CLICK HERE FOR A RUNNING DESCRIPTION OF ALL FRINGE PLAYS

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CLICK ON PLAY FOR INFO ABOUT THAT PLAY

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51 & Counting
After-party
Along the Path of Larks and Swallows
Candide, or Optimism (Part I)
Crazy Bag
Doormen
Endless Frontier
Evelyn Reese Show
Exit Sign: A Rock Opera
Exotic Messages
FLUID
i scan
Identity Crisis
If You're Going to San Francisco
In the Belly of the Whale
Iron Muffin,Glass Jungle II
It Is What It Is
Jew Must Be Crazy
Knuckleball
Last Exit
LATE NIGHTS WITH THE BOYS
Lost and Found in the Mission
Loving Fathers
Madge's Box
Marie 21 and Flying
Mitch
Monkey Poet
Moon Fable
Mr. P's Big Day Off
My Camino
My Friend Hitler
No Stranger Than Home
Number's Up!
On Second Thought
Open Season - A Queer Performance Showcase
Peg-Ass-Us
Punchline
Single Entendre VS. Comedy!
Son of Genderanium
Sonderkommando
Tale End
Taste of Enlightenment
Tenderloin Christmas Hustler
theatre that Moves
There's a Monster in the Well!
To Kill For
True Theatre Critic
Ukulady's Ponyshow!

"Taste of Enlightenment" takes you along a young woman's topsy-turvy travels to Sri Lanka, the Island of Dharma --where she comes face to face with the god of desire, black magic and spiritual awakening.

In this world premiere of her tragic-comedic solo show, Zoe Sheli Sameth chronicles her epic experiences wandering the maze of strange new relationships and shifting realities in an extraordinary country, far, far away.

"Temporary Illusion" -- an excerpt from "Taste of Enlightenment" -- received awards for Best Actress (1st Place), Best Director (David Ford, 2nd Place), and Best Play (3rd Place) at the 2007 Marin Fringe Festival.

BIOS:

Zoe Sheli Sameth, writer/actor/singer/educator, has a penchant for turning her own and others' tragedies, joys and everyday lives into creative works addressing change, transformation and healing.

A well-received Bay Area performing artist and writer, Zoe's most recent project is Taste of Enlightenment, a solo show about her epic experiences as a twenty-one year old living in Sri Lanka. Zoe has been developing the play at The Marsh with director David Ford and has been performing different installments at The Marsh, Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Audience members often describe Zoe's performances as captivating, dynamic and humorous, and her writing as compelling and suspenseful. "Temporary Illusion", excerpt from Taste of Enlightenment, was voted Best Actress (1st Place), Best Director (David Ford, 2nd Place), and Best Play (3rd Place) by San Francisco Bay Area Critic Circle (SFBATCC) members and other local critics at the Spring 2007 Marin Fringe Festival.

While her current creative focus is on bringing together all the acts of Taste of Enlightenment into its full-length form (Part II will include her insider experiences as a civilian during the start of the Sri Lankan civil war), Zoe looks forward to bringing her songs back into her next solo show, which is already in the works. Zoe's first solo show "Out Tonight" -- performed at Shari Carlson's Studio 300 in 1999 -- included eighteen of her original songs, some of which have been featured recently on local radio.

In addition to writing and performing, Zoe is also a teacher and mentor for diverse, low-income youth. In this role, Zoe guides high-school dropouts in the discovery and pursuit of their own unique career paths. She designs and leads workshops such as "Finding Your Voice and Your Dreams" and has placed many students in paid internships in theatre, the recording arts, mural projects, radio, television, journalism and more.

During her time in Sri Lanka, Zoe learned meditation techniques that she has adapted to help students - and herself -- reduce stress, cope with trauma, and create successful outcomes. Zoe trains educators and artists around the Bay area to utilize these methods of guided relaxation and imagery for themselves and their students.

Zoe was honored and featured as CBS/Channel 5's "Hometown Hero," an award for individuals who help the community in extraordinary ways. Zoe is also a recipient of the prestigious Truman Scholarship, which funded the studies and travels that inspired her solo performance and youth work, along with her Master's degree in Experiential Education and Expressive Arts.

David Ford (writer, director) has been collaborating on new and unusual theatre for eighteen years. Recent work includes NOT A GENUINE BLACKMAN with Brian Copeland, which performed more than 370 times in San Francisco, LA and New York. Charlie Varon's RUSH LIMBAUGH IN NIGHT SCHOOL had its ten year revival to sold out houses. Other work of note includes, with storyteller-holy-man Ron Jones and Michael Rice, a mentally disabled performer, SAY RAY; and with Charlie Varon: TEN DAY SOUP and THE PEOPLE'S VIOLIN. He also worked with Bill Talen on the original creation of REVERAND BILLY, the Obie award winning theatre piece/political action.

David's work has been seen regionally at the Public Theatre, Second Stage, St. Clement's, Dixon's Place, One Dream Theatre and Theatre for the New City (NY), Highways (LA) and Woolly Mammoth (Washington DC) as well as at theatres around the Bay Area including the Magic Theatre and Marin Theatre Company. Mr. Ford's first play, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, won a prize in South Coast Rep's 6th Annual California Playwrights Competition. His second play, THE INTERROGATION OF NATHAN HALE, premiered at SCR and was published by Dramatic Publishing Company. His third and fourth plays were commissioned by SCR and Phoenix Pictures (respectively) and have been read at the Mark Taper Forum, the Bay Area Playwright's Festival, and the Magic Theatre. Mr. Ford also teaches Creating and Performing Your Own Work at The Marsh and has taught playwriting at Stanford University and San Francisco State. He is a Resident Artist at the Marsh and was a 2005 Sloan Initiative commisionee.

David Ford has been directing and collaborating on Taste of Enlightenment throughout its development.

Lawrence Kornfeld -- director, acting coach, consultant-- has been directing and teaching acting for more than fifty years. He is the recipient of three Obie awards for directing, has directed nine Obie award recipient productions and has received many other directing awards. Mr. Kornfeld is known as one of the grandfathers of the experimental theatre movement beginning in the 1950's in New York City. He was co-founder and Director of Theater for the New City, Resident Director for The Judson Poets Theater and General Manager/Assistant Director for The Living Theatre.

Mr. Kornfeld is described as "second to none with his ground breaking fusion of theatricality and deep emotional subtlety: one of the handful of truly significant directors" by Dr. Steven Bottoms, Chair of Theater at Leeds University, U.K. and author of the book "Playing Underground" about the 1960's off-off-Broadway movement.

Mr. Kornfeld has been consulting and providing acting direction on "Taste of Enlightenment" since June 2008.