Delicious theater spiced with fiction

The cast of Word for Word's "Food Stories: Pleasure Is Pleasure" includes, from left, Rudy Guerrero, Molly Benson, Soren Oliver, Patricia Silver, Delia MacDougall and Gendell Hernandez. Below: MacDougall and Silver appear in "Enough," a story by Alice McDermott. Photos by Mark LeialohaThat most scrumptious of Bay Area theater companies, Word for Word, is going the way of the foodie. Yes, Word for Word, the company that turns short fiction into extraordinary theater, is diving headlong into food lit with Food Stories: Pleasure Is Pleasure.I had the pleasure of interviewing Word for Word's Susan Harloe and JoAnne Winter about the show (directed by Theatre Rhino Artistic Director John Fisher) for the San Francisco Chronicle. Also got to chat with one of the authors featured in the show, T.C. Boyle, whose "Sorry Fugu" is a delightful tale of a New York chef battling his nerves and his confidence during three visits by the harshest food critic in town. I did not get to speak with the other author, Alice McDermott, whose story "Enough" is also featured.Read the story here.Here's my favorite quote from Boyle:

"In many respects the whole foodie thing is utterly ridiculous," he says. "It's about conspicuous consumption. I love to go to a good restaurant and have a good time, but unlike some of my friends, I don't do it to the exclusion of all else."

FOR MORE INFORMATIONWord for Word's "Food Stories: Pleasure Is Pleasure" continues through Through Feb. 5 at Theater Artaud, 450 Florida St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30-$55. Call 800-838-3006 or visit www.zspace.org.Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/11/DDUN1MLHRV.DTL#ixzz1jI9D38fS