Weekday subscriptions include one ticket to each of the four shows to any weekday performance as well as a pass to the Virgin Play Festival.
Weekend subscriptions include one ticket to each of the four shows to any weekend performance as well as a pass to the Virgin Play Festival.
Flex Pass subscriptions include four tickets to be used as you choose as well as a pass to the Virgin Play Festival.
NextGen subscriptions include one ticket to each of the four shows as well as a pass to Virgin Play Festival. NextGen Subscriptions are for patrons 35 & under, proof of age required.
Magic Theatre's 2018-2019 Season will include the World Premiere of Ashlin Halfnight's The Resting Place; the World Premiere of Mfoniso Udofia's In Old Age; and an anniversary revival of Luis Alfaro's critically acclaimed Oedipus el Rey, which premiered at Magic Theatre ten years ago. The Season will also include a fourth play, yet to be announced, and Magic's beloved, annual Virgin Play Festival.
By Ashlin Halfnight
The Resting Place is a provocative and intense look at an American family in a cloudburst of crisis - it's a hell of a ride, filled with raw humor, penetrating darkness, and fierce love. Ashlin Halfnight (Magic Virgin Play Festival 2017) addresses familial obligation, guilt, our own complacency and culpability in wrongdoing and asks, how do we reconcile our love for someone with the knowledge of their horrifying transgression?
World Premiere
By Mfoniso Udofia
When Azell Abernathy, a seasoned repairman, arrives at the home of Abasiama Ufot to redo the floors of her dilapidated New England home, he is surprised to be met with stubborn resistance. The two clash, challenge each other, and eventually form an unlikely spiritual connection. Abasiama and Azell learn the true nature of forgiveness and love, just as her life takes a new turn. This fifth installment of Mfoniso Udofia’s Ufot family cycle offers both a purge and a peacemaking; both frenzy and faith.
In Spring 2018, Magic Theatre and A.C.T. will each present one, independent chapter from Mfoniso Udofia’s sweeping nine-part saga about a family of Nigerian immigrants and their American-born children. Other chapters of Mfoniso’s cycle (Sojourners, runboyrun) were premiered at Magic in the 2015-16 season.
Magic Legacy Revival
By Luis Alfaro
Set in South Central LA, Oedipus el Rey is a gritty and electrifying take on the Greek tragedy, written by acclaimed Magic playwright Luis Alfaro. Oedipus is reimagined as a troubled young man whose dreams of controlling his own destiny soar beyond the prison walls where he’s spent his life. But in a place where everyone is trapped—by desperation or fate, history or violence—no one man can change his story alone. Love, family and belief collide in this chilling, incredibly powerful play that asks: what’s fate, and what’s just the system?
Magic Theatre is thrilled to welcome our Magic Family member, Luis, back for the 10th anniversary production of Oedipus El Rey.
Customize your Magic Theatre experience. Use your 4 tickets in any combination during Magic's 2017-18 season (excludes opening/closing performances).
written by Jessica Hagedorn
directed by Loretta Greco
words
qw,ldmq'
qndflnqlfn
(Laney College: May 5 at 2:30p)
The season ends in Spring with the world premiere of THE GANGSTER OF LOVE from Jessica Hagedorn, who presents the theatrical adaptation of her own story of immigration from Manila, based on her book of the same name. Raquel "Rocky" Rivera and her eccentric family settle in the Haight during the 1970s, opening for us a window to a dynamic period of conflict, social change, and artistic flourishing in San Francisco. The lauded city of poets, rebels, and thriving musicians will be reclaimed at Magic through the eyes of Hagedorn's immigrant artists. Featuring live music, poetry reading, and the music video as key narrative forms, this is a story 20 years in the making. THE GANGSTER OF LOVE is a Magic Gerbode commissioned new play.
.JPG)
Jessica Hagedorn
is the author of Toxicology, Dream Jungle, The Gangster Of Love, and Dogeaters, which won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction. Other publications include Danger And Beauty, a collection of poetry and prose, and Burning Heart: A Portrait Of The Philippines (with photojournalist Marissa Roth). Hagedorn edited both volumes of Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction, and Manila Noir, a crime fiction anthology. Her plays include Most Wanted, Stairway To Heaven, Fe In The Desert, and the stage adaptation of Dogeaters. In collaboration with composer Fabian Obispo, Hagedorn is adapting Lysley Tenorio’s short story, Felix Starro, into a musical play. Her work in film includes screenplays for director Shu Lea Cheang’s Fresh Kill and for the Oxygen Network’s animated series, The Pink Palace. Honors and awards include a Guggenheim Fiction Fellowship, a Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, and a Philippine National Book Award for Manila Noir. She is an alumna of the Sundance Theatre Lab for Dogeaters and Most Wanted, and the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab for Dogeaters. For more information, visit www.jessicahagedorn.net.
GOLDA SARGENTO (ROCKY) A writer, musician and performer, Golda’s work is most often with her bands Golda + The Guns, DeathGlam and The Soft Stars. With her acting, directing and producing chops at home at Bindlestiff Studio, the epicenter for Filipino American Performing Arts — Golda has worked with Overseas Artists, 8th Wonder, Pinoisepop, Jeanne Barroga, Taste Better Wit, Stories High, The Love Edition, and Aklasan Fest. Currently, Golda is developing DARKHEART, A Concert Narrative with past presentations including Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture 2017 Performing Arts, and the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists in Ashland, Oregon 2016.
SARAH NINA HAYON* (MILAGROS) Previous Magic credits include: This Golden State (Loretta Greco) Se Llama Cristina (Loretta Greco). Other Recent Theater: Life Is A Dream (Cal Shakes, Loretta Greco), Water By The Spoonful (The Old Globe, Eddie Torres), Nature Of Captivity (Mabou Mines, Victor Maog) Bright New Boise (Drama Desk Nom.,Partial Comfort Productions, Davis McCallum), Eldoris, (T41, Leigh Silverman) Sor Juana (Royal Shakespeare Company & LAByrinth), The Provenance of Beauty (Obie Award, Drama Desk Nom.,The Foundry Theater, Melanie Joseph), Widows (Reverie, dir. Hal Brooks) KIDSTUFF (Partial Comfort, Erica Gould), Rearviewmirror (Drama Desk Nom Reverie, dir. Carl Forsman) ..A Matter of Choice (Partial Comfort, John Gould Rubin). Recent TV & FILM: "Unforgettable", "Oscar", "Parker & Maggie", "Are We There Yet", "The Green", "SATC", "Law & Order", "Avatar"
CHUCK LACSON (SHIG/BAS) is a resident artist and producer at Bindlestiff Studio (SF) and feels incredibly honored to return to the Magic to help tell this wonderful story. Credits include: Dogeaters (Magic Theater), There's the Moonand then there's You (Bindlestiff Studio), A Kinda Sad Love Story (Bindlestiff Studio), A Pinoy Midsummer (Bindlestiff Studio), Cowboy vs. Samurai, (Asian American Theater Company / Pear Theater). He wants to thank his talented cast mates and the Magic Theater family, especially Loretta Greco and Jessica Hagedorn, for inviting him to be part of something so special. Lastly, love to his wife and scene partner for life, Julie.
LAWRENCE RADECKER (RICK/FATIMA) is honored to be back in Jessica Hagedorn's world after previously performing in Magic Theatre’s production of Dogeaters. He is a resident artist with both Crowded Fire Theater and Golden Thread Productions where he's developed and debuted numerous roles. Other theatre credits include shows at San Jose Stage, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Thick Description, Impact Theatre and Bootstrap Theatre amongst others.
PATRICK ALPARONE* (ELVIS/DECLAN/ORPHEUS) was last seen at Magic in Baltimore Waltz. Also at the Magic: Buried Child, Every Five Minutes, Any Given Day, Mrs. Whitney, Octopus, A Lie of the Mind. Other credits include: The Normal Heart, Elektra (American Conservatory Theatre); Red (Portland Center Stage); Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear (Cal Shakes); Phaedra (Shotgun Players); Period of Adjustment, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (San Francisco Playhouse); Man of Rock (Climate Theatre); Twelfth Night, Ambition Facing West (TheatreWorks);Olive Kitteridge, 36 Stories (Word for Word/Zspace); All’s Well That Ends Well (Livermore Shakespeare Festival ); Lolita Roadtrip (San Jose Stage Company); A Streetcar Named Desire (Marin Theatre Co.); Skin (Encore Theatre Co.); Hamlet (Impact Theatre); Little Dog Laughed (B Street Theatre); Karima’s City for the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre (Golden Thread Productions). Member of AEA and SAG. patrickalparone.com
JED PARSARIO (VOLTAIRE/BENNY) is thrilled to return to Magic Theatre where he was last seen in DOGEATERS. He is a resident artist at Bindlestiff Studio with multiple production credits including TAGALOG FESTIVAL. He is a teaching artist at TheatreWorks. Most recent credits include: THE CIRCUIT (SCU Presents); KANO + ABE: A DALY CITY BIBLE STORY and BEST OF PLAYGROUND 2017 (SF Playground). Jed has also worked with A.C.T., California Shakespeare, Cutting Ball, Local Dystopia, Marin Theatre Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, San Jose Stage, SF Playwrights Foundation, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and Vallejo Shakespeare Company. Catch him next in WHITE at Shotgun Players. www.jedparsario.com
LISA HORI-GARCIA* (FELY) is honored to be working alongside this incredible group of creative beings on the world premiere of The Gangster Of Love. As a longtime fan of Jessica Hagedorn’s work - this project is a dream come true! Lisa is a San Francisco based actor, writer, director, singer and teaching artist, who’s primary artistic home is with the San Francisco Mime Troupe (political theater company) where she has been a principle actor/collaborator since 2004 in such shows as Schooled, Freedomland and Doing Good. Other Bay Area credits include: California Shakespeare Theater, Campo Santo, Word for Word, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, ACT, Marin Theater Company and BRAVA Theater. Lisa received her BA from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. She is also a proud member of Word 4 Word’s Associate Artist Group. www.lisahorigarcia.com
LANCE GARDNER* (ZEKE/BUGSY/JIMI) is a prolific Bay Area actor. He was previously seen at Magic in T.I.C. Trenchcoat in Common He most recently performed in Skeleton Crew at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Other Berkeley Rep credits include: An Octoroon, Shakespeare in Love, Fuddy Meers, Equivocation, A Streetcar Named Desire, Lovers and Executioners, and A Short History of Nearly Everything. Other Bay Area credits include: The Christians at SF Playhouse. California Shakespeare Theater, TheatreWorks in Silicon Valley, Marin Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Encore Theatre, Climate Theatre, and more. He is the producer and host of the upcoming podcast Re: TheatRe.
DEZI SOLEY (KEIKO) is a prismatic artist co-creating embodiments of the Divine through explorations in images, spoken word & movement. Since earning her BA (Cultural & Regional Studies, Minor in Dance) from Prescott College, she has trained and performed with Bay Area traditional Haitian & South African dance theater companies El Wah Movement & Jikelele Dance Theatre. Her most recent credits include starring in the independent feature film Like, Reply, Share (written & directed by Josh Peterson), Campo Santo’s Ethos De Masquerade (directed by Sean San Jose), her lead role in Star Finch's Bondage (directed by Elizabeth Carter), and in TheatreFirst productions: The Farm, Participants and Between Us. Solèy is currently represented by Stars The Agency. www.dezisoley.com
SEAN SAN JOSE* (MARLON/CARABAO KID) is happy to return to Magic Theatre and thrilled to work with the great Jessica Hagedorn again. He has had the honor of working on two of her original plays for the company Campo Santo and has performed her prose material with her many times. Thank you to BongBong for the connection to Jessica.
written and directed by John Kolvenbach
(Laney College Show: Feb 24 at 2:30p)
John Kolvenbach (SISTER PLAY, MRS. WHITNEY, GOLDFISH) returns to Magic to direct the World Premiere of his own REEL TO REEL. Fascinated by the relationship between sound and memory, Kolvenbach has written the story of a fifty-five-year marriage as told through the mundane sentiments of recorded conversations, arguments, and household noises. What emerges is a collage of love, aging, and death captured on audio tape. Will Marchetti (of Magic's original FOOL FOR LOVE) will lead the cast.
John Kolvenbach is the author of Goldfish, Mrs. Whitney, Love Song, on an average day, Gizmo Love, Fabuloso, Bank Job, and Marriage Play (or Half ‘n Half ‘n Half) which premiered in 2012 at Merrimack Repertory. Goldfish premiered at South Coast Repertory in the spring of 2009, directed by Loretta Greco. Goldfish was then produced at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in the fall of that year. The Magic also premiered Mrs. Whitney in the fall of 2009, under Kolvenbach’s direction. Love Song premiered at Steppenwolf in Chicago in the spring of 2006, directed by Austin Pendelton. Love Song went on to the West End, where it was nominated for an Olivier Award, best new comedy. The London production was directed by John Crowley, with Neve Campbell, Cillian Murphy, Kristen Johnston and Michael McKean. Love Song has been produced in New York, Zurich, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Seoul and Rome. There have been over fifty productions in the US. on an average day premiered at the Comedy Theatre on the West End in 2002, with Woody Harrelson and Kyle MacLachlan, also directed by Mr. Crowley. Average Day has been produced in Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Lisbon among many other places. Fabuloso premiered at the Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre in 2008, directed by Mr. Kolvenbach. Fabuloso was staged in San Juan and Zurich, in Spanish and Swiss German, respectively.
ANDREW PASTIDES* (WALTER 1) Magic Theatre: Fool for Love, Goldfish. Other Theatre: Tribes (Denver Center), Half and Half and Half (Merrimack Rep), Lovesong (59 E59), Makeout Session (Barrow Group), The Glass Menagerie (Two River Theatre), The Chosen (The Cleveland Playhouse), Molly's Delicious (The Arizona Theatre Co.), Tartuffe (Two River Theatre), Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Theatre Alliance). Television credits include: CBS's “Blue Bloods”, “Law and Order” on NBC, USA's “Suits”, and HBO's “Boardwalk Empire”. Film credits: Dish (Dir. Isabele Teitler) Home is Where the Heart Aches ( Dir. Julien Levi), Deja View (Dir. Phillip Van), Hank and Asha ( Dir. James Duff), Si Nos Dejan ( Dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall), The Audition and Gray Dog (Dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall), Mrs Tenderfoot Takes a Lover ( Dir. Melissa Tomjanovich), Shadows and Lies (Dir. Jay Anania), Engagement (Dir. Stephanie Gibson), and MA (Dir. Celia Rowlson-Hall). Andrew is a graduate of The SCGSAH and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
ZOË WINTERS* (MAGGIE 1) is so happy to be returning to Magic and near her hometown of Santa Cruz. Magic Theatre: Mauritius (dir. Loretta Greco). Kolvenbach Plays: Love Song (59E59, with Pastides), Half 'n Half 'n Half (Merrimack Rep, with Pastides). New York: The Last Match (Roundabout); The Harvest, 4000 Miles (LCT3); Shows for Days, 4000 Miles (Mitzi E. Newhouse/Lincoln Center Theater); Small Mouth Sounds (Signature: Ars Nova Production); Red Speedo, Love and Information (NYTW); Much Ado About Nothing (Public’s Shakespeare in the Park); An Octoroon (Soho Rep); Hater (Ohio Theatre). Regional includes Westport Country Playhouse, The Old Globe, Paper Mill Playhouse, Baltimore Center Stage, Alliance and Seattle Rep. Film: Gray Dog, In the Family, Under, Giant. TV: "Madam Secretary," “Elementary,” “Law & Order,” “Ugly Betty,” “Gossip Girl,” “Army Wives.” Training: B.F.A. SUNY Purchase. Member: NYTW Usual Suspects, LCT Angels Artists Committee, The Actors Center. For Mer and Dave and their 41 1/2 years.
WILL MARCHETTI* (WALTER 2) is pleased to return to Magic Theatre after many years. Will enjoyed several successful shows here in the past; Curse of the Starving Class, Sharon And Billy, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Moon For The Misbegotten, Geniuses, Crossdressing In The Depression, Poetamachia, Hitting For The Cycle and the original production of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. He’s very excited to be a part of Reel To Reel and to be reunited with is frequent co-actor in the Bay Area, Carla Spindt. Will has been a Bay Area based actor since he was a young man at San Francisco Theatre Company in the 1950’s.Over the span of his career, he has performed in theatres all over the Bay Area including A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, San Jose Rep, Theatreworks, San Jose Stage, SF Playhouse, the Eureka Theatre, Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Alter Theatre and Marin Shakespeare to name a few. Beyond local theatres, Will has acted in a number of regional theatres including Seattle Rep, the Huntington Theatre, Kansas City Rep, the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, the Wilma Theatre, Yale Rep and New York Theatre Workshop. Will served as Artistic Director of Marin Theatre Company twice and most recently appeared there in August: Osage County last season. Will has won a number of Critics’ Circle awards and the Dean Goodman Lifetime Achievement Award as an actor. As a playwright, his plays have been produced at San Jose Stage, the Phoenix Theatre and the Shelton Theatre in San Francisco. He is grateful for his long career and the support of his family including his wife Susan Brashear (Co-Director of Tamalpais High School’s acclaimed drama program (CTE), also a key player in early MTC days. Will is grateful to his family for their support over the years and to the many who keep coming back to watch him onstage.
CARLA SPINDT* (MAGGIE 2) is thrilled to return to her roots at Magic Theatre. She played Mom with Will Marchetti’s Dad in Magic’s world premiere of Sharon and Billy and played Frankie to his Johnnie in Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune. Carla also appeared in Magic’s Private Scenes, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Temptation and Jacques and His Master. Other Bay Area performances include: Marin Theatre Company’s The Guardsman, The Price, Noises Off! and The Marriage of Bette and Boo; Theatreworks’ All My Sons; San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s Romeo and Juliet; San Jose Stage’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Aurora Theatre Company’s Trojan Women and Seascape. She also appeared with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and toured the Midwest and East Coast with Houston’s Alley Theatre. Carla is currently a guest-artist teacher/director at Tamalpais High School’s Conservatory Theatre Ensemble in Mill Valley and she teaches and directs throughout Napa, Solano, and Sonoma counties. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University, American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) and UC Davis.
Our play festival centers on bringing emerging and mid-career playwrights together, giving each writer the time and space to create and experiment and hear their work out loud. Recent writers have included: Jessica Hagedorn, Barbara Hammond, John Kolvenbach, Lauren Yee, Clare Barron, Dipika Guha, Han Ong, Mfoniso Udofia & many, many more. It's an exciting opportunity for writers to get space and time to work, for us to get to know new playwrights and familiar playwright's work, and for our audience to meet new playwrights and new plays. We invite Magic Family patrons to join us for readings presenting new work by writers we love.
Tuesday, December 5, 7:00pm
HAN ONG’S
MACKYDEE
Based on the infamous Zombie McDonald’s in New York City, MACKYDEE shines a harsh light on the realities of being homeless on the streets of New York. This play takes a look at a day in the life of those who call the Zombie McDonald’s their home. MACKYDEE explores the dehumanization of the homeless population, the economic disparagement of race, and the continuation of hope.
HAN ONG is a novelist and playwright who recently premiered his play GRANDEUR at Magic Theatre in 2017. Han’s plays have been widely produced in the United States at distinguished venues such as the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Berkeley, CA), The Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles, CA), and The American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge, MA), and abroad at the Almeida Theatre in London. One of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship (1997), Han has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Foundation, and The Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library.
Wednesday, December 6, 8:00pm
ASHLIN HALFNIGHT’S
THE RESTING PLACE
Annie returns to her childhood home for the funeral of her beloved brother. When she discovers her family’s reluctance to celebrate his life in the way he had wished for, she begins to uncover and dissect details from his troubled and complicated past and the ways in which each of her family members were connected. The Resting Place addresses familial obligation, guilt, mental health, and our own complacency and culpability in wrongdoing.
ASHLIN HALFNIGHT is currently a writer on the Emmy Award-winning Netflix show, BLOODLINE. His plays have been performed across North America and Europe and include ARTIFACTS OF CONSEQUENCE, A HARD WALL AT HIGH SPEED, LAWS OF MOTION, and GOD'S WAITING ROOM. Ashlin is a Fulbright Scholar, former professional hockey player signed by the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, a Howard Stein Playwriting Fellow, and was the 2006 artist in residence at the National Theater of Hungary, in Budapest. Ashlin holds an honors BA in English from Harvard University and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
Friday, December 8, 8:00pm
BARBARA HAMMOND’S
VISIBLE FROM FOUR STATES
In rural, middle America, a small town engages in a debate regarding the use of the space on a prominent hill, able to be seen from the highway. Would the community benefit more from erecting a large, Christian cross -- a calling to the faithful, or a large cellphone tower? In the very same town, a young man is being sentenced to death, and the question of whether his repentance is enough to wipe away one of the most egregious sins comes into the forefront of the town. Hammond’s story examines the true nature of faith, Christianity, community, and forgiveness.
BARBARA HAMMOND is a New Dramatists Resident Playwright and is currently under commission from The Royal Court Theatre. Barbara and her plays have won recognition, awards and funding from many national and international sources, including New Dramatists (’18), the National Endowment of the Arts, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, The Venturous Theater Fund, the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as Yale University, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The Helen Merrill Foundation, Seven Devils Theatre Conference, the First Irish Theatre Festival, the Edward Albee Foundation, the Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Festival and the Kerouac Project. A member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild, she was named one of the Influential Women of 2011 by the Irish Voice. Barbara recently celebrated the world premiere of her work THE EVA TRILOGY at Magic Theatre in 2017.
Saturday, December 9, 8:00pm
TEARRANCE ARVELLE CHISHOLM’S
P.Y.G. AND THE MIS-EDUMACATION OF DORIAN BELL
What happens when Canada’s biggest pop music sweetheart attempts to reinvent his image with the “help” of two of hip-hop’s baddest bad boys and broadcasts the process on cable television? P.Y.G. explores the cultural and racial appropriation that is so prevalent in our popular music industry in this fictionalized exchange of ideologies, vernacular, and alleged street cred.
TEARRANCE ARVELLE CHISHOLM is a current member of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard and a recent MFA Playwriting graduate from the Catholic University of America. His play HOODED: OR BEING BLACK FOR DUMMIES will receive its World Premiere at Mosaic Theatre in Washington, D.C. this year and will be followed by the World Premiere of his play BR’ER COTTON at Kitchen Dog Theatre in Dallas, TX. His work has been developed with the Signature Theatre, Theatre J, Theatre Alliance, Endstation Theatre, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He was named a “Person to Watch” by American Theatre Magazine and a “Rising Star” by Variety. He was a finalist for the inaugural Relentless Award and London's 503 Theatre Award. He was named winner of both the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award at KCACTF 2016.
Thursday, December 14, 8:00pm
KATE TARKER’S
LAURA AND THE SEA
A sudden and surprising death in a corporate office knocks the wind out of the other employees, who remember and relive the last moments they each spent with Laura on their corporate retreat in an attempt to process their feelings. This quirky exploration of death, grief, and memory prompts us to examine what it means to be alive.
KATE TARKER has had works developed at The Lark, The Vineyard, The Wilma, Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, the Playwrights’ Center, and The O’Neill, among others. She is the recipient of a Jerome Fellowship, The Vineyard’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, the National Science Playwriting Award, Theater Masters’ Visionary Playwright Award, and a PWCenter/NET Ensemble Collaboration Grant. Tarker has completed residencies at MacDowell Colony, Tofte Lake Center, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. She is currently a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and a Playwrights’ Center Core Writer. She has commissions from The Wilma and Theater Masters and collaborations with both Pig Iron and SITI Company. As a teacher, she has mentored playwrights at the New Haven Co-Op High School and the Pillsbury House Theatre, and taught playwriting at Wesleyan. B.A. Reed College. M.F.A. Yale School of Drama.
Sunday, December 17, 2:30 pm
LM FELDMAN’S
ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE
When Evan accompanies her composer husband to Athens for his concert, the last thing she expects is to stumble upon artistic inspiration. But in meeting Chap, a compassionate artist/chef, Evan begins to uncover passions inside of her that have lain dormant. Both women are currently coupled, and this bilingual-ASL play follows these four characters and a corresponding Greek Chorus of four as they confront the mysteries of desire, long-term partnership, and a changing self; alongside the challenges and intimacy of communication.
LM FELDMAN’s plays include ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE (PlayPenn, O’Neill Finalist, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Drama League New Directors/New Works Fellowship); AMANUENSIS (Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company commission); THE EGG-LAYERS (Jane Chambers Honorable Mention, O’Neill Finalist, New Georges/Barnard College co-commission); A PEOPLE (Jewish Plays Project NYC Residency); GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING (Denver Center Theatre Company, Nice People Theatre Company, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Nomination, Barrymore Nomination, The Kilroys List); several ensemble-devised works, including AND IF YOU LOSE YOUR WAY, OR A FOOD ODYSSEY (The Invisible Dog, New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination), LADY M (Philadelphia Live Arts Festival), and THE APOCRYPHAL PROJECT (Yale Cabaret), among others; as well as a dozen short plays and an autobiographical solo piece. She has been nominated for the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, LM is also a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a devised-work collaborator, a teacher of playwriting (Bryn Mawr College, McCarter Theatre, PlayPenn), and a freelance dramaturg.
Eden
Enter the Roar
No Coast Road
written by Barbara Hammond
directed by Loretta Greco
Run time: 3 hours with two intermissions
The Eva Trilogy is comprised of three plays that run in succession every performance. Your ticket is for the trilogy in its entirety.
Rod Gnapp* // Eamon
Justin Gillman * // Father O'Leary
Amy Nowak // Roisin
Megan Trout // Nymph
World Premiere
Begins October 19, 2017
Barbara Hammond's THE EVA TRILOGY is a lyrical Irish epic spanning thirty years over the course of three plays: EDEN, ENTER THE ROAR, and NO COAST ROAD. In Hammond's trilogy, an Irish expat named Eva returns home from her rebellious life in Paris and makes an irreparable choice when her ailing mother's fate is placed in her hands. Her decision becomes legendary within her community and proceeds to haunt her through the rest of her life. Each play in the trilogy champions its own theatrical landscape, reflecting the tremendous range of Hammond's writing and the evolving state of her subject. Magic will be the first theatre to take on all three parts in a single production. Julia McNeal (FRED'S DINER, A LIE OF THE MIND) will star as Eva.
Meet The Playwright
Barbara Hammond
is a New Dramatists resident playwright and
is a citizen of both the United States and Ireland. Awards and recognitions: 2015-17 Royal Court Theatre new play commission, 2017 Headwaters Theatre Festival in Creede, CO, 2017 University of Arkansas New Play Award, 2017 Theatresquared Festival of New Plays, 2017 lyricist for the 25th anniversary concert of the AIDS Quilt Songbook at National Sawdust, 2016 Duke University residency, 2016 Emerson Stage workshop production, 2015 Play Commission from the Contemporary American Theatre Festival for WE ARE PUSSY RIOT, 2015 Lippmann Family "New Frontier" Award, 2015 P73 Fellowship finalist, 2014 Seven Devils Theatre Conference; the 2012 Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwright Award; Yale Playwrights Festival mentor since 2010; a 2011 Edward Albee Foundation Fellow; Tyrone Guthrie Centre repeat resident in Annaghmakerrig, County Monaghan, Ireland; finalist at the Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Festival and the Kerouac Project; Special Jury Award, First Irish 2009 Theatre Festival. She is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild, and was named one of the Influential Women of 2011 by the Irish Voice. Her work has been funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, The Venturous Theater Fund, the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Plays: WE ARE PUSSY RIOT OR EVERYTHING IS P.R., TERRA FIRMA, VISIBLE FROM FOUR STATES, THE EVA TRILOGY: EDEN, ENTER THE ROAR and NO COAST ROAD, BEYOND THE PALE, JAMES, NORMAN AND BEATRICE, PAPER TIGERS and a collection of three one-acts entitled NEW YORK IN JUNE. Visit her website at barbarahammond.com.
written by Taylor Mac
September 15-24, 2017
September 15: Chapter I (1776-1836)
September 17: Chapter II (1836-1896)
September 22: Chapter III (1896-1956)
September 24: Chapter IV (1956-the present)
Presented by Curran and Stanford Live
In association with Magic Theatre and Pomegranate Arts
West Coast Premiere
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is Mac’s multi-year effort to chart a subjective history of the United States through 246 songs that were popular throughout the country, and in its disparate communities, from 1776 to the present day. In performing the work, Mac is joined by an orchestra—led by Music Director Matt Ray, who created new arrangements of all 246 songs—plus an ensemble of “Dandy Minions” and a variety of local special guests, including members of the audience cast as colonial needleworkers, World War I soldiers and Yum Yum from The Mikado. Costume designer Machine Dazzle, a longtime Mac collaborator, has handmade an outrageously imaginative, world-unto-itself costume specific to each decade.
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music recently won the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Award for Drama inspired by American History and was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, in addition to being included on an unprecedented three New York Times “Best of…” lists in 2016: Performance, Theater and Classical Music.
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music will be presented over four nights at Curran Theater (445 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102).
· Friday, September 15 at 5pm (Chapter 1: 1776-1836): The American Revolution from the perspective of the yankee doodle dandy, the early woman’s lib movement, an epic battle between drinking songs and early temperance songs, a dream sequence where the audience is blindfolded and the heteronormative narrative as colonization.
· Sunday, September 17 at 2pm (Chapter II: 1836-1896): Walt Whitman and Stephen Foster go head to head for the title of Father of the American Song, culminating in the queerest Civil War Reenactment in history. Oh, and: a production of The Mikado set on Mars.
· Friday, September 22 at 5pm (Chapter III: 1896-1956): A Jewish tenement, a WWI trench, a speakeasy, a depression, a zoot suit riot all make the white people flee the cities.
· Sunday, September 24 at 2pm (Chapter IV: 1956-the present): Bayard Rustin’s March on Washington leads to a queer riot, sexual deviance as revolution, radical lesbians, and a community building itself while under siege.
Magic subscribers get one ticket (per subscription) to one of these six-hour performances.
A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is Created, Written, Performed and Co-Directed by Taylor Mac, with Co-Direction by Niegel Smith, Music Direction & Arrangements by Matt Ray, Costume Design by Machine Dazzle, Dramaturgy by Jocelyn Clarke, Scenic Design by Mimi Lien, and Lighting Design by John Torres. A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is produced by Pomegranate Arts and Mac’s company Nature’s Darlings.
Taylor Mac (who uses “judy”, lowercase sic, not as a name but as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. “A critical darling of the New York scene” (New York Magazine), judy’s work has been performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, London’s Hackney Empire, Los Angeles’s Royce Hall, Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, Boston’s American Repertory Theatre, Stockholm’s Sodra Theatern, the Spoleto Festival, San Francisco’s Curran theater and MOMA, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, opera houses, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. Judy is the author of seventeen full-length plays and performance pieces including A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, Kennedy Prize in Drama), Hir (placed on the top ten theater of 2015 lists of The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out NY; published by North Western University Press and in American Theater Magazine), The Lily’s Revenge (Obie Award), The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (named One of the Best Plays of 2011 by The New York Times), The Young Ladies Of (Chicago’s Jeff Award nomination for best solo), Red Tide Blooming (Ethyl Eichelberger Award), and The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac (Edinburgh Festival’s Herald Angel Award). Recent acting roles include Shen Teh/Shui Ta in The Foundry Theater’s production of Good Person of Szechwan at La Mama and the Public Theater (for which judy received Lucille Lortel and Drama League Award nominations), Puck/Egeus in the Classic Stage Company’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the title role in various productions of judy’s play, The Lily’s Revenge, and opposite Mandy Patinkin in the two-man vaudeville, The Last Two People On Earth, directed by Susan Stroman. Mac is currently creating a Dionysia Festival of four original plays (to be premiered separately and eventually performed in repertory), which deal in some way with our cultural polarization and that include: an all-ages play called, The Fre (commissioned by the Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis, premiere date TBD); a kitchen-sink tragedy named, Hir (which received its world premiere at the Magic Theater in Feb 2014); a dance-theater play, The Bourgeois Oligarch, and a music theatre debate regarding small and large government, set inside an Ezra Pound poem, in the subconscious of Clarence Thomas, during a Supreme Court Hearing. Mac is the recipient of multiple awards including the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim Award, the Herb Alpert Award in Theater, the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and an Obie. An alumnus of New Dramatists judy is currently a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and the Resident playwright at the Here Arts Center.
