Sara Toby Moore (Toby) is a celebrated San Francisco actor, writer, educator and physical comedian. Over a 35-year career Moore has created & performed eccentric characters and full shows for Circus, Off-Broadway, Nightclub and Regional Theater.
Moore’s high-octane style of performing was championed early on by impresario Merv Griffin who licensed her to conjure and perform such mayhem as a flying diva with a hydraulic-rising wig and a spring-action human cannonball at his casino showroom! As an educator, Toby was Director of the NEA-award-winning graduate program The Clown Conservatory at Circus Center and has taught Acting, Improv, Solo Performance and Clowning nationwide to both youth and adults.
Other career highlights: As a Clown with Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus and a Puppeteer for The Krofft Puppets, as well as leading roles in the San Francisco Bay Area with American Conservatory Theatre (also on faculty there), Cutting Ball Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre, George Coates Performance Works and Oasis and in New York at Ars Nova, La Mama ETC, The Women’s Project and P.S. 122.
Her one-person, multi-character circus play Show Ho has played to sold-out houses in San Francisco and New York and garnered effusive reviews for Moore’s ability to character morph! She also wrote and directed the cult indie film Homo Heights starring the late Quentin Crisp in his only leading role.
Toby is also the founding Creative Director of Thrillride Mechanics in residence at Z Space, a physical theatre ensemble specializing in the company’s own brand of “human cartoon fantasia,” and “human animation folly,” eliciting rave reviews for their productions of Wunderworld (Creativity Theatre & Center Rep), Atomic Comic (Potrero Stage & Z Space) and The Supers (Z Space). Forthcoming at Z Below in the fall of 2025 is The Mechanix, a parable about hapless ride operator-mechanics who discover an astonishing secret about the rides they caretake.Moore has also won numerous awards and grants for these productions including from the National Endowment for The Arts, The San Francisco Arts Commission, The Fleischacker Foundation and, with co-producer Circuit Network, The Wattis Foundation. She has also been awarded a McKnight Film Fund Award for screenwriting.
Presented by Thrillride Mechanics with Circuit Network & Debra Mosk Productions
From the same team who brought San Francisco the beloved and critically acclaimed shows The Supers and Atomic Comic comes this new “human animation folly,” a quixotic tale about cosmic first responders in the guise of amusement park mechanics who discover and then travel through the bardos between the Sidewinder and the Tilt-A-Whirl in search of people who keep vanishing off their rides without a trace. Told with a masterful blend of physical comedy and illusions our heroes embark on a mad caper to find and save these lost riders only to discover their own astonishing secret along the way.
Join us at Z Below
August 23rd-September 7th 2025
Written by: Sara Toby Moore
Directed by: Colin H. Johnson
Starring:
DeMarcello Funes Ruby Day Maureen McVerry & Sara Toby Moore
With Special Guests!
Contribute to the premiere of Sara Toby Moore’s “Mechanix”
