Sojourner ZY

In a not-so-distant future, the Earth Federation has sent out spaceships to scour the universe for the resources necessary to sustain an environmentally depleted and damaged Earth. We follow the mission of Sojourner ZY, who pilots the last surviving spacecraft, as he communicates with Earth Federation’s Mission Control and with his wife scientist and devoted children, who struggle to survive on Earth’s ever-more precarious environment. And as he desperately tries to sack strange new worlds of their resources, he confronts uncomfortable choices and unforeseen consequences.

Audiences will be immersed in a primal, yet futuristic landscape of sound from composer Dresher’s invented instruments, cinematic-scale shadow puppet imagery and a fantastical story that follows the interplanetary journey of the space traveler Sojourner ZY. On his journey, he encounters a dizzying array of uniquely adapted and strange civilizations. The story is told via projected and live shadow sequences with dialogue and songs and seeks to address vital issues of all time—race, gender, identity, and the environmental crisis.

In ZY’s galactic travel, he encounters an array of contrasting societies, from the uber-authoritarian to the uber-altruistic: in a liquid world where beings shapeshift among sexes, ethnic and sexual identities within miniature bubble-spheres in total anarchic paradise (until it’s not); a moonscape of mammal-headed creatures who find abundance by adopting the animal mind to live harmoniously with nature and who follow an authoritarian leader, (until they do not); and a light-filled asteroid of intangible beings—all female—who thrive by turning themselves into pure light and sound. While each alternative offers a solution to mankind’s survival, each also yields a flaw that threatens ZY’s vision of humanity and mankind itself.

ZY seeks a common cause with these mysterious entities. But in this pursuit, he is challenged to confront age-old beliefs about mankind’s place in the natural world and the cosmos itself. By dint of his own conception of being human, is he destined to keep replicating the actions that led to the Earth’s destruction in the first place? To confront this dilemma, he must journey deep into his own Being. His travel ends with the greatest challenge, in a journey to the ultimate planet—that of the sphere of the Self.

Director

Larry Reed

Producer/Production Manager

Caryl Kientz

Playwright

Eugenie Chan

Composer, Performer

Paul Dresher

Percussionist

Joel Davel

Co-Lead Designer of Masks and Puppets, Lead Shadow Performer

I Made Moja

Co-Lead Designer of Scenery, Shadow Performer

Ya Wen Chien

Voice Actors

Sharon Shao

Ruby Day

Gianni Piña

Projection/Light Operator

Lydia Greer

Puppet Coordinator, Performer, Puppet Fabricator, Deer Puppet Design, Storyboard Artist

Fred C Riley III

Shadow Puppeteer, Puppet Fabricator, Storyboard Artist

Jessica Nguyen

Shadow Puppeteer and Puppet Fabricator

Truong Nguyen

Lindsay Ordesta

Lead Video & Graphics Designer

Jacquelyn Serrano

Shadow Puppeteer and Video Designer

Samara Lotri Tana

Dresher | Davel Invented Instrument Duo

The music was be performed live by the electro-acoustic duo featuring composer Dresher performing on the Hurdy Grande and Quadrachord (created and constructed in collaboration with Daniel Schmidt) and acclaimed percussionist Joel Davel performing on Don Buchla’s invented mallet instrument, the Marimba Lumina.

EUGENIE CHAN

Eugenie Chan (playwright) is artistic director of Eugenie Chan Theater Projects (ECTP), dedicated to telling the untold stories of Chinese in the American West. Upcoming: The Truer History of the Chan Family, a digital vaudeville; online and at watch parties at community centers in San Francisco; Theater Mu, Minneapolis; ArtsEmerson, Boston, Spring 2024.

Theaters that have produced or developed her prize-winning plays include Cutting Ball, the Magic, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Crowded Fire, the Public, Playwrights Horizons, Radical Evolution /Working Theater/New Ohio, Houston Grand Opera: HGOco, Northwest Asian American Theatre, Perishable. Community centers that have presented her work free-to-the public: Cameron House, Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, San Francisco.

Resident, East-West Playwrights Lab. Resident Alumna: Crowded Fire R & D Playwrights Lab, New Dramatists, Playwrights Foundation. Recipient of a Gerbode Special Awards in the Arts – 2022 Theater Awards. Eugenie teaches at San Jose State University and the University of San Francisco. She’s thrilled to be working with Larry, Paul and the fabulous artists of ShadowLight Productions and Paul Dresher New Performance Traditions. www.eugeniechantheater.org

Dresher | Davel Invented Instrument Duo

The music is performed live by the electro-acoustic duo featuring composer Dresher performing on the Hurdy Grande and Quadrachord (created and constructed in collaboration with Daniel Schmidt) and acclaimed percussionist Joel Davel performing on Don Buchla’s invented mallet instrument, the Marimba Lumina.

PAUL DRESHER

Paul Dresher is an internationally active composer noted for his ability to integrate diverse musical influences into his own coherent style. He pursues many forms of musical expression including experimental opera/music theater, chamber and orchestral composition, live instrumental electro-acoustic music, musical instrument invention, and scores for theater and dance. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition in 2006-07, he has received commissions from the Library of Congress, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival USA, Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Symphony, Zeitgeist, San Francisco Ballet, Seattle Chamber Players, Present Music, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Brenda Way/ODC Dance and Chamber Music America. He has performed or had his works performed throughout the world at venues including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Festival d ’Automne in Paris, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival.

Recent works include Breathing at the Boundaries (2020) created with Rinde Eckert, Alexander V. Nichols, Michael Palmer and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Trace Figures (2019) also with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company; Crazy Eights &Fractured Symmetries, commissioned and premiered by the Berkeley Symphony in 2016, Family Matters (2014) - a duo for TwoSense - cellist Ashley Bathgate and pianist Lisa Moore, Concerto for Quadrachord & Orchestra for the Berkeley Symphony, and Two Entwined (2011) - commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill and premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA.

In 2015, Dresher entered an entirely new arena with Sound Maze, a hands-on installation of his large-scale invented musical instruments created in collaboration with Daniel Schmidt. Sound Maze, has been presented at OZ in Nashville, the Esplanade Theater in Singapore, Fort Mason in San Francisco, the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, the Napa Valley Museum, USC’s Fisher Museum, UNC Chapel Hill’s CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio and at The Doseum in San Antonio. In the fall of 2022, it will travel to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

JOEL DAVEL

Percussionist Joel Davel enjoys the diversity of his career, employing his classical training toward his love of adventurous new music, jazz, rock, and electronic music. This includes work with Bay Area based groups such as Vân-Ánh Võ’s Blood Moon Orchestra, but also recording credits with groups led by electronic diva Amy X Neuburg (2 albums), violinist Kaila Flexer (2 albums), jazz guitarist Jack West (4 albums), percussionist William Winant, composer Guillermo Galindo, and guitarist David Tanenbaum.

Davel is best known for his work with composer-performer Paul Dresher. Davel is one-half of the Dresher Davel Invented Instrument Duo and a long-time member of Paul Dresher’s Electro-Acoustic Band, an ensemble that has collaborated directly with composers such as Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Roger Reynolds, Martin Bresnick, Alvin Curran, David Lang, John Luther Adams, Ingram Marshall, Sebastian Currier, and Steven Mackey, as well as many young contemporary composers. Davel has also appeared with the Berkeley Symphony, East Bay Symphony, West Edge Opera, Opera Parallele, and in numerous other chamber group settings.

As a composer, Davel has written and performed live for several dNaga’s dance productions: Reveal, Shaking and Shocking, Freedom House, Lovely Gibberish, and Circle of Sisterhood. Previous work includes his solo Buchla Lightning accompaniment of choreographer Allyson Green at Symphony Space which elicited: “manipulating two small batons – he looks like a hyperactive magician casting abracadabra spells into the ether – Davel was as much a dancer as Green, moving with a concentrated focus that made him fascinating to watch.” – Newsday

LARRY REED

Larry Reed is a nationally and internationally acclaimed artist, and is a trailblazer in the contemporary shadow theater. He is one of the first Westerners to have trained in the traditional Balinese shadow theater (wayang kulit) and is a “dalang,” or “shadow master,” who manipulates over 20 carved leather shadow puppets while simultaneously serving as the conductor of the accompanying gamelan orchestra, the director, and the stage manager. Over the years, he has performed over 250 shows in this tradition around the world.

In the early 1990’s, Reed entered a new phase of his career by inventing an ingenious shadow casting method, integrating traditional shadow theater techniques with film, modern theater and dance styles.

Truly a multidisciplinary artist, Reed has also written, directed and produced films in the US and Mexico. Shadow Master (1979), his unique “dramatic documentary” on the family of a Balinese shadow artist, has been shown on PBS and Discovery Channel. He also served as Assistant Director of National Theater of Costa Rica, and performed and choreographed with Anna Halprin and her SF Dancers’ Workshop in the 60’s. Fluent in five languages, his articles and translation have been published in Asian Theatre Journal and Shattentheater (Germany) among others.

Reed has collaborated with numerous artists and organizations from various disciplines and cultural background including: American Conservatory Theatre (The Tempest); Santa Fe and LA Operas (Orfeo); Minneapolis Children’s Theater (Whale); Ballet Austin (The Magic Flute); Lee Breuer (Peter and Wendy); Octavio Solis (7 Visions and Ghosts of the River); Puppet & Its Double of Taiwan (Monkey King at Spider Cave); Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company and Cengiz Ozek (Silk Road); Karen Kandel, Coco Zhao, and Wu Na (The Good-for-Nothing Lover); OKI (Poro Oyna); and Hamid Rahmanian (Feathers of Fire) among others.

ShadowLight Productions was founded in 1972 by filmmaker/theater director/shadow artist Larry Reed. The driving forces were Reed’s interests in and appreciation of shadow theater traditions, film and world cultures, and the passion to express them in an integrated fashion. He is one of the few Westerners to have trained in the traditional Balinese shadow theater and is a dalang or “shadow master.” After over 15 years of studying and performing in this tradition, Reed began expanding the scope of ShadowLight’s artistic activities in order to create a deeper connection with contemporary American audiences. Through much exploration and experimentation, he successfully integrated traditional shadow theater techniques with modern theater and film styles. The outcome was a “live animation film” - a completely original way of using shadows in theater that is not culture-bound. Performed behind and in front of a 15’x 30’ screen, these works orchestrate silhouettes of puppets, actors, and cutout sets illuminated by multiple electric light sources to create cinematic effects live on stage. Each show features live music and is created by a collaborating ensemble of writers, choreographers, composers, designers, actors, dancers, musicians and puppeteers from various cultural backgrounds, artistic disciplines and styles.

New Performance Traditions is a hub for incubating multi-disciplinary arts projects from conception and production through performance, recording, and broadcast. We are dedicated to the creation of risk-taking and challenging performing artworks and to supporting the artists that conceive them in order to engender a more equitable, inclusive, and creative community.

Ya Wen Chien (co-lead designer-scenery and shadow performer) is an illustrator, painter- trained in Chinese painting and watercolor, a digital designer, puppet maker and shadow-play artist born in Taiwan and currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I Made Moja (co-lead designer-masks and puppets and lead shadow performer) is a painter, dancer, puppet maker, and shadow-play artist from the village of Batuan, a traditional arts village in Bali known for its classical music and dance, fine woodcarving, and unique painting style.

Ruby Day (voice actor) is a singer, actor, dancer, voice over artist and vocal coach living in the Bay Area. Highlights of her career include; performing as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, starring as Snow White in San Francisco’s iconic Beach Blanket Babylon, and traveling the world with the National Touring Company of Annie. She is delighted to be working with the incredible ShadowLight Productions.

Lydia Greer, (projections/ light operator) is a visual artist whose layered, mixed media work includes sculptural and video installation, hand-made stop motion animation, single and multiple channel video, puppet theater, and works with paper.

Lindsay “LO” Ordesta (shadow performer and puppet fabricator) is a singer, dancer and movement artist from Union City. LO is excited to return to the final stage and performance of SOJOURNER ZY, many thanks to Bindlestiff Studio and Shadowlight Productions for the endless inspiration and shared space to create.

Gianni Piña (voice actor) is a Filipino/Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist who’s passion for digital art and life has driven him to the output they create. Always striving to capture the moment by living in it, Gianni’s photography and video work has led to collaborations with multiple artists, groups, and communities throughout the Bay Area. Self-taught and ever-evolving, Gianni is always looking to grow and adapt with the occasion to bring to reality the ideas and perception of those around them. From documentary work with Oakland-based creative community, SmartBomb, to San Francisco Theatre Company, ShadowLight Productions, and Bay Area based Artists/Musicians such as Jada Imani, The Flannels, Spote Breeze, and Nimsins, Gianni has been a part of visual storytelling of Bay Area Artistry as it happens.

Jessica Nguyen (shadow puppeteer/puppet fabricator/storyboard artist) is a science illustrator, educator, dancer, and circus artist turned to the dark side. Her favorite medium is mischief and punnery but confesses that a bit of paper and ink will always lift the spirits. She currently works and lurks in Alameda, and loves waxing poetic about flora and fauna and bones and stones over a warm cup of tea.

Truong Nguyen (shadow puppeteer and puppet fabricator) is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer who has been working in residential architectural design, interactive/participatory installation art, and theater set design. Her first hand in shadow-play was in 2019 with Sigaw at Bindlestiff Studios, followed by Shadows For Carlos Villa with Shadowlight Productions.

Fred C. Riley III (puppet coordinator/performer/puppet fabricator/deer design/storyboard artist) is a puppeteer trained in many styles: marionette, rod, moving mouth, Czech black, tabletop, mask, and every combination thereof. He has performed shadow with press screen, overhead, and 30 foot wide cinematic. He has directed and written for the Center for Puppetry Arts and many others. He choreographed for Ping Chong and Company. He has taught movement and puppet theory. He voiced many puppets and has done voice over work for many companies. He has recorded and done sound design.

Jacquelyn Serrano (lead video & graphics designer) is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on digital media from San Bernardino, CA, and currently based in Oakland. She works with photography, videography, graphic design, 3D, installations, and mixed media prints. They graduated with honors from UC Berkeley’s class of 2020 with a BA in Art Practice and Ethnic Studies, where she received the 2020 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Award.

Sharon Shao (voice actor) is a Bay Area native actor and teaching artist. She holds a double B.A. in Theatre Arts and Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. Recent local credits include Sleeping Beauty (Presidio Theatre), Man of God (Shotgun Players), The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin (SF Playhouse), The Winter’s Tale, Good Person of Szechwan (CalShakes), Vinegar Tom, Iron Shoes (Shotgun Players), and UTOPIA (CuttingBall Theater). She is thrilled to be returning to Presidio Theater after spending the holidays here doing the Panto! Aside from acting, Sharon is passionate about teaching voice and drama to young students. Sharon dedicates this show, and all things, to her guiding spirit, her beloved mama. Sharonshao.biz

Samara Tana (shadow puppeteer and video designer) is a filmmaker, shadow-play artist, illustrator and painter- trained in traditional Balinese watercolors and ink. Her creative work spans from public broadcast stations to outdoor landscapes. She was born and raised in the Bay Area.

QLab design and consultant: David Robertson

Sound Operator: Calvin Jones

Visiting Artist: Petri Lappalainen

Postcard Graphic Design: Gianni Piña

Additional Video Design by: Ya Wen Chien, Lydia Greer

Videography by Jacquelyn Serrano, Fred C. Riley III, I Made Moja

Original Liquid Light Kinetic Painting by Bill Ham

SPECIAL THANKS: Bill Ham & Goose “The Rat” Nguyen-Chien

Sojourner ZY an Asian American science fiction shadow play is made possible by funds from:

CREATIVE WORK FUND, THE JIM HENSON FOUNDATION, THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, PHYLLIS C. WATTIS FOUNDATION, KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION, WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION AND THE PRESIDIO THEATRE