Word for Word Reads “The Widow Dreams”

Members of the Charter Group of Word for Word, a program of Z Space will present a reading of “The Widow Dreams,” a narrative of transformation, at 7pm on Friday, March 15 at Folio Books San Francisco, 3957 24th St. in Noe Valley. In women’s voices, the piece chronicles the author’s journey through loss, grief, and anger, to the restoration of wholeness, creativity, and new life. The dreams will be read by Sheila Balter and Jeri Lynn Cohen, along with the author, Nancy Selby. Admission is free.

This is a Word Week 2019 event. Word Week is Noe Valley’s annual literary festival. For a full listing of Word Week 2019 events, go to http://bit.ly/2WXT09H.

WORD FOR WORD Performing Arts Company is an ensemble whose mission is to tell great stories with elegant theatricality, staging performances of classic and contemporary fiction. Co-Artistic Directors JoAnne Winter and Susan Harloe founded Word for Word Performing Arts Company in 1993 as part of the Artists in Residence program at The Z Space Studio (Z Space’s original name).

In its vibrant history, Word for Word has performed over 70 stories by some of the world’s best writers. Many of these stories have been performed in front of the authors themselves. The ensemble performs regularly at Z Space and since 1996 has toured annually throughout California and France.

The following writers have had their work performed by Word for Word and lend their names in support of the work of our company: Daniel Handler, Edward P. Jones, Barbara Kingsolver, Armistead Maupin, George Saunders, Octavio Solis, Amy Tan, Tobias Wolff, Greg Sarris | Honorary President, Julia Alvarez, T.C. Boyle, Sandra Cisneros, Siobhan Fallon, Paul Fleischman, Richard Ford, Ellen Gilchrist, Joanne Greenberg, and Andrew Sean Greer.

More about the readers:
Sheila Balter, Word for Word charter member, is an actor, director, teacher. Recent work: directed Octavio Solis’ RETABLOS for Litquake. Also performed her original piece OLAM (Objects, Loss, Attachment, Memory) in San Francisco and internationally. She is proud to support Nancy in this exciting endeavor.

Jeri Lynn Cohen is a Charter Member of Word for Word Performing Arts Company celebrating 25 years of critically acclaimed productions. She has appeared at theatre companies throughout the Bay Area and she has toured internationally with Word for Word and the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Nancy Shelby is an actor and director and has appeared in fifteen of Word for Word’s award winning productions. Most recently she and JoAnne Winter directed Lucia Berlin: Stories. She is currently working on the manuscript of a book, The Widow Dreams, based on the one hundred dreams she had after the 2009 death of her husband, Luke Cole.