“Sojourner ZY” is an original play written by Eugenie Chan with new music composer Paul Dresher performed by ShadowLight Productions in their signature large-scale cinematic shadow theater style, directed by Larry Reed.
Sojourner ZY is co-produced by ShadowLight Productions, New Performance Traditions/Paul Dresher Ensemble and The Presidio Theater.
SHOWTIMES:
Thursday, March 2, 2023 - 8pm (preview performance)
Friday, March 3, 2023 - 8pm
Saturday,March 4, 2023 - 8pm
Sunday, March 5, 2023 - 2pm
Running time ~70-80 minutes
Tickets: Regular $25, Youth $15 (25 and under)
Special pricing is available for the preview performance for those unable to afford a full-price ticket by contacting The Presidio Theatre Box Office.
Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center
99 Moraga Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94129
Presidio Theatre Box Office:
(415) 960-3949
(Phone hours are Mon-Fri, 1–4pm)
Parking: https://www.presidio.gov/transportation/driving-and-parking
Dining: https://www.presidio.gov/food-internal
Sojourner ZY
The Setting
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.
The Journey
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.
THE TEAM
Larry Reed, Director
Paul Dresher (composer, performer)
Joel Davel (percussionist)
Eugenie Chan (Playwright)
I Made Moja (co-lead designer-masks and puppets and lead shadow performer)
Ya Wen Chien (co-lead designer-scenery and shadow performer)
Sharon Shao (voice actor)
Ruby Day (voice actor)
Gianni Piña (voice actor)
Lydia Greer (projection/light operator)
Jessica Nguyen (Shadow Puppeteer/Puppet Fabricator/Storyboard Artist)
Truong Nguyen (Shadow Puppeteer and Puppet Fabricator)
Lindsay Ordesta (Shadow Puppeteer and Puppet Fabricator)
Fred C Riley III (Puppet Coordinator/Performer/Puppet Fabricator/Deer Design/Storyboard Artist)
Jacquelyn Serrano (Lead Video & Graphics Designer)
Samara Lotri Tana (Shadow Puppeteer and Video Designer)
Caryl Kientz (Producer/Production Manager)
Dresher | Davel Invented Instrument Duo
The music will 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.