Actress Amanda Quaid stole our heart as the straight girl poaching a gay man from his boyfriend in the acclaimed off-Broadway play Cock; then the love affair was cemented with her performance as the boozy Irish housewife Patty Ann Donovan in Lincoln Center’s Luck of the Irish. Add in her star turns in Broadway’s Equus, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, The Seagull & Galileo and Quaid becomes one of the more interesting young actresses working today—especially when you take into account her knack for dialects and accents.
Which brings us to American Voices, a series of shorts about modern immigrant life. Quaid interviews immigrant women around New York City and then creates and stars in these short videos which use these women’s words verbatim to address the topics of displacement, identity and belonging. The series is stunning—just stunning. Below BroadwayBox introduces you to four of these captivating women: Kat from Ireland, Alenka from Poland, Peggy from the U.K and Teresa from Portugal. If you like Humans of New York, you’re bound to love American Voices.
Kat, an Irish woman speaking about consumer culture in NYC and how it affects the dating market.
Alenka, a Polish mother speaking about the language barrier between herself and her children.
Peggy, an English woman reveals how her move to the U.S. cured her shopping addiction.
Teresa, a Portugese woman talks about American perfectionism and the fear of admitting to a mistake.
Check out Quaid’s site AmericanVoicesProject.com for future video updates.
