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THEATRE NEWS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY THEATRES + OSF NEWS

Posted by:	Richard Connema 03:39 pm EST 03/02/14

42ND STREET MOON PRESENTS COLE PORTER’S DU BARRY WAS A LADY STARRING BRUCE VILANCH Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter Book by Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva Directed and Choreographed by Zack Thomas Wilde Concluding its 21st Season, 42nd Street Moon presents Cole Porter’s saucy DU BARRY WAS A LADY starring famed comedian, writer, and actor Bruce Vilanch. In this zany musical comedy, a nightclub washroom attendant quits his job when he wins the Irish Sweepstakes and unwisely tries to buy happiness. While plotting to win the heart of nightclub star he inadvertently imbibes knock-out drops meant for his rival, and “awakens” to find himself ensconced on the French throne as King Louis XV in 18th century France. Bruce Vilanch takes on the starring role created by Vaudeville star Bert Lahr, with Ashley Rae Little as the nightclub star, a role originally played by Ethel Merman. DU BARRY WAS A LADY features the Cole Porter classics: Friendship; Well, Did You Evah?; Do I Love You?; and Give Him the Oo-La-La. WHEN: April 30 – May 18, 2014 (Press Opening: Saturday, May 3, 2014) SHOWS: Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7 pm Fridays at 8 pm Saturdays at 6 pm Sundays at 3 pm Family/Student Matinee, Saturday, May 10, 1 pm WHERE: The Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, San Francisco TICKETS: $25 - $75 INFO: For information or to order tickets call (415) 255-8207 or visit 42ndStMoon.org ########################## AURORA THEATRE COMPANY CONTINUES 22ND SEASON WITH “WITTENBERG” April 4-May 4, 2014 Bay Area Premiere – Aurora Theatre Company presents the Bay Area Premiere of WITTENBERG, David Davalos’ audacious comedy about reason versus faith. Josh Costello (San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre) directs this smarty-pants celebration of history, language, academia, and religion, featuring Dan Hiatt (The Arsonists), Elizabeth Carter (Trouble in Mind), Jeremy Kahn, and Michael Stevenson. WITTENBERG plays April 4 through May 4 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. It is October 1517 and the beginning of another fall semester at the University of Wittenberg finds certain members of the faculty and student body at personal and professional crossroads. Hamlet (senior, class of 1518), suffering from a sudden crisis of faith, has just returned from summer break with a revelation that threatens the very order of the universe. As the Prince who should be King laughably ping-pongs between the contrary advice of Martin Luther (Professor, theology) and Doctor John Faustus (Professor, philosophy), two of history’s most stubborn intellectuals go head-to-head in comic combat for the conflicted Dane’s allegiance. Will Faustus, the philosopher with a lust for life, win the confused young man’s mind, or can Luther, the cleric who ignited the Protestant Reformation, win his soul? WITTENBERG premiered at the Arden Theatre in 2008 and is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. The New York Times dubbed the play “crackling good…Hilarity, thy name is WITTENBERG,” while the Philadelphia Inquirer praised “Finally - a decent Protestant Reformation comedy!” The New York Post called WITTENBERG “…a delightful romp that’s as accessible as it is thought-provoking. Tom Stoppard, eat your heart out.” Playwright David Davalos was inspired to write WITTENBERG while playing the part of Rosencrantz in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s production of Hamlet. During his acting days, Davalos wrote several parodies of Shakespeare’s plays and credits his playwriting style to Tom Stoppard and “the Travesties school of interesting juxtaposition of historical characters.” ############################ MARIN THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES 2014-15 MAINSTAGE SEASON Features six productions of new American plays by living contemporary playwrights, including Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy, Fetch Clay, Make Man by San Francisco native Will Power, The Convert, the Bay Area debut of Obie-winning playwright Danai Gurira, two winners of MTC’s Sky Cooper New American Play Prize: The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter and The Way West by Mona Mansour and the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) —Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer’s Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company’s artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company’s 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC’s intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes: the return of Tarell Alvin McCraney – his first since the triumphant local premiere of “The Brother/Sister Plays” at MTC, Magic Theatre and A.C.T. – with the Bay Area premiere of Choir Boy West Coast premiere of Fetch Clay, Make Man by San Francisco native Will Power Bay Area premiere of The Convert, the Bay Area debut of playwright Danai Gurira (an Obie Award-winning dramatist and also the actor best known as Michonne in AMC’s The Walking Dead) including the Bay Area premiere of The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter and the West Coast premiere of The Way West by Mona Mansour a special holiday season presentation of the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) “I am delighted to announce our extraordinary 2014-15 season and to welcome to our theater five of our country’s most unique, provocative new voices (as well as a dash of Marin-bred comic genius),” said Minadakis. “This is the most diverse, exciting line-up of plays and playwrights that has ever been offered on our mainstage. For the first time, two of our Sky Cooper Prize winners will share the same season: Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale, one of the most compassionate and devastating plays to hit the American theater in years; and Mona Mansour’s The Way West, an irreverently funny play-with-music about a Central California family of women. For the first time in our history, we will also offer three plays from African-American playwrights: The Convert, the Bay Area debut of playwright Danai Gurira, is an astonishing, passionate examination of the historical colonization of Southern Africa; the West Coast premiere of Fetch Clay, Make Man, Will Power’s bracing, percussive new play about the friendship between two of the 60s most polarizing personalities – Muhammad Ali and Stepin Fetchit; and the Bay Area premiere of Choir Boy, a beautiful and hopeful gospel-infused coming-of-age play by McArthur Genius grant-awardee Tarell Alvin McCraney, returning to MTC after his In the Red and Brown Water thrilled our audiences in 2010. And for the holidays, we bring back Marin’s comic favorites, Reduced Shakespeare Company, with their abridged and hysterical look at the history of comedy.” MTC opens its 2014-15 season in August with the West Coast premiere of Will Power’s Fetch Clay, Make Man. Why would the shining son of the Nation of Islam seek help from one of the most vilified figures of black American culture? In this knockout new play, San Francisco-native Power investigates one of the most unlikely friendships of the Civil Rights era, between the young, largely untested heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and the disgraced and disregarded Hollywood actor Stepin Fetchit, who is inseparable from his demeaning onscreen character. “Plenty of verbal punches are thrown” in this “eye-popping [and] intriguing” (The New York Times) new historical drama that is also a “fascinating [and] bracing look at the politics of identity” (Backstage.com). In October, MTC produces the winner of its 2011 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter. Charlie has been self-destructing for years. Weighing in at nearly 600 pounds, he is a gentle but grieving giant, beached on a couch in Northern Idaho. A surprise visit from a young Mormon missionary (and a near heart attack) pushes him to reach out, after years of near isolation, to his estranged and troubled daughter in this “beautifully devastating, remarkably eloquent [and] frequently very funny” (Chicago Tribune) drama. MTC is elated to produce the Bay Area premiere of “one of the very best plays of 2012” (Chicago Tribune), which has been hailed as “riveting, impassioned and arresting” by The New York Observer, “vibrant and provocative” by the Village Voice and “extraordinary” by New York Magazine. The Whale won MTC’s 2011 Sky Cooper Prize, which celebrates the work of the American playwright and encourages the creation of bold, powerful new plays for the American stage. Premiering at Denver Center Theatre Company in January 2012, this new play has gone to have productions Off Broadway by Playwrights Horizons in October 2012, at South Coast Repertory in March 2013 and at Victory Gardens Theater in April 2013. The play has won numerous awards, including the the Off Broadway League’s 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, the 2013 Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre and 2013 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theatre. Though Hunter won Village Voice’s 2011 Obie Award for playwriting, the success of The Whale marks a turning point in the playwright’s career. Playbill declared 2014 “The Year of the Hunter,” noting that his plays are receiving numerous productions across the US during the 2013-14 season, including the premieres of The Few, A Great Wilderness and Rest. Locally, Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley produced A Bright New Boise in November 2013 and the Playwrights Foundation’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival held a staged reading of I Am Montana in 2007. During the holiday season, MTC welcomes back the Reduced Shakespeare Company for the first time in over 15 years to present their “way too funny” (Napa Valley Register) new stage act, The Complete History of Comedy (abridged). They’ve skewered history, the Bible and the world’s most celebrated playwright. Now, they seek to answer life’s greatest mysteries: What makes people laugh? The “bad boys of abridgement” leave no joke untold as they deconstruct the entire history of comedy in 90 minutes. The show’s been hailed as “a wild, wild ride! It’s funny. Really, really funny... And really, really smart” by the Cincinnati Enquirer, “fresh and funny... a dizzying night’s entertainment” by Cincinnati City Beat and “wonderful, whimsical – a winning formula that is anything but formulaic” by Fairfield Daily Republic. The Bay Area debut of award-winning Zimbabwean-American playwright Danai Gurira follows in February with the local premiere of The Convert – “an impressive new work by an impressive young playwright” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). In the emerging colony of Rhodesia, a young Shona girl named Jekesai escapes a forced marriage arrangement by becoming maid and student to Chilford Ndlovu, an African man who continues the work of Catholic British missionaries. As anti-colonial sentiments rise among her people, Jekesai must make an impossible choice – between her newfound Christian faith and her ancestral loyalties, between European and African ways of life. In this “gutsy, heartfelt [and] richly complex portrait” (Chicago Tribune), “Gurira has met the demands of a big subject by writing a big play.” (The Washington Post). In April, MTC produces the winner of its 2013 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, The Way West by Mona Mansour. Yes, Mom may be filing for bankruptcy. And, sure, her health could be better. (She should probably stop driving too.) But she is from the West! And through optimism and courage, she will overcome adversity – or so she tries to convince her daughters through frontier folk songs and tall tales of pioneers past (and passed). MTC is excited to produce the West Coast premiere and second production of this wryly funny and generously tender family drama that surveys the quirks of our American spirit. The Bay Area premiere of Choir Boy by “The Brother/Sister Plays” playwright Tarrell Alvin McCraney closes out MTC’s 2014-15 season in June. This “exceptionally beautiful, heart-pummeling” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) new play takes place at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys, a private institution in the American South dedicated to nurturing strong, ethical black men. When tenors Pharus and Bobby compete for the top spot in the school’s legendary choir, friends, family and 50 years of history both inside and outside the school walls get caught in the middle. Threaded throughout with haunting a cappella gospel music, this “vivid, magnetic and moving” (The New York Times) play “genuinely sizzles” (The Guardian), as it explores the universalities of love and hate through an intimate portrait of the black gay experience in America. In MTC’s 2014-15 Season, Fetch Clay, Make Man, The Complete History of Comedy (abridged) and The Way West are recommended for youth aged 13 and up; The Whale, The Convert and Choir Boy for mature teens and up. For younger children and families, MTC will offer its second Theater Series for Young Audiences in partnership with Bay Area Children’s Theatre during the 2014-15 Season. This series will be announced in April. Six-play full-season subscriptions and four-ticket flex packages are on sale now. Subscription packages offer savings off single ticket prices, exclusive benefits and personalized customer service. Six-play full-season subscriptions are available for $120-306 and include free ticket exchanges, lost ticket replacement and priority seating. For more information about subscriptions, visit marintheatre.org or contact MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208. Single tickets go on sale in early July. ############################ Supporters of the arts : Cal Shakes’ 19th annual gala fundraiser, Raise the Roof, celebrating the company’s 40th anniversary WHEN: March 15, 2014, 6pm WHERE: The Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco HOW MUCH: Starting at $450 INFO: events@calshakes.org, 510.809.3297, or calshakes.org/gala ######################### DIVAfest Returns to EXIT Theatre 13th Annual Festival of Plays, Burlesque, and Other Events Celebrates Women Artists, May 1-24 The 13th Annual DIVAfest, celebrating the work of women artists, fills EXIT Theatre in San Francisco for nearly a month, May 1 through 24, 2014. Begun in 2002 as a response to the lack of opportunities for female playwrights in the larger theater industry, DIVAfest has since produced over 60 new plays by women. This year’s DIVAfest features the premiere of RAT GIRL, adapted by Stuart Bousel from the memoir of the same name by alt-rock pioneer Kristin Hersh. It continues with Margery Fairchild’s The Pas De Quatre, a hilarious look at the 19th century clash of the four reigning divas of ballet. Dancers of a different sort cavort in At The White Rabbit Burlesque. The popular Divas Tell All, curated by Catherine Debon, returns, along with a reading by long-time DIVAfest favorite and San Francisco poet laureate Diane di Prima. RAT GIRL is part biography, part rock concert, part experimental theater, based on alt-rock icon Kristin Hersh‘s memoir of the same name. RAT GIRL tells the story of how, in one year, she went from a gifted college student to an icon of art rock music when her band, Throwing Muses, was signed onto the British label 4AD Records. Along the way, Hersh discovered that she was bi-polar after a suicide attempt landed her in a mental hospital, in addition to being pregnant with her first child. As much a story about one woman’s struggle to live with her own particular demons as it is about the rise of a gifted and unique artist, the play is a surreal and often comical exploration of how we make peace with who we are. The show features live covers of songs from the self-titled Throwing Muses album, which was recorded at the time RAT GIRL takes place, and that went on to become a cornerstone of the American alternative music movement. Adapted for the stage by Stuart Bousel, directed by Claire Rice, RAT GIRL features Christina Augello, Nathan Brown, Eli Diamond, Allison Fenner, Tim Green, Sam Jackson, Heather Kellogg and Shay Wisniewski, with musical direction by James Grady, and a design team including Beth Cockrell, Colin Johnson, Christine McClintock, and Joshua Saulpaw. The Pas De Quatre is a Work in Progress that explores the dark and often hilarious difficulties surrounding the making of the 1845 ballet/divertissement of the same title. It focuses on the four reigning ballerinas of Europe at the time, and the choreographer who had close relationships with each of them. The Pas De Quatre is a rare look behind the scenes of this historic Ballet and a glimpse into the private and often painful lives of its principal characters. Written and directed by Margery Fairchild, with dramaturgy and development by Michelle Talgarow, Devised and performed by Catherine Debon, Sarah Moss, Nathan Tucker and Christina Raymond. At the White Rabbit Burlesque is the second fully-staged DIVAfest production co-created by Bay Area burlesque performers, Red Velvet and If-N’-Whendy, directed by Amanda Ortmayer. A topsy-turvy, titillating tumble down the mental rabbit hole, follow Alice’s strange journey on her first night as an employee of The White Rabbit Burlesque, where she meets a bevy of interesting characters all strangely reminiscent of our favorite Wonderland residents! Featuring an accomplished and eclectic burlesque cast: Red Velvet, If-N’-Whendy, Laika Fox, Ophelia Coeur De Noir, Tornado Supertrouble, and Mikka Bonel The DIVAs Tell All series, curated by Catherine Debon, showcases work that has been developing at DIVAfest’s regular presentations featuring short excerpts from women artists including writing, music, comedy and performance art. This year's festival runs May 1-24, with a kick-off event on May 3 featuring an exhibit by festival photographer Serena Morelli (reception at 1 pm), and a reading by poet Diane di Prima (3:00-4:30), followed by a succession of opening nights of each of this year's shows, with PAS DE QUATRE at 5 pm, RAT GIRL at 7 pm, AT THE WHITE RABBIT BURLESQUE at 9 PM, and an opening night celebration to follow. All events happen at the EXIT Theatre, located at 156 Eddy Street in downtown San Francisco. Tickets and more information can be found at the official festival website at http://www.divafest.info. Tickets are also available on www.brownpapertickets.com. ######################### OSF'S DAEDALUS PROJECT FUND DISTRIBUTES $133,250 TO FIGHT HIV/AIDS Ten local and international organizations receive proceeds of 2013 Daedalus Project fundraiser — The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) has distributed the $133,250 raised during the Festival’s 2013 Daedalus Project to 10 local and international organizations dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS and supporting those affected by the disease. The organizations to receive funds include: the Alan F. Collins AIDS Project at OnTrack, Inc.; the HIV Alliance serving Josephine, Douglas, Coos and Curry Counties; Siskiyou County HIV/AIDS Foundation (SCHAF); Africare; G.R.A.C.E. USA; Strength for the Journey, Light, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; S.A.F.E. Ghetto; and SCHAP Community School in Kenya. “We're so proud we were able to expand the number of organizations we are helping both in the United States and internationally,” said Claudia Alick, OSF’s associate producer, community. “We were honored to be chosen by Africare as one of their spotlight organizations, and thrilled that our 2014 Daedalus Director Eduardo Placer is already meeting with our planning team to plan our fundraiser for this year.” OSF’s company members and audience have come together in August for decades for the Daedalus Project, which includes several fundraising events, including a play reading and variety show. The annual event raises money to end the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to remember and celebrate those who have died from this disease. “The only way we are ever going to eradicate HIV/AIDS is by working together,” Placer said. “For 26 years this community has gathered to do just that. Daedalus is one of the most gracious and generous acts of community I have ever experienced. It is about everyone standing for something greater.” Now in its 27th year, the 2014 Daedalus Project — titled “Act V - The End of AIDS” — will take place Aug. 18 in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre. The Daedalus Project has also been chosen as a beneficiary of Standing Stone Brewing Company's "Pint for a Purpose" program. On March 4, Standing Stone will donate $2 of the price of every pint of beer sold in the brewpub from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Find out more about the event on Facebook. For more information on The Daedalus Project 2014, visit http://www.osfashland.org/daedalus. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1935 and guided by the following mission statement: "Inspired by Shakespeare's work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory." ########################## OSF TO HOST HIP-HOP POETRY OPEN MIC EVENTS Free open mic events offer showcase for community members as well as featured artists .— The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) will host three free Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic events this spring on March 10, April 7 and May 5. All Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic events will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Black Swan on the OSF campus (15 S. Pioneer St., Ashland, OR 97520). Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.; space is limited. In addition to opening the stage for the community to share their talents via all styles of poetry, music, dance, and theatre, each night will highlight a different featured artist: the Q Brothers on March 10, Samiya Bashir on April 7 and Los Porteños on May 5. The first featured artists of the three-event series are the Q Brothers. Musicians, actors, writers, educators, and DJ's, GQ and JQ created and starred in the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed productions, “Othello: The Remix” and “Funk It Up About Nothin'” — both musical, hip hop "add-RAP-tations" of Shakespeare's classics. OSF has commissioned the Q Brothers to create a contemporary language, hip-hop version of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” a commission made possible by a grant from the Hitz Foundation. These events are open to the community, providing an opportunity to work on original material in front of live and deeply supportive audiences. OSF has been producing poetry slams and open mics since 2007. More information about the open mic events is available on the OSF website here, and on the event’s Facebook invites: March 10, April 7 and May 5. This release and a high resolution photo of the Q Brothers are also available at: http://authoring.osfashland.org/press-room/press-releases/Hip_hop_open_mics_2014.aspx

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