelhardt’s Impact is a monologue with music, detailing the 1988 terrorist bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and events that tied her  to the attack. Engelhardt’s personal connections to the tragedy led her, unexpectedly, to new depths of her art, and gave her a renewed hope for humanity. Written and performed by Engelhardt, Impact is presented as a multimedia scrapbook of sorts, combining photographs, film and video clips and snippets of vocal recordings, all of which paint a real, compelling portrait of some of the victims of the bombing. She also tells of her meetings with members of the victims’ families and residents of Lockerbie who became involved by virtue of circumstance.”

– Michael Barbieri, NiteLife Exchange Broadway Theatre Review, 2021

Composer/lyricist/bridge-and-tunnel kid AMY ENGELHARDT scored OBA Best New Musical nominee BASTARD JONES at the cell theatre (Resident Artist), TRIPTYCH (NY Transit Museum, book/music/lyrics), CARL SAGAN’S CONTACT (lyrics, Puget Sound Theatre Award), THE WOODS OF EXETER (playwright, Secret Theatre New Works, NYC), TESLA (lyrics, New Musicals Foundation) and A COMEDY OF ERAS (music/lyrics, ACT Seattle w/the Flying Karamazov Brothers). With producer Heather Shields, she co-created TUNE IN TIME: New York’s Musical Theater Game Show (“the BMI Musical Theatre workshop on steroids”) at the York and received MAC’s 2011 Burman Songwriting Award. From 1998-2012, Amy was the sole female vocalist/writer for Grammy-nominated, genre-busting band The Bobs. She performs extensively in the US as a singer/songwriter, including an annual appearance in Judith Owen & Harry Shearer’s annual CHRISTMAS WITHOUT TEARS. In 2019, as Mother Superior of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl in Amazon Prime’s GOOD OMENS immersive promo campaign (Winner: 7 Clio Awards!), she led a convent of Satanic, singing nuns at events in London, NYC, Hollywood and Austin and produced their EP Unholy Night for Amazon Music. She is currently mixing a third solo album (FINISH WHAT) which she still insists will be released in 2020. Amy is the only honorary female member of the Vienna Boys Choir.

KIRA SIMRING has been the Artistic Director of Nancy Manocherian’s the cell since its inception in 2006. A professional director for 20 years, Kira has worked closely with writers to develop and realize their work. Recent directing credits include the premieres of Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom (Irish Rep) Crackskull Row by Honor Molloy (New York Times Critics’ Pick), Hard Times: An American Musical by Larry Kirwan (New York Times Critics’ Pick), and The McGowan Trilogy by Seamus Scanlon (New York and UK Premieres). She received a BA in Anthropology from Smith College and an MFA at The New School for Drama. IMPACT was developed at the 2020 National Winter Playwrights Retreat in Grand Lake, CO. In 2021, a filmed version was co-produced by Nancy Manocherian’s cell theatre (NYC) and The Playhouse at White Lake (Whitehall, MI). The live version was incubated at the cell in NYC. IMPACT was recently awarded a Spring 2023 developmental residency at the Creative Centre in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland.

IMMENSE THANKS: Alex Stein, Colin Dorrance, Judith Dorrance, Kim Cirillo Wickham, Renee Boulanger, Ron & Jeannine Boulanger, Josephine Donaldson, Pauline & Jamey Carruthers, Judith O’Rourke, Paul Provenza, Babs Romen, Gina Rae & Tom Bancroft, Hal Kirkland, John Eisner, Manuel & Ann Pittman Zarate, Franky Gonzalez, Jeff Rubin, Brian Reager, Jonah Levy & the cell staff

Percussionist: Brooke Trumm
Logo Design: Mindy Lang