Antenna Theater and Chris Hardman

Chris Hardman, creative director of Antenna Theater, has been a pioneer of site-specific theater since 1980. Some of Hardman’s earliest works are audio-guided museum tours, including the world-famous Alcatraz Cellhouse Tour. In his youth he became a Coney Island carney and spent a summer rebuilding the Dragon Cave funhouse.
Antenna Theater and Hardman’s work has appeared at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Cultural Center in Paris, Media Lab at MIT, Olympic Arts Festival, Roundhouse in London, and many other venues around the globe.
Hardman is also the designer/creator of the ECOlogical Calendar a re-make of the common calendar with the intention to help people experience nature through time.
Alison Whismore (Serene Rain, your actress and trip guide)
Alison loves time-traveling on the Magic Bus. A veteran time and space adventurer, she was born in Hong Kong of a British father and an American mother, raised in the Philippines, and trained as an actress in the UK. She has performed extensively in Europe and North America. The eternal road girl, she moved to the Bay Area in 2010 where she performs and teaches theatre in an eclectic variety of venues.
“What I love most about the Magic Bus is taking the audience to a place in their own consciousness…to know that they, too, are generators of love and peace in this world.” www.alisonwhismore.com
Sophia LaPaglia (Gaia, your actress and trip guide)
Sophia grew up surrounded by peace and love in the Green Mountains of Vermont. She was raised on a commune and participated in Bread & Puppet Theater throughout her childhood. Sophia performed across the northeast for over 20 years, and moved to the west coast after completing training at Circle in the Square on Broadway, New York City. Never much of a New Yorker, Sophia was naturally drawn to San Francisco for its thriving artistic community and beautiful light! Next thing she knew she was swept into a time machine in a swarm of bubbles blown from a bus. She’s been living as Gaia in the 60s ever since.
James Fischer (Jimijimi, your driver)
James is a professional driver approved by the Public Utilities Commission and the California Highway Patrol.
When not whisking guests off to another time on the Magic Bus, he is a multi-instumentalist, arranger, composer and educator. His musical work can be found on the Capital, Warner Brothers, Epic and Motown labels with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Patti Austin, Steve Winwood, James Taylor and The Temptations. James is a gifted educator working in special education with students having special needs.