Word For Word Dives Into Fall Season with RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Word for Word and Z Space stage an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner with press nights of Friday and Saturday September 20 & 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-19). Considered by some to be a green parable, this epic voyage is a tale of man's crime against nature, with the shooting of the magnificent albatross--and the havoc which nature wreaks in return. Rime of the Ancient Mariner is directed by Jim Cave and Delia MacDougall with a cast that features Nathaniel Andalis, Lucas Brandt, Robert Ernst*, Darryl V. Jones*, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong*, Earl Paus, Charles Shaw Robinson*, Patricia Silver* and Randall Wong. (*member AEA)

Z Space for Rime of the Ancient Mariner moves seating to the lip of the stage for this atmospheric staging by a design team that features scenic design by Oliver DiCicco & Colm McNally, environmental projections of the sea designed by Teddy Hulsker with video content by Hana Kim, choreography by Nol Simonse, with lighting design by Ray Oppenheimer, sound design by Matt Stines and costume design by Nikki Anderson-Joy. Audience-related activities are developed by Word for Word in collaboration with The Exploratorium, San Francisco's interactive museum of science, art, and human perception, and their programs on global climate change investigating how to slow down and adapt to climate change. Word for Word is also collaborating with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park with a look at San Francisco's maritime history.

Special Post-show Events as of 8/1

Rime is a message in a bottle: a green parable about a crime against nature, and a dream which becomes a call to action.

September 29, A collaboration with Fieldworks Collaborative with a seafaring cocktail toast to Luke Cole's environmental work following performance. Luke was an environmental lawyer and co-founder of the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, in California. He was a pioneer in using legal work for the environmental justice movement.

October 10, Following performance: Eco-poetics: Z Space presentation of the Exploratorium's series that brings together practitioners from the fields of geography, ecology, environmental sciences, policy, design, and the arts to grapple with issues that shape contemporary landscapes.

Delia MacDougall (co director) is an actor, director, and a Charter Member of Word for Word. Delia has directed a number of productions for the company including Winesburg, Ohio and In Friendship (BACC award Winner for Best Production) Oil! Chapter One: The Ride (BACC Nomination for Best Production) Immortal Heart, Mrs. Dalloway's Party, The Confessions of Madame Psyche, The Falling Girl, and last summer's Anniversary! Victory Lap by George Saunders. She has also directed for A.C.T., Shotgun Players, Marin Shakespeare Company, The Harbor Theater, and SFSU.

Jim Cave (co director) has directed and designed plays, dance, dance-theater, opera, new music theater and site-specific spectaculars. His directorial credits include work with Word for Word Performing Arts Company, Darvag Iranian Theatre, Anna Halprin and the San Francisco Dancers' Workshop, the Blake Street Hawkeyes, Deborah Slater Dance Theatre, Erling Wold Fabrications, and Oliver DiCicco and Mobius Operandi. He has designed lights for more than twenty Word for Word productions. His work has been seen through the Bay Area and has won many awards.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born 1772 in Devon, England. The youngest son of a large family, he studied at Cambridge, but caroused his way through school, and though very companionable, often fell into deep bouts of depression and was haunted by violent dreams from which he would awaken screaming. At 21, he left Cambridge and joined the British Army's Dragoon Guards. An utter failure as a soldier, his older brother had to buy his way out; he was certified as insane and then released. Coleridge returned to Cambridge but struggled with what he called, "a religious twilight." Convinced that nature was the best teacher, he quit Cambridge and began a series of walking tours around the country and developed an idea for a utopian society, Pantisocracy, with hopes of starting his "commune" in America. Coleridge was a dynamic lecturer, giving political speeches against the slave trade and in support of the rebellious Americans. Celebrated for his "strange power of speech", he often lectured in on the Unitarian faith. He married, had a child, and suffered from bouts of illness which he ministered with opium. He increasingly turned to opium as inspiration rather than cure, and wrote Kubla Khan directly from an opium delirium. Coleridge became friends with William Wordsworth, and together they spent many hours walking in nature. Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge launched the Romantic Era of English literature with the 1798 collection, Lyrical Ballads, which included Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He was just 26.

Actors: Nathaniel Andalis, Lucas Brandt, Robert Ernst*, Darryl V. Jones*, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong*, Earl Paus, Charles Shaw Robinson*, Patricia Silver* and Randall Wong. (*member AEA)

Nathaniel Andalis is an East Bay born and raised actor who went to school at PCPA on the Central Coast. Notable credits include "Death of a Salesman" at Ubuntu Theatre Project, "Hamlet" for SF Shakes and yearly rep seasons as far as Illinois Shakespeare Festival"

Lucas Brandt is a Bay Area based actor and teacher. He has worked with a variety of companies around the bay, including Cal Shakes, SF Shakespeare Festival, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Shotgun Players, Cinnabar Theater, Jewel Theater, Boxcar Theater and Berkeley Rep's Playground, among others. Brandt graduated from UC Santa Cruz with both his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Theater Arts.

Robert Ernst is a co-founder of The Iowa Theater Lab (1968-1972). He did his first solo performance at 2019 Blake St. in Berkeley in 1973, and 1975, 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 Z Space. In 1987, he performed a solo that lasted for 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 produced at the San Francisco International Arts Festival, as well as performance 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), Time of Your Life (A.C.T., Seattle Rep) and Glengarry Glenn Ross (Arizona Rep).

Darryl V. Jones is Professor of Theatre at CSUEB and adjunct Acting Instructor in ACT's MFA Acting Program. Jones has performed principle roles at Ford's Theatre, Arena Stage and The Old Globe. In 2017 he was nominated for outstanding supporting actor in Theatre Rhino's first production of the musical Priscilla. He directed and co-choreographed the Aurora Theatre production of The Royale and he directed their production of Detroit 67. Jones holds an MFA in Directing from Boston University.

Leontyne Mbele-Mbong was most recently seen as Lady M in African-American Shakespeare Company's Macbeth. Other AASC roles include the title role in Medea (TBA Award). Based in Oakland, she has appeared at the Aurora, Shotgun Players, Central Works, and Berkeley Rep in a production that also took her the Guthrie.

Earl Paus is a San Francisco based Actor. Company collaborations include: SF Mime Troupe, Thrillpeddlers, Kularts, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Bindlestiff, Mountain Play, Landmark Musicals and FoolsFURY. They studied theatre at SFSU: School of Theatre & Dance. Earl is a recent participant of Theatre Bay Area's ATLAS Program and a 2019 TITAN AWARD recipient.

Charles Shaw Robinson is a veteran stage actor based in the Bay Area. His recent work includes OSLO at the Marin Theatre Company. Among his favorite roles: the Father in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Leonard in Theresa Rebeck's SEMINAR (San Francisco Playhouse); Ross in Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (American Conservatory Theatre); and Iago in Othello (Cal Shakespeare Theatre).

Patricia Silver is a charter member Word For Word since its inception in 1993. Her first story was There's a Garden of Eden: the most recent, Smut. She is best remembered for Olive in Olive Kitteridge. She spent her youth with the San Francisco Mime Troupe touring parks, the USA, Cuba and Europe.

Randall Wong has built a distinguished career in performances of Baroque/Classic and contemporary music. He has premiered a number of new operas including Stewart Wallace's Where's Dick and Harvey Milk (Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and SF Opera), and Meredith Monk's Atlas (Houston Grand Opera, Hebbel-Theatre, Berlin). With Monk he has performed at the Avignon Theater Festival, Copenhagen, Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), among others. He has also sung in modern revivals of baroque operas in theaters in Rome, Cremona, Dresden, Stuttgart, Cologne, Boston, and San Francisco.

Design Team: Scenic Design by Oliver DiCicco and Colm McNally, Ray Oppenheimer (Lighting Design), Theodore Hulsker (Projection Design), Hana Kim (Video Content), Nol Simonse (Choreographer), Matt Stines (Sound Design), Nikki Anderson-Joy (Costume Design) and Hannah Clague (Props Design).

Oliver DiCicco is a sculptor, sound artist and designer. His sculptural work focuses on kinetic sound sculpture. He designed and built the instruments for Mobius Operandi, an experimental music ensemble. He has designed theater sets for several of Word for Words' productions, as well as his own multi-disciplinary productions.

Colm McNally ( Set Design) is an Irish theater designer recently relocated to the Bay Area. Before relocating, he was master electrician for The Gate Theatre in Dublin. He holds an MFA from The Lir Academy in Dublin, and is one of the co-founders of Sugarglass Theatre with whom he works as Lead Designer. Colm has been nominated for the Irish Times Award for Best Set Design. His work has been described as "superbly designed" and "exceptional use of space" (Irish Theatre Magazine), and "too beautiful" (The Irish Times). His lighting and set design was last seen in Z Below for Z Space's production of Ripped directed by Lisa Steindler.

Theodore Hulsker (Projection Design) is a Bay Area native who is a sound designer, projection designer, art curator, performance artist, and musician. Graduating from SFSU as a Drama Department Honoree, he has received numerous nominations for his design from BATCC, TBA, and TSDCA. In 2012, he received the Eric Landisman fellowship grant. He has his own theater company, Klanghaus, based in Oakland.

Hana Kim (Video Content)) is a Los Angeles based set and projection designer for live performances. She is a 2018 Richard E. Sherwood awardee from CTG, recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Theater Design and a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829. Her designs have won the Helen Hayes Award, Stage Raw Awards, StageSceneLA Awards and Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards. Upcoming projects include The King's Speech (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Mayakovsky and Stalin (Cherry lane Theater), and MahaB Working Title (Shaw Festival). Most recently at ZSpace, she designed video projections for Weightless.

Nol Simonse (Choreographer) is from Washington, D.C., and trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He moved to San Francisco in 1997, and helped form the punk rock dance company, Kunst-Stoff. He has worked extensively in the Bay Area, with Stephen Pelton, Eric Kupers, Kara Davis, Christy Funsch, Janice Garrett, Charles Moulton, Sean Dorsey, Carey Perloff, and Val Caniparoli. Nol teaches modern at the Lines Dance Center and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. He has been awarded an Izzy, a GOLDIE, Luna Dance Institute's Choreofund prize, and was a CHIME artist in 2017 with mentor Margaret Jenkins.

Ray Oppenheimer (Lighting Design) is a San Francisco Bay Area based lighting designer, educator, and creator who has been bringing his boundless curiosity, chimerical aesthetic, and a sisyphean perseverance to lighting design and education since 2005. He is an active company member with Mugwumpin and Shotgun Players. Locally he has designed for ACT Strand Theatre, Z Space, The Magic Theatre, Mugwumpin, Center Rep, New Conservatory Theatre Company, Crowded Fire, Mugwumpin, and Santa Cruz Shakespeare Company.

Matt Stines (Sound Design) is a San Francisco based soundman, pizzaman, musician, and self-storage facilitator. He teaches theatre sound design at Sonoma State and St Mary's College and is a company member of Shotgun Players. mattstines@wordpress.com.

Word for Word Performing Arts Company, a program of Z Space, is an ensemble whose mission is to tell great stories with elegant theatricality, staging performances of classic and contemporary fiction. Founded in 1993 by Susan Harloe and JoAnne Winter, Word for Word believes in the power of the short story to provide solace, compassion, and insight into our daily lives.