Ananda Bena-Weber Brings Solo Show to Z Below, Now thru 6/14

Actor, dancer and clown Ananda Bena-Weber returns to San Francisco, her hometown, this June in a two-week engagement of her original solo showFANCIFOOL!. Influenced by the clown work of Bill Irwin and the interview-based character acting style of Anna Deavere Smith, Fancifool! capitalizes on Bena-Weber's versatility to present a series of portraits, many drawn from the people she has met during her time in New York City. A graffiti artist, a janitor and an ethnobotanist are just a few of the characters who rub elbows with figures taken from literature and film. Bena-Weber embodies them all in a performance that affirms the joys of a life lived with an open heart. Fancifool! begins in preview tonight, June 3, opens on Thursday, June 4, and runs through Sunday, June 14 at Z Below, 470 Florida St. in San Francisco.

As a founding member and principal dancer with the Sierra Nevada Ballet, Bena-Weber has performed numerous roles. As a dancer she has also performed with the Jazz Tap Ensemble - including Jason Samuels-Smith, Michelle Dorance, Derek Grant and Sam Weber - in a touring production of American Tap Masterpieces. Her acting credits include the Iranian housewife, Sholeh, a role she created for The Butcher, which premiered [this] month at the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida; Sabine in T. Schreiber Theatre's award-winning production of The Fallen; Marguerite in Ten Blocks on the Camino Real at Medicine Show Theatre; Daisy Bates in the world premiere of Daisy in the Dreamtime at San Francisco State University; the paired roles of Ophelia and Horatio in a Nevada Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet; and a featured monologue in a National V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues.

Fancifool! is Bena-Weber's third solo show. In it she makes use of her skills as a dramatic and comic actor, a dancer, singer, mime and vocal impressionist. Asked what Fancifool! is about, she answers, "It's about a return to love in our consumer culture. It's about putting the value of people above things or profits."

Film projection of Bena-Weber on the streets of New York -- created by JoAnn Sieburg-Bakerand Christie Dennis Negri -- serves to link the vignettes together.

Tickets for Fancifool! range from $25 to $35, and may be purchased online at zspace.org/guest-shows/fancifool or by calling 866-811-4111. The preview on June 3 is pay-what-you-can.