Free theater - a longtime Bay Area tradition
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/17/PKQ418K5GV.DTL
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
Sunday, July 19, 2009
If you give it away, they will come.
More to the point, they might even pay to come back. Or at least drop
some money in the hat.
"Free" comes in all shapes and sizes in the grand ecology of Bay Area
theater. Many companies offer free staged readings, playwright
interviews or looks at works-in-progress. A few have followed the
route pioneered by the San Francisco Mime Troupe to perform full
shows gratis in the parks. Many others have discovered the magic of
the age-old street come-on: The first taste is free.
That last idea has worked well for the San Francisco Theater
Festival. Moving into its sixth year, the all-day sampler - with
theater companies and comedy groups performing 20- to 30-minute
scenes, skits or songs from their shows - seems to get bigger and
attract bigger-name companies every summer. Small wonder, considering
its track record of attracting an estimated 10,000 potential future
ticket buyers.
Two popular shows
"Wicked" and "Beach Blanket Babylon" have come aboard this year.
Festival founder and producer Bill Schwartz says "125 to 130 shows"
have signed on - then checks with an aide who provides an update -
"149? How did we get so many more? And that includes 33 children's shows."
That's more than twice the number that performed four years ago, so
the festival has expanded beyond the performance spaces available in
Yerba Buena Gardens. The 2009 edition will take place next Sunday on
17 outdoor and indoor stages in the gardens, Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts, the Metreon, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Museum of the
African Diaspora and Zeum, the primary center for child-oriented fare.
"Beach Blanket" cast members and hats will perform songs, as will
"Wicked" witches - just before dashing back to the Orpheum for a
matinee - on an outdoor stage hosted by David Alan Grier. Charlie
Varon will reprise excerpts from his Marsh hit, "Rabbi Sam." Dan
Hoyle ("Tings Dey Happen") will offer glimpses of his next show, and
his dad, master comic Geoff Hoyle, will perform with Lamplighters
Music Theatre in bits from its forthcoming "My Fair Lady" (opening July 30).
Opera Piccola and 42nd Street Moon are on the bill, as are the comedy
troupes Killing My Lobster and BATS Improv - not to mention Three
Wise Monkeys, Crowded Fire, AtmosTheatre and No Nude Men. PlayGround
will stage two short plays from its recent Best of PlayGround
production. Tanya Shaffer and Shanique Scott will showcase their new
solo shows.
Many local theaters won't be there - some because they aren't in
production in July; others are out performing free in the parks
already. The Mime Troupe, which opened its rousing "Too Big to Fail"
on July 4, will be in Redway (Humboldt County) and Fort Bragg that weekend.
Woman's Will, which closes its opening run of "Taming of the Shrew"
in Berkeley's John Hinkel Park today, moves into Walnut Creek and
Oakland parks at the end of the week (it plays Bay Area parks through
Aug. 16). Shotgun Players follows Woman's Will into John Hinkel with
Jon Tracy's "The Farm," adapted from "Animal Farm," Aug. 1-Sept. 13.
San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's Free Shakespeare in the Park
opened Saturday for a three-weekend run of "The Comedy of Errors" in
Pleasanton, and moves on to Cupertino in August and the Presidio for
most of September. Shady Shakespeare presents a free "As You Like It"
and "Richard III" in Saratoga's Sanborn-Skyline County Park, Aug. 7-Sept. 13.
Cost is relative concept
Stanford Summer Theater offers some timely Greek tragic relief with
its Electra Festival. The main offering, Sophocles' "Electra," isn't
free, but there's a free Electra-themed film festival (through Aug.
10), and free stagings of Aeschylus' "Libation Bearers" (Aug. 5) and
Euripides' "Electra" (Aug. 12).
Unlike the festival at Yerba Buena, though, "free" is a relative
concept at these shows. As anyone who's seen the Mime Troupe, Woman's
Will or Free Shakespeare knows, actors surround the audience with
hats or baskets extended by the end of the post-show fundraising
pitch. The Mime Troupe raises almost a quarter of its operating
budget from the hat. Shotgun is asking a $10 "suggested donation" for
"The Farm."
The San Francisco Theater Festival operates more on the notion that a
free sample is the best advertising. Information tables and mailing
lists are usually readily available. Truly wary buyers have another
option as well: If a sample makes you think you might like a group's
work, you can probably check out one of its full productions through
the annual Free Night of Theater sponsored by Theatre Bay Area in October.
San Francisco Theater Festival takes place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. next
Sun. on 17 stages in and around Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
including Zeum, the Metreon and Contemporary Jewish Museum. Free.
www.sftheaterfestival.org.
--
E-mail Robert Hurwitt at rhurwitt@sfchronicle.com.
--------
S.F. Mime Troupe brings its show to San Jose for first time in a decade
http://www.mercurynews.com/karendsouza/ci_12876890?nclick_check=1
By Karen D'Souza
kdsouza@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/23/2009
The San Francisco Mime Troupe has been fiercely raising its voice in
protest of the status quo for 50 years. This summer is no exception.
Its free, outdoor musical production cheekily titled "Too Big to
Fail" is a scathing lampoon of capitalism in general and the Wall
Street meltdown in particular.
"Jobs just keep getting shed, and a lot of people have lost their
homes, and their whole lives have changed. That makes them question
whether the system is working for them," says veteran Mime Troupe
actress Velina Brown, who may be best remembered for her tartly
acerbic Condi Rice imitation. "We wanted to address not just the bank
bailout but the nature of capitalism itself, which is basically a
Ponzi scheme. Madoff was not the only one, you know?"
In a boon for local political-theater junkies, not to mention folks
looking for free comedy, the Tony-winning theater collective, founded
in 1959 by R.G. Davis, is making an extremely rare trip to San Jose.
It's the first time in almost a decade that the revered
rabble-rousers have brought their unique blend of politics and
pranks, which has been aptly described as half Karl Marx and half
Marx brothers, to these parts.
"They are one of our treasures," says Stanford drama Professor Rush
Rehm. "The Mime Troupe is so needed now, because they remind us of
the wisdom in voices that are viewed as 'down and out' or 'marginal,'
suggesting that common sense and the common man can see through the
ideology and nonsense thrust down our throats. We need the Mime
Troupe because we're still lying to ourselves, and buying what those
in power want us to buy" the bailouts, Afghanistan, big military, etc.
Indeed, director Wilma Bonet, who has often worked at San Jose's
Teatro Visión, says it was crucial to bring this show to the South
Bay right now as the economic crisis grinds on.
"People all across the Bay Area need to see this story. It's about
all of us," Bonet says. "We are literally pointing at the audience to
take the responsibility. The government is bailing out the banks. The
working class and the middle class are sinking into a lifetime of
debt. It's up to us. What are we going to do about it?"
The plight of the underdog is a theme that playwright-actor Michael
Gene Sullivan expects will hit hard here in the valley, where
downsizing the workforce has become the norm.
"San Jose is built on entrepreneurship, investment and debt
hardworking people who built companies, only to be laid off, bought
out or disempowered," says the veteran trouper. "It's important that
valley people know that there are alternatives" to capitalism.
The troupe has become legendary around the globe for taking the
temperature of the socioeconomic scene and creating new plays that
speak to the state of the world.
"There's no other company like the Mime Troupe," Bonet says. "The
body of work is amazing. At home we get taken for granted, but in
Europe we are rock stars. We are studied by college students as one
of the iconic American theaters."
Of course, many local folks also appreciate the troupe. Indeed, a
band of South Bay fans led by the San Jose Peace and Justice
Center, a liberal advocacy group (and its parent organization, the
Collins Foundation) not only urged the company to come to town,
they also helped raise money to defray the costs of the San Jose engagement.
"Hurray! This means that San Jose is no longer a cultural backwater
when it comes to free, progressive, socially relevant theater!" says
Charlotte Casey, treasurer for the Peace and Justice Center, and a
huge troupe fan since the '70s. "Their shows always take on the most
important social issues and expose hypocrisy. They do what Jon
Stewart does on 'The Daily Show,' but they do it live and with songs!"
Indeed, "Too Big to Fail" takes on the hot-button issues of the
credit crisis in the tale of a young couple in love who become
hopelessly mired in a spiral of debt. The story is set in a tiny
African village, but creators say the theme echoes the American
credit crisis and how our patterns of consumption have shaped the world.
Brown, who stars as the young bride Jeneeba, hopes the play gets
people to question the wisdom of putting the profit margin first
everywhere from the banking world to the health care industry. In
Mime Troupe fashion, the play makes no bones about its leftist
politics. Centrism is a dirty world in this oeuvre.
"Our culture is all about money, but the truth is that some
institutions are about more than money," Brown says. "If you look at
the world through the lens of profit, if something doesn't make
money, it shouldn't exist like public schools and libraries and
hospitals. But a school isn't supposed to make money; it's supposed
to educate our children so we can have an actual democracy. A
hospital isn't supposed to make money; it's supposed to care for the
sick. It's a no-brainer."
As it happens, the troupe remains committed to the notion that there
is more to life than the almighty dollar, and it refuses to charge
for most of its performances. It does pass the hat for donations, but
believes that art should be available to everyone.
"The Mime Troupe has always been an example of the power of people's
theater," notes Sullivan, taking its "political message to the people
who need to hear it most."
It's all part of the troupe's mission to "foment revolution through
musical comedy." In the subversive tradition of Brecht, the Mime
Troupe believes in theater as a way to change the world by changing minds.
"The financial crisis has been a big wake-up call for America," Brown
says. "I am hopeful that people who have woken up will stay awake,
but there's a lot of lulling going on to try and get us to fall back
asleep. We're trying to keep everyone alert and aware."
--
Contact Karen D'Souza at 408-271-3772.
--
"Too Big to Fail"
Produced by the San Francisco Mime Troupe
Through: Sept. 27
Where: Various Bay Area parks including 7 p.m. Wednesday at San
Jose"s Arena Green, 7 p.m. Aug. 5 at Palo Alto"s Mitchell Park, 3
p.m. Aug. 8 and 9 at Santa Cruz"s San Lorenzo Park; details at www.sfmt.org
Admission: Free, donations accepted;
415-285-1717, www.sfmt.org
.
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