• • • MFA in Theater Studies with a Performance emphasis from Boston University where she explored how acting allows life to flow more wholly.
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PRESS

Apple

The good news about the blankness of these characters is that it gives the actors playing them a lot of room to invent. The best at this is Lay. It’s been too long since she appeared on a Boston stage and it’s good to see her again. She’s easily one of the most compelling stage actors in town. Her effortless, naturalistic performance turns an archetypal Other Woman role into a revelation.

-The Boston Herald

The Snow White Project

[The] Snow Whites, slightly creepy and undeniably militant, are all business. When you stare at them, they stare back, with eyes so glassy that for a moment you imagine you’re looking at a painting. Suddenly they snap their heads in another direction. Mirror, mirror on the wall — and poof goes the fourth wall.

– The New York Times full review (pictured front page NYTimes Art Section)

A Hard Heart

…as queen Praxis, Eliza Lay, a mainstay of the local fringe scene, crackles on here, just as she did in Loves-Lies-Bleeding, and The Eight before that – I’m not sure what a girl has to do to win an IRNE or Norton nomination around here, because Lay seems overdue for both.

–The Hub Review 

Love Lies Bleeding

Particularly moving is the always excellent Lay, whose borderline obsessive love for her catatonic charge is palpable. – Boston Herald 

Best of all is Eliza Lay as the much younger wife, Lia. Something about Lay’s acting makes you forget that she’s acting. She has a compelling presence onstage, and yet she’s also utterly natural.

– Boston Globe 

Sacred Hearts

Special praise goes to Eliza Lay, who delicately but persistently builds a layered portrait of Bridget as both deeply faithful and deeply conflicted. “Sacred Hearts” might not work as well as it does if the woman at its heart were less complicated. – Boston Globe

Eliza Lay creates a believable portrait of Bridget as a distressed individual who is hiding from the world.. Ms. Lay possesses a mercurial ability to project the intellectual ambiguity of her character, …it gracefully represents the underlying uncertainty about her experience and serves the play very well. – Epoch Times

Lay pours an astounding amount of intensity and intelligence into Bridget; she’s hands-down one of Boston’s most natural actresses. – weekly dig

Gorilla Man

…delightfully protean Eliza Lay – Boston Globe

Company Member/Training Company Member Affiliations

The Objective Theater Company NY
(co-founder, company member)
Way Theater Artists BOSTON
(co-founder, company member)
The Movement Workshop Group NY
(resident choreographer, educational director, company member)
Blessed Unrest Theater Company NY
(resident choreographer, training company member)
Stanislavsky Theater Studio DC
(company member, musical director)

Acting: 
Production  /  Character   /   Company/Director

Henry IV / Henry IV / BU Theater/Meg Taintor
The Final Say* / Betsy / Welfleet Harbor Actor’s Theater/ David Drake
Amelia / Athena / Manhattan Theatersource
Putting it Together  /  Kimberly  /  Melba  /  Manhattan Theatersource
Snow White Project  /  aSnow White  /  Catherine Bay
Apple  /  Sam  /  Phoenix Theater Artists  /  Greg Maraio
Impossible Things  /  Mary Anne  /  Imaginary Beasts/Matt Woods
A Hard Heart  /  Praxis  /  Whistler in the Dark/ Richard Romagnoli
Love-Lies-Bleeding  /  Lia  /  Way Theater Artists/Greg Maraio
The Reindeer Monologues  /  Vixen  /  The X-Mas Project /Jacki Davis
The Autumn Hours  /  Arianette   /  11:11 Productions/Benji Scherm
Dancing At Lughnasa  /  Chris   /  Way Theater Artists/Greg Maraio
Sacred Hearts  /  Bridget  /  Zeitgeist Stage Co. /David Miller
The Tempest   /   Ariel  /  11:11 Productions/Jon Ferriera
Enchanted April   /   Lady Bramble    /    AFD/ Kevin Mark Kline
Gorilla Man   /    Alice    /    Boston Theaterworks/Kevin Mark Kline
Flesh and Blood   /    Magda    /    Zeitgeist Stage Co. /David Miller
Yellow Ribbons*   /    Marilyn    /   11:11 Productions/Brian Tuttle
The Ocean Room*   /    Blue Ellen    /   11:11 Productions/Brian Tuttle
Our Hearts As Fiction*   /   Elizabeth    /   11:11 Productions/Greg Maraio
Under Her Umbrella*   /    Feven    /   11:11 Productions/Brian Tuttle
Fathers and Sons   /    Katya/Fedka    /    Stanislavsky Theater Studio/Andrei Malaev-Babel
The Shoemaker’s Wife   /    Black Neighbour   /  STS/Scott Fielding
Phaedra’s Love / Phaedra / The Objective / Jonathan Whitton

Festivals: Fever Fest 2007; Boston Theater Marathon 2006-2008; SlamBoston 2007 (winning production)

*World premier

DANCE/DANCE THEATER
Performance

Moontides in 23, 149 Parts  /  Cirrostratus  /  Movement Wkshp Group
CoMotion  / The Mother /  Blessed Unrest Theater
Dust to Dust /  The Woman /  Movement Wkshp Group

FILM:
Production  / Character  /  Company/Director

The Oblique Sector  / Lilian / Albion Park Productions
Amy/Brian  / Amy  / Chris Villages
Lonely Hearts / Anna  / Ying Xu
HelloSimon  / Rebecca / Arabian Productions
The Courier / Margot (Lead)  /  Red Fez Productions
Street Players  /   Waitress  /  Road Rambler Productions

EDUCATION:
Skidmore College, Theater with Acting Concentration (Magna Cum Laude; Acting Prize)
MFA Theater Education  at BU (2017)
Training : On Camera Technique, Michael Chekhov, Voiceover Technique, Alexander Technique, Linklater Vocal Technique, Viewpoints, Lecoque, Lucid Body, Yoga (200 hr certification), Mindfulness, Chakras, Imagery based acting, Action based acting, Meisner, Biomechanics.
Special Skills: Tennis, Yoga, Running, Singing,  Modern Dance, Viewpoints, Choreography, Acting Instruction
Dialects: Northern Irish, British, French (semi-fluent), Southern.