SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE PRESENTS - Schooled - 2016 Summer

SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE PRESENTS - Schooled - 2016 Summer

LAWRENCE HELMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS – E MAIL -

Tel. 415 /661- 1260 / Cell. 415/ 336- 8220 (DO NOT PUBLISH THIS #)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 27, 2016

For press materials and hi-res color press photos, visit:

Tony Award-Winning SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE

Opens 57th Season with
Schooled

July 2 – Sept. 5, 2016

Schedule by Date:

Schedule by Area:

(Schedules can be accessed on the press page at):

SFMT Promo:

Education. It’s like the weather: everyone has an opinion but nobody does anything about it. That’s how Lavinia Jones feels about her son Thomas’ new school, Eleanor Roosevelt High. Decades of funding cuts have resulted in old textbooks, crumbling classrooms, and underpaid teachers, making Roosevelt exactly the sort of public school that has failed students time and time again. Isn't it time for something… efficient? And efficient is exactly what FredersenBabbit, from Learning Academy for Virtual Achievement (LAVA Corp.), promises to bring to the district. New Technology, remote learning, computer-generated teachers –LAVA promises to put the “virtual” in achievement! But with kids learning from home, do we need all these empty schools? And with privatization on the line, a Wall Street heavy hitter on one side and a feisty octogenarian teacher Ethel Orocuru on the other, suddenly the next School Board election is more about a hidden agenda than the open curriculum. Are schools the last chance for democracy, or is education the next frontier for profit? Can we trust a politician’s public/private plan to replace an out-of-date system, or is there something even more sinister than privatization going on behind the doors of LAVA? And wait - when did the hall monitors start wearing brown shirts and arm bands? When it comes to the real plan for the future of education – and of our democracy - are we all about to get... Schooled?

Schooled is written by Michael Gene Sullivan and Eugenie Chan.

Music & lyrics by Ira Marlowe.
Directed by: Michael Gene Sullivan.

Music director: Daniel Savio.

Musicians include: William Durkee, Dominic Moisant,and Daniel Savio.

Schooled features veteran SF Mime Troupe collective members: Velina Brown(Lavinia Jones, Estelle),RotimiAgbabiaka(Thomas Jones, Arthur Quisdedo), Keiko Shimosato-Carreiro(Ethel Orocuru), Lisa Hori-Garcia (Michiko Chimlis, Fredersen. Babbit).

Tech credits for Schooled include:
Scenic Designer: Jay Lasnik; Costume Designer: Blake More; Props Master: MarieCartier;
Sound Designers/Operators: Keith Arcuragiand Taylor Gonzalez;Technical Director:Loid M Loid; Prod. Stage Manager & Web Programmer:Karen Runk;Tour Manager: Junelle-Johannah Taguas;Publicity:Lawrence Helman;Photography: DavidAllenStudio.com; Poster Design: Jolene Russell.

To arrange an interview with writers, actors, or anyone from the SFMime Troupe Collective,
please call or e-mail publicist Lawrence Helman at 415/ 661-1260

Schooled plays July 2 – Sept. 5, 2016

Bay Area Openings: East Bay – Sat. July 2 & Sun. July 3 – Cedar Rose Park, San Francisco
– Mon. July 4 – Dolores Park; and running throughout the Bay Area in SF, the North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula, Sacramento, Davis, Nevada City, and 3 Northern CA shows. All park shows are free and open to the public. Additional ticketed shows: Point Arena – Wed. July 13, Redway – Sat, July 16, and two indoor shows at SFMT Studio Space in SF – Wed. Aug. 3 & Thurs. Aug. 4, 2016.

For a complete schedule and more information, visit or call 415-285-1717.
Additionalinfo onSFMT and community organizations is made available atinformation tables at each of our park shows.

Character Breakdown:

Lavinia Jones: Black mother is very protective of her son, Thomas - given the violence against black boys - but also because of the prejudice in the school system in regards to punishment and grading. Lavinia assumes everyone is racist, and believes she has to be proactive to give him the best possible chance in a system tilted against him. Wants her son to be an entrepreneur.

Thomas Jones: Black student is an average kid who deals of being a professional YouTube gamer. He wants to live in an online world - which he sees as post racial. Doesn’t go to protests, doesn’t get what the big deal is, and is always embarrassed when his mother stands up to defend/save him.

Michiko Chamlis: Asian/Latino student is average kid - works hard, but sucks at math. Assumes Blacks are ignorant. Secretly very interested in politics, very activist - but parents don’t know/wouldn’t approve. Student Body President, and much to the chagrin of her parents - basketball jock.

Edith Orocuru: Old Teacher has been around forever, and knows everything - except computers. Still uses personal mimeograph machine (loves the smell). Product of the Great Society, values Liberal and Classical education, but hasn’t shifted headset to multiculturalism. Still a bit racist, sexist.

Mr. FredersenBabbit: Young, passionless, interested in new economy, new tech, new newness. Believes the future will belong to the most efficient. Libertarian product of economic school who sees history as a bar to progress, and traditional education as a non-productive example of a too humanistic approach to cold reality.CEO of Learning Academy for Virtual Achievement. Sees himself as one of the shapers of the future. Vows to “Make American Schools Great Again.” Also a real estate developer.

Arthur Quisdedo: Very popular and personable outgoing school board president. Has overseen the increased public/private partnership in the school district.

Estelle: A cheerleader for the Eleanor Roosevelt Honey Badgers. A student who will cheer with any crowd - regardless of what they are cheering for…

Tatianna: Mr. Babbit’s Russian secretary, and lover.

Q: Why do you call yourself a Mime Troupe if you talk and sing?

We use the term “mime” in its classical and original definition, "The exaggeration of daily life in story and song." It is a form of popular theater that is as old as the marketplace itself. From the ancient Greek and Roman farces to the Renaissance commedia dell'Arte to modern Chinese Opera, using archetypes comically to illustrate people's issues is a time honored worldwide tradition. Our broadly drawn characters are instantly recognizable allowing the audience to immediately engage in the action. Our work is political satire and anything but silent.

News of SF Mime Troupe for 2016:

SF Mime Troupe seeks to Expand:

"Funded by a grant from the SF Arts Commission, the Troupe has completed an initial Feasibility Study that has determined what process, permits and design criteria are necessary to realize SFMT’s dream of enhancing and expanding our 855 Treat St. home in SF so that it will better serve the SF Mime Troupe and our community. Aided by the skillful B.A.R. Architects, Bay Hill Builders, and other talented local professionals, initial plans include a black box theater, workshop and gallery space, expanded production facilities, and residential space for visiting artists. Adhering to the Troupe's commitment to alternative energy, the entire compound will be net-zero, resource self-sustaining, with multiple water conservation systems."

SFMT Awarded prestigious grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In May 2016 the first of our 3 teaching teams hit the road, beginning an exciting project funded by the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The foundation's primary focus is health on both the individual and community levels. They've asked us to bring the SF Mime Troupe’s collaborative playmaking workshops to rural disenfranchised communities. Health is the burning issue that will inform and generate more specific discussions about subjects which will mold the one act plays that will be performed in each respective community. Velina Brown and Mario Gonzales will be the first team out - heading to Golden Valley High School in Merced, CA. They will be followed by Wilma Bonet and Hugo E Carbajal, who will facilitate the workshops at Buena Vista Migrant Center in Watsonville, CA. Finally, Ed Holmes and Bob Ernst will work with the inmates of Salinas Valley Prison (formerly Soledad).

Each group will spend 2 weeks learning theatrical skills and creating an original one-act play on a health topic that is pertinent to their community.Workshops led by the teachers will help guide the discussion with the participants about what health means to the participants on a personal, societal, and planetary level. Upon the workshop’s conclusion, the participants will perform their plays locally use them as an activists tool in their community. In the autumn, the SFMT will weave the different elements and into a larger fourth play adding music and songs.to highlight the common threads. In early 2017 the Troupe will return to the original workshop communities and perform staged readings of the new combined play. In post-show discussions, feedback provided by the original workshop participants will help inform the play’s continuing development hopefully generating a piece that can bring these issues to an even broader audience around California and the nation.

SF Mime Troupe gets a dubious shout out on CNN in March 2016:

Congressional 2015 Waste Awards by Congressman Steve Russell (R- OK) (author of 4 Waste Watch books). Who's blowing your tax money? CNN's Jake Tapper speaks to one lawmaker who calls out organizations that are receiving federal funds for unusual reasons.

SF Mime Troupe received $20,000 in 2015 and just $10,000 in 2014)

SF Mime Troupe History:

Founded in 1959 by R.G. Davis, as an experimental project of the Actors’ workshop, the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s early works were…silent, (but not pantomime) avant-garde pieces that today would be called performance art. By the early sixties, the SF Mime Troupe began performing spoken plays with character archetypes drawn directly from the Commedia dell’Arte. Continuing in the broad styles of popular theater, the Troupe’s productions became overtly political.

In 1965, the city's Recreation and Park Commission revoked the troupe’s performance permit, on grounds of "obscenity". Refusing to allow his company to be censored, on August 7, 1965, R.G. Davis attempted to perform Il Candelaio in Lafayette Park, loudly announcing to his audience: “today for your appreciation, we perform an arrest,” as Davis was swept up by the police for performing without a permit. The ensuing court case, argued by Marvin Stender, established the right of artists to perform uncensored in the city's parks. The SFMT has opened a new show in the parks every summer since.

In 1965, future rock impresario Bill Graham, then the company's business manager, organized his first rock dance/light show at the Fillmore Auditorium as a bail benefit for the SFMT.

In 1965, Davis, Saul Landau, and a racially mixed group of actors created A MINSTREL SHOW, OR CIVIL RIGHTS IN A CRACKER BARREL, using a historically racist form to attack racism in both its redneck and liberal varieties. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sponsored performances around the country, the Troupe began its life as a touring company.

In 1970Davis left the Troupe, and the company became collectively run: Instead of a single Artistic Director the Troupe - a company dedicated to telling the stories of workers –committed itself to being run by its workers. Theythen began a series of experiments with industrial-era popular theater forms: melodrama and its descendants: science fiction and spy thriller.

Adding music, songs, and physical comedy the Mime Troupe’s style solidified and its national and global popularity increased. In addition to performing, the Troupe has taught workshops on both the SFMT “style” and its unique method of collaborative playmaking. The Mime Troupe also has a youth theater component - its Youth Theater Project, which bring student from underserved communities to the Troupe’s studio to study playmaking with veteran Troupers, and the Young California Writer’s Project, which send a veteran Troupe writer into locals schools to teach the art of activist playwriting.

In 1987, the Troupe's Brechtian style of guerrilla theatre earned them a special Tony Award for Excellence in Regional Theater. The Troupe has since been nominated for and received multiple awards, including OBIE, Drama-Logue, Bay Area Drama Critic Circle, and Theatre Bay Area awards - most recently for its 2015 production of its critically-acclaimed tragic farce, FREEDOMLAND. In its 50 years the Troupe has performed atThe Israel Festival (1990), The Festival of People’s Theater (Canada, 1991),The Asian People’s Theatre Festival (Hong Kong, 1996), The Kwachon International Open Air Theatre Festival (Korea, 1998), The International Festival of Theatre Action (Belgium, 1998), the Festival of Verbal Heroes (Germany, 2001), as well as performances in France, Nicaragua, Columbia, Cuba, Off-Broadway, The Kennedy Center for the Arts, and in tours across the United States. Yet the Bay Area parks still remain the Troupe’s home stage.

Post Show discussions associated with SF Mime Troupe’s production of SCHOOLED

The Mime Troupe has invited guest speakers to participate in post-show discussions about the privatization of public education at select shows. Our invited guests will join the SCHOOLED collective, cast members for 30 minute post-show discussions for the following performances:

Sat., July 9, Live Oak Park in Berkeley

• James (Lynn) Woodworth, Quantitative Research Analyst at CREDO (Center for Research on Education Outcomes) at Stanford University

• Erik-Jon Gibson,full time actor in the Bay Area; took on the character of "Poder" in Docudrama play by Milta Ortiz entitled MAS, which stands for Mexican American studies

Wed., Aug 3, SF Mime Troupe Studio

• Gregory Keech, Department Chair of the ESL (English as a Second Language) Program
  at City College of San Francisco

• Frank Adamson, Senior Policy and Research Analyst at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE)

Sat., Aug 6, Santa Cruz

• Ronald David Glass, Professor of Philosophy of Education at UC Santa Cruz, Director, UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California (CCREC)

Sat., Aug 13, Glen Park in SF

• Jeremiah Jeffries, Board member and founding coordinator for Teacher 4 Social Justice; First Grade Teacher at Redding Elementary School; Board president for the Center for Critical Environmental Global Literacy (CCEGL)

• Lita Blanc, President of United Educators of San Francisco

Sat., Aug 20, Willard Park in Berkeley

• Eric Heins, President of California Teachers Association
• Derek Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer at Partners in School in Innovation

Sun., Sept 4, Dolores Park in SF

• David L Kirp, Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley; Author of ‘Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America's Schools’
• Grace Wakefield,Resident in the San Francisco Teacher Residency Program and the Education Preparation Student Liaison to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC); Co-founded the Future Teachers Association at University of San Francisco

Please check website more information.

Bios:

DIRECTION & SCRIPT:

Michael Gene Sullivan(Director, Writer, SFMT Collective) has performed in, written, and/or directed over thirty SFMT productions. As an actor Sullivan has also appeared in productions at the American Conservatory Theater, Denver Center Theater Company, Theatreworks, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, SF Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theater, San Jose Repertory Theater, off-Broadway, as well as the Festival of Verbal Heroes (Germany), The KwachonInt’l. Open Air Theatre Festival (Korea), International Festival of Theater Action (Belgium), The Festival of People’s Theater (Canada), The Asian People’s Theatre Festival (Hong Kong), and The Israel Festival. Michael has been a principal actor in SF Mime Troupe plays since 1988, performing in Freedomland, Ripple Effect, 2012: The Musical, Posibilidad, Too Big To Fail, Making a Killing, Godfellas, Doing Good, Showdown at Crawford Gulch, Mister Smith Goes to Obscuristan, Eating it, Damaged Care, Soul Suckers form Outer Space, Revenger Rat, Escape to Cyberia, Offshore, Social Work, I Ain't You uncle, Back to Normal, Rats, Seeing Double, and Ripped Van Winkle. In addition to directing SFMT shows, such as Schooled, For The Greater Good, Red State, Veronique of the Mounties, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Killing Time, and Coast City Confidential, Michael has also directed for the SF Shakespeare Festival, African American Shakespeare Company, Mystic Bison Theater, and Circus Finelli. In 1992 Michael became a Contributing Writer for the SFMT, and the Resident Playwright in 2000, and his scripts for SFMT include Schooled (with Eugenie Chan) Freedomland, Ripple Effect (with Eugenie Chan and Tanya Shaffer), For The Greater Good, Posibilidad, Too Big To Fail (2009 nominee, Best Original Script, SF Bay Area Theater Critics Circle), Red State (2008 nominee, Best Original Script, SF Bay Area Theater Critics Circle), Making A Killing, GodFellas, Showdown at Crawford Gulch, Veronique of the Mounties, Mr. Smith Goes to Obscruristan, and 1600 Transylvania Avenue. As a contributing writer his SFMT scripts include Eating it, Soul Suckers From Outer Space, Escape to Cyberia, Offshore, and Social Work. His non-SFMT scripts include his all-woman political farce Recipe, (Central Works, winner of the Israel Baran Playwriting Award,) his adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol (Open Door Theatre, Sheffield, England), the historical drama fugitive/slave/act, and his award-winning one person show, Did Anyone Ever Tell You - You Look Like Huey P. Newton? Michael is also a Resident Playwright for San Francisco’s Playwright Foundation, and his critically acclaimed stage adaptation of George Orwell's dystopic novel 1984 opened at the Actors' Gang Theatre under the direction of Tim Robbins in 2006, and has since been performed in Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, has had several tours of the USA, and has been published in two languages, and translated into Spanish, Russian, and Catalan. Michael is also a blogger for the political website, The Huffington Post. Visit Michael’s website.