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Brava! Presents
West Coast Premiere of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom A Highly Acclaimed Play About Controversial Imprisonment Issues Opens
March 23 Just
days after Army Specialist Charles Graner Jr. was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for his role in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal Brava! for Women In
the Arts announced that it will produce the West Coast premiere of Guantanamo:
Honor to Defend Freedom. Written by journalists Victoria Britain and
Gillian Slovo, Guantanamo is based on verbatim testimonies of Guantanamo
detainees, lawyers, politicians and detainees’ family members. The play was
commissioned by the Tricycle Theatre in London and recently enjoyed a
successful four month run at The Culture Project in New York. Guantanamo
previews on March 23, 24 and 25, and officially opens on March 26 at
the Brava Theatre Center, 2789 24th Street @ York (www.brava.org // (415)647- 2822). The play is
scheduled to close April 24. “I have been haunted by Guantanamo ever
since I saw it in New York last September,” said Ellen Gavin, Executive
and Artistic Producer at Brava. “On every front we are watching as our civil
liberties are eroded and we lose our ethical standing in eyes of the world. We
strongly believe this groundbreaking, timely play can make a difference for
many people in significant ways.” Many members of the original New York cast
will participate in the San Francisco production, including Andrew
Stewart-Jones (Sex in the City), and the prolific character actor, Harsh
Nayyar (Hidalgo, Traffic, Gandhi). During the New York run,
guest celebrities including Tim Robbins and Bishop Desmond Tutu performed small
roles, and Gavin expects similar cameos by local artists. Guantanamo was
originally directed by Nicholas Kent and Sasha Wares. Will Pomeranz will direct
in San Francisco. Sets and costumes are being sent to Brava from New York,
allowing continuity with the US premiere production. Gavin sees Guantanamo as
a potential catalyst for political activism around issues of civil liberties in
the age of the Patriot Act. “We are working with Michael Ratner, chief legal
activist around Guantanamo human rights abuses at the Center for Constitutional
rights in New York, to fashion an activist campaign with audience members to
provoke change on the grassroots level,” said Gavin, noting that Ratner will be
on hand for a special “benefit brunch” on Sunday, February 6th (more
information will be released shortly). “Our performances will be augmented with
numerous organizing efforts, panels, media events, and calls-to-action.”
Founded in 1986 at the Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco, Brava! For Women
in the Arts is deeply rooted in the Mission District neighborhood. Brava is
one of the few theaters in the country that specializes in the creation of new
work, and the only one whose primary purpose is to produce outstanding world
premieres by women of color and lesbian playwrights. BRAVA’s productions
project onto the American stage an aesthetic that is simultaneously
multicultural and feminist, and its comprehensive theatretraining program
serves adults and youth at all levels of theater experience. Brava is the only
professional theater in the country to receive four national awards from the
Fund for New American Plays, a project of the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and
the American Express Company. March 23 thru
April 17 International
Clitoris Day Celebration @ Brava Saturday, March 19,
2005 • 8 pm Largely
celebration, a bit political, inherently sexual and utterly unforgettable,
"International Clitoris Day Celebration" is the latest performance
piece from writer/performer/activist Sia Amma. Directed by Gloria Weinstock,
the lighthearted comedy takes a trip "down there" to get the lowdown
on what women say (or don't say) about those "nether regions" and the
effect their communication style has on them. Armed
with insight, biting wit and gentle humor, the play features a lively
multicultural female cast and a "True Confessions" presentation
format that takes female sexual organs and comedy, which are rarely mentioned
in the same breath, and hangs it up to dry. "Clitoris Celebration: Think
Outside the Box" utilizes the art of playful storytelling to spotlight
sexual politics, social codes and hidden issues at the root of what's
"down there." By initiating dialogues and diffusing tension with
humor, the play hopes to serve as a bridge to frank discussions of sexuality
and more honest communication between men, women, and children. "There
is a huge amount of silence around female sexuality," says San Francisco
writer and performer Sia Amma, "and when there is a lot of silence around
an issue, it often translates into shame. As a performer-and as a woman-I had
two options in dealing with the mutilation of my clitoris: I could grieve about
it quietly, or I could choose to heal myself through comedy and
education." The
result of Sia Amma's decision (she chose the latter option) is the show
"Clitoris Celebration: Think Outside the Box," which will inaugurate
the annual International Clitoris Day Celebration on March 19, 2005, at 8 p.m.,
at Brava for Women in the Arts, located at Brava Theater Center, 2781 - 24th
Street at York in the Mission District of San Francisco. "Down
There" is the companion piece to "In Search of My Clitoris," its
subject matter bearing witness to Amma's flair for wry humor and penchant for
communication. The founder of Global Women Intact (GWI), a nonprofit
organization dedicated to ending female circumcision through education,
information and outreach, Amma has witnessed firsthand the most brutal examples
of the damage borne by misinformation, silence, fear and ignorance. The
event features dancers, musicians, and actors fusing their talents to benefit
children from the war-torn zones of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. For
more information, please call Sia Amma at Brava
Theater Center WKRP
Pilot Episode Saturday, March 12 Make sure to show up early to get a seat for their stage production of the 70s comedy hit, WKRP in Cincinnatti's pilot episode, complete with commercials. Theme music provided by the Six Million Dollar Band, San Francisco's only TV theme-song
tribute band. Eclipse Dance Theatre @ Jon Sims Renee:
A Coming of Age Story, A Testimony to Madness is Eclipse Dance Theater's artistic
director, Samantha Blanchard's first one-woman show. This dance-theater piece
combining original text, movement, singing, original composition and
improvisation is a coming of age story of an original character based on the
life experiences of Ms. Blanchard herself. "The Autobiography of a
Schizophrenic Girl" by Marguerite Sechehaye was the initial inspiration
for Renee, but the exploration of mental illness brought Samantha closer to the
dis-ease within herself. It has been an intense personal and artistic journey.
Renee's cumulative interpretation of her life experiences has engendered a
self-image that appears worthless. Her paranoid mind and increasing anxiety
convince her of her inability to conform to societal expectations. Her journey
is a familiar one, loss of trust, low self esteem, failed relationships and
finally the recovery process of letting go. In perfectly vivid language, Renee
recreates her journey into the depths of darkness and her step by step return
to reality. Through improvisational vocal tracks, shadow movements, reprocessed
sound and an original music score, this piece will explore sequences and
patterns from an intensely emotional base. Samantha will wear a head mic
throughout the entire show and the breathing, sounding and other body noises
picked up will be improvisationally incorporated into the performance.
Collaborators include: James House - Script Writer, Dan Combs - Musical
Composition, Simran Gleason - Sound Reprocessing Design. Renee will be prefaced
by a lobby installation, Addicted To Duality. This interactive labyrynth
accompanied by manipulated voiceovers is papered floor to ceiling with
newspaper clippings and personal writings about mental illness. -more- Samantha
Blanchard has been creating dance-theater in the Bay Area for the past nine years
as Artistic Director of Eclipse Dance Theater. Her work is evocative and direct
with compassion for humanity and the evolution of consciousness. Eclipse's
mission aims to collide dance and the spoken word to create cutting-edge
feminine perspectives of theatrical experience. Eclipse has been a self
sustaining dance-theater company since 1995, producing a wide variety of work
reflecting the views and experiences of modern women. Eclipse has brought eight
evening length dance-theater productions to over 24 different Bay Area venues
in addition to touring Oregon, Arizona, Nevada and Canada. Quoted by the Bay
Guardian for their "...simple genuineness," and by the East Bay
Express "...that inherited wisdom-whether folk or esoteric-can offer us direction
for a more authentic future." "wife, life, tripe, dammit and
THAT" "Then you will teach him to dance inside out/
as in the delirium of our accordion dances/and that inside out will be his true
side out" Based in part on the banned 1948 radio-broadcast
of French surrealist poet Antonin Artaud’s "To Have Done With The
Judgement Of God", this work by Djalma Primordial Science cleaves to the
roots of Artaud’s hallucinatory prophecies. A San Fransisco premiere for this
international experimental performance group. Intersection + Campo Santo World
Premiere Killing My Lobster Kisses a Toad
March 3-13, 2005 / Yugen-Noh Space, San Francisco Tickets: $17 general; $12 students KML next tackles a subject near and dear to the
hearts of not only 4 year olds, but the inner-child in all of us: fairy tales! Beginning March 3 at the intimate and yet
not-too-close-as-to-make-your-personal-space-barrier-burst-space known as the
Yugen-Noh Space, KML attacks, subverts, rewrites, and reinvents story tales you
grew up with and still have a soft spot for. From princesses to wolves big and
bad, from fiary godmothers to talking animals, Kisses a Toad presents a
storybook's worth of hilarious sketches that put the "oo!" in
"Mother Goose." KML Kisses a Toad is directed by Melanie Case, and
features Lobster regulars Tonya Glanz, Emily Helfgot, Nick Olivero, Shaye
Troha, and Jon Wolanske, and newcomers Andy Alabran (of The Shotgun Players
fame) and Andrew Bancroft (of Illbilly Productions). Original music by Tim Barsky! Sets and props by
Giao-Chau Ly! Costumes by Jamie Munger! Lights by Jarrod Fischer! ABADÁ-Capoeira @ Dance
Mission Theater March 18th, 19th and 20th, 2005 Dance Mission Theater Yugen Presents Metropolitan Butoh SMILE is an incident of experience and memories
excavated through the body. The urban landscape is our experience and the
Mission is our common ground. Each performer taps their own experience
reservoir and SMILE is where they intersect and implode. The music is an
original score by Dim-Mak, a local drum 'n' bass dj and composer of electronic
music. Dim- Mak’s composition is accompanied by Doug Slater on electric guitar.
Special guest Skorpio adds texture from the underground dance forms of
breakin’, poppin’, lockin’, tuts and puppet styles. Skorpio has a fluid
polished design that erupts with vibrant surprises. The movement
score/direction is provided by Molly Barrons who observes what Butoh and
Breakin’ have in common is pure, raw energy! SMILE is the fresh fruit of a
weekly session called Mission Butoh. Barrons, who spearheads the class says her
goal is to “create a space for diverse existence.” A long time student/advocate
of Butoh masters, Koichi and Hiroko Tamano, Barrons fiercely believes in Butoh
is as a way of life. BUTOH Butoh is an experimental dance form that was born
in post-war Japan. Butoh is not a prescribed set of movements in time; it is a
departure from expression bounding towards transformation. Butoh is a state of
being present, hanging between light and darkness; it is dance that thrives on
change. In the late 1950’s Ankoku Butoh, which translates to dance of darkness, was pioneered
by Tatsumi Hijikata (1926-1986) who coined this term and revolutionized dance in Japan through his intense
aesthetic and radical presence. The other progenitor of Butoh, Kazuo Ohno is in
his late 90’s still holds sessions in Yokohama, Japan. In Butoh’s brief history it has transformed
the Dance world and has spiraled into an international movement. Butoh made its
way to the United States largely due to Koichi and Hiroko Tamano’s arrival in
Berkeley, California in 1978. Theatre of Yugen at Noh Space 2840 Mariposa Street
at Florida Street 94110 TIX: $10 - $15 sliding scale Reservations (415) 621-7978 Advance ticket purchase available at www.theatreofyugen.org |
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