PRESS
NATIONAL DELIVERY
Contact: Joe Christiano
(510) 841-5139
[email protected]
For immediate release:
Thursday, July 10, 2025
National Delivery presents
Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun In the First Act
August 15,16, 21-23, 2025, 7:30 pm
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley
The spirits of two legendary California architects meet when a celebrated play about Sarah Winchester comes to the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club for a limited engagement.
Written and staged by Joe Christiano, and performed by Lisa Morse, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act will be presented August 15-23, 7:30pm, at the Berkeley City Club. A post-show talkback with the playwright and actor will follow each performance.
Tickets at nationaldelivery.org via Eventbrite.
Guns, grief, and ghosts. In a sprawling mansion of her own design, Sarah Winchester navigates a complex legacy: she's lost everything of value - her husband, her child - and gained a fortune. Her net worth can be measured in dollars... or blood. The confounding splendor of her new California home invites wonder and rumor. But one night, before the legends take over, the heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company gives a personal tour of her conspicuous dwelling for a few lucky guests.
Since its debut in 2023, Joe Christiano’s new solo-character play, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act has been presented by Shotgun Players, San Jose’s City Lights Theater Company, San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute, and other historic Bay Area locations. For a limited engagement, it now comes to the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club, bringing together the sensibilities of two legendary female architects of California.
In thirteen distinct scenes, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act imagines the reclusive architect of San Jose’s legendary “Winchester Mystery House” welcoming guests for a tour of the mansion at its grandest reach of development. Each stop is an occasion for revelation. “The aspects of a house must have a value beyond, even above, utility,” Winchester says, demystifying — or remystifying? — her intentions. As she guides us through “The Hall of Fire,” “The Witch’s Cap,” “The Séance Room,” and other storied features of the house, a portrait emerges not of a superstitious woman warding off a curse but a bereaved woman creatively liberated from the strictures of her time by the mixed gift of fortune. In the act of welcoming strangers to her grandiose but essentially empty mansion, Mrs. Winchester also liberates herself from a decades-long season of self-imposed isolation.
Celebrated writer Mary Roach (Stiff, Bonk, Packing for Mars) calls Mrs. Winchester, "An hour and twenty minutes of brilliance.”
About National Delivery
National Delivery (formerly First Person Singular), is a series of dramatic American monologues drawn from a variety of sources. Founded in 2010, the series pairs performers with original and adapted material, and has been featured at Bay Area bookstores, literary festivals, repertory theaters, and museums, garnering multiple awards and media notices.
“A dramatic reading series that means to redefine not only the literary event but the literary as such.” - Greil Marcus, The Believer
Productions include The Divine Game: Vladimir Nabokov at Cornell; Articles of Faith: Flannery O’Connor’s Letters to “A.”; Find Your Song: The Blues Arias of August Wilson; Stealing the Leads: Women Read Glengarry Glen Ross; Grief is Good: The Daily Existentialism of Peanuts; and evenings dedicated to the songs of Patti Smith, Johnny Cash, and Warren Zevon.
About Joe Christiano
In addition to National Delivery, Joe Christiano also founded HOOT! — a community concert series that celebrates our musical heritage in collaborative evenings of song. HOOT! has been featured in the roaming column Real Life Rock (Village Voice, Artforum, Salon, Pitchfork), collected and published in two volumes by Yale University Press (2016; 2022). HOOT! has offered multiple monthly shows since 2011, and released its first album in 2021: Torch Songs: For Refugees, Detainees, and Immigrants Under Siege.
In addition, Christiano has written essays about subjects as varied as In-N-Out Burger and Golden Gate Bridge suicides, respectively, for The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine.
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Contact: Joe Christiano
(510) 841-5139
[email protected]
For immediate release:
Thursday, July 10, 2025
National Delivery presents
Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun In the First Act
August 15,16, 21-23, 2025, 7:30 pm
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley
The spirits of two legendary California architects meet when a celebrated play about Sarah Winchester comes to the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club for a limited engagement.
Written and staged by Joe Christiano, and performed by Lisa Morse, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act will be presented August 15-23, 7:30pm, at the Berkeley City Club. A post-show talkback with the playwright and actor will follow each performance.
Tickets at nationaldelivery.org via Eventbrite.
Guns, grief, and ghosts. In a sprawling mansion of her own design, Sarah Winchester navigates a complex legacy: she's lost everything of value - her husband, her child - and gained a fortune. Her net worth can be measured in dollars... or blood. The confounding splendor of her new California home invites wonder and rumor. But one night, before the legends take over, the heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company gives a personal tour of her conspicuous dwelling for a few lucky guests.
Since its debut in 2023, Joe Christiano’s new solo-character play, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act has been presented by Shotgun Players, San Jose’s City Lights Theater Company, San Francisco’s Mechanics’ Institute, and other historic Bay Area locations. For a limited engagement, it now comes to the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club, bringing together the sensibilities of two legendary female architects of California.
In thirteen distinct scenes, Mrs. Winchester, or, A Gun in the First Act imagines the reclusive architect of San Jose’s legendary “Winchester Mystery House” welcoming guests for a tour of the mansion at its grandest reach of development. Each stop is an occasion for revelation. “The aspects of a house must have a value beyond, even above, utility,” Winchester says, demystifying — or remystifying? — her intentions. As she guides us through “The Hall of Fire,” “The Witch’s Cap,” “The Séance Room,” and other storied features of the house, a portrait emerges not of a superstitious woman warding off a curse but a bereaved woman creatively liberated from the strictures of her time by the mixed gift of fortune. In the act of welcoming strangers to her grandiose but essentially empty mansion, Mrs. Winchester also liberates herself from a decades-long season of self-imposed isolation.
Celebrated writer Mary Roach (Stiff, Bonk, Packing for Mars) calls Mrs. Winchester, "An hour and twenty minutes of brilliance.”
About National Delivery
National Delivery (formerly First Person Singular), is a series of dramatic American monologues drawn from a variety of sources. Founded in 2010, the series pairs performers with original and adapted material, and has been featured at Bay Area bookstores, literary festivals, repertory theaters, and museums, garnering multiple awards and media notices.
“A dramatic reading series that means to redefine not only the literary event but the literary as such.” - Greil Marcus, The Believer
Productions include The Divine Game: Vladimir Nabokov at Cornell; Articles of Faith: Flannery O’Connor’s Letters to “A.”; Find Your Song: The Blues Arias of August Wilson; Stealing the Leads: Women Read Glengarry Glen Ross; Grief is Good: The Daily Existentialism of Peanuts; and evenings dedicated to the songs of Patti Smith, Johnny Cash, and Warren Zevon.
About Joe Christiano
In addition to National Delivery, Joe Christiano also founded HOOT! — a community concert series that celebrates our musical heritage in collaborative evenings of song. HOOT! has been featured in the roaming column Real Life Rock (Village Voice, Artforum, Salon, Pitchfork), collected and published in two volumes by Yale University Press (2016; 2022). HOOT! has offered multiple monthly shows since 2011, and released its first album in 2021: Torch Songs: For Refugees, Detainees, and Immigrants Under Siege.
In addition, Christiano has written essays about subjects as varied as In-N-Out Burger and Golden Gate Bridge suicides, respectively, for The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine.
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Lisa Morse
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Joe Christiano
