Drawing by Julia Kuhl

Lynne Kaufman &
Joseph Le Doux’s
Map of Your Mind

Staged reading of a new musical!

In Person at the San Francisco Mainstage

Playwright: Lynne Kaufman
Director: Lynne Kaufman
Co-writer, Lyricist, and Music: Joseph LeDoux
Musical Director: Colin Dempsey
Light/Soundboard Operator: Alexa Almira

Performers: Andre Amaratico | Arwen Anderson | Meg Mackay | Wiley Naman Strasser | Chloe Wintersteen

Guitarists: Joseph LeDoux | Colin Dempsey
Drummer: Bob Blankenship

FREE – Click to Reserve Tickets

Friday January 20, 2023
2pm & 8pm

Show Information

Tickets: FREE
90 minutes | No intermission | Ages 16+
Please do not bring infants to the show

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Health, Safety and COVID-19 Information
Our commitment to our patrons

Proof of vaccination along with valid ID
Face Coverings are required

About the Show

Map of Your Mind illuminates the lives of four people in a therapy group for PTSD as they share their stories and strive to heal. The insights on memory and emotion are based on the work of co-writer and neuroscientist, Joseph Le Doux.

Artist Biographies

LYNNE KAUFMAN – Playwright:

Lynne Kaufman is the author of four novels and two dozen plays. Her latest novel, “Divine Madness” is written as a diary by critic Elizabeth Hardwick about her tumultuous relationship with poet Robert Lowell. Her latest play “Poetic Justice” is playing the month of January, 2023 at The Marsh. It is her fourth play premiered at The Marsh. Her play, “Who killed Sylvia Plath”, after a three month run at The Marsh Theatres in San Francisco and Berkeley, won The Marshstream International Solo Festival.

Her plays have been produced at such theatres as Theatreworks Silicon Valley, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, The Magic Theatre in San Francisco, Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, and The Abingdon Theatre in New York City. Her awards include the NEA/Kennedy Center Fund for new American Plays, Theatreworks Best New Play in California and Critics Circle Best New Play in San Francisco.

Many of her works feature real historical characters at a crisis point in their lives. Rather than biography, they serve as a vessel for approaching the deep questions in her own life. She lives in San Francisco and teaches writing at The Fromm Institute at USF and OLLI at SFState University.

JOSEPH LeDOUX – Co-writer, Lyricist, and Music:
Joseph LeDoux is a University Professor and Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at New York University, and he directs the Emotional Brain Institute of NYU. His work is focused on the brain mechanisms of emotion, memory and consciousness. LeDoux has received a number of awards for his research, and he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences USA. He is also the author of several books, including The Emotional Brain, Synaptic Self, Anxious (2016 APA William James Book Award), and The Deep History of Ourselves (finalist for the 2020 Pen America E. O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing). He is the 2023 President-Elect of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. He is also the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, The Amygdaloids, and performs with Colin Dempsey as the acoustic duo, So Are We.

COLIN DEMPSEY – Musical Director:

Colin Dempsey is an Irish singer-songwriter, writer and storyteller based in New York. He has performed his unique blend of folk-rock music in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and most recently the US. When not strumming, Colin is cheering audiences with personal tales of growing up in Dublin. When not telling stories (yes, he does shut-up…) he is writing them–you can catch him doing so at Kettle of Fish in the West Village or Cafe Bar in Astoria…at the bar. Colin is the singer and guitarist for original folk-rock band Supersmall. Their debut E.P. This Other World can be found on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Pandora, Google Play and Spotify. It was released in June 2013 to positive reviews and they continue to perform in venues all throughout New York. They are currently writing their first full length album. Colin also plays bass guitar for New York neuroscience rock band The Amygdaloids.

ANDRE AMAROTICO – Performer:

Andre Amarotico studied Theatre at Stanford University. He was recently featured in Presidio Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty, and Neighborhood Stories, in a short untitled play by Pulitzer nominated playwright Amy Freed. Andre was TBA nominated for his work in RVP’s The 39 Steps. He has also performed with Mountain Play, Cutting Ball, Word for Word, 6th Street Playhouse, and Stanford Repertory. Andre is an actor and collective member at the Tony Award winning SF Mime Troupe. Up next, he will be playing John Wilkes Booth in Assassins at Hillbarn Theatre.

ARWEN ANDERSON – Performer:

Arwen Anderson loves new plays and has been privileged to work on many of Lynne’s wonderful scripts over the years. Regional credits include: Testmatch, Men on Boats, Heisenberg, Let There Be Love, A Christmas Carol, and Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (workshop) at A.C.T., King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, and The Verona Project (world premiere) at California Shakespeare Theater; August: Osage County, Anne Boleyn, Circle Mirror Transformation, Bellwether (world premiere), and A Streetcar Named Desire at Marin Theatre Company; An Accident, Mrs. Whitney, Expedition 6, The rules of Charity (all world premiers), and Mauritius at Magic Theater; White Girls’s guide to International Terrorism, The Fit, and 77% at San Francisco Playhouse; Miss Julie at Stanford Repertory Theater; Lobby Hero and The Shape of Things at Aurora Theatre Company; You Know When Men Are Gone and 4 Adverbs with Word for Word Performing Arts Company; and roles with American Stage Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, Marin Shakespeare Company, Brava! for Women in the Arts, Encore Theater Company, and Central Works Theater Company. Her film work includes Hog Island, Ashley 22, and Dark Retreat. Arwen is a graduate of Wesleyan university.

MEG MACKAY – Performer:

Meg Mackay has been a fixture on the San Francisco cabaret and musical theater scene for 30+ years and is the winner of 6 Drama-Logue/Dean Goodman and 7 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for her work in Hello, Dolly!, Roberta, The Grass Harp, A Karen Carpenter Christmas, And What, Give Up Show Biz?, Torch Song Trilogy (National Tour), The World Goes ‘Round, She Loves Me and Putting it Together. Recently, she has played Momma Rose (Gypsy), Countess Aurelia (Dear World), and Adelaide (Guys and Dolls). Meg has recorded two critically acclaimed CD’s, So Many People and Legally Blonde, which was named one of the Top 10 CD’s of 1988 by InTheater magazine.

WILEY NAMAN STRASSER – Performer:
Wiley Naman Strasser is an Armenian-American actor, dancer and musician. He is passionate about new plays and physical theater and committed to uplifting underrepresented experiences through the intersection of text, movement, and music. A graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television, he has also trained with Pig Iron, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, CalArts, Yuyachkani (Lima), and Teatr Zar and the Grotowski Institute (Wroclaw).

Bay Area collaborations over the past decade include work with Shotgun Players, San Francisco Playhouse, Mugwumpin, Magic Theatre, Hope Mohr Dance, Golden Thread, detour dance, Cutting Ball, Crowded Fire, Berkeley Rep, and Aurora. He has also performed in Los Angeles, New York City, Europe, and South America. Recognitions include a TITAN Award for Acting from Theatre Bay Area and an SF Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle Nomination for Best Principal Actor in a Musical.

Most recently, Wiley appeared in a workshop reading of Denmo Ibrahim’s Kal and Dija Save the World, directed by Evren Odcikin with The Civilians. Before that he was seen in Golden Thread’s world premiere of Drowning in Cairo, the Detour Dance film series, Up On High, and the Broadway national tour of A Christmas Carol.

CHLOE WINTERSTEEN: – Performer:

Chloe Wintersteen (she/her) is a recent graduate of Stanford University where she earned a double BA in theater and American Studies, a minor in music, and a master’s in journalism. She is native to the Bay Area and recently performed in Follies at San Francisco Playhouse as Young Sally u/s and a swing. Chloe has enjoyed performing with America Conservatory Theater, Throckmorton Theatre, Stanford Live, Stanford University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the American Theatre Wing. Favorite roles include Mother in Ragtime, Desiree in A Little Night Music, Emcee in Cabaret, and Venus in One Touch of Venus. She is looking forward to performing in Anything Goes at 42nd Street Moon this winter. In addition to performance, Chloe is passionate about creative writing and spent the past year writing her debut novel!