WORD FOR WORD / Z SPACE 2027 SEASON
Z Space and Word for Word General Auditions
Z Space General Auditions Overview
Z Space is seeking Actors for future Z Space productions.
Word for Word Auditions Overview
Word for Word is seeking Actors for Word for Word’s 2027 Fall Production of Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell as well as general casting for Word for Word’s Off the Page staged reading Series.
Auditions:
Sunday, August 23, 2026 from 10 am - 6 pm, at Z Space (450 Florida St, SF)
Monday, August 24, 2026 from 10 am - 6 pm, at Z Space (450 Florida St, SF)
Callbacks for Word for Word’s 2027 Fall Production of Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell:
Thursday, September 3, 2026 from 10 am - 3 pm, at Z Below (470 Florida St, SF)
Friday, September 4, 2026 from 10 pm - 3 pm, at Z Below (470 Florida St, SF).
(times subject to change)
Submit Headshot and Resume to: casting@zspace.org by August 20th, 2026
Local AEA and non-AEA actors are highly encouraged to submit.
PLEASE NOTE: We are happy to receive submissions from non-local performers but we are unfortunately unable to provide local housing or transportation assistance.
Please see below for descriptions of the production and audition requirements.
Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell
(a Word for Word and Z Space production)
Director: Lisa Hori-Garcia
Rehearsals Begin: Week of August 23, 2027
Load-in/Tech: Week of September 20, 2027
Dress/Preview: Week of September 27, 2027
Opening: October 2, 2027
Closing: October 24, 2027
About “Reeling for the Empire” By Karen Russell
Set in Japan during the Meiji era’s, (1868-1912), rapid industrialization, the story follows a group of young women who are deceived into working at a silk factory where a mysterious transformation turns them into human silkworms. Through horror, humor, poetry, and collective resistance, the women discover the power of memory, identity, and transformation.
This production uses the Word for Word approach: the original text is performed with the full language, structure, and storytelling voice of the source material. Actors should have a strong relationship to text, an ability to embody narrative storytelling, and an interest in ensemble-based performance. The piece requires performers who can move fluidly between character, narrator, and collective storyteller, using voice, imagination, and physical transformation to create the world of the story.
The production requires actors with strong vocal clarity, imagination, theatrical flexibility, and comfort with heightened language, physical storytelling, and transformation-based performance. Performers should be comfortable using their bodies as part of the storytelling vocabulary of the piece.
SEEKING
A company of Asian American performers with strong theatrical storytelling skills.
Ideal candidates have:
Experience with heightened text or literary adaptation
Strong ensemble instincts
Vocal and physical flexibility
Comfort with physical storytelling, transformation-based performance, and ensemble-driven movement work
Interest in work exploring identity, labor, history, and collective action
ROLES
KITSUNE TAJIMA
(Principal Role; Female - 20s-30s)
The central storyteller of the piece. A young woman from Gifu whose choices, memories, guilt, and resilience shape the journey of the kaiko-joko. A deeply layered role requiring emotional range, strong storytelling skills, and the ability to move between intimate narration, character work, and physical transformation as Kitsune’s journey unfolds.
DAI
(Principal Role; Female - 40s-60s)
A natural leader among the workers at Nowhere Mill. Protective, compassionate, and fierce, Dai becomes the emotional center of the group and challenges the others to imagine a different future.
CHIYO
(Supporting Role; Female: 20s-40s)
A knowledgeable and grounded worker from a silk-producing village. Chiyo carries the history and traditions of sericulture and offers a connection to the world before the factory.
TOOKA
(Supporting Role; Female: Teen-20s)
One of the youngest recruits brought to Nowhere Mill. Innocent, frightened, and full of questions, Tooka experiences the horror of the factory world with fresh eyes.
ETSUYO
(Supporting Role; Female: Teen-20s)
Tooka’s older sister. Watchful, thoughtful, and protective, Etsuyo enters the factory alongside her sister and must navigate the shock of their transformation.
TSUKI
(Supporting Role; Female: 20s-40s)
A perceptive and practical worker who understands the Machine and later becomes an important collaborator in Kitsune’s transformation.
HOSHI
(Supporting Role; Female - 20s–40s)
The group’s haiku poet and self-appointed optimist. Hoshi brings humor, imagination, and humanity to the world of Nowhere Mill while facing profound transformation.
RECRUITMENT AGENT / ZOOKEEPER
(Principal Role; Male - 30s–50s)
The only male character in the world of the play. The Recruitment Agent is a charming, persuasive, and unsettling representative of the industrial empire who recruits the young women into the factory system. The actor will also portray the elderly blind Zookeeper, a mysterious presence who delivers food and collects silk from the workers at Nowhere Mill.
ADDITIONAL KAIKO-JOKO WORKERS/ENSEMBLE VOICES
(Supporting Ensemble Roles; Female - Various Ages)
Named workers include Yuna, Nishi, Iku, Gin, Mitsuki, Yoshi, and others, along with additional voices from the world of the story including family members, uncles, mothers, brothers, and other figures.
PLEASE NOTE: If called back for Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell you will be provided with sides to read during your audition.
Contract - The Reeling for the Empire
AEA BAT Tier II $545 /wk + health & pension.
NON-UNION $545 /wk
Contract- Word for Word Off the Page readings
Actor rate: $25 an hour
Approximate hours: 10-12 hrs (including performance)
About Off the Page: Word for Word's Off the Page staged reading series is the public's first look at pieces being considered for upcoming productions. With a public staged reading of a short story, audiences are invited to see the steps of the process of bringing a work from the page to the stage in the unique Word for Word style.
About Word for Word’s 2026 Season (TBA)
Word for Word Performing Arts Company performs short works of fiction, without changing a word, preserving the author’s voice and honoring their intent with inventive staging and theatrical distribution of the text. The company produces two full productions a year. In 2026, Word for Word will produce a summer production (TBD) and a fall production (TBD).
Contract - Summer and Fall Word for Word Full-Productions (TBA):
AEA: BAT Tier II ($519 /wk + health & pension).
NON-UNION: $519 /wk
About Off the Page
Word for Word's Off the Page staged reading series is the public's first look at pieces being considered for upcoming productions. With a public staged reading of a short story, audiences are invited to see the steps of the process of bringing a work from the page to the stage in the unique Word for Word style.
Contract - Word for Word Off the Page readings
Actor rate: $25 an hour
Approximate hours: 10-12 hrs (including performance)
Audition Requirements for these Word for Word Productions : please send a resume, headshot, and prepare one monologue for an in-person audition, no more than 3 minutes. You may also be asked to read from sides during your audition.
Headshots and resumes, as well as any questions, should be emailed to casting@zspace.org.
Personnel
Word for Word Artistic Director: JoAnne Winter
Word for Word Associate Artistic Director: Vanessa Flores Chacko
Executive Director, Z Space: Shafer Mazow
Curatorial Director, Z Space: Nikki Meñez
Questions? Contact: casting@zspace.org or visit www.zspace.org
Auditions may be reviewed and/or seen by:
Shafer Mazow - Executive Director, Z Space
Nikki Meñez - Curatorial Director, Z Space
JoAnne Winter - Word for Word, Artistic Director
Vanessa Flores Chacko - Word for Word, Associate Artistic Director
Gendell Hing-Hernàndez - Director of Word for WordPlay - Youth and Family Programming
Lisa Hori-Garcia- Director of Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell
Word for Word Core Company members
Word for Word Performing Arts Company performs short works of fiction, without changing a word, preserving the author’s voice and honoring their intent with inventive staging and theatrical distribution of the text. Word for Word believes in the power of the short story to provide solace, compassion, and insight into our daily lives. We bring stories from diverse cultures to our diverse communities and develop future audiences’ love for the printed and spoken word. Some of the many authors whose works we have produced include Barbara Kingsolver, Edward P. Jones, Tobias Wolff, George Saunders, Amy Tan, Colm Toíbin, Zora Neale Hurston and Lauren Groff.
Z Space empowers artistic risk, collaboration, and camaraderie amongst artists, audience, and community in the service of creating, developing, and presenting new work. In addition to being home to local and international artists and organizations, Z Space develops and produces its own new work. Over the past few years, Z Space has built a national reputation for developing and producing large-scale new works that reimagine the traditional musical theater form, receiving critical acclaim for Hundred Days (The Bengsons), The Lucky Ones (The Bengsons), and Weightless (The Kilbanes).
Z Space and Word for Word Casting Commitments
Z Space and Word for Word’s contracts prohibit discrimination. Z Space and Word for Word are committed to diversity and encourage all its employees to engage in a policy of equal employment opportunity designed to promote a positive model of inclusion. As such, Z Space and Word for Word encourage performers of all ethnicities, gender identities, and ages, as well as performers with disabilities, to submit.
Z SPACE COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS
All productions will follow COVID protocols as determined by Z Space in compliance with AEA infectious disease guidelines.
