SEE ‘NPR PRESENTS WATER+/-’ AT THE REGENCY BALLROOM, NOVEMBER 12

Presented in Partnership with KQED

November 5, 2014; San Francisco, Calif. – NPR and KQED are proud to announce NPR Presents Water +/- in San Francisco on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at 8PM ET. The performance combines national and local news coverage, music, poetry, storytelling and visual projections to explore how too much or too little water is shaping lives and affecting communities around the country and the world. Tickets for the event at The Regency Ballroom are $25 and available for purchase now, here.

In San Francisco, the production will be co-hosted by NPR’s Michele Norris and KQED Science Editor Craig Miller. Featured actors include Tony Award-nominee, Jason Dirden (Tony Award-winning Production, A Raisin in the Sun); Michele Shay (August Wilson's Seven Guitars); Lucas Caleb Rooney (Boardwalk Empire); and Tamela Aldridge (One Life to Live).

"NPR Presents Water +/- brings together journalistic rigor with the artistic and poetic nature of theatrical storytelling, amplifying local and national stories about water issues that are significant to each region and have a global resonance," said Indira Etwaroo, executive producer and director of NPR Presents.

“As we are now in one of the worst droughts in California history, the issue of water is pertinent to the Bay Area and California as a whole,” said Jo Anne Wallace, KQED vice president and general manager for radio. “KQED has been at the forefront of covering climate change and water issues for years, and we’re looking forward to the dialogue that NPR Presents Water +/- will create around the topic. It’s an exciting new way to bring life to this issue.”

NPR Presents Water +/- brings together Tony-Award winning director Kenny Leon, award-winning NPR Science Correspondent Christopher Joyce, and award-winning theater writers Arthur Yorinks and Carl Hancock Rux, with an original sound score by acclaimed violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR).

"I am excited to work with NPR Presents on this meaningful and highly relevant undertaking," said Director Kenny Leon. "Theater has the ability to illuminate the human experience in a way that is unique, vital and authentic. Our goal is to allow Water + to showcase our shared humanity, our shared challenges across the US and the globe."

NPR Presents Water +, which made its world premiere in New Orleans last month, will visit eight cities along its U.S. tour. In each community, the program will build on NPR and Member Stations' news coverage and highlight each city's unique, nuanced relationship with water. The scripts are created in partnership with the Member Station combining local sensibilities with national themes. No artistic licenses are taken with the news content; stories are adapted from on-air and online coverage, as well as oral histories, into monologues and dialogues. Tour dates and ticket information are available here.Downloadable, high res images of NPR Presents Water +/- on stage are available here.

NPR Presents NPR Presents is NPR's multiplatform national live events initiative that furthers the mission of public radio. Events bring to the stage world-class content that is as diverse as the American land- and sound-scapes they reflect, programmed for a curious, culturally-engaged and savvy global audience. NPR Presents is built on the belief in two-way conversations and intimate storytelling with our audience and in collaboration with our Member Station community.

About KQED KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. Home to the most listened-to public radio station in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program, and as a leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas.

As other news organizations have shrunk, KQED has expanded its efforts to cover the issues and events that are important to the Bay Area. As the most trusted source of news in the Bay Area, KQED is a multiplatform operation with offices and bureaus in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles. KQED News programs include KQED NEWSROOM, current affairs specials produced in collaboration with The Center for Investigative Reporting, The California Report, Forum, 18 news broadcasts on KQED Public Radio daily and the popular blogs News Fix, State of Health, Mindshift and The Lowdown. Stories from all KQED news programs are featured online at KQEDnews.org. KQED also has the largest science and environment  reporting unit in California, KQED Science, which has produced extensive reporting on water-related issues and California’s drought.

 Note: A limited number of press seats available; please contact NPR media relations to reserve.

 -NPR-

 NPR Media Relations Contact:       Caitlin Sanders 202.513.2310 / csanders@npr.org