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THEATRE NEWS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Posted by:	Richard Connema 10:39 am EDT 04/19/15

- Encore Theatre Company is proud to announce the world premiere of HOOKMAN, a new play by Lauren Yee whose playwriting credits includes The Hatmaker's Wife and Ching Chong Chinaman. Commissioned by Encore Theatre, Hookman dramatizes the story of Lexi, a student in her first year at college. After losing her high school best friend to a hook-handed serial killer, Lexi must learn what it means to grow up, young and female, in a world that's sometimes dangerous and lonely. Directed by Becca Wolff, Hookman opens in previews Wednesday, May 6 at Z Below in San Francisco, and runs for three weeks through Saturday, May 30. Yee describes Hookman as "a strange comedic riff on the horror genre, or perhaps an existential slasher comedy." Lisa Steindler, co-artistic director of Encore Theatre, elaborates, "While a comedy, Hookman is also a meditation on grief. It explores the question of what happens when we lose those closest to us and how we deal with such loss." Encore Theatre commissioned Yee in 2012, supporting her over the following two years. Yee workshopped Hookman at the University of California-San Diego Baldwin New Play Festival, Company One/Boston Center for the Arts, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in New York and the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. "It's been enormously rewarding to watch Lauren grow into such a fearless writer, tackling some of the most difficult topics of our time," raves Steindler. "And for me, personally, it's been fascinating to enter into the worldview of a daughter of first-generation Chinese Americans. Encore Theatre is committed to expanding the audiences for theater by presenting a diverse array of voices." "Encore Theatre doesn't have a regularly scheduled season," continues Yee. "Rather it waits to produce the work it's truly passionate about -- and under just the right conditions. This seems to me to be unusual for a company of its size and reputation." Encore Theatre's recent productions include the critically acclaimed and award-winning Hundred Days, a collaboration with Z Space; Circle Mirror Transformation, a collaboration with Marin Theatre Company; and The Totalitarians, presented with Z Space. Since the conclusion of its residency at the Thick House in San Francisco in 2007, Encore Theatre has partnered with some of the most highly esteemed theater companies in the Bay Area to produce consistently challenging and entertaining work by talented, new playwrights. Tickets for Hookman are $20 to $30 and may be purchased online at zspace.org or by calling 866-811-4111. #################################### BAM! (Bay Area Musicals) makes its home in San Francisco! BAM!,the premier regional musical theatre company in the San Francisco Bay Area,will kick off its inaugural season with three of the most legendary musicals to ever hit the Great White Way! – BAM! (Bay Area Musicals), the newest non-profit theatrical organization to join the vibrant San Francisco Bay Area arts community, will kick-off its inaugural season with three of the most legendary musicals to ever hit the Great White Way! Founded in August 2014 by a group of local artists and community leaders, BAM! Will be the premier regional musical theatre company focusing solely on musical theatre and offering widely popular classics as well as new original works. Dedicated to the craft and development of the American musical, BAM! will produce a series of musicals focusing on high production values at an affordable rate atypical to large houses and touring shows. BAM!’s inaugural three-show season will include: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (November 28 - December 19, 2015); Hair (February 27 - March 19, 2016); and La Cage Aux Folles (July 9 - 30, 2016). BAM! Productions will take place at various venues throughout San Francisco, including the Marines’ Memorial Theatre and the Victoria Theatre. Subscriptions range in price from $20 – $60 and are available by calling 415-340-2207 or visiting www.bamsf.org . ############################# CUTTING BALL THEATER PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE “MOUNT MISERY” May 8-June 7, 2015 – Cutting Ball Theater continues its 16th season, devoted to the theme of “Injustice,” with the World Premiere of MOUNT MISERY by Cutting Ball resident playwright Andrew Saito. Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose helms this new play, featuring David Sinaiko, Giovanni Adams, Lorri Holt, and Geoffrey Nolan. MOUNT MISERY plays May 8 through June 7 (Press opening: May 14) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($10-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205. Playwright Andrew Saito examines the United States’ inconsistent progress on issues of power and race through the colliding histories of two prominent American figures on one shared tract of land. On a plantation in a small Maryland town, a teenaged slave named Frederick Douglass once fought and triumphed against an overseer named Edward Covey. The moment would permanently alter the course of Douglass’ life, freeing him from fear and building a new sense of agency. In 2003, Covey’s home, “Mount Misery,” was purchased by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for $1.5 million. In MOUNT MISERY, Saito imagines Rumsfeld and Douglass’ interactions across time. MOUNT MISERY was commissioned by Cutting Ball and developed as part of the 2014 edition of RISK IS THIS… The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival; the production runs concurrently with the 2015 RISK IS THIS Festival in celebration of Cutting Ball’s new play development program. “MOUNT MISERY is the most demanding and difficult play I have ever written,” said playwright Andrew Saito. “The constant washing, filtering, and distilling of this play has led me to its kernel, its bone. And it is the bone that this story strikes. As it should. We need to be struck awake. We need to be struck to our feet. Things are not all well. Our country is built on grit and sacrifice and vision and love, but also on theft, murder, lashing and suffocation. We can no longer close our eyes to the full spectrum of our country’s history and status quo, on those whose flowered and bloodied grounds we live.”

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