I would like to thank the many people whose help and encouragement
made it possible for me to bring this project to fruition. First and foremost,
of course, I owe a great debt of gratitude to all the members of the San
Francisco Mime Troupe itself, past and present. Their exciting productions
and dedication to creating political theater has been the main inspiration
for this research. The Troupe's generosity in opening their rehearsals to
me during the winter of 1989 and allowing me to help on their revival of
Secrets in the Sand gave me a great deal of insight into the day-to-day
running of the company and all the work that goes on behind the scenes.
I am especially grateful to Ellen Callas and to Marieville Sales for the time
they took sending me scripts, getting photo reprints, and answering all my
questions.

Many people helped me work out my ideas through discussions on the
topics I cover here and by reading the manuscript at various stages. I am
grateful for their time and input. Sandra Richards, Martin Esslin, and Jean-
Marie Apostilides all helped in the preliminary stages of my work. Alice
Rayner, Harry Elam, Bill Eddelman, and Carl Weber of Stanford University
gave me copious comments and insightful suggestions on early drafts of
the manuscript, when I worked on it as my dissertation. Professor Rayner
in particular was extremely supportive and helpful throughout that proc-
ess. The comments and suggestions of two anonymous readers helped
guide my revisions.

I would also like to thank the many people who helped me gather infor-
mation and resources for the book. Jim Mayer and Ideas in Motion in San
Francisco graciously let me spend hours in front of their video monitors
looking at tapes of old San Francisco Mime Troupe shows. The material
collected on the Mime Troupe at the University of California-Davis Li-
brary Department of Special Collections was very useful, and the librarians
there were extremely helpful. Jean Ashton, director of the Rare Book and

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