Z Space

Biographies

George Saunders is the author of twelve books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English, and was a finalist for the Golden Man Booker, in which one Booker winner was selected to represent each decade, from the fifty years since the Prize’s inception. The audiobook for Lincoln in the Bardo, which featured a cast of 166 actors, was the 2018 Audie Award for best audiobook. ­

His stories have appeared regularly in The New Yorker since 1992. The short story collection Tenth of December was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the inaugural Folio Prize in 2013 (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short story collection).

He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. In support of his work, he has appeared on The Colbert Report, Late Night with David Letterman, All Things Considered, and The Diane Rehm Show.

He was born in Amarillo, Texas and raised in Oak Forest, Illinois. He has a degree in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines and has worked as a geophysical prospector in Indonesia, a roofer in Chicago, a doorman in Beverly Hills, and a technical writer in Rochester, New York. He has taught, since 1997, in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.

Sheila Balter (Director) is a Word for Word Core Company member whose last directing credit for the company was  Holiday HIgh Jinx: Stories by Damon Runyon, E.B. White, and Joseph Mitchell. Other directing credits with the company include In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff, 4 Adverbs by Daniel Handler (selected chapters from his book Adverbs), The Islanders by Andrew Sean Greer (LitQuake & a tour of France), The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (selected chapters for a school tour), and The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen (City Arts & Lectures). She has also directed for Encore Theatre Company, Brava for Women in the Arts, and California Shakespeare Theater. Sheila also works as a Bay Area actress, teacher and coach.

CAST

Tre’Vonne Bell (Ryan, MiiVOX Clerk 2 & 3, Ensemble) is an Oakland based actor rooted from the sunny coast of Long Beach, CA. He is ecstatic to be working with the illustrious Word for Word company for his second stint! Known more commonly as Tre’, his most recent works have been Boys go to Jupiter with Word for Word, In the Red and Brown Water at UC Berkeley, as well as understudying for Lear at California Shakespeare Theatre and for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of Wintertime. He has also appeared in Exit Strategy (Aurora Theatre Company); Kill, Move, Paradise (Shotgun Players); and American Prom (Colorado Springs Theatreworks).

Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe (Ma) is an accomplished actor, director, and writer, working in the Bay Area for 30 years. The founding artistic director of the award-winning ensemble Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (BACCE), she has directed and produced 10 critically acclaimed productions for the company. She has acted, directed, and toured with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and was a member of the Black Lab at LATC, She directed at Trinity Rep, Capitol Rep, Southern Rep, Carpetbag Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, WaterTower Theatre, Curious Theater, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, receiving accolades from Dallas’ Rabin Awards and Backstage’s Dean Goodman Award for Excellence. Edris has appeared as an actor in productions throughout California and in Nigeria. She was a core member of Rhodessa Jones’ Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women. Her solo plays Adventures of A Black Girl In Search of Academic Clarity and Inclusion and There are Women Waiting are published in the anthologies solo/ black/woman, and Black Medea, respectively. She holds an MFA in Theater from the University of Iowa and is a member of the Goddard College faculty.

Robert Ernst  (Harris) is co-founder of the Blake Street Hawkeyes and the Iowa Theater Lab. He has performed on stages big and small in his 51 years in the Bay area and started performing original solo-works in 1973 in the Hawkeye Warehouse-space in Berkeley.  Selected shows include: Road at Eureka Theater, The Time of Your Life at ACT/Seattle Rep, Speed of Darkness and People’s Temple at Berkeley Rep, Red State at San Francisco Mime Troupe, Play Land and The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite at Magic Theatre. 

His original work, Catherine’s Care, was nominated for a Critic’s Circle Award for Best Play and his pocket opera, The John, was on the Bay Guardian’s Best of the Year list. He received Dramalogue awards for Best Director and Best Production for Tokens. Bob also performed non-stop, according to The Guinness Book of World Records rules, for 24 hours and one minute. Previous credits with Word for Word include the full production Rime of the Ancient Mariner, podcasts of 14 Mission and Home and the 2019 Short-Story Festival. With students at Tamalpais High, they built the original piece, ’currently,’ in a collective process. He is currently creating several projects for Fall ’23.

Norman Gee (Ryan’s Dad, Sheriff, Ensemble) is thrilled to join the Word for Word crew yet again. A Bay Area stalwart, he recently performed with the San Jose Stage Company, and last summer with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Founder of Oakland Public Theater, Norman creates a "different kind of Black Theater,” expanding cultural notions to encompass often invisible roles of African-Americans. Next up is The Baldwin Centennial Project, premiering August 2024.

Lisa Hori-Garcia (Renee, Ensemble) is thrilled to be back in San Francisco performing with one of her favorite theater companies with whom she is a company member, Word for Word. Most recently, Lisa was in the world premiere, immersive theatrical production of David Byrne's "Theater of the Mind" at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in Colorado. She is an actress, director, and teaching artist and for the last 20 years has been a collective member with the Tony-award winning, political theater company, the San Francisco Mime Troupe (it does not perform silent mime). Lisa has also worked with many other theater companies in the bay, most recently:  Monument, Or Four Sisters and The Gangster of Love (Magic Theatre), As You Like It (California Shakespeare Theater), and Men on Boats and The Great Leap (American Conservatory Theater).

Lisa received her BA from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. She is a member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA and is proud to be a core company member of Word for Word. www.lisahorigarcia.com

Brennan Pickman-Thoon (Evan, MiiVOX Clerk 1 & 4, Ensemble) is thrilled to return to Word For Word! Recent credits include Boys Go To Jupiter (Word For Word); A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater); Mother of the Maid (Marin Theater Company); The Gentleman Caller (NCTC); Timon of Athens, Phèdre (Cutting Ball Theater); Hamlet, Measure For Measure (Marin Shakespeare Company); Metamorphoses, The Good Book (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, u/s). Pickman-Thoon is a faculty member at American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He won the 2019 SFBATCC Award for Actor in a Principal Role and is a member of AEA. For more, please visit brennanpickmanthoon.com.

Brian Rivera (Mikey) is proud to be back performing with Word for Word, and as a company member. He has previously performed in Word for Word’s sold out, extended run of Amy Tan’s Immortal Heart and the school tour of The Master Maid. Other Bay Area credits include The Orphan of Zhao at A.C.T. & La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep’s Yellow Jacket, Cal Shakes’ American Night,  and many tours with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, including Posibilidad, or Death of a Worker. Brian made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award winning revival of The King & I at Lincoln Center, playing The King of Siam several times. He can be heard in Tales of Resistance, a series of  San Francisco Mime TroupeT radio play episodes (available at sfmt.org). Brian is pleased to announce his first audiobook co-narration, Jennifer J. Coldwater’s  Holland, My Heart on Audible. He is a member of Campo Santo Theater and an associate of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Brian recently won The Charles Dean Award for Excellence in Bay Area Theater Performance. He is a proud member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA. IG: @brianmrivera

JoAnne Winter (Word for Word Artistic Director, Ryan’s Mom, Ensemble) co-founded Word for Word Performing Arts Company with Susan Harloe in 1993. Since then, she has had the pleasure of helping to produce many, many productions, readings, and student projects with Word for Word. In addition, she is an actor and director with the company and has also worked at many local theaters including Marin Theatre Company, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Magic Theatre, and California Shakespeare Theater. Winter also oversees Word for Word’s Youth Arts Program, which brings the love of language and performance into schools all over Northern California.

Designers and Production

Karen Runk (Stage Manager) moved to SF with the intention of only staying for a few months... Over two decades later she's still here! This is largely due to the talented folks at the SF Mime Troupe and thanks to Golden Thread Productions where she has been a Resident Artist since 2018 (aka the before times) - but mostly it's due to rent control! Runk has also stage managed with Golden Thread Productions, Magic Theater, SFShakes, Intersection for the Arts, African American Shakespeare Company and SF Mime Troupe. 

Theodore Cordano (Assistant Stage Manager) is a recent graduate from Loyola University New Orleans with a BA in Theater Arts. He has been working behind the scenes since high school as a jack-of-all-trades with a mastering of stage management, sound, and video editing. Ted would like to thank his family, teachers and Z Space for the opportunity to work on this show as the ASM. 

Jim Cave (Lighting Design and Production Manager) has worked with Word for Word for over 20 years as lighting designer, director and production manager. Most recently, he co-directed Rime of the Ancient Mariner with Delia MacDougall and Retablos with Sheila Balter. Jim is a Core Company Member of Word for Word. 

Cliff Caruthers (Sound Design) is a Bay Area based sound designer and composer with over 20 years experience in the field of theatre sound design. He has created music and soundscapes for over 300 productions near and far, including Frankenstein at Guthrie Theatre, 1984 at Alley Theatre, Caucasian Chalk Circle for American Conservatory Theater, TRAGEDY: A Tragedy for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Man in Love for Kansas City Rep, and A Clean House for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where he was Resident Sound Designer for seven years. In 2007 his work on Fighter Airplanes for Cutting Ball Theater was featured at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007. His work on Earth: A Primer, was featured at the Experimental Gameplay Worship at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in 2015. He designed sound for Word for Word's Stories by Alice Munro in 2015. He has received several Bay Area Critics Circle awards, including most recently in 2019 for Detroit ’67 at Aurora Theatre Company. Mr. Caruthers is co-curator of the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, and serves as Member Representative to the Western Region Board of United Scenic Artists Local 829.

Callie Floor (Costume Design) (she/hers) Since coming to the Bay Area in 1987, Callie Floor has designed for many theaters, including A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, San Francisco Mime Troupe, California Shakespeare Theatre, West Bay Opera, Zaccho Dance Theatre,  and San Francisco Opera Merola Program. She is very happy to return to Word for Word, having last designed costumes for Retablos in 2020. She earned her BFA from the University of Utah and her Higher Diploma in Theatre Design from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. She is the resident designer for California Revels.

Christy Funsch (Choreographer) As the Artistic Director of Funsch Dance, Christy Funsch has created over thirteen full-length works and has been presented nationally and internationally. She was named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2014 and was a Fulbright Scholar of choreographic research at the Escola Superior de Dança in Portugal in 2019. This is her third project with Word for Word. Visit funschdance.org.

John M. Meyer, Ph.D. (Dramaturg) works as a researcher and as a playwright-performer in Austin and New York. His work as a playwright and an actor has been featured in the Austin Chronicle, The Austin American-Statesman, KUT radio, the BBC online, The Scotsman, and The List. His stage play American Volunteers won the 2010 Mitchell Award at the University of Texas, and subsequently made the long-list for the Dylan Thomas Prize in the United Kingdom. His research explores competition within military hierarchies, especially during the Second World War. He served in the United States Army, and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mikiko Uesugi (Scenic Design) has designed several productions for Word for Word, including Immortal Heart by Amy Tan and Stories by Tobias Wolff. Recent theater credits include Wives for Aurora Theater Company, Monument, or Four Sisters for Magic Theatre. She has also designed for Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, Theater Works, ACT M.F.A Program, Berkeley Repertory Theater, among others. She is a resident artist at Golden Thread Productions, a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and The Isadora Duncan Dance Award.

Nolan Miranda (he/him/they) (Assistant Costume Designer) is thrilled to be working again with Word For Word and Z Space. He is a graduate of The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising with a degree in Fashion & Costume Design. He has been costuming San Francisco productions since 2009. Recent notable design work include: The Red Shades: A Trans Super Hero Rock Opera, Shoshana in December, and Fiddler on The Roof. Nolan was born and raised in the Philippines and has lived in the Bay Area since the year 2000. In addition, he is a co-founder and owner of Bab Boi, a catering company specializing in playful Filipino eats. 

Daniel Hall (Lead Production Technician) is a Korean, Queer, Bay Area artist. Working as the Lead Production Technician for Z Space, Daniel has also worked as a Master Electrician for SF Shakespeare festival for two seasons and does freelance work as a Sound and Lighting Technician. He has previously worked on Sound Design with NCTC on PReP Play, Gently Down the Stream, Sugar In Our Wounds, and on the upcoming A Picture of Two Boys.

Zephaniah Strand Bensaid (House Technician) (it/they) is a stage manager, circus educator, writer, and in this case a house tech. Their background is in circus, but they're always looking to learn new things! You can find Zeph in the tech booth, behind a follow-spotlight, or at their laptop, working on stories and TTRPGs about haunted houses, climate change, and transcendance.