Zac and Siah or, Jesus in a Body Bag

by Jeffrey Lo 
Directed by Jeffrey Lo

Monday, November 16, 7pm Pacific

Jesus has just died on the cross and everyone is left confused and unsure of what to do next. Especially Jesus’ loyal homies Zac and Siah who - despite what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John will have you think - were really important to Jesus. Turning water into wine? They figured that out. Bread and fish for the village? Their handiwork as well. But when Jesus calls his shot and announces that he will rise from the dead, Zac and Siah become desperate to keep their friend’s credibility and the Good News alive.

Post-Show Conversation Moderated By

Professor Samer Al-Saber, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford University, is a director, writer, and scholar. His expertise comprises solving casting dilemmas, project management, setting up collaborations, and advancing theoretical/critical concepts to address immediate problems in the entertainment fields.  His written work appeared in Alt.Theatre, Performance Paradigm, Critical Survey, Theatre Survey, and other academic and trade venues, including the anthology Stories Under Occupation and Other Plays from Palestine, co-edited with Gary English. As director, his work was seen in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East and includes the Middle Eastern premier of Arthur Milner’s Facts and an Arabic adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Cast and Creatives

Jeffrey Lo (Playwright & Director) is a Filipino-American playwright and director who helmed TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s productions of The Language Archive and The Santaland Diaries. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theater Company, and The Custom Made Theatre Company. His play Writing Fragments Home was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwright's Conference and a semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwright's Conference. Recent directing credits include Vietgone at Capital Stage, Peter and the Starcatcher at Hillbarn Theatre, The Crucible, Yellow Face, and Dead Man's Cell Phone at Los Altos Stage Company, Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC award for Best Production), Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction) and The Drunken City at Renegade Theatre Experiment. Lo has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and San Francisco Playground. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Director Community Partnerships and Casting Director at the Tony Award Winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, a graduate of the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department. Jeffrey is also a founding member of OUR DIGITAL STORIES. Lo is set to direct TheatreWorks’s upcoming production of Queen in its 51st season.

Mia Bernardino (Performer) is a SAG-AFTRA member, first-generation Filipino-American woman, first-generation college graduate, Stanford Engineering graduate, and East Bay Area native. As an actress and singer, Mia has over twenty years of experience in media, entertainment, communications, and creative problem solving. She has appeared on the CW’s "Gilmore Girls," Nickelodeon’s “Victorious,” and more. She also opened for Brian McKnight and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" for the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants. Mia recently fell in love with screenwriting and is amazed by how she can create her own world of diverse characters and storylines.

Tiffany Cartagena is a B.A. candidate in Stanford’s Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) department; she has also studied acting at American Conservatory Theater’s Summer Training Congress. Most recently, she was the Assistant Costume Designer for the Beyond the Wound is a Portal (TAPS). Previous acting credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (TAPS), Too Good (Nitery Experimental Theater), and Marie Antoinette (Stanford Theater Lab). She greatly appreciates the opportunity to partner with TheaterWorks on this project!

Hamzeh Daoud (Performer) is a co-terminal masters student at Stanford in the program in Modern Thought and Literature. Their work focuses Arab Queer formations of self within the totalizing formations of Western Queerness. Their previous works include Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the Theater and Performance Studies’ Department 2017 mainstage production, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America with the Stanford Theater Project, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with the Stanford Shakespeare Company, and Moisés Kaufman and Stephen Belber’s The Laramie Project.

Marina J. Bergenstock (Performer) is a first year PhD student in Stanford’s Theatre and Performance Studies Department. She is a director, dramaturg, and educator. She received her MFA in Directing at the University of Iowa. Marina’s research interests include hyphenated and diasporic identities and the performance of them in the Arab world and in the United States, and theatre as a catalyst for political, structural, and social reform. This past year, she was the Assistant Director and Dramaturg for the world premiere production of Fouad Teymour’s Twice, Thrice, Frice… at Silk Road Rising.