Joan Howard (Visual Design & Carpentry) is a physical theatre performer and clown, as well as a builder and scenic artist committed to creating stages that partner with performers. Joan has presented original performances at LEVYSalon, Barbary Coast Amusements, Literary Clown Foolery, The Clown Cabaret, 8ight, and is a company member with foolsFURY. Joan has also performed with the site-specific company We Players, and is one-half of the acrobatic clown duo Max & Antoinette, who have performed at San Francisco Theater Pub and the 2013 Factory Parts Festival. Joan is a graduate of Flying Actor Studio’s Physical Theatre Conservatory, and holds a BFA in Sculpture/Performance Art from California College of Arts & Crafts. She is honored to be co-creating O Best Beloved with Rebecca and this incredible cast and design team. Thank you, all of you!

Rebecca Longworth (Direction) is a theatre maker dedicated to creating original ensemble performance and rich audience experiences. She has directed plays for New Conservatory Theatre Center, Theatre Q, SF Theatre Pub, the One-Minute Play Festival, Ragged Wing Ensemble, Jump! Theatre, Boxcar Theatre, Dragon Productions and El Gato Family Theatre; and creates site-specific installations and performances with the Hatch Collective (www.hatchperformance.org). She has performed with Ragged Wing Ensemble, foolsFURY, and We Players, and has designed digital projections for Custom Made, Jump! Theatre, Crowded Fire and Shotgun Players. Rebecca holds an MA in Text & Performance Studies from King’s College/R.A.D.A. and is a member of the 2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Leigh Rondon-Davis (Production Consultant) (they/them) is a performer, dramaturg, and director from both New York City and the Bay Area. They attended Wellesley College and were a member of Oakland’s Laney College Fusion Theatre Project. Leigh’s performance credits include: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and Inked Baby (Crowded Fire Theater), Port Stories (Idiot String), Variety Pack in 2018 and 2019 (Cutting Ball Theater), Where The Boys Are (FaultLine Theater), A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Curran and Magic Theatre), and Hamlet and Dance of the Holy Ghosts (Oakland Theater Project). They have directed and dramaturged at Shotgun Players, Oakland Theater Project, PlayGround, Aurora Theatre Company, Crowded Fire, TheatreFirst, Playwrights Foundation, Moxie Arts NYC, 3GirlsTheatre, The Bowstring Collective, and Magic Theatre. Leigh currently works for Shotgun Players in Berkeley and Crowded Fire Theater in SF where they host a weekly Twitch Stream and are a Resident Artist. They are also an Artistic Company Member at Shotgun and Oakland Theater Project, and Producing Director at The Forum Collective.

Radhika Rao (Production Consultant)

Marlene Yarosh (Production Coordinator, A Lord of a Ring)

Megan Hillard (Scenic Painting and Design) has made the key properties for plays such as Sam Shepard’s Buried Child and Lie of the Mind for Boxcar Theater Company. She studied Studio Art with an emphasis in sculpture at Sonoma State University. During the day she acts as a supervisor for the Potrero Hill Whole Foods tap room, Steep Brew. Megan also enjoys craft beer and learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, occasionally at the same time.

Paul Collins (Carpentry) 

Viviana Matsuda (Costume Construction, Aesop Amuck) 

Vanessa Ramos (Stage Manager, O Best Beloved)

Idiot String (Production Company) is the joint venture of Rebecca Longworth and Joan Howard. Our work engages audiences with highly entertaining interactive performances that incite delight and spontaneous community wherever we appear. We seek to provoke audiences into a more complete engagement with daily life by disrupting the habit of taking public space and everyday objects and events for granted. Whether performing in a theatre, on the street, or in the open air, we create opportunities for joyful shared experience and participatory fun. Idiot String devised and produced the Peripatetic Players’ first production, O Best Beloved, based on the stories of Rudyard Kipling. O Best Beloved was awarded a “Best Of Fringe” designation for its premierw at the 2013 San Francisco Fringe Festival, and went on to tour Bay Area parks and public spaces aboard FluxWagon, our mobile stage, during 2014. Idiot String also hosts occasional Physical Theatre Salons, originally at Main Street Theatre, and coming soon to Bancroft Island in East Oakland. www.idiotstring.org