"The 14 Mission" by Anita Cabrera
Release Date: December 28, 2020
On Christmas Day, a man takes the 14 Mission Bus to visit his best friend. The man remembers his own life as a drunken outcast, so troubled he was once thrown off the bus he is now riding. As he rides from his room in the Tenderloin toward Mission and 16th, he considers what he owes his friend.
The 14 Mission is a gritty Christmas story about loneliness and friendship by San Francisco writer Anita Cabrera.
Also included in this podcast is an interview with author Anita Cabrera and director Stephanie Hunt by Vanessa Flores, Word for Word Core Company Member.
CRedits
Cast:
Robert Ernst* ** - Ron / Gypsy
Rosie Hallett* - Sherri / Ensemble
Dorian Lockett* ** - Bus Driver / Ensemble
Alexander Pannullo* - Skinhead Ed / Ensemble
Amy Prosser* ** - Mother / Ensemble
Jomar Tagatac* - Melvin
Michael Torres* ** - Pelican Pete
Interview with Author - Vanessa Flores
Sound Design: Drew Yerys
Line Producer: Krys Swan
Production Manager: Colm McNally
Sound Engineer: Joe Moore
Marketing and Distribution: Andrew Burmester
*Member AEA
**Member SAG/AFTRA
Performed by permission of the author.
Cast and Creative Team Bios & Photos
Anita Cabrera (Author) is a San Francisco-based teacher and editor whose fiction, essays and poetry examine themes of family, addiction, and redemption. Her work has appeared in the Berkeley Poetry Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Colere, Brain, Child Magazine, MER, Acentos Review, Litro, and RavensPerch. Her short story "That Thing" receive"d The New Guard’s 2017 Machigonne Fiction Award and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The characters and events in "The 14 Mission" are inspired by real people who inspired the writer.
Stephanie Hunt (Director) is an actor, director, and teacher. Stephanie has acted in over a dozen stories with Word for Word, playing Lizzie Borden in Angela Carter’s Fall River Axe Murders, the Speedometer in Upton Sinclair’s Oil! and Lady Gregory in Colm Tóibín’s Silence. With Word for Word, she directed Edward P. Jones’ All Aunt Hagar’s Children, Tobias Wolff’s Bullet in the Brain and Lady’s Dream, and Cornell Woolrich’s noir thriller Angel Face. In 2011, she directed students in a production of the Alice Munro short story The View from Castle Rock. She is a lecturer, teaching acting and voice, at both the University of San Francisco and Stanford University. Stephanie is inspired by theater rich with ensemble spirit and the use of heightened language. She is a Company Member of Word for Word.
Robert Ernst* ** (Ron/Gypsy) is a co-founder of The Iowa Theater Lab (1968-1972). His first solo performance was at 2019 Blake St. in Berkeley in 1973, and in 1975, he co-founded The Blake St. Hawkeyes, a theater collective devoted to ensemble and the development of original works. During this time, he also created a half dozen more solo works. In 1984, he won a Dramalogue for best director and best over-all production for the musical, Tokens, a 65-person cast, which was performed at Project Artaud. In 1987, he performed a solo that lasted for 24 hours and 12 minutes, voted one of the “Best 10” performances of the year. His pocket opera, Catherine’s Care at Alter-Theater was voted Best of the Year by The Guardian in 2007. Recently, he has had a solo show, towards/ away, produced at the San Francisco International Arts Festival, as well as his original piece, The Buck and Bill Show, a theatrical episodic, at the Above Ground Festival. More traditionally, he has appeared in Road (Eureka Theater Co.), Speed of Darkness (Berkeley Rep) King-fish, Playland, People’s Temple, The Late Henry Moss (Magic Theatre),The Time of Your Life (A.C.T., Seattle Rep), and Glengarry Glenn Ross (Arizona Rep). Bob appeared in Word for Word's 2019 production of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Vanessa Flores (Interviewer, Anita Cabrera interview) is a playwright, short story writer, screenwriter, and performer with an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts (2016). Her plays have been produced by SF Playground, SF Olympians, Double Backbone, and Aluminous Theater. In August 2018, her full-length play Where the Boys Are was produced by FaultLine Theater with a run at American Conservatory Theater’s The Rueff at The Strand. In 2019, her web series Uneasy (now on YouTube) premiered to a sold out audience at Oakland’s The New Parkway. In 2020, Vanessa launched Other Hand, a creative current affairs mixed-media company intent on making content that gives people the information they need to make good decisions. She is currently the CEO of Kinda Shitty Things, as well as a writer, singer, and keyboardist for the San Francisco based funny-girl-band, Lentil.
Rosie Hallett* (Sherri/Ensemble) is grateful to be giving voice to these characters! She has appeared in Word for Word's productions of Smut, Stories by Emma Donoghue and Colm Tóibín, In Friendship (on tour), and You Know When the Men Are Gone, as well as in Off the Page readings. Rosie is a Stanford graduate and a company member of Playground.
Dorian Lockett* ** (Bus Driver/Ensemble) is extremely happy to once again play with Z Space! He is an Oakland native, having performed all over the Bay Area and abroad. You can see him next in the Pixar film Soul, let’s see if you can figure which one he is. Have fun enjoy the show!!!
Alexander Pannullo* (Skinhead Ed/Ensemble) is excited to be returning back to the Bay Area. His regional theatre credits include Mud Blue Sky (Jonathan) and Junie B Jones Is Not a Crook (Handsome Warren) at the B Street Theatre. Some of his favorite roles include George (Our Town) , Peter (Diary of Anne Frank) and Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors). He was last seen touring in France for the 25th Anniversary of Word for Word.
Amy Prosser* ** (Mother/ Ensemble) has an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory and is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. She has performed with regional theatres across the country and starred in the independent film, Superpowerless. Her play, Things Reveal Themselves Passing Away, had its world premiere in San Francisco in 2016. Amy has been a teaching artist for BAM, Symphony Space, Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, Jewish Community High School of the Bay, and TheatreWorks. She is the Education Coordinator for Word for Word.
Jomar Tagatac* (Melvin) was most recently seen in SF Playhouse's most recent streaming production of ART where he played Marc. Other credits include George in The Language Archive (Theatreworks), Quang in Vietgone (Capital Stage), Mr. Botard in Rhinoceros (A.C.T), Actor 1 in King of the Yees (San Francisco Playhouse), Jacques in As You Like It (CalShakes), Perlita/General Ledesma in Dogeaters (The Magic Theater), multiple roles in You For Me For You (Crowded Fire Theater), and is a company member with Playground. Jomar is a graduate from San Diego State University and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from American Conservatory Theater.
Krys Swan (Line Producer) (he/him) is a Bay Area native and a graduate of San Francisco State University, with a BA in Technical Theater. He is a passionate activist for BLM and the LGBTQ+ community. Krys is a lighting electrician for Marin Theater Company, and Smuin Ballet. Recent credits include Zoom Festival 2020 with Playground. Up next: Books and Roses with Word for Word.
Michael Torres* ** (Pelican Pete), was last seen in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Aurora Theater. In '96, he co-founded Campo Santo where he originated roles for Dave Eggers, Denis Johnson, Jose Rivera, Jessica Hagedorn, Octavio Solis and more. An award winning actor, Michael has played at The Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, Word for Word, Berkeley Repertory, Teatro Campesino, California Shakespeare, The Magic, TheatreFirst, among others, and has toured the U.S.A. and Europe in shows. Recently, he co-directed with Elaina Wright (nomination for Best Directors from TBA) The Farm by Jon Tracy for TheatreFirst. Filmwise, you can see him in About Cherry as Po and as Crow in The Other Barrio. Michael is the Chair of the Laney College Theatre Arts Department where he founded The Fusion Theatre Project. Michael holds a BA from San Francisco State and an MFA from the University of California at San Diego.
*Member, AEA
**Member, SAG/AFTRA
