Word for Word and Z Space Present Immersive Production of LEGENDARY RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Word for Word and Z Space will stage an immersive production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner with a press night of Saturday September 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-15, 18-20) . Rime of the Ancient Mariner is to be directed by Jim Cave and Delia MacDougall. 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.

Z Space is turned into a sailing ship by scenic designers Oliver DiCicco and Colm McNally; with a "environmental surround" of the sea and the elements by Hana Kim, projections, and Ray Oppenheimer, lighting. There will be related events in collaboration with San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, and the Exploratorium's Bay Observatory.

Delia MacDougall (co director) is an actor, director, and 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.

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.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Sept 21- Oct 12.
(Previews Sept 11-15, 18-20)

Z Space Main Room Upstairs

450 Florida St., SF 94110

Sept 21- Oct 12. Press night Sept. 21
(Previews Sept 11-15, 18-20)

Tickets/Seating to be available

Tickets:866.811.4111 or at www.zspace.org