Z Space Presents The World Premiere Of RIPPED By Rachel Bublitz

Z Space, one of the nation's leading laboratories for the development of new works, is pleased to present the world premiere of Ripped by Rachel Bublitz,May 22 - June 15, 2019. The play will be directed by Executive Artistic Director Lisa Steindler, with a vision that will incorporate set and lighting design by Colm McNally, costume design by Christine Dinkel, and sound design by Sara Huddleston.

Previews begin on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at Z Below, press opening is on Saturday, May 25.

Ripped is about Lucy, a freshman in college, who juggles her affections for her high school boyfriend, Bradley, and her new crush, Jared. As she struggles to find a balance between the new and the old, an unwanted sexual encounter leaves her confused and scared. The play moves back and forth through time and space as Lucy tries to piece together the unraveling interactions between herself and the two young men she's torn between, illuminating the events behind her uncertainty and sparking questions regarding consent.

The world premiere cast will feature Krystle Piamonte (Lucy), Daniel Chung (Jared), and Edwin Jacobs (Bradley).

Ripped has received seven readings from theaters all over the country, but Z Space is the first to commit to production. Z Space presented a reading of Ripped in October 2018 as part of Z Space's inaugural Problematic Play Festival, a staged reading series focused on examining and discussing what makes a work too "problematic" to produce. The reading inspired much discussion and debate, especially given the widespread prevalence of sexual abuse and harassment.

"We decided to produce this play because we believe in the playwright, the story, and the pressing nature of the ongoing conversation around sexual assault," says Associate Artistic Director Rose Oser. "Ripped takes a polarizing subject and makes it very gray, very messy, and very worthy of discussion. Of course, it is risky to produce a piece of theater that contains moral ambiguities, but we believe that the ambiguities and nuance are precisely what makes the story so powerful."

The production is supported in part by a grant from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation.

Rachel Bublitz (playwright) lives in Salt Lake City. In the Bay Area, she has worked with San Francisco Playhouse, Playwrights Foundation, Custom Made Theatre, and PlayGround. Around the country, she has collaborated with Salt Lake Acting Company, Plan-B Theatre, This Is Water, Wyoming Theater Festival, and many others. Awards include: Detroit New Works Festival Winner (Ripped), Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist (Let's Fix Andy), Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heideman Finalist (Really Adult), ATHE's Award of Excellence in Playwriting Finalist (Ripped), and PlayGround's June Anne Baker Prize. Her play My Bodywas published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2014. She has two plays published with YouthPLAYS; Clever Catherine, and NO TALKING ALLOWED!. Rachel has an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

About Z Space

Z Space, based in the Mission District of San Francisco, is one of the nation's leading laboratories for the development of new works. Led by Executive Artistic Director Lisa Steindler since 2007, Z Space celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018, continuing its mission to empower artistic risk, collaboration and camaraderie amongst artists and audience in the service of commissioning, developing, and producing new work.

Keystone initiatives include New Work, a development, production, and presentation program that supports artists and ensembles from conception to realization of unique works; Word for Word, a resident theater company that transforms works of literature verbatim to the stage; Youth Arts, an arts education program promoting literacy and creativity; and the subsidized rental program which opens our venues for use by a variety of other art groups.

Z Space fills an essential role in the Bay Area's arts ecology and continues to raise its profile and partnerships both regionally and nationally. Eschewing traditional theater models with fixed seasons and subscription packages, Z Space chooses to remain flexible, to focus on artists' needs, and to facilitate the time and resources necessary to develop each project fully.

www.zspace.org