Theater artist Nina Wise and activist Randy Hayes, founder of the Rainforest Action Network, have teamed up with Bob Martin of The Lensic Performing Arts Center to present Election Year: A Festival of Optimistic Voices. This series of three inspiring evenings brings together some of the world’s leading visionaries to present solutions and paradigm-shifting perspectives on the most critical issues of our time. Following each talk, Nina Wise weaves the themes of the evening into one of her signature performances, transforming the conceptual issues into complex, funny, and deeply moving narratives that move our understanding from the mental realm into the heart.

There is growing concern amongst many of us that we are headed towards unprecedented disaster. So why optimistic voices? Because despite the vast challenges we are facing, there are viable, affordable, solutions available to us right now. People will leave the theater more than informed; they will leave inspired.

Randy Hayes is the founder of the Rainforest Action Network and the ED of the International Forum on Globalization. Known as one of the country’s leading activists, he has helped shape environmental policies for the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, as well as been a key player in helping to reform the policies of corporations from Mitsubishi to Citibank to Home Depot to be more eco-responsible.

Nina Wise has been described by a New York Times columnist as “a metaphysical vaudevillian for the new millennium.” Wise has invented a compelling form of physical autobiographical theater called Motion Theater. Her unique performances thoroughly integrate movement and narrative in a seamless unfolding that brings one to tears, laughter and deep sighs of recognition about the human condition. Audience members and critics alike comment that they have not seen anything quite like Wise’s work before and are driven to blended comparisons—Martha Graham mixed with Robinson Jeffers, Lily Tomlin mixed with Jules Feiffer—and use words like “fresh,” “moving,” and “deeply human.” Ms Wise is the recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, three fellowships from the Marin Arts Council, and her performance works have been honored with seven Bay Area Theater Critics’ Circle Awards. Her book, A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life, was published by Broadway Books in 2002 and her stories and articles have been published in numerous anthologies and journals.