Lissa was in London in 1986 and happened upon an exhibit at the Public Records Office that marked the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book’s completion. Having graduated from UT Austin with a degree in world history, and with fond memories of her medieval English history class, she was fascinated especially by a display that listed many of the occupations that appear in the work; at the bottom of the list was “female jester 1”. Ever since then, Lissa has wondered who this person was, how she got the job, what her jokes were like, and what happened to her. She finally decided to do something about these questions and, thanks to some happy accidents, was able to recruit the super-talented Andrew and Katie to develop some answers in musical and theatrical form.

Katie Bender (she/her/hers) is a playwright, performer, and theater maker. Her plays include Judith, SHE WOLF, The Survivors/Los Sobrevivientes and Instructions for a Séance, to name a few. Her work has been developed and produced all over the country, including at Hyde Park Theater, ZACH, The Alley, Shrewds, EST, Kitchen Dog, The Playwrights’ Center, LAUNCH PAD, and Fusebox Festival. She is the co-creator of Underbelly, with whom she made ecstatic site-specific performances such as Slip River, for which she received the Austin Chronicle’s Critics Table Award for Best New Comedy. Her play Judith received the B. Iden Payne Award for Best New Script. Katie was a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and received her MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. She is thrilled to be working with Andy and Lissa. Find more information here: Katie Bender

Andrew Grainger is an English composer, pianist, organist and teacher now living in Austin, Texas. He holds degrees in Piano Performance from Surrey University, UK and a Masters degree in Composition from Kingston University, UK. Andrew has been involved in many genres of music over his career, ranging from classical to jazz and pop and includes writing, producing and engineering. As a multimedia composer he has written music for television and film, but now focuses on purely classical composition including orchestral, chamber and solo works, many of which have been performed in the central texas region. He also performs with his wife, cellist Annette Eicker. Andrew is excited to be working with Katie and Lissa to make this brand new chamber oratorio into a wonderful and compelling production. Find more information here: Andrew Grainger