A Killer Story — Staged Dramatic Reading
by Dan Harder

Presented on two dates:

Wednesday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 27 at 7:00 p.m.

Mystery, mayhem, and cold-blooded murder unfold in this staged dramatic reading of A Killer Story, a play written and directed by Dan Harder. This fast-paced entertaining “noir” tale is about a tough, bright private eye who outsmarts everybody, including himself, as he attempts to find a missing neuroscientist on the verge of creating a revolutionary/evolutionary "brain chip". Hired both by the scientist's wife and his business partner, our detective spins a yarn that traps all of them in a "killer story". Suspenseful and thought-provoking, this contemporary crime drama with a twist including Sam Spade references and a femme fatale is sure to thrill and delight.

Starring Bay Area talents Dixon Phillips, Lauren Tannenbaum, and Steven Winn. Randy Craig on piano provides a jazzy-evocative score for the show. Enjoy appropriate cocktails in our pre-show cabaret!

Dan Harder is a playwright, poet, essayist, novelist, librettist and journalist. Dan has written children’s books, features in the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, commentaries for NPR, books of essays and screenplays, and the libretto for Zipperz (a soaPOPera with music by Nat Stookey). His work has been extensively published and reviewed and has won numerous awards including the Children’s Book Council Award, a Bay Area Playwrights’ Foundation Award, and the Arvon International Poetry Contest judged by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heany. A native of Los Angeles and graduate of UC Berkeley, Dan currently lives in San Francisco and is head of the English Department at the International High School. He is finishing up a sci-fi novel and a new play.   A Killer Story is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Randy Craig (pianist) came to San Francisco to audition for the SF Mime Troupe as an actor. He was accepted and hasn't looked back since. He has worked as a performer, teacher, composer and musical director for most of the theaters  and clubs in the SF Bay Area.

Dixon Phillips has been a Bay Area film and stage actor for the past 35+ years. Until recently, he was known as Scott Phillips. He was Artistic Director of Sonoma County Repertory Theater in Sebastopol, CA, from 2008-2011, and Producing Artistic Director from 2002-2008, as well as a founding member of Trinity Shakespeare Company of San Francisco.

Lauren Tannenbaum is a San Francisco native who has been performing since she was a child. She was a member of Young People's Teen Musical Theater Company and trained in theater and opera at Occidental College. In 2012, Lauren's original play "House Fire" debuted at Keck Theater in Los Angeles. Since moving to New York Lauren has been performing with The Secret City at Dixon Place Theater, and has been working on a number of films. Her favorite roles to date include the Witch in "Into the Woods," Dido in Chuck Mee's "Trojan Women," Lucy in "Hit," and Ms. Rainy in "There's Got to be a Way." 

Steven Winn is a writer whose stage time is often spent at City Arts & Lectures, where he has joined Annette Bening, Steve Martin, Joel Grey and Anjelica Huston , among others, in conversation. For many years he sat in the audience, as a theater and culture critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. His memoir, Come Back, Como, has been translated into nine languages. He was born in Philadelphia and has never gotten over it.

Image at upper left: Madeline H. D. Brown and Ryan O'Donnell from The Marsh, 2013, premiere.