Lydia's Funeral Video January 31, 2008

LYDIA'S FUNERAL VIDEO

January 31 - February 16, 2008

The Dark Room Theatre

a new solo show

Written and performed by Samantha Chanse

Directed by Wilma Bonet

The not-so-distant future. An obsession with the apocalypse. A dream-invading embryo. And four weeks to shoot a video, do some standup comedy, and terminate a pregnancy.

Holy shit.

Co-presented by MANJA, Prime Image Media Group, Many Threads, and the Asian American Theater Company, and supported by a Cultural Equity Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission.

left:

graphic design by Derek Chung

In the not-so-distant future, when abortions are legal only within twenty-eight days of conception and Paris Hilton has embarked on yet another reality show, apocalypse-obsessed Lydia Clark-Lin is doggedly pursuing a career in monetary units when a mysterious being claiming to be an hours-old embryo invades her dreams, announces that Lydia is both pregnant and dying, and commands her to create a video to be screened at her funeral before terminating the pregnancy. As the embryonic orders continue (“talk to the celebrity abortion doctor!” “interview your mother!” “do some standup comedy!”) and Lydia seems to be losing her job and her mind, a deadline fast approaches, the end of the world beckons, and hecklers loom on the San Francisco horizon.

EVENT: Lydia’s Funeral Video, a new solo show written and performed by Samantha Chanse, and directed by Wilma Bonet. Sound design by Kendall Li and set design by Mark Baugh-Sasaki.

DATE: Thursdays- Saturdays, January 31 - February 16, 2008

TIME: Doors open 7pm; Show starts at 7.30pm

VENUE: The Dark Room Theatre, 2263 Mission Street, @ 19th street, San Francisco

COST: $12 - 25, sliding scale. Advance and discount tickets available at www.manja.org

INFO: contact [email protected] or 510.290.1362

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Samantha Chanse (Writer/Performer) is a playwright, actor, and standup comic who moved to San Francisco in 2001. As a playwright, her work includes an Asian American Theater Company and Bindlestiff Studio co-production of Sleeper (a chronicle of the return of the remarkable) (2005); Bindlestiff Studio’s production of Pipe Dreams and Paper Trails (2004), which she co-wrote with Dan Weil, and Frilly Crucifictions (2003); a Turnip Theatre and American Globe Theatre production of Havana Heartland (2007); and staged readings of her work, including Havana Heartland at the San Francisco PlayGround reading series at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (2007); subtext at Calaveras Repertory Theatre (2004); and Sleeper at the Magic Theatre (2005). She was a member of the San Francisco PlayGround writer's pool for two years, a member playwright of Asian American Theater Company's Incubator program, and has been a student of Octavio Solis, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jeannie Barroga, Tony Taccone, and Dijana Milosevic. In 2006, she was awarded an invidual artist commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission. As a comic, she's performed at Bay Area venues including the San Francisco Punchline, Cobb’s, Purple Onion, Kimball's East, and the San Jose Improv, and non-Bay Area venues including the Laugh Factory in New York and Hollywood. Sam was a cast member in Asian American Theater Company’s 2006 production of Jeannie Barroga’s Walls, and in Woman’s Will’s 2006 production of Twelfth Night, both directed by Wilma Bonet. She’s also worked with various Bay Area groups, including Intersection for the Arts, Writers With Drinks, Playwrights Foundation, AK Press, and San Francisco Women Against Rape. A native New Yorker with a knack for public humiliation, she was the artistic director of arts nonprofit Kearny Street Workshop for three years and co-director of another arts nonprofit Locus Arts for five years. www.samanthachanse.com

Wilma Bonet (Director)- recently directed Jeannie Barroga's Walls for Asian American Theater Company, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for Women's Will, and Milcha Sanchez Scott's Evening Star/Doglady and Eduardo Machado's The Cook for Teatro Vision. In the past at Teatro Vision, she has also directed Roy Conboy's Drive My Coche, La Posada Magica, and Vieques (West coast premiere). Ms. Bonet's other directing credits include: The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit for Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, Fronteras Americanas for TheaterFIRST in Oakland, and Miriam's Flowers for Cal State University Sacramento. She has also directed for TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and Latina Theatre Lab at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Born and raised in New York City of Puerto Rican heritage, Ms. Bonet came to the west coast and began performing with guerrilla street theater company Los Topos. A few years later she became a member of the Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troupe for seven years, during which time the group toured Europe, Canada and the United States. After SFMT, she toured nationally with El Teatro Campesino for two years. As a professional actress, Ms. Bonet recently appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Luis Alfaro's Electricidad and at the Denver Center Theatre Company in Jose Cruz Gonzalez's September Shoes for which she was nominated for outstanding performance. Her one-person play Good Grief Lolita that toured the Bay Area, is published in Puro Teatro: A Latina Anthology. She has also appeared on the stages of the American Conservatory Theatre, Campo Santo, California Shakespeare Theatre, Thick Description, Marin Theatre Company, the Old Globe, Dallas Theatre Center and all major theater companies in the San Francisco-San Jose-Bay Area. Her television and film credits include What Dreams May Come, 8MM, Underwraps, Jack, Radio Flyer, and Nash Bridges. Awards: Marion Ross Award for Good Grief Lolita, Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award, and Goodman Award for Outstanding Performance.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO HELP YOU AVOID UNNECESSARY DISAPPOINTMENT: Although the title may imply otherwise, the producers of LYDIA'S FUNERAL VIDEO wish to emphasize that LFV is NOT a film. Rather, it is a piece of live theater written & performed by an individual on a stage of sorts. So it's not a film. Okay, I think we've now made that clear. Yay live theater! A new performance every night!

For information about LFV co-presenters, please visit their websites:

MANJA

http://www.manja.org

Prime Image Media Group

http://www.prime-image.com

Many Threads

http://www.manythreads.org

the Asian American Theater Company

http://www.asianamericantheater.org

and supported by a Cultural Equity Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission

http://www.sfartscommission.org

LFV is supported also by many peoples who have offered their support. The following is as comprehensive a list as can be mustered at present time (please let me know if you or a loved one has been missed):

Mark Baugh-Sasaki

Sita Bhaumik

Wilma Bonet


May Briosos

Doris Bucher

Catherine Chanse

Kai Chanse

Ursula Chanse

Victoria Chanse


Gary Chou

Derek Chung

Sadie Contini

Jim Espinas

Chuck Lacson

Kendall Li


Claire Light

Elokin Orton

Christina Patton

Han Pham

Mika Ashlee Sasaki

Daniel Joseph Weil


Gail Baugh

and many many others...

Official Website: http://www.samanthachanse.com/LFV_index.html