Word for Word and Campos Santo (a resident theater company of Intersection for the Arts) present:
Joy Ride
By Greg Sarris
February 1 - March 1, 1998
at Intersection for the Arts
Directed by Margo Hall
Our first co-production with Campo Santo, this was our second staging of a Greg Sarris story. In 1994, Greg published his collection of short stories, Grand Avenue, which burst onto the literary scene as "a brilliant novel in short stories". Set in Sonoma County's Santa Rosa, "where everybody's connected to everybody," "Joy Ride" is an unflinching look at three brothers, and the disparate people around them, over the passage of time. Greg's compassionate storytelling has led us to deep reflection in the material we choose, and to a relationship that has lasted decades.
Several stories from Grand Avenue were made into an HBO film of the same title in 1996.
Photo: Steve Mitchell; Pictured: Luis Saguar
Directed by Margo Hall
Cast
Tony Abou-Ganim*
Cristina Frias
Michelle Groves
Luis Saguar*
Sean San Jose*
Michael Torres*
Photo: Steve Mitchell; L-R Michael Torres, Sean San Jose
Designers and Crew
Abel Sanchez - Original Music
David R. Molina - Sound Design & Score
James Faerron - Set Design
Jim Cave - Lighting Design
Nancy Maloney - Stage Manager
Mildred de la Rosa, Allier Zelaya - Production Team
*Member, Actors' Equity Association
"...undeniably humane in its uncompromising honesty..."
Robert Hurwitt in the SF Chronicle
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Greg Sarris (Author) is an novelist, playwright, and creative writing professor born and raised in Santa Rosa, California. His publications include Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts (1993), Grand Avenue (1994), and Watermelon Nights (1999). Greg has also written plays for Pieces of the Quilt, Intersection Theatre, and the Mark Taper Forum. His play Mission Indians opened at Intersection Theatre in San Francisco in February 2002, receiving the 2003 Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Best Script. He also co-produced, advised, and was featured in a sixteen part series on American literature for public television called American Passages, which won the Hugo Award for Best Documentary in 2003. In 2012, Word for Word performed his collection of children's stories, How A Mountain Was Made. Greg regularly works with the Sundance Institute (reviewing and revising scripts) where he helped develop a summer writing lab for American Indians interested in film writing.
From 2005 to present, Greg has held the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, teaching Creative Writing and lecture-based classes on Native Cultures of Northern California.
Greg is currently the Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, in his thirteenth elected term leading the Tribe in its economic development endeavors. He is equally passionate about the environment, laying the groundwork for organic farming that does not exploit people or resources and will sustain for many future generations. greg-sarris.com
