Peter Sinn Nachtrieb at Z Space
Playwright
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, 6’6”, is a San Francisco-based playwright who often writes about misifts, biology, apocalypse, and people struggling against large systems. His works include the plays boom (TCG’s most produced play 2009-10), BOB: A Life in 5 Acts, The Totalitarians, Hunter Gatherers, The Making of a Great Moment, A House Tour of the Infamous Porter Family Mansion with Tour Guide Weston Ludlow Londonderry, T.I.C. (Trenchcoat In Common), Colorado, Litter: The True Story of the Framingham Dodecutuplets, and the musical Fall Springs with composer/co-lyricist Niko Tsakalakos. His work has been seen off-Broadway and across the world including at Ars Nova, Woolly Mammoth, Seattle Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Southern Rep, Barrington Stage Company, Kitchen Dog, Merrimack Repertory, and in the Bay Area at Z Space, A.C.T., Encore Theatre, Killing My Lobster, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, and The Bay Area Playwrights Festival. His plays have received numerous awards including the Will Glickman Prize, The Stavis Award, The ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award, among others. Peter is an alumna of New Dramatists and was the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Z Space in San Francisco 2013-18. He holds a degree in Theater and Biology from Brown and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He likes to promote himself online at www.peternachtrieb.com.
Theatre
Z Space is a hub for artists and audiences to revel in the creation, development, and production of outstanding new work. We commission, develop, present and produce a full season of new works from a variety of disciplines including theater, dance, music, performance art, and new media. We foster opportunities around the nation for these works and we engage diverse audiences through direct interactions with the process, the projects, and the artists.
Residency Activity
Peter’s relationship with Z Space and its artistic director, Lisa Steindler, had extended almost ten years before his Mellon residency began. It was also extraordinarily convenient, with the theater being a twenty minute walk from his apartment. Throughout the residency, he would work onsite two to four days a week.
Over the six years, Peter spent much of his time developing five major projects (four plays and a musical). Z Space produced and presented three of them and all have continued their lives beyond their Z Space productions. Peter felt the residency allowed him to stretch himself as an artist as well as try new forms and creative processes (including the writing of pieces for specific performers, writing an immersive/mobile audience play, and developing his first musical). He was often the artistic director of his own creative process, determining what developmental steps were needed along the way (and using funds from the grant to finance them).
Peter also ingrained himself into the life of Z Space, contributing in numerous ad hoc capacities including attending the weekly staff meetings, writing and contributing to numerous marketing and development initiatives, reading scripts, hosting a weekly writers group, organizing and hosting community salons and events, sharing knowledge and experience from the field, and serving as an ambassador for the theatre at large.
As of this writing, Peter continues to keep his desk at Z Space and facilitates a weekly writers group. He’s also joined the Board of Directors.