Performances are held at the
The Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
Doors open at 6:30 pm. All performances begin at 7:00 pm.
tinyurl.com/DOUBLEFORSOSS
tickets always also available at the door
doors open at 6:30 pm.
The Auditorium at CLARA
1425 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
Doors open at 6:30 pm. All performances begin at 7:00 pm.
tinyurl.com/DOUBLEFORSOSS
tickets always also available at the door
doors open at 6:30 pm.
February 25
Jess Walter, "Before You Blow"
performed by Julie Anchor
Naomi Williams, "After the Operation"
performed by Julie Anchor
March 25
Steph Cha, "All the Luck"
performed by Larry Lew
Mary Camarillo, THE LOCKHART WOMEN excerpt
performed by Ruby Sketchley
April 22
Steve Almond, ALL THE SECRETS OF THE WORLD
performed by Sarah Rothaus
Leslie Kirk Campbell, THE MAN WITH EIGHT PAIRS OF LEGS
performed by Sarah Rothaus and Ian Hopps
May 27
Sands Hall, "The Ways of Fiction Are Devious Indeed"
performed by Megan Smith
Annabelle Gurwitch, YOU'RE LEAVING WHEN?
performed by Kelley Ogden
June 24
Vanessa Hua, FORBIDDEN CITY
performed by Yuri Tajiri
Anara Guard, LIKE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
performed by Trina Ritter
July 22
Stories on Stage Celebrates: A Literary Fundraiser
A very special (and fun) evening you won't want to miss
* Meet & Greet Literary Sacramento *
New performances of stories from the TWENTY TWENTY Anthology
Musical Performance by CLARISONIX
Silent Auction, Games, Prizes, Swag, Food & More
August 26
Catriona McPherson, SCOT MIST
performed by Gay Cooper
Shelley Blanton-Stroud, TOMBOY
performed by Gabby Battista
September 23
Kate Milliken, KEPT ANIMALS
performed by Justine Lopez
Nora Rodriguez Camagna
CINNAMON BREAD UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
performed by Angel Rodriguez
October 28
Gabriela Garcia, OF WOMEN AND SALT
performed by Carissa Meagher
Stephanie Bray, "Sherwood Green's Last Picture Show"
performed by Brandon Rubin
November 18
Maceo Montoya, PREPARATORY NOTES FOR FUTURE MASTERPIECES
performed by Esteban Bustos
Elison Alcovendaz
performed by Brennan Villados
About the season's authors
OPENING NIGHT
February 25, 2022 - 7:00 PM PST (doors open at 6:30)
Jess Walter, "Before You Blow"
performed by Julie Anchor
Naomi Williams, "After the Operation"
performed by Julie Anchor
Jess Walter, a former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, is the author of seven novels, one book of short stories and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into 32 languages, and his fiction has been selected three times for Best American Short Stories as well as the Pushcart Prize and Best American Nonrequired Reading. His stories, essays and journalism have appeared in, Harper's, Esquire, Playboy, McSweeney's, Tin House, Ploughshares, the New York Times, the Washington Post and many others.
Naomi J. Williams is the author of Landfalls (FSG 2015), long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous places, including A Public Space, Zyzzyva, One Story, Zoetrope: All-Story, LitHub, The Rumpus, and the Brevity blog. Honors include a Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories honorable mention, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, and residencies at Hedgebrook, Djerassi, Willapa Bay AiR, and StoryKnife. Educated at Princeton, Stanford, and UC Davis, she lives in Midtown Sacramento and teaches with the low-res MFA program at Ashland University in Ohio.
Naomi J. Williams is the author of Landfalls (FSG 2015), long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous places, including A Public Space, Zyzzyva, One Story, Zoetrope: All-Story, LitHub, The Rumpus, and the Brevity blog. Honors include a Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories honorable mention, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, and residencies at Hedgebrook, Djerassi, Willapa Bay AiR, and StoryKnife. Educated at Princeton, Stanford, and UC Davis, she lives in Midtown Sacramento and teaches with the low-res MFA program at Ashland University in Ohio.
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Julie Anchor has been an actor for over 30 years in the Sacramento area. She is a stage actor and company member of Main Street Theatre Works (MSTW) in Jackson, CA, where she has been performing since 1999, and has directed 10 of their productions. Julie has also performed at the B Street Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Capital Stage, as well as The Hapgood Theatre in Antioch. Other work includes film, most recently Pipe Dream, The Unlikely Success of Carol Burnett, and voice over work for various clients.
Julie’s next project is to direct the 2022 summer show, The Outsider, for MSTW. She is honored to be invited back to perform with Stories on Stage Sacramento. |
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March 25, 2022 - 7:00 PM PST (doors open at 6:30)
Steph Cha, "All the Luck" (from LOS ANGELES NOIR)
performed by Larry Lew
Mary Camarillo, THE LOCKHART WOMEN (excerpt)
performed by Ruby Sketchley
Steph Cha is the author of YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the California Book Award, and the Juniper Song crime trilogy. She’s a critic whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she served as noir editor, and is the current series editor of the Best American Mystery & Suspense anthology. A native of the San Fernando Valley, she lives in Los Angeles with her family.
“With Your House Will Pay, Steph Cha has taken a dark moment in Los Angeles’s violent history and cracked it wide open, creating a prism of understanding—of the pull of generational violence and its enduring devastation, but also of the power of human grace against all odds. It’s a touching portrait of two families bound together by a split-second decision that tore a hole through an entire city.” --Attica Locke, Edgar-Award winning author of Bluebird, Bluebird
Mary Camarillo's novel THE LOCKHART WOMEN, published in June 2021 by She Writes Press, won first place in the Next Generation Indie Awards for first fiction. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as 166 Palms, The Sonora Review, Lunch Ticket, and The Ear. She lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband who plays ukulele and their terrorist cat Riley.
“The Lockhart Women is deeply and thoroughly Southern Californian, in all the perfectly detailed cities and streets and, of course, freeways, but also in the evocation of its time - the 1990s. These women are vivid portraits - flawed and desperate and seeking redemption."- Susan Straight, award-winning author of IN THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN
“With Your House Will Pay, Steph Cha has taken a dark moment in Los Angeles’s violent history and cracked it wide open, creating a prism of understanding—of the pull of generational violence and its enduring devastation, but also of the power of human grace against all odds. It’s a touching portrait of two families bound together by a split-second decision that tore a hole through an entire city.” --Attica Locke, Edgar-Award winning author of Bluebird, Bluebird
Mary Camarillo's novel THE LOCKHART WOMEN, published in June 2021 by She Writes Press, won first place in the Next Generation Indie Awards for first fiction. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in publications such as 166 Palms, The Sonora Review, Lunch Ticket, and The Ear. She lives in Huntington Beach, California with her husband who plays ukulele and their terrorist cat Riley.
“The Lockhart Women is deeply and thoroughly Southern Californian, in all the perfectly detailed cities and streets and, of course, freeways, but also in the evocation of its time - the 1990s. These women are vivid portraits - flawed and desperate and seeking redemption."- Susan Straight, award-winning author of IN THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN
Actor Ruby Sketchley is thrilled to be returning to Stories on Stage Sacramento.She has served as a board member with the Capital Film Arts Alliance (CFAA) and a company member at Big Idea Theatre (BIT). Locally in theatre, she has performed at STC, BIT, MSTW and KOLT. You may have seen or heard her on television and radio commercials, as well as feature and short films. She and her husband are Tiny Octopus Productions (TOP), where they have directed and produced an award-winning documentary on home death care, a short film and several award-winning music videos.
Actor Larry Lew began his theater career in the orchestra pit at the Old Eagle Theatre playing electric bass in 1989 for musical comedies produced by Laura Lothian, including "Carhops in Bondage" and "The Angry Housewives.” He appeared in his first play there as Jackson in "Pump Boys and Dinettes" in 1992. Since then, he’s performed all over the region with the Asian Community Theatre, Motherlode Stage Co. with Stuart Smith and Celebration Arts, where he was honored to work with James Wheatley. Larry also performs with the Dave Erickson Quintet, which specializes in jazz standards. The group will be performing as part of the Big Day of Giving at the Asian Community Center (7334 Park City Drive) on May 4 between 4 and 8 pm. Come check him out!
Actor Larry Lew began his theater career in the orchestra pit at the Old Eagle Theatre playing electric bass in 1989 for musical comedies produced by Laura Lothian, including "Carhops in Bondage" and "The Angry Housewives.” He appeared in his first play there as Jackson in "Pump Boys and Dinettes" in 1992. Since then, he’s performed all over the region with the Asian Community Theatre, Motherlode Stage Co. with Stuart Smith and Celebration Arts, where he was honored to work with James Wheatley. Larry also performs with the Dave Erickson Quintet, which specializes in jazz standards. The group will be performing as part of the Big Day of Giving at the Asian Community Center (7334 Park City Drive) on May 4 between 4 and 8 pm. Come check him out!
April 22, 2022 - 7:00 PM PST (doors open at 6:30)
Steve Almond, ALL THE SECRETS OF THE WORLD
performed by Sarah Rothaus
Leslie Kirk Campbell, THE MAN WITH EIGHT PAIRS OF LEGS
performed by Sarah Rothaus and Ian Hopps
Steve Almond is the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. You can check those out here. His recent books include William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life, which is about reading and writing and the struggle to pay attention to our lives, and Bad Stories, a literary investigation of the 2016 election. His new book, which comes out in April, 2022, is a novel called All the Secrets of the World. For four years, Steve hosted the New York Times Dear Sugar podcast with his pal Cheryl Strayed. His short stories have been anthologized widely, in the Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Erotica, and Best American Mysteries series. He also publishes crazy, DIY books.
All the Secrets of the World is about two teenage girls whose unlikely friendship draws their families into a vortex of secrets and lies, violence and lust. It's a social novel with the propulsive plot of a thriller, a mashup of Jane Eyre and The Wire.
“With one unexpected twist after another, Steve Almond pulls you into this wild and engrossing novel about family, scorpions, and the rules of attraction. A true page-turner.” — Héctor Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries
“Almond, a master of the short form, has now set himself loose on a vast canvas, giving us a rollicking, wide-ranging, unpredictable novel. This book is sharp, fast-moving, juicy… a wild ride and a great deal of fun.” — Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great Believer
Leslie Kirk Campbell’s debut short story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs (Sarabande) won the 2020 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction. Her award-winning stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Arts & Letters, Briar Cliff Review, Southern Indiana Review and The Thomas Wolfe Review. The author of Journey into Motherhood (Riverhead), she has received fellowships at Playa and Ucross. A native Californian, Leslie has traveled the world. She currently splits her time between her ohana in San Francisco and her ohana in Honolulu and teaches at Ripe Fruit Writing, a creative writing program she founded in San Francisco. Her next collection, Free Radicals, is in the making.
Esquire magazine recently declared, “When crafted well, short stories are like grenades which quickly explode in front of us,” and indeed, some of the most innovative and engaging fiction appears in short story form. Indie publishers have been champions of the short story, and of books that tap into the cultural and literary moment—and among the terrific releases from indie publishers, this month is Leslie Kirk Campbell’s debut story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs. This collection of richly imagined stories was awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books in 2020 and is Campbell’s fiction debut.
Anthony Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for All the Light We Cannot See, says of the collection, “History and memory crosscut through The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs in a gorgeous weave. These are marvelous, stirring stories, sometimes sexy, sometimes harrowing, somehow both timeless and timely…” and Publishers Weekly calls the collection an “engaging debut…marked by surprising encounters and poignant reflections."
All the Secrets of the World is about two teenage girls whose unlikely friendship draws their families into a vortex of secrets and lies, violence and lust. It's a social novel with the propulsive plot of a thriller, a mashup of Jane Eyre and The Wire.
“With one unexpected twist after another, Steve Almond pulls you into this wild and engrossing novel about family, scorpions, and the rules of attraction. A true page-turner.” — Héctor Tobar, author of The Barbarian Nurseries
“Almond, a master of the short form, has now set himself loose on a vast canvas, giving us a rollicking, wide-ranging, unpredictable novel. This book is sharp, fast-moving, juicy… a wild ride and a great deal of fun.” — Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer finalist for The Great Believer
Leslie Kirk Campbell’s debut short story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs (Sarabande) won the 2020 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction. Her award-winning stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Arts & Letters, Briar Cliff Review, Southern Indiana Review and The Thomas Wolfe Review. The author of Journey into Motherhood (Riverhead), she has received fellowships at Playa and Ucross. A native Californian, Leslie has traveled the world. She currently splits her time between her ohana in San Francisco and her ohana in Honolulu and teaches at Ripe Fruit Writing, a creative writing program she founded in San Francisco. Her next collection, Free Radicals, is in the making.
Esquire magazine recently declared, “When crafted well, short stories are like grenades which quickly explode in front of us,” and indeed, some of the most innovative and engaging fiction appears in short story form. Indie publishers have been champions of the short story, and of books that tap into the cultural and literary moment—and among the terrific releases from indie publishers, this month is Leslie Kirk Campbell’s debut story collection, The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs. This collection of richly imagined stories was awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books in 2020 and is Campbell’s fiction debut.
Anthony Doerr, who won the Pulitzer Prize for All the Light We Cannot See, says of the collection, “History and memory crosscut through The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs in a gorgeous weave. These are marvelous, stirring stories, sometimes sexy, sometimes harrowing, somehow both timeless and timely…” and Publishers Weekly calls the collection an “engaging debut…marked by surprising encounters and poignant reflections."
Actor Sarah Rothaus
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Actor Ian Hopps
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Actor Sarah Rothaus is excited to be making her Stories on Stage debut! She most recently performed as part of Big Idea Theatre’s One-Act Play Festival in A Day at the Beach. Other local credits include Macbeth (Sacramento Theatre Company); Wit, The Rover (Big Idea Theatre, where she is a company member); Cyrano de Bergerac, Bells are Ringing, Wonderful Town (Davis Shakespeare Festival); Cock (Intrepid Theatre Lab); Anna Karenina (Capital Stage); and Adoration of Dora (KOLT Run Creations). She holds a BA in Theatre from Willamette University, is an alumna of the Capital Stage apprentice program, and studied in London at the British American Drama Academy.
Actor Ian Hopps grew up in LA’s San Fernando Valley where he fell into a passion for storytelling. He studied theatre with an emphasis in performance at San Francisco State University between 2009-2013 and, after a brief time back in LA post-school, transplanted to Sacramento. He’s been performing locally since then on both stage and screen, most recently in Capital Stage's production of PASS OVER. Ian is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. If you’d like to learn more, please visit www.ihopps.com — thank you for supporting the arts!
Actor Ian Hopps grew up in LA’s San Fernando Valley where he fell into a passion for storytelling. He studied theatre with an emphasis in performance at San Francisco State University between 2009-2013 and, after a brief time back in LA post-school, transplanted to Sacramento. He’s been performing locally since then on both stage and screen, most recently in Capital Stage's production of PASS OVER. Ian is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. If you’d like to learn more, please visit www.ihopps.com — thank you for supporting the arts!
May 27, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30 pm)
register for this event via eventbrite
tickets also available at the door
Annabelle Gerwitch, YOU'RE LEAVING WHEN?
Sands Hall, "The Ways of Fiction Are Devious Indeed"
SANDS HALL’s Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology (Counterpoint; formerly known as FLUNK. START.), was named one of the top ten books in religion and spirituality by Publishers Weekly, and was a Finalist for the Northern California Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction. Sands’ other books include the novel Catching Heaven (Ballantine, which won a WILLA Award, Woman Writing the West; and is a Random House Reader’s Circle Selection; and a volume of writing essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer’s Craft. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in such places as New England Review, Iowa Review, and Mill Valley Literary Review. A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, she holds a second MFA in Theatre Arts; her experience as director, actor, and playwright gives her a unique perspective on the writing process.
Professor Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she is also the Founding Editor of the F&M Alumni Arts Review. Sands teaches annually for the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Her work with the University of California Davis Extension Programs earned her an Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Service Award.
An Affiliate Artist with The Foothill Theater Company, in Nevada City, California, she has acted and/or directed for the Oregon, Colorado, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals, among other regional theaters. Her produced plays include an adaptation of Alcott’s Little Women, and the comic-drama Fair Use. Sands is also a singer/songwriter; her recent CD is called Rustler’s Moon.
Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and author of five books including the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. She’s written for The New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Magazine and Hadassah amongst other publications. Gurwitch was the longtime cohost of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and a regular commentator on NPR. She's performed on the Moth Mainstage, at Carolines on Broadway, and at arts centers around the country. Her acting credits include: Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal and Dexter and once in while she returns to acting playing a rabbi on Better Things on FX or a therapist for an FBI agent in Michael Bay’s upcoming Ambulance.
She's been featured in Time Magazine’s annual “10 Ideas That are Changing the World” issue; her Los Angeles Times op-ed (included in her latest collection of essays) about hosting a housing insecure couple in her home was recognized with a 2020 Los Angeles Press Club excellence in journalism award. She's been profiled everywhere from New York Times, Washington Post, O Magazine, Prevention, to NPR. Her media appearances include Good Morning America, Real Time, CBS Early Morning, The Today Show, Oprah, and PBS Newshour.
She's taught essay writing and storytelling at The School of the New York Times, Miami Dade Community College, Thurber House, George Washington U, Maine Media College, and University of Ohio, Dayton. Gurwitch thought she'd be empty nesting by now; instead, she lives in Los Angeles with her cat and child—a college graduate of the COVID class of 2020.
She co-hosts the Tiny Victories podcast on the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, which Vulture called a “bright spot of light and laughter in 2020.” Annabelle is currently adapting You're Leaving When? for HBO.
Professor Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she is also the Founding Editor of the F&M Alumni Arts Review. Sands teaches annually for the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Her work with the University of California Davis Extension Programs earned her an Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Service Award.
An Affiliate Artist with The Foothill Theater Company, in Nevada City, California, she has acted and/or directed for the Oregon, Colorado, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals, among other regional theaters. Her produced plays include an adaptation of Alcott’s Little Women, and the comic-drama Fair Use. Sands is also a singer/songwriter; her recent CD is called Rustler’s Moon.
Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and author of five books including the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. She’s written for The New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Magazine and Hadassah amongst other publications. Gurwitch was the longtime cohost of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and a regular commentator on NPR. She's performed on the Moth Mainstage, at Carolines on Broadway, and at arts centers around the country. Her acting credits include: Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal and Dexter and once in while she returns to acting playing a rabbi on Better Things on FX or a therapist for an FBI agent in Michael Bay’s upcoming Ambulance.
She's been featured in Time Magazine’s annual “10 Ideas That are Changing the World” issue; her Los Angeles Times op-ed (included in her latest collection of essays) about hosting a housing insecure couple in her home was recognized with a 2020 Los Angeles Press Club excellence in journalism award. She's been profiled everywhere from New York Times, Washington Post, O Magazine, Prevention, to NPR. Her media appearances include Good Morning America, Real Time, CBS Early Morning, The Today Show, Oprah, and PBS Newshour.
She's taught essay writing and storytelling at The School of the New York Times, Miami Dade Community College, Thurber House, George Washington U, Maine Media College, and University of Ohio, Dayton. Gurwitch thought she'd be empty nesting by now; instead, she lives in Los Angeles with her cat and child—a college graduate of the COVID class of 2020.
She co-hosts the Tiny Victories podcast on the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, which Vulture called a “bright spot of light and laughter in 2020.” Annabelle is currently adapting You're Leaving When? for HBO.
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Megan Smith
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Kelley Ogden, is a familiar face to Stories on Stage fans, and an accomplished performer, director, and producer whose work has been seen throughout the area. Co-founder of acclaimed fringe theater company KOLT Run Creations, she has performed with Capital Stage, Davis Shakespeare Festival, Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, Main Street Theatre Works, and Theater Galatea, among others. Ogden earned her BFA in performance from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.
Megan Smith is an actor and musician based out of Davis, California. She's worked in productions at many theatres over her career such as Capital Stage, Sacramento Theatre Co., California Shakespeare Theater, Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and many more. She is also half of the band Misner & Smith that play their own brand of story-driven, harmony-filled, acoustic folk/rock music. She performed an excerpt from Alia Volz' Home Baked for SoSS during our 2021 season.
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JUNE 24, 2022 - 7:00 PM PST (DOORS OPEN AT 6:30 PM)
Vanessa Hua, FORBIDDEN CITY
performed by Yuri Tajiri
Anara Guard, LIKE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
performed by Trina Ritter
Vanessa Hua is an award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her novel, A River of Stars, was named to the Washington Post and NPR’s Best Books of 2018 lists, and has been called a "marvel" by O, The Oprah Magazine, and "delightful" by The Economist. Her short story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities, a New York Times Editors' Choice, received an Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature and was a finalist for a California Book Award, and a New American Voices Award. Her forthcoming novel, Forbidden City, will be published in 2022.
For more than two decades, she has been writing about Asia and the diaspora, filing stories from China, Burma, Panama, South Korea, and Ecuador. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times before heading east to the Hartford Courant. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, among other publications.
A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she also received a Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan literary award, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. She is a graduate of Stanford University and UC Riverside's MFA program. Other achievements include the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice coverage; the Asian American Journalists Association’s National Journalism Award — online/broadcast, print, and radio; the Society of Professional Journalists, the James Madison Freedom of Information Award, the San Francisco Press Club Greater Bay Area Journalism Award, San Francisco Press Club, and Best of the West. She was the Featured Literary Artist at APAture, an Asian American arts festival in San Francisco, and her short story collection was El Cerrito's pick for One City, One Book.
Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Sun, and elsewhere. She received an Emerging Writer Fellowship from Aspen Words, a fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a writer's residency at Hedgebrook, among other honors. She has taught or will teach at the Sewanee Writers’ Workshop, Aspen Autumn Words., Warren Wilson MFA program, Writers’ Grotto, Hedgebrook, Writer’s Winter Break, Community of Writers , Tin House Workshop, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Rooted & Written, Kearny Street Workshop, and elsewhere. Find her work at your local independent bookstore, Bookshop, and other online retailers.
Anara Guard grew up in Chicago. Her lifelong love of reading has led her to jobs as diverse as minding a Chicago news stand at the age of nine, working as a librarian in a small New England town, fact-checking manuscripts for Houghton Mifflin, and writing book reviews. An award-winning poet, she's had short stories published in the anthology, Twenty Twenty: 43 Stories from a Year Like No Other; in her collection, Remedies for Hunger; and in various literary magazines. She attended Bread Loaf Writers Workshop and the Community of Writers. She is currently working on her second novel from her home in Sacramento.
“In this stunning debut novel, Anara Guard weaves together the fragments of a runaway girl’s life against the backdrop of 1970s Chicago. Her voice is lyrical and self-aware, allowing the reader to fully immerse their self in Katya’s angst and yearnings with a gentle grace that can only come from sympathetic knowing…her deep understanding of story and character show mastery of the bildungsroman and novel writing…lulling the reader into her character’s painful, beautiful world.”— San Francisco Book Review
“A beautifully written debut novel with rich, complex characters bound by their tumultuous personal histories and the volatile political landscape of the late 1960’s. Against the grit and beauty of counterculture Chicago, we are allowed to love these flawed, isolated people, and to feel joy as they create renewed lives.”— Meredith Hall, author of Beneficence
For more than two decades, she has been writing about Asia and the diaspora, filing stories from China, Burma, Panama, South Korea, and Ecuador. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times before heading east to the Hartford Courant. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, among other publications.
A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she also received a Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan literary award, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing. She is a graduate of Stanford University and UC Riverside's MFA program. Other achievements include the Dr. Suzanne Ahn Award for Civil Rights and Social Justice coverage; the Asian American Journalists Association’s National Journalism Award — online/broadcast, print, and radio; the Society of Professional Journalists, the James Madison Freedom of Information Award, the San Francisco Press Club Greater Bay Area Journalism Award, San Francisco Press Club, and Best of the West. She was the Featured Literary Artist at APAture, an Asian American arts festival in San Francisco, and her short story collection was El Cerrito's pick for One City, One Book.
Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Sun, and elsewhere. She received an Emerging Writer Fellowship from Aspen Words, a fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and a writer's residency at Hedgebrook, among other honors. She has taught or will teach at the Sewanee Writers’ Workshop, Aspen Autumn Words., Warren Wilson MFA program, Writers’ Grotto, Hedgebrook, Writer’s Winter Break, Community of Writers , Tin House Workshop, Mendocino Coast Writers Conference, Rooted & Written, Kearny Street Workshop, and elsewhere. Find her work at your local independent bookstore, Bookshop, and other online retailers.
Anara Guard grew up in Chicago. Her lifelong love of reading has led her to jobs as diverse as minding a Chicago news stand at the age of nine, working as a librarian in a small New England town, fact-checking manuscripts for Houghton Mifflin, and writing book reviews. An award-winning poet, she's had short stories published in the anthology, Twenty Twenty: 43 Stories from a Year Like No Other; in her collection, Remedies for Hunger; and in various literary magazines. She attended Bread Loaf Writers Workshop and the Community of Writers. She is currently working on her second novel from her home in Sacramento.
“In this stunning debut novel, Anara Guard weaves together the fragments of a runaway girl’s life against the backdrop of 1970s Chicago. Her voice is lyrical and self-aware, allowing the reader to fully immerse their self in Katya’s angst and yearnings with a gentle grace that can only come from sympathetic knowing…her deep understanding of story and character show mastery of the bildungsroman and novel writing…lulling the reader into her character’s painful, beautiful world.”— San Francisco Book Review
“A beautifully written debut novel with rich, complex characters bound by their tumultuous personal histories and the volatile political landscape of the late 1960’s. Against the grit and beauty of counterculture Chicago, we are allowed to love these flawed, isolated people, and to feel joy as they create renewed lives.”— Meredith Hall, author of Beneficence
Actor Trina Ritter will read from Anara Guard's LIKE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Trina graduated from California State University Sacramento with a degree in theatre, where she participated in shows like How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Twelfth Night, among others. Locally she has appeared in Samantics performances, but is otherwise content to spend her evenings at home with her husband and cats.
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Yuri TAJIRI is excited to return to Stories on Stage--and live performance in general! She will read from Vanessa Hua's FORBIDDEN CITY. Yuri has previously been seen as the Narrator in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (Green Valley Theatre Company), Linda in EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL (Sutter Street Theatre) and Grumio in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (The Alternative Arts Collective). Yuri holds a BA in Theatre Arts from CSU Sacramento and runs a business with her husband when not performing.
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JULY 22, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30)
AUGUST 26, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30)
Catriona McPherson, SCOT MIST
performed by Gary Cooper
Shelley Blanton-Stroud, TOMBOY
performed by Gabby Battista
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30)
Kate Milliken, KEPT ANIMALS
performed by Justine Lopez
Nora Rodriguez Camagna,
CINNAMON BREAD UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
performed by Angel Rodriguez
Kate Milliken is the author of the 2013 Iowa Short Fiction Award-winning collection of stories, If I’d Known You Were Coming. A graduate of the Bennington College Writing Seminars, she has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop and her short stories have appeared in Fiction, Zyzzyva, Santa Monica Review, and New Orleans Review, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, anthologized in the California Prose Directory, New Writing from the Golden State, and received runner-up for the Rick DeMarinis award as well as the Dana Award for the Novel.
Kate grew up riding horses in Topanga Canyon, California, in the early 1990s and it was to that time and those dusty trails that she returned as inspiration for her debut novel, Kept Animals. Praised by Janet Fitch in the New York Times Book Review and named by O. Magazine as an LGBTQ novel that will change the literary landscape in 2020, Kept Animals is a multigenerational story of friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, and a tragic accident that changes the lives of three very different families forever. Kate lives in Northern California with her family.
Nora Rodriguez Camagna grew up in the California Migrant Labor Camps, and in Texas and Mexico and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been a fellow at many juried writer workshops, most recently at Lit Camp in California. She has studied under Tommy Orange, Karen E. Bender, Anthony Marra, Jane Smiley, Gabriela Garcia and Ingrid Rojas Contreras. When Nora isn't writing, she teaches creative writing to underserved students through 916 Ink, a Sacramento non-profit literacy organization. Nora lives in California with her husband and is the proud mother of three sons.
CINNAMON BREAD UNDER THE CHERRY TREE, Nora’s debut novel, is a family saga that explores the struggles of a middle-class Mexican family when their only son, non-Spanish speaking high school baseball star Raúl Salinas, is imprisoned in Mexico. When Raúl’s sister Clara learns her parents plan to bribe Raul out of prison, she insists they call the American Embassy and hire a lawyer, but Ramón and Celia fear for their only son’s life. They believe in his innocence and they know that in Mexico, justice is unpredictable, and can be determined by individuals rather than the law.
Kate grew up riding horses in Topanga Canyon, California, in the early 1990s and it was to that time and those dusty trails that she returned as inspiration for her debut novel, Kept Animals. Praised by Janet Fitch in the New York Times Book Review and named by O. Magazine as an LGBTQ novel that will change the literary landscape in 2020, Kept Animals is a multigenerational story of friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, and a tragic accident that changes the lives of three very different families forever. Kate lives in Northern California with her family.
Nora Rodriguez Camagna grew up in the California Migrant Labor Camps, and in Texas and Mexico and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been a fellow at many juried writer workshops, most recently at Lit Camp in California. She has studied under Tommy Orange, Karen E. Bender, Anthony Marra, Jane Smiley, Gabriela Garcia and Ingrid Rojas Contreras. When Nora isn't writing, she teaches creative writing to underserved students through 916 Ink, a Sacramento non-profit literacy organization. Nora lives in California with her husband and is the proud mother of three sons.
CINNAMON BREAD UNDER THE CHERRY TREE, Nora’s debut novel, is a family saga that explores the struggles of a middle-class Mexican family when their only son, non-Spanish speaking high school baseball star Raúl Salinas, is imprisoned in Mexico. When Raúl’s sister Clara learns her parents plan to bribe Raul out of prison, she insists they call the American Embassy and hire a lawyer, but Ramón and Celia fear for their only son’s life. They believe in his innocence and they know that in Mexico, justice is unpredictable, and can be determined by individuals rather than the law.
Check out the videos of our September performances of excerpts from
Nora Rodriguez Camagna's CINNAMON BREAD UNDER THE CHERRY TREE
and Kate Milliken's KEPT ANIMALS
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Ángel Rodríguez is excited to be back with Stories on Stage Sacramento! He is an actor, director, and a bunch of other things in the Sacramento area. He holds a bachelor’s in Theater from Sacramento State. Ángel has had the honor to work with fantastic artistic organizations in town including Teatro Espejo, Teatro Nagual, Latino Center of Arts and Culture, B Street Theater and many others. Ángel dreams of continuing to be a part of the arts for the rest of his life, whether it is on stage, backstage, as a director, or as an educator.
Keep up with Ángel’s projects on IG: @a_rod719 Justine Lopez studied Theatre Arts at Consumnes River College and was involved in several plays as an actor, assistant director, and stage manager. For the past eight years, Justine has devoted her performance career to comedy.
She currently teaches Improv 101 & Improv 201 at the Sacramento Comedy Spot and leads corporate team building improv workshops in the Sacramento area. She can be seen regularly performing improv on Lady Business (Sacramento's longest running all-female improv troupe), Masters of Rap Improv, and Anti-Cooperation League.Justine also co-produces and co-stars on Capitol PUNishment, Sacramento's only monthly pun tournament show. |
OCTOBER 28, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30)
Gabriela Garcia, OF WOMEN AND SALT
performed by Carissa Meagher
Stephanie Bray, ”Sherwood Green's Last Picture Show"
performed by Brandon Rubin
Gabriela Garcia
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Stephanie Bray
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Gabriela Garcia is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship from San Jose State University. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Cuba and grew up in Miami. Of Women and Salt is her first novel.
Stephanie R. McLemore Bray was born in her grandparents’ house in the middle of a field in Headland, Alabama, on All Hallows Eve. Raised in New Jersey, she moved with her husband and two children to Sacramento, California, in August 2005, on the heels of Hurricane Katrina. She is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University, with a B.A. in Philosophy. When she is not working as the Chief Engagement Officer at Seattle Foundation, she writes. She has had articles published on philanthropy, Black maternal health and health equity. She has also had an essay published by Next Avenue, an online journal for those aged 50+. Stephanie is the Founder of Black Women Write, a community of writers in Sacramento who are committed to celebrating and uplifting Black women’s voices through storytelling.
Stephanie R. McLemore Bray was born in her grandparents’ house in the middle of a field in Headland, Alabama, on All Hallows Eve. Raised in New Jersey, she moved with her husband and two children to Sacramento, California, in August 2005, on the heels of Hurricane Katrina. She is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University, with a B.A. in Philosophy. When she is not working as the Chief Engagement Officer at Seattle Foundation, she writes. She has had articles published on philanthropy, Black maternal health and health equity. She has also had an essay published by Next Avenue, an online journal for those aged 50+. Stephanie is the Founder of Black Women Write, a community of writers in Sacramento who are committed to celebrating and uplifting Black women’s voices through storytelling.
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Brandon Rubin will perform Stephanie McLemore Bray's "Sherwood Green's Last Picture Show." Brandon Rubin (MFA Mason Gross School of the arts) has been seen in ‘The Royale’ by Marco Ramirez (Cap Stage), ‘The Whipping Man’ by Matthew Lopez (Old Castle Theater), ‘Flint’ by Jeff Daniels (Shadowland Stages), ‘Twelfth Night’ by William Shakespeare (Baltimore Center Stage), ‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder (George Street Playhouse), ‘Bt I Cd Only Whisper’ by Kristiana Rae Colon (The Flea Theater) and ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ by William Shakespeare. He would like to thank his family for always supporting their "wild child." Carissa Meagher will perform a chapter from Gabriela Garcia's novel, WOMEN AND SALT. Carissa is a familiar face to Sacramento theatergoers, who have enjoyed her performances in Antigone (Big Idea Theatre); Brilliant Traces (Ovation Stage); An Octoroon and Anna Karenina (Capital Stage); and Steel Magnolias (Sacramento Theatre Company.) She earned her BFA in Acting at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she earned her BFA in Acting and an MFA in Playwriting from Ireland’s RADA affiliate school, The Lir Academy. More recently, Carissa performed for Stories on Stage Sacramento twice in 2019, from Janet Fitch's Chimes of a Lost Cathedral and Sharma Shields The Cassandra. |
NOVEMBER 18, 2022 - 7:00 pm PST (doors open at 6:30 pm)
Maceo Montoya, PREPARATORY NOTES FOR FUTURE MASTERPIECES
performed by Esteban Bustos
Elison Alcovendaz
performed by Brennan Villados
Author Maceo Montoya
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Actor Ernesto Bustos
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Maceo Montoya is a California-based author, artist, and educator who has published books in a variety of genres. His first novel, The Scoundrel and the Optimist (Bilingual Review, 2010), was awarded the 2011 International Latino Book Award for "Best First Book" and Latino Stories named him one of its "Top Ten New Latino Writers to Watch." In 2014, University of New Mexico Press published his second novel, The Deportation of Wopper Barraza, and Copilot Press published Letters to the Poet from His Brother, a hybrid book combining images, prose poems, and essays. Montoya’s third work of fiction, You Must Fight Them: A Novella and Stories (University of New Mexico Press, 2015) was a finalist for Foreword Review's INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award. Montoya is also the author and illustrator of Chicano Movement for Beginners, a work of graphic nonfiction. His most recent novel is Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces (University of Nevada Press, 2021).
In the visual arts, Montoya's paintings, drawings, and prints have been featured in exhibitions and publications throughout the country as well as internationally. He has collaborated with other writers on visual-textual projects, including David Montejano's Sancho's Journal (University of Texas Press, 2012), an ethnography of the Brown Berets in San Antonio, Laurie Ann Guerrero's A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlán Libre Press, 2015), and Arturo Mantecon's translation of Mexican poet Mario Santiago Papasquiaro's Poetry Comes Out of My Mouth (Dialogos Books, 2018). In 2021, Red Hen Press published American Quasar, a collaboration with Fresno poet David Campos featuring 19 of Montoya's monoprints.
Montoya grew up in Elmira, California. He comes from a family of artists, including his father Malaquias Montoya, a renowned artist, activist, and educator, and his late brother, the poet Andrés Montoya. Maceo graduated from Yale University in 2002 and received his Master of Fine Arts in visual art from Columbia University in 2006. He is currently an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at UC Davis where he teaches courses on Chicanx culture and literature.
Elison Alcovendaz' work has appeared in The Rumpus, Santa Monica Review, Portland Review, Under the Gum Tree, Ruminate Magazine, Lost Balloon, Gargoyle, and other places. He is the author of The Evolution of Love, and his work was selected as a Best Small Fiction of 2020 and was nominated for Best of the Net. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State and still calls Sacramento home. Elison enjoyed writing as a child, but didn't rediscover his love for storytelling until he realized (much later than he should have) that he wouldn't be the first Filipino-American in the NBA. Elison's work has appeared in The Rumpus, Santa Monica Review, Portland Review, Under the Gum Tree, Ruminate Magazine, Lost Balloon, Gargoyle, and other places. He is the author of The Evolution of Love, and his work was selected as a Best Small Fiction of 2020 and was nominated for Best of the Net. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State and still calls Sacramento home. Elison enjoyed writing as a child, but didn't rediscover his love for storytelling until he realized (much later than he should have) that he wouldn't be the first Filipino-American in the NBA.
Actor Brennan Villados is based out of Sacramento, California. His most recent acting credits include in The Picture of Dorian Gray with Freefall Stage, A Soldier’s Play with Celebration Arts, and Marat/Sade with Falcon’s Eye Theatre. Brennan made his directorial debut in 2019 with Romeo and Juliet for Freefall Stage’s Shakespeare in the park. He attended The American Academy of Dramatic Art and has worked for the UC Davis School of Medicine Standardized Patient Program for the last six years. His other favorite roles include Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet with Falcon’s Eye Theatre, Patrick Stone in Inventing Van Gogh with Big Idea Theatre, Eddie in Fool for Love, and Tom in the one-man show Poster of the Cosmos, both for Blank Canvas Theatre. He is delighted to be a part of this production and looks forward to discovering new ways of connecting and storytelling in this unprecedented time.
Actor Ernesto Bustos is a graduate of Sac State’s Theatre program and has been performing in theatre in and around the Sacramento area for the better part of 20 years. Most recently, he performed in Main Street Theatre Works' recreation of the Mercury Theatre on the Air 1930s broadcast of Treasure Island, as well as their summer production of Four Weddings and an Elvis. Other stage credits include Time of Death, both English and Spanish versions of Frida, Balm in Gilead, Anna in the Tropics, Antigone, Midsummer Night’s Dream, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Talk Radio. Mr. Bustos considers himself a competent amateur chef, having recently learned how to boil water. Mr. Bustos thanks his family and friends for their love and support. Special thanks to his wife Katie for standing by him all these years.
In the visual arts, Montoya's paintings, drawings, and prints have been featured in exhibitions and publications throughout the country as well as internationally. He has collaborated with other writers on visual-textual projects, including David Montejano's Sancho's Journal (University of Texas Press, 2012), an ethnography of the Brown Berets in San Antonio, Laurie Ann Guerrero's A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlán Libre Press, 2015), and Arturo Mantecon's translation of Mexican poet Mario Santiago Papasquiaro's Poetry Comes Out of My Mouth (Dialogos Books, 2018). In 2021, Red Hen Press published American Quasar, a collaboration with Fresno poet David Campos featuring 19 of Montoya's monoprints.
Montoya grew up in Elmira, California. He comes from a family of artists, including his father Malaquias Montoya, a renowned artist, activist, and educator, and his late brother, the poet Andrés Montoya. Maceo graduated from Yale University in 2002 and received his Master of Fine Arts in visual art from Columbia University in 2006. He is currently an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at UC Davis where he teaches courses on Chicanx culture and literature.
Elison Alcovendaz' work has appeared in The Rumpus, Santa Monica Review, Portland Review, Under the Gum Tree, Ruminate Magazine, Lost Balloon, Gargoyle, and other places. He is the author of The Evolution of Love, and his work was selected as a Best Small Fiction of 2020 and was nominated for Best of the Net. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State and still calls Sacramento home. Elison enjoyed writing as a child, but didn't rediscover his love for storytelling until he realized (much later than he should have) that he wouldn't be the first Filipino-American in the NBA. Elison's work has appeared in The Rumpus, Santa Monica Review, Portland Review, Under the Gum Tree, Ruminate Magazine, Lost Balloon, Gargoyle, and other places. He is the author of The Evolution of Love, and his work was selected as a Best Small Fiction of 2020 and was nominated for Best of the Net. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State and still calls Sacramento home. Elison enjoyed writing as a child, but didn't rediscover his love for storytelling until he realized (much later than he should have) that he wouldn't be the first Filipino-American in the NBA.
Actor Brennan Villados is based out of Sacramento, California. His most recent acting credits include in The Picture of Dorian Gray with Freefall Stage, A Soldier’s Play with Celebration Arts, and Marat/Sade with Falcon’s Eye Theatre. Brennan made his directorial debut in 2019 with Romeo and Juliet for Freefall Stage’s Shakespeare in the park. He attended The American Academy of Dramatic Art and has worked for the UC Davis School of Medicine Standardized Patient Program for the last six years. His other favorite roles include Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet with Falcon’s Eye Theatre, Patrick Stone in Inventing Van Gogh with Big Idea Theatre, Eddie in Fool for Love, and Tom in the one-man show Poster of the Cosmos, both for Blank Canvas Theatre. He is delighted to be a part of this production and looks forward to discovering new ways of connecting and storytelling in this unprecedented time.
Actor Ernesto Bustos is a graduate of Sac State’s Theatre program and has been performing in theatre in and around the Sacramento area for the better part of 20 years. Most recently, he performed in Main Street Theatre Works' recreation of the Mercury Theatre on the Air 1930s broadcast of Treasure Island, as well as their summer production of Four Weddings and an Elvis. Other stage credits include Time of Death, both English and Spanish versions of Frida, Balm in Gilead, Anna in the Tropics, Antigone, Midsummer Night’s Dream, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Talk Radio. Mr. Bustos considers himself a competent amateur chef, having recently learned how to boil water. Mr. Bustos thanks his family and friends for their love and support. Special thanks to his wife Katie for standing by him all these years.
Author Elison Alcovendaz
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Actor Brennan Villados
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