Unconditional Theatre explores contemporary issues and events through the actual words, stories, and participation of those involved.  By conducting interviews, sharing stories, and facilitating dialogue, we involve communities directly in dramatic work that builds understanding and seeks to inspire social change.   In addition to presenting documentary performances in community settings, we host Story Swaps (participatory storytelling events), Political Dialogues (readings of newspapers & ballot books), and Unconditional Testimonials (interview-based performances honoring individuals).

Ongoing Programs

STORY SWAPS & POLITICAL DIALOGUES
These periodic events give you the opportunity to discuss current issues, read roles from the news, and share stories of your own. We often create dramatic scenes on the spot, using the newspaper or the ballot book as our source material. 

DOCUMENTARY THEATRE WORKSHOPS
The members of Unconditional Theatre are available to lead workshops in our community-based technique of gathering interviews and developing documentary plays.  These workshops offer valuable training to educators, activists and artists alike, regardless of past theatrical experience.  We can tailor workshops to your particular needs and timeframes, ranging from 1-hour conference presentations to full-day weekend intensives.

GUEST ARTIST COURSES
We have extensive experience in working with students to develop interview-based plays on social issues of national relevance.  (Check out this segment from KQED's show 'SPARK' on Director John Warren's documentary theatre work with local students.)  Please contact us to discuss ways that we might work with your students to build links between artistic expression and social relevance.

Mission Statement

* Unconditional Theatre seeks to develop a more informed and engaged citizenry, better equipped to participate effectively in our democracy.

* We strive to illuminate issues within a community, foster dialogue among their members, and impact their behavior as voters and activists. 

* We work to foster understanding of different perspectives, through direct engagement with one another’s stories. 

* In service to these principles, Unconditional Theatre engages in dramatic exploration of events and issues through the actual words, stories, and participation of impacted individuals and communities. 

* We offer our audiences communal, participatory experiences that use the tools of theatre and dialogue expand their role from passive observer to active collaborator, both within our programs and out in the world.

Company Members

John Warren

Joan Bernier (Company Member) is an actor and playwright who has assisted in the creation of Unconditional Theatre's Women on Death Row, Swing State Stories, and Voices of Activism: Crawford.  Her most recent original plays are The Magdalen and a stage adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  She has performed onstage with Shotgun Players, Woman's Will, Subterranean Shakespeare, Ghostlight Theater and Whollyfools, and has appeared on the indy screen with SlantRhyme and Red Suit Productions.   She graduated from Humboldt State and has trained locally with Bill Peters and Tony Taccone.  Joan works as a licensed speech therapist.

 

Ashley Boyd (Company Member) is a community organizer, group facilitator, and public deliberation expert with experience convening public policy forums on national, regional and citywide levels, with a specialty in developing innovative approaches to outreach, communications and sustained civic engagement.  She is a Senior Associate with AmericaSpeaks, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to giving citizens a greater voice in public policy decision-making.  Ashley plays a leadership role in designing and producing their 21st Century Town Meetings, where she managed their national Americans Discuss Social Security project and served as Project Manager for “Listening to the City”, a 4,000 person town meeting that generated input on the initial plans for the former World Trade Center site.  She has served as a community facilitator through the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center of San Mateo, including work with San Mateo County Child Welfare Department and Redwood City Preschool for All Committee, and has presented at the EPA Community Information Conference and the National Coalition of Dialogue & Deliberation.  Ashley participated in pro-choice/pro-life dialogues sponsored by Search for Common Ground, and recently convened and facilitated several women’s community groups on issues of self-empowerment and personal strategic planning.  She has received facilitation training through the Gestalt Institute, Community at Work, Training for Change, and the Interactive Institute for Social Change, and holds an M.A. in Political Communication from the University of Maryland.

Jennifer Gordon (Company Member) is an actor, director and drama therapist who has worked professionally in both New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.  For many years, she worked with men incarcerated for violent crimes in the San Francisco Sheriff's Department's RSVP (Resolve to Stop the Violence Program) and with children of incarcerated parents.  She has collaborated numerous times with Community Works and Soapstone Theater to develop personal narratives with former perpetrators and survivors of violence, including their productions of (Un)Common Ground, Boxing with Ghosts, and Cracking the Safe.  She currently works with mental health patients at Laguna Honda Hospital.

 

Tom Parker (Company Member) is a director, dramaturg and graphic designer.  He has assisted in the direction and script development of numerous Unconditional Theatre plays since 1998, including The Baltimore Waltz, Greensboro: A Requiem, Women on Death Row, Swing State Stories, and Voices of Activism: Crawford.  In past years he produced the company's short-play reading series, Conditional Stagings, and currently collaborates on Political Dialogues.  Additional directing credits include Eric Overmyer's In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe for Custom Made Theatre Company.  As a graphic designer he regularly works with Woman's Will and currently serves as Projects Manager for Zaudhaus Design.  He graduated from UCLA.
 

Named "Best Highly Itinerant Local Theater Company"
--SF Weekly's "Best of 1999"

"One of the most reliably excellent experimental troupes in town."
--San Francisco Magazine