Z Space Presents YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE 9/10-27 At Theatre Artaud

The Z Space Studio announces the West Coast premiere of You Can't Get There From Here. Written and performed by Anne Galjour, and directed by Jayne Wenger, You Can't Get There From Here runs from Thursday September 10, 2009 - Sunday September 27, 2009 at Theatre Artaud, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco, CA. Press opening is September 10, 2009.

You Can't Get There From Here will play the following performance schedule: Thursday at 7:00pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00PM, Sunday at 5:00PM. All seats are $20. Tickets may be purchased by calling 415-626-0453, or online at www.zspace.org. On Thursday nights after each performance, audience members are invited to stay for a session of cross-class dialogue led by Ms. Galjour.

Driving home the notion that where you live is who you are, You Can't Get There From Here exposes the reality of class and cultural divide in contemporary America. In this riveting one-woman show, Bay Area performer Anne Galjour takes us on a journey that reveals the basic fears, frustrations, and aspirations that tie together everyday life.

The research, development and production of You Can't Get There From Here was the center piece of the three-year Class Divide programming initiative at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. The Class Divide Initiative explored social and economic class through the powerful lens of art. "Class Divide reflects our commitment as a campus-based arts presenter to address pressing issues of our day," said Margaret Lawrence, the Hopkins Center's Director of Programming. "It is the first substantial cross-campus/ community project in the country to examine the issue of class through the arts." Class Divide's aim is to raise awareness and spark discussion about this highly important and under-explored issue of class in America.

Nationally acclaimed playwright and artist Anne Galjour immersed herself in Dartmouth College's physically close, but economically divided rural New England backyard, and, through more than 100 interviews, documented a marked class divide in New Hampshire and Vermont that mirrors a national class divide. "It's the last taboo subject in America. People are very reluctant to talk about class. This experience has forever changed the way I write and teach," said Galjour. "But when !0% of the people control 70% of the wealth in our country it is certainly time to talk about class."

The characters in You Can't Get There From Here emerged from the personal testimony of people who met with Galjour in story circles to voice their own experiences with socio-economic class. Galjour also collaborated with Felice Yeskel, executive director of Class Action, a national resource center that runs workshops exploring issues of class. Galjour states, "The Class Action workshops gave me tools to dialogue with various groups in the community. The stories and interviews gave me characters, their circumstances, and the stakes in their lives. I learned about the patterns, codes of behavior, body language, and beliefs associated with different socio-economic groups."

Hopkins Center Programming Director Margaret Lawrence said, "This play depicts a group of familiar characters, people struggling with rent, mortgages, and keeping up appearances amidst bewildering changes in their community... Galjour reveals deep emotional centers and human complexities of their situations... she engages us in a compassionate understanding of class through the art of theater."

Originally from Cajun French speaking Southeastern Louisiana, Anne Galjour has been a resident of San Francisco for 29 years. You Can't Get There From Here was commissioned by the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College and the Flynn Performing Arts Center in Burlington VT. The work was developed and produced by Z Space Studio. It had its world premiere at the Hop and toured New England at The Flynn, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, VT.

Additional solo performance credits include Alligator Tales - Hurricane and Mauvais Temps which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and went on to Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville. The Krewe of Neptune and Alligator Tales (4 Dramatic Short Stories) both premiered at Climate Theatre in San Francisco. Her playwriting credits include Okra which premiered at Brava Theater Center in San Francisco in 2004, then moved to Southern Rep and later to True Brew Theatre, where it continued to play to sold out houses in New Orleans up until the night before Hurricane Katrina hit. It recently played to a sold out run at the Bayou Playhouse in Louisiana. Bird In The Hand was commissioned by Z Space and produced by Central Works Theatre Company in Berkeley. Her children's play The Queen of the Sea was commissioned and produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Awards for her work include the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award - Best Original Script for Okra, the Will Glickman Playwriting Award and Bay Area Theater Critics Award - best original script for Mauvais Temps (Part Two of Alligator Tales) in 1997. For Hurricane she received the American Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award for Emerging Playwright. The ATCA selected it as one of the best 3 plays in regional theatre, 1994. Additional honors for Hurricane include Bay Area Theater Critics Circle - best solo performance, SF Solo Mio Festival - outstanding solo artist, SF Bay Guardian "Goldie" for outstanding performance artist - 1993. She is a lecturer in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.

Jayne Wenger is a director and dramaturge whose exclusive focus is on original material. Throughout 25 years of professional theater experience, she has been dedicated to the development, direction and production of original plays and solo performances. She is the past Artistic Director of the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and was the Artistic Director of Women's Ensemble of New York. She has developed the emerging work of acclaimed playwrights such as David Adjmi, Brenda Wong Aoki, Kate Bornstein, Nilo Cruz, Sara Felder (June Bride and Shtick! both tour the country), Julie Hebert, Dan Hoyle, Lauren Yee, Holly Hughes, Naomi Iizuka, Sherry Kramer, Brighde Mullins, Naomi Newman, and Laura Shamus among many others. She has collaborated with Claire Chafee on numerous projects, including the original direction of the world premiere of Why We Have a Body at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.

 

Her work has been recognized with many awards. Current projects include dramaturgy for a new play by Brian Thorstenson, to be produced this fall by AlterTheater, dramaturgy and co-direction for Men Think They Are Better Than Grass, a dance/theater piece with The Deborah Slater Dance Theater of San Francisco; and dramaturgy for All At Sea, a new musical by Pamela Winfrey and Christie Winn, which will be presented on board the Liberty Ship, S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien in San Francisco.

 

Projects in 2008 included dramaturgy for the world premier of Arlitia's Jones Make Good The Fires at Cyrano's in Anchorage, Alaska; direction and dramaturgy for Hard Laughter, an adaptation of Ann Lamott's first novel, produced by AlterTheater of San Rafael, CA; direction for Anne Galjour's world premier, You Can't Get There From Here, at Dartmouth College; direction for Deke Weaver's The Crimes and Confessions of Kip Knudson, A Hockey Way of Knowledge at the Station House Theater in Urbana, Illinois; as well as dramaturgy for Justin Warner's American Whupass produced by AlterTheater. Jayne collaborates on productions throughout the country, works with playwrights and solo performers in her studio in Marin County, and leads workshops for writers around the country and in Assisi, Italy. (www.artworkshopintl.com) She is a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturges of the Americas, and the Dramatists Guild.

The Z Space Studio fuels the development of American theater on a national level by nurturing new voices, new works, and new opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and by supporting a culturally and aesthetically diverse community of theater artists working together to develop Bay Area Theater and theater audiences. The Z Space Studio is an artistic and creative home to hundreds of local theater artists and organizations; commissioning, developing, and producing new works from San Francisco Bay Area playwrights and writers through our Z Plays Development Program and our Word for Word Performing Arts Company; and administering the Youth Arts Program, which over the years has reached 20,000 school-aged children and adults per year through youth-targeted tours, workshops, and residencies, as well as student matinees and talkbacks with resident artists.

You Can't Get There From Here was commissioned by The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College and the Flynn Center, with the support of the National Performance Network's Creation Fund. Major contributors of the National Performance Network are the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). It is funded in part by the Expeditions Program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, which receives major support from the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the state arts agencies of New England; and a partnership with co-commissioner The Flynn Center, with the support of the National Performance Network's Creation Fund. Funding also provided by the Zellerbach Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Wattis Foundation.

TICKETS:
$20, all performances
Tickets Available at 1-800-838-3006 at www.zspace.org

For more information visit www.zspace.org

Photo by Clayton Lord