11TH “IMMORTAL HEART” AMY TAN July 16-August 8, 2004 Press ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: David Hyry (415) 864-3547

WORD FOR WORD PRESENTS ITS 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

“IMMORTAL HEART” BY AUTHOR AMY TAN

DIRECTED BY DELIA MACDOUGALL

July 16-August 8, 2004

(Press Night Friday, July 16 /previews July 13,14,15)
Magic Theatre, Southside,

Building D, Fort Mason Center

WORD FOR WORD presents IMMORTAL HEART by author Amy Tan. Staged for WORD
FOR WORD’S 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW, IMMORTAL HEART reveals a hidden world,
one circumscribed by the powers of family and destiny, and the strict tenets of women's roles in rural
China in the 1900's. Tan's heartfelt tale introduces us to a complex world of family ties, ghosts,
mystery, duty, and love. IMMORTAL HEART opens with a press night on Friday, July 16, at
8:30 PM at the Magic Theatre, Southside (previews July 13,14,15). Amy Tan, award winning novelist
of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is distinguished for
her compelling generational stories of mothers and daughters, and her deeply etched characters and
riveting dramatic plots. Directed by WORD FOR WORD Charter Member Delia MacDougall
with assistant director Michael Cheng, IMMORTAL HEART features actors Mitzie Abe, Michael
Cheng, Julia Cho, Tina Huang, Lisa Kang, Kerry Lee, Melissa Wong Renati, Brian Rivera, and Dennis
Yen. The production is designed by Mikiko Uesugi, with lighting by Jim Cave,costumes by Keiko
Shimosato, and sound by Randall Wong.

IMMORTAL HEART continues its run Wednesdays-Sundays, July 17-August 8 at the Magic
Theatre, Southside, Building D, Fort Mason Center (previews July 13,14,15). Performances are 8:30
PM Wed.-Sat., with 3 PM matinees on Sundays. Tickets $27, $2 discounts to students and seniors. All
Wed. and previews are pay-what-you-can. Word for Word is at www.zspace.org For information
and reservations, call (415) 437-6775.

Amy Tan’s short stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Grand Street, Harper’s, The New
Yorker, Threepenny Review, Ski, and others. Her essay, “Mother Tongue,” one of Tan’s many
beloved pieces included in The Opposite of Fate, was chosen for Best American Essays in 1991 and
has been widely anthologized. She was also the guest editor for the 1999 edition of Best American
Short Stories. Tan’s books are often included as part of the multicultural curriculum of high schools
and colleges, an honor which caused her much ambivalence and led to her writing a speech,
“Required Reading and Other Dangerous Subjects,” which she has since delivered in universities
across the country.

Word for Word and The Z Space Studio combine to offer an 11th Anniversary Season

that includes two new Word for Word productions and two new plays developed at Z

Space. (more)

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David Hyry & Associates P.O. Box 411525 San Francisco CA 94141-1525 (415) 864-3547

AMY TAN -add one
Published in The New Yorker, IMMORTAL HEART is the story that sets the stage for Tan’s novel
The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Precious Auntie, a headstrong, independent young woman, daughter of
the Bonesetter and healer of the village, is betrothed the inkmaker's son, against the advice of
fortunetellers and jealous neighbors. Precious Auntie's story brings us deep into a culture of another
time, shocking us with turns and twists in fate's path, and always enthralling us with Amy Tan's tale of
devotion and betrayal.

Word for Word, which became a program of Z Space in 1994, brings literature to the stage in
verbatim productions of literary works, including stories by prominent writers such as Barbara Kingsolver,
Tobias Wolff, and Edith Wharton. The Z Space supports the commissioning and development of new works by
both emerging and prominent playwrights, including Anne Galjour, Josh Kornbluth, Gary Leon Hill, Cherylene
Lee, and Charlie Varon. In addition to its Bay Area performances, Word for Word has toured France each
spring since 1996, through the sponsorship of the Florence Gould Foundation, which seeks to foster “French-
American amity through cultural events.”

Amy Tan was born in Oakland, California in 1952, several years after her mother and father
immigrated to the San Francisco Bay area from China. When she was eight, her essay, “What the
Library Means to Me,” won first prize among elementary school participants, for which Tan received a
transistor radio and publication in the local newspaper. Upon the deaths of her brother and father in
1967 and 1968 from brain tumors, the family began a haphazard journey through Europe, before
settling in Montreux, Switzerland, where Tan graduated in her junior year in 1969. In 1972, she
graduated with honors from San Jose State University, receiving a B.A. with a double major in English
and Linguistics. In 1973, she earned her M.A. in Linguistics, and then enrolled as a doctoral student
in linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. Following the murder of one of her closest
friends, Tan left her doctoral program before completing her degree, and for the next five years
worked as a language development consultant and project director for programs serving disabled
children.

In 1985, when a psychiatrist treating Tan for her self-described workaholism fell asleep for the third
time during one of their sessions, Tan quit therapy and decided to write fiction instead. In 1986,
Tan’s first short story, End Game, appeared in the now defunct magazine, FM Five. In 1989, The Joy
Luck Club was published and, through word-of-mouth endorsements by independent booksellers,
became a surprise bestseller, logging more than 40 weeks on The New York Times list. Though Tan
wrote the book as a collection of linked short stories, reviewers enthusiastically and erroneously
referred to the book as an intricately woven “novel.” The label stuck. The Joy Luck Club was
nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Award. It received the
Commonwealth Gold Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. It was adapted into a feature
film in 1994, for which Tan was a co-screenwriter. Tan’s second book, The Kitchen God’s Wife, was
published in 1991, followed by The Hundred Secret Senses in 1995 and The Bonesetter’s Daughter in
2001, all of which have appeared on The New York Times bestseller lists. Her first nonfiction book,
The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings is scheduled for publication in November 2003.

Along with novelist Stephen King and columnist Dave Barry, Tan is a member of the literary garage
band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, for which she sings the Nancy Sinatra classic, “These Boots Are
Made for Walking,” to raise money for literacy and first amendment rights groups. Tan’s rendition of
the pop culture classic can be heard on the CD album, “Stranger than Fiction,” which benefits the PEN
Writers Fund. Amy Tan lives in San Francisco and New York with her husband, Lou DeMattei, and
their two Yorkshire terriers, Bubba and Lilli.

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AMY TAN -add two

Delia MacDougall (director) is a Charter Member of Word for Word, and has directed Upton
Sinclair’s “Oil!”, Dorothy Bryant’s “The Confessions of Madame Psyche”, Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs.
Dalloway’s Party”, Dino Buzzati’s “The Falling Girl”, and Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio”,
for which she won the Bay Area Critics Circle’s Best Director award, as well as Best Production and
Best Ensemble. She has acted in numerous stories with the company, including lead roles in “Rose-
Johnny” (Kingsolver), “Lily Daw and the Three Ladies” (Welty), and “Friend of My Youth” (Munro).
She also has directed for or performed with many other Bay Area theatre companies, including the
Magic Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Cal Shakespeare Festival, ACT, the Aurora Theatre, and
Campo Santo.

Michael Cheng (assistant director) has been acting and directing in the Bay Area for seven years,
and is currently an Associate Artist with the Shotgun Players. He has acted in numerous companies
in the Bay Area, including Word for Word, Campo Santo, The Shotgun Players, Theater of Yugen,
Porchlight Theater Company, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He was an Artist in Residence at the Z
Space Studio and co-wrote and co-directed the "Dream Like a Dream" workshop with Stan Lai, an 8-
hour play cycle which recieved several awards in Hong Kong and China.

WORD FOR WORD is a theatre company that transforms classic and contemporary fiction into performance
works for the stage. Founded in 1993 by Susan Harloe and JoAnne Winter, the company is entering its 11th
season. WORD FOR WORD performs short stories in their entirety, preserving the author’s language and
honoring his or her literary intent. WORD FOR WORD has staged works throughout the Bay Area, as well
as in France (through support from the Florence Gould Foundation in New York). In addition, WORD FOR
WORD presents its popular School and Library Tour twice yearly throughout Northern California. The
company has presented ten annual home seasons at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center. In 1997, WORD
FOR WORD received a special Bay Area Critics Circle Award for its unique concept and in 1998, the BACC
Award for Best Ensemble for their production of John Sayles’ “The Halfway Diner.” In 2002, they received six
BACC Awards, including Best Production, Ensemble, Director, and Sound for Winesburg, Ohio, and Best Set
and Sound for Oil! In 2003, they received yet another BACC award for Best Ensemble for their 2002
production of “Stories by Tobias Wolff”.

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CALENDAR EDITOR PLEASE NOTE:
WORD FOR WORD presents IMMORTAL HEART by author Amy Tan. Staged for WORD FOR
WORD’S 11TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW, IMMORTAL HEART reveals a hidden world, one
circumscribed by the powers of family and destiny, and the strict tenets of women's roles in rural China in the
1900's. Tan's heartfelt tale introduces us to a complex world of family ties, ghosts, mystery, duty, and love.
IMMORTAL HEART opens with a press night on Friday, July 16, at 8:30 PM at the Magic Theatre,
Southside (previews July 13,14,15). Amy Tan, award winning novelist of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s
Wife, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is distinguished for her compelling generational stories of mothers and
daughters, and her deeply etched characters and riveting dramatic plots.

IMMORTAL HEART by author Amy Tan July 16-August 8 , Magic Theatre.

WHEN: Runs July 16-August 8, WHERE: Magic Theatre, Southside
Preview: July 13,14,15 Bldg D, Fort Mason, San Francisco

TIME: 8:30 PM Wed-Sat & Tues. , 3 p.m. Sun.INFO: (415) 437-6775; www.zspace.org

TICKETS: $27, with $2 discounts to students and seniors. All Wed. and previews are pay-what-you-
can. For information and reservations, call (415) 437-6775.

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