Stories on Stage Sacramento
Season 2020 Co-Directors Shelley Blanton-Stroud
and Dorothy Rice, and Casting Director, Jessica Laskey
Co-Directors Shelley Blanton-Stroud & Dorothy Rice, Casting Director Jessica Laskey
Shelley Blanton-Stroud teaches college writing at Sacramento State and consults with writers in the energy industry. She serves on the board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference and the non-profit organization, Slow Food Sacramento. Her debut novel, Copy Boy (She Writes Press 2020), is a depression-era coming-of-age noir about a girl who becomes a boy to escape crimes she may or may not have committed.
Dorothy Rice retired from a 35-year career in environmental protection with the California State Assembly and CalEPA. She now writes and has published two books, Gray is the New Black: A Memoir of Self-Acceptance (Otis Books, 2019) and The Reluctant Artist (Shanti Arts, 2015), as well as fiction and essays in journals and magazines. She also works for 916 Ink, leading creative writing workshops with area youth.
Jessica Laskey has been a professional actor for nearly 20 years and a member of Actors' Equity since 2011. She's also a freelance journalist, educator and co-founder of Theater Galatea and Indomita Press, both of which she runs with her husband, playwright and actor p joshua laskey. Jessica has read many times for Stories on Stage Sacramento and its sister series Stories on Stage Davis. She also served on the board of Stories on Stage Davis from 2018-2019.
Sue Staats, Peggi Wood, Valerie Fioravanti, Victoria Goldblatt
Seasons 2013-2019 Director, Sue Staats
Sue Staats A 41-year resident of Sacramento, originally from the East coast, Sue lives and writes in the leafy backwater of Curtis Park in a small house with a large cat and a famous guest house. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Los Angeles Review, Graze, Farallon Review, Alimentum, a Journal of Food, and Tule Review. She was a runner-up for the 2011 Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction, and her poem “Late Peaches” was the title poem for the 2012 anthology, Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets. She earned an MFA at Pacific University in 2011, and her stories have been performed numerous times at Stories on Stage Sacramento and Stories on Stage Davis. Sue is currently working on a collection of linked short stories. She continues to work on behalf of Stories on Stage Sacramento, focusing on special projects--interviews, podcasts, community partnerships and event night cookie baking.
Seasons 2013-2020 Casting Director, Peggi Wood
Peggi Wood A director and producer on the Sacramento theatre scene, Peggi is also a writer, screenwriter, storyteller, and performer. In 2015, Resurrection Theatre produced Peggi’s first short play, Demerol Dreams, in their 10×10 Original Play Festival, where she also directed two other plays. Her community theatre productions include DOG SEES GOD: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Moving Mountains with EMH Productions and Dan Fagan’s A Tiger Without Mercy. A longtime volunteer for the arts, literacy and community service organizations, Peggi served as social media director and board member for Celebration Arts, a multicultural, multidisciplinary educational and performing arts non-profit organization. Her work with Celebration Arts, where she was involved from the casting process through rehearsal and staging production for more than two dozen shows, as well as being an avid regional theater-goer and spoken-word performer herself, give her access to a wide range of talent and a keen understanding of drama, helping her match the right actor to a writer’s work. Peggi now aims to recapture time to focus on her short story collection, Last Shift.
Peggi Wood A director and producer on the Sacramento theatre scene, Peggi is also a writer, screenwriter, storyteller, and performer. In 2015, Resurrection Theatre produced Peggi’s first short play, Demerol Dreams, in their 10×10 Original Play Festival, where she also directed two other plays. Her community theatre productions include DOG SEES GOD: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Moving Mountains with EMH Productions and Dan Fagan’s A Tiger Without Mercy. A longtime volunteer for the arts, literacy and community service organizations, Peggi served as social media director and board member for Celebration Arts, a multicultural, multidisciplinary educational and performing arts non-profit organization. Her work with Celebration Arts, where she was involved from the casting process through rehearsal and staging production for more than two dozen shows, as well as being an avid regional theater-goer and spoken-word performer herself, give her access to a wide range of talent and a keen understanding of drama, helping her match the right actor to a writer’s work. Peggi now aims to recapture time to focus on her short story collection, Last Shift.
Seasons 2010-2013 Founding Director, Valerie Fioravanti
Valerie Fioravanti created our reading series in early 2010 as a way to inspire and connect writers in the Sacramento region. Her linked story collection, Garbage Night at the Opera, won the 2011 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and is available from BkMk Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, and Night Train, among others. In 2004 Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship to work on a novel set in Italy, Bel Casino. Her essays have appeared in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, Puerto del Sol, and others. She teaches writing, works as a writing coach, and coordinates the Master Teacher Weekend Workshops series. A NYC native, Valerie lives contentedly in tree-lined, walkable midtown Sacramento–home to a great restaurant scene; impressive, wide-ranging theatre options; and some very talented and generous writers.
Valerie Fioravanti created our reading series in early 2010 as a way to inspire and connect writers in the Sacramento region. Her linked story collection, Garbage Night at the Opera, won the 2011 G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and is available from BkMk Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in North American Review, Cimarron Review, and Night Train, among others. In 2004 Valerie received a Fulbright Fellowship to work on a novel set in Italy, Bel Casino. Her essays have appeared in Portland Review, Eclectica, Silk Road, Puerto del Sol, and others. She teaches writing, works as a writing coach, and coordinates the Master Teacher Weekend Workshops series. A NYC native, Valerie lives contentedly in tree-lined, walkable midtown Sacramento–home to a great restaurant scene; impressive, wide-ranging theatre options; and some very talented and generous writers.
Seasons 2011-2012 Casting Director, Victoria Goldblatt
Victoria Goldblatt was our first casting director. She has performed for over 20 years, in films, commercials, community theater and voice-overs for TV and radio, along with her show, Cabaret Night with Victoria and Friends. She has read many times for Stories on Stage Sacramento and Davis. She's a former member of the Steering Committee for the Playwrights Collaborative. She recently won two awards from Free Fall Stage's play-writers Competition, for Audience Best Choice and Best Director. She owns her own business, OptimumBody, offering health consulting, exercise, and business coaching.
Victoria Goldblatt was our first casting director. She has performed for over 20 years, in films, commercials, community theater and voice-overs for TV and radio, along with her show, Cabaret Night with Victoria and Friends. She has read many times for Stories on Stage Sacramento and Davis. She's a former member of the Steering Committee for the Playwrights Collaborative. She recently won two awards from Free Fall Stage's play-writers Competition, for Audience Best Choice and Best Director. She owns her own business, OptimumBody, offering health consulting, exercise, and business coaching.
Dedicated, Generous, Resourceful Volunteers and Partners
The programming provided by Stories on Stage Sacramento would not be possible without the efforts of our tireless, talented, resourceful volunteers and friends, many of whom have been with the series since its inception and participated in its growth and evolution. We can't thank them enough for their loyalty and dedication to Sacramento's premier literary performance series. Volunteer applications are accepted via the Contact page.
