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 Canyon Sam
Canyon Sam is a writer and
performance artist with a long, history of
involvement in arts and social activism. Sam
received her MFA in Creative Writing from San
Francisco State University. She was an
artist-in-residence with Poets and Writers, Inc.
(spring 1998), has taught at San Francisco State
University and New College of California, and
guest-lectured at universities and theater
festivals in the U.S. and Canada. She has won
numerous artist's grants and awards, including a
National Endowment for the Arts scholarship at
the age of eighteen and for the Jerome
Fellowship at the Playwright's Center in
Minneapolis.
Ms. Sam's one woman show The Dissident,
about her travels in China and Tibet and her
human rights work with Buddhist nuns, played at
the Walker Art Center, the Asia Society, New
York, the Solo Mio festival, and headlined the
National Women's Theater Festival, prompting The
Village Voice to dub her "a master
storyteller ... whose work is real, specific,
and universally relevant." Ms. Sam has
published fiction, non-fiction, and drama in
over two dozen publications. Her published works
include The Wild Good: Lesbian Photographs and
Writings on Love (Anchor/Doubleday, 1996),
Writing by Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian
and Bisexual Women (Sister Vision Press, 1994),
and "New Lesbian Writing" (Seattle
Review, 1990). The Dissident appears in
Amazon All-Stars: Thirteen Lesbian Plays,
published by Applause Books, and is being made
into a film.
WHAT CRITICS SAID ABOUT
THE DISSIDENT
"Riveting "
The Boston Globe
"A mesmerizing theater of conscience
piece."
San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Her genius lies in her ability to
inspire through storytelling."
Bay Area Reporter
 CAPACITY
TO ENTER, a solo performance
written and performed by native San Franciscan
Canyon Sam explores what happens when practice
of the third Buddhist precept on sexual
responsibility and one woman's mid-life hormones
collide. It's a hilarious tour of political and
spiritual commitments put to the fire.
Through a series of finely drawn character
monologues, the collision of spirituality,
sexuality, and politics is stretched to the
edge. The cast of brilliant characters come to
life on a bare stage including a wry Zen master,
a Tibet scholar, a radical lesbian separatist, a
bewildered Chinese American mother, an Italian
chef, and a hip hop poet.  Entangled
in a 1990's-style web of desire and stained by
her treks to the desolate land of Tibet, Sam
weaves a hilarious yet illuminating adventure of
the conflict that arises when desire and
identity, and Buddhism and modern day America
come crashing together. The Village Voice calls
Sam "one of the best of the next wave of
Asian American solo performance artists".
Capacity to Enter was developed by Sam as an
artist-in-residence at the Jon Sims Center for
the Performing Arts in early 1997, with grant
support from the Zellerbach Family Fund.
Ms.Sam divides her time between
performance,travel and her forthcoming book,
Encountering Tara: One Woman's Spiritual Journey
Among the Women of Tibet. The book chronicles
her travels, activism, and Buddhist practice.
AUDIENCE RESPONSES TO
CAPACITY TO ENTER
"Canyon Sam shines
in an honest, funny, and illuminating work,
which explores the spiritual and material
attitudes surrounding contemporary sexual
identity. A mature, brave work-subtle and
sophisticated in its approach and insights. What
I really appreciated was the simplicity ... just
a bench, a bell ... It'd be very beneficial for
young people undergoing self-questioning about
their sexuality."
-Genny Lim,
poet/playwright and Professor of Humanities, New
College of California
"Capacity to Enter stands bisexuality on
its head....Bold, original, intelligent, and
laugh-out-loud funny...immersing us in that
age-old question: what then is the true path of
the human heart?....
Leslie Kirk Campbell, Ripe Fruit School of
Writing
"How refreshing to see the
closet door thrown open in both directions.
Sam's performance was wonderful, affecting,
sensitive, and wry."
-Caroline Pincus, Book
Editor
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