Avant GardARAMA!
A Sampler of Short Experimental Works
Seven pieces – spanning artistic mediums, languages, and a variety of experimental techniques – helmed by seven enterprising directors compromise a single evening of bold and eclectic performance. From a Lorca-inspired piece presented entirely in Spanish with English supertitles, to a two-hander between a woman and a teddy bear, to a dance-theater fusion piece inspired by our country’s electoral process, just in time for November’s general election, there’s no shortage of surprises in store at Cutting Ball’s signature sampler of experimental works.
October 5 – October 23, 2016
The
Wasps
a post-apocolyptic theater-movement piece
"I’ve got a better idea
Let’s graft our bodies together along the midline
And fuck him together"
A post -apocalyptic theater-movement piece which visits twins, Jenna and Barbara Bush, on the eve of their execution.
Sunday: 10/9/16
Stick around for a talkback with the cast and THE WASPS playwright Guy Zimmerman to learn about the artistic process and engage more deeply with the production.
by Guy Zimmerman
directed by Paige Rogers
choreographed by Liz Tenuto
Guy Zimmerman (playwright) — an award-winning writer, director, and producer — penned The Wasps. Guy has served as Artistic Director of Padua Playwrights in Los Angeles since 2001, staging over 40 productions of new plays and moving several to stages in Atlanta, New York City, Edinburgh, Prague, Berlin, Beirut, and Cluj, Romania. In 2015, he completed a doctoral degree in Theater at UC Irvine. His articles have been published in Theatre Journal, SubStance, Shakespeare Bulletin, TheaterForum, LA Weekly, LA Theater Magazine, and the arts and culture website Times Quotidian.
Paige Rogers (Director) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Cutting Ball Theater. At Cutting Ball, her directing credits include Antigone, Mud, Tontlawald, and Life is a Dream.
Liz Tenuto (choreographer) creates original choreography for a variety of industries. Her work has been seen at ZSpace, ODC Theater, West Edge Opera, The Comedy in Dance Festival, A.C.T., Cutting Ball Theater, Aurora Theater, CounterPulse, Killing My Lobster shows and in music videos and commercials.
More information at www.danceandahalf.com or on instagram @danceandahalf
Danielle O’Hare (Barbara) is a Cutting Ball Associate Artist and has been seen in various Cutting Ball productions including Ondine, The Strindberg Cycle, Lady Grey (in ever lower light) and other plays, the evolutionists club, Mr. Fujiyama’s Electric Beach, No Exit, and the first Avant GardARAMA!
Melanie DuPuy (Jenna) was last seen as Margie Walsh in GOOD PEOPLE with the Role Players Ensemble. She also starred as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire during the Eugene O'Neill Festival where she was named one of the Bay Area's Top Ten Female Performances by Talkin' Broadway, 2015.
An Evening
With Activists
a young couple's anniversary celebration
"Just so you don't have to explain what
you're doing with a dead body and a dead dolphin in your house,
take me and Paul to the beach."
Sunday: 10/16/16
Stick around for a talkback with the cast and AN EVENING WITH ACTIVISTS playwright Yussef El Guindi to learn about the artistic process and engage more deeply with the production.
by Yussef El Guindi
directed by Rem Myers
Playwright Yussef El Guindi’s most recent productions include Collaborator at Macha Monkey Productions, Threesome at Portland Center Stage, ACT, and at 59E59 (winner of a Portland Drammy for Best Original Script), Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World (winner of the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association’s New Play Award in 2012) at ACT, and at Center Repertory Company (Walnut Creek, CA) 2013; and Language Rooms (Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award), co-produced by Golden Thread Productions and the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco; at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia (premiere), and at the Los Angeles Theater Center.
We did a mini interview with Yussef! Click here.
Rem Myers (director) is a director, dramaturg, producer, and teacher. He is happy to be working again with the Cutting Ball Theater (where he is also an associate artist) for Avant GardARAMA! Rem has also directed for PianoFight, FaultLine Theater, Theater Pub, the Young Playwrights Project (TheaterWorks), Those Women Productions, and the Playwrights Foundation. He has taught for San Francisco Shakespeare, and during the year he teaches at the Urban School of San Francisco.
Michelle Drexler (Mona) has been seen at Theatreworks, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival on Tour, Bay Area Children's Theater, Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, 42nd St Moon, Great River Shakespeare Festival and American Repertory Theatre. She has also played sold out houses at Feinstein's at the Hotel Nikko in SF and the Laurie Beechman in NYC with her identical twin sister, Lily, in A Very Drexler Cabaret. Michelle is a proud native of San Francisco. Emerson College: BFA Acting
Kunal Prasad (Kamal) is a Bay Area native and received an MFA in Acting from The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. He is a long form improviser and trail runner and recently played The Poet in "A Dreamplay" here at The Cutting Ball Theater. He has performed at Berkeley Repertory Theater, City Lights Theater Company, Magic Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre Center, and Un-Scripted Theater Company. Favorite theater credits include: “HIStory” at |the claque|, “homeward” at Red Fern Theatre Company, “Julius Caesar” at Centre Dramatique National d'Orléans, “Room” and “Celebration” at The American Repertory Theater.
Kevin Glass (Paul) is a newcomer to the Bay Area theatre scene and is already in love with the community and its dedication to new works and cutting edge performance – especially Cutting Ball's Avant GardARAMA! You might have seen him doing all sorts of different things in the Shortlived short play competition this year, speaking in an Australian accent in Pianofight's production of Stuart Bousel's Adventures in Tech or most recently as a meta-theatrical device in a leather jacket in The Line.
Lorca
al vacío
inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca, performed in Spanish
"¡Y dicen que eres el dramaturgo que mejor y más profundamente ha sabido reflejar el alma de la mujer! Debería de ser una pobre gitana del poblado, la choza o el arrabal, tener niños como una cruz pesada o ser yerma, esposa legítima o adúltera desligada y verdadera, para que tú, el poeta del pueblo, me comprendieras. Pero soy sólo una mujer.”
And they say that you're the poet that has best and most deeply known how to mirror the soul of woman. I should be a poor gypsy from the outskirts, a shanty or slum, bear children like Christ his cross or be barren and without, be a good, right wife or a loose, true adulteress, so that you, village poet, would understand me. But I am only a woman.
–translated by Daniel Sullivan and Javier Vega
written by Maria Velasco
directed by Sonia Sebastián
Sonia Sebastián (director) is a renowned theatrical Director and Producer in Spain having created numerous plays with her company Teatro de Cámara Cervantes.Twice she was a finalist for Theater Valle Inclán’s Prize as director of El imaginario de Cervantes (2011) and El viejo celoso y la cueva de Salamanca (2010). In 2012 she received the XXI Life Culture Prize in Spain. She also received a Special Mention in the Almagro Festival in 2013 as director of Shakespeare's Mucho ruido y pocas nueces (Much ado about nothing). She is a Co-Funder of Microtheatre Por Dinero in Madrid which is known for producing 15 minutes plays. She studied Drama at the prestigious Drama School in Madrid, RESAD. Sonia studied filmmaking at the well-known TV and Film School, San Antonio de Baños in Cuba.
We did a mini interview with Sonia. Click here.
Erika Yanin Pérez (performer) is an actress and voice-over professional and is thrilled to be part of this festival. She is known for “Maria Elena Santiago” in the West Coast Premiere of Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and as “Ella” in Coser y Cantar. Erika loves the craft of acting whether it is on stage, on-camera or behind a microphone. Some of her voice-over credits include Old Navy, Levy's and Macy’s. When Erika is not acting, she enjoys salsa dancing, rock climbing and organic gardening.
Xavier Galindo (performer) was born and raised in Lima, Peru. At age 15 he migrated to San Francisco, CA with his sister to join his father who had left Peru in 1992. There he got involved in working with youth in the Mission for the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, where he worked until the age of 28. At 29, he began to pursue an acting career, and at 32 he directed a film that won a competition to represent SFSU on a national level. Although it did not win; it was selected to go to the Cannes Film Festival and it was nationally nominated for the best film with a social justice message. He graduated SFSU with a BA in broadcasting in 2014.
Pez
zetti
a multilingual devised performance
co-created by
Beatrice Basso and Valentina Emeri
directed by Beatrice Basso
Beatrice Basso (director) is a theater practitioner, on her directorial debut at Cutting Ball. As a performer, she worked at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Brava, and Western Stage, among others, and appeared in short films at international film festivals. Bea is also a dramaturg, translator, and producer who served as Director of New Work at A.C.T. and as Long Wharf Theatre’s Literary Manager. She is a graduate of the University of Padua, is currently a student at Wesleyan University’s Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance, and is ensemble member with Affinity Project, whose work has appeared at FURYFactory, CounterPulse, and YBCA.
Valentina Emeri (performer) was born in Bolzano, Italy and studied in Rome at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts “Silvio D’Amico.” Valentina has appeared in more than 50 theatre productions and 18 movies, performing in Italian, German, and English. She studied with Peggy Hackney and is a Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst.
Crooked and
Dangerous
An electoral-inspired piece with movement and text
directed and choreographed by
Katerina Wong
Katerina Wong (playwright and choreographer) is a dancemaker who has performed and presented work in New Jersey, New York, Beijing and San Francisco. Since graduating from Princeton University, she’s danced with RAWdance, LEVYdance, Printz Dance Project, and Concept o4, among others. She choreographed two evening-length works with dance theatre company, Brickabrack, has been the Resident Choreographer for PUSH Dance Company since 2014 and was FACT/SF’s JuMP Resident Artist this year. As a freelance choreographer, Katie has presented at ZSPACE, ODC Theater, CounterPulse, Dance Mission Theater, Joe Goode Annex, Fort Mason, PianoFight and more. She’s also the Digital Strategist at Alonzo King LINES Ballet.
Suzy Myre (performer) received her BA in Dance from Loyola Marymount University before moving to the Bay Area where she has worked with many talented artists including Printz Dance Project, RAWdance, Binki Danz and Rarefied Bear. Her choreography has also been presented throughout the west coast at theaters including Z Space, ODC Theater, Strub Theater, CounterPULSE and The Erickson Theater under her company’s name, Project Tremolo. She is also an instructor at Alonzo King LINES Dance Center, City Dance and Roco Dance & Fitness.
Louis Acquisto (performer) is a dancer/choreographer based in San Francisco, originally from St Louis, he began his love of dance at Center Of Creative Arts (C.O.C.A.) He moved to Dallas and continued his training at Southern Methodist University where he discovered his desire to choreograph. After being hired by the Amy Marshall Dance Company, Louis moved to New York and performed nationally and internationally. Recently Louis had made his home in San Francisco where he is a member of several dance companies and presents his own work under the name Rarefied Bear. Louis is a member of AGMA and has performed in the United States and abroad for numerous operas.
Whatever Self:
Virginia Woolf & Virginia Woolf
a world premiere micro-play
"Venom leech canker why here is a nervous breakdown in a miniature"
by Susan Terris
directed by Carlos Mendoza
Playwright Susan Terris’ most recent books are Ghost of Yesterday: New & Selected Poems (Marsh Hawk Press) and Memos (Omnidawn). She is the author of six poetry books, fifteen chapbooks, three artist's books, and one play. Journal publications include The Southern Review, Denver Quarterly, Colorado Review,and Ploughshares. She's editor of Spillway Magazine. She has received a Pushcart Award, and one of her poems appears in Best American Poetry 2015. Her next book Take Two: Film Studies will be published by Omnidawn in 2017.
Carlos Diego Mendoza (director) is a freelance Bay Area Director, Actor & Designer. He co-founded San Francisco's Blue House Arts and is an Associate Artist at The Breadbox Theatre Company. Recent credits include: Blue House Arts' Cloud Tectonics(Director), Cutting Ball's A Dreamplay (Assistant Director), The Breadbox's The Pillowman (Assistant Director), Never Never (Director) and The Awakening (Effects Designer). He holds a B.A. in Theater from San Francisco State University.
Danielle O’Hare (Virginia Woolf) is a Cutting Ball Associate Artist and has been seen in various Cutting Ball productions including Ondine, The Strindberg Cycle, Lady Grey (in ever lower light) and other plays, the evolutionists club, Mr. Fujiyama’s Electric Beach, No Exit, and the firstAvant GardARAMA!
Melanie DuPuy (Virginia Woolf) was last seen as Margie Walsh in GOOD PEOPLEwith the Role Players Ensemble. She also starred as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire during the Eugene O'Neill Festival where she was named one of the Bay Area's Top Ten Female Performances by Talkin' Broadway, 2015.
Ink
Well
A world premiere micro-play
A senior in the Creative Writing Department, poet Isaac Schott-Rosenfield (CW 2017) has written three ten-minute plays under the tutelage of Isaiah Dufort, long time CW Playwright-in-Residence, learning the rudiments of the craft and being inspired by the works of Chekov, Sartre, Moliere, etc.
This past spring, Isaac was offered the opportunity to work with Andrew Saito, taking part in Saito’s master class in absurdist playwriting at The Cutting Ball Theater. It was in that class that Isaac wrote Inkwell, a short play about the writing process and crocodiles. Isaac cites e.e. cummings' Six Nonlectures, as well as Woolf's Orlando. "From Orlando I borrowed the excellent word 'obfusc' (though for a rather vulgar context). Six Nonlectures in particular no longer receives the attention it deserves."
by Isaac Schott-Rosenfield
directed by Isaiah Dufort
Isaac Schott-Rosenfield (playwright) is a senior in the Creative Writing Department at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, a public school. He is a student editor for the yearly anthology Best American Non-Required Reading and edits the literary journal Umläut. He is grateful to have worked with Isiah Dufourt for three years and would like to thank Andrew Saito for believing in crocodiles.
Isaiah Dufort (director) is assistant director of the San Francisco Art & Film Program, an arts education nonprofit making the arts accessible to Bay Area students. He is also an artist-in-residence at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts where he produces plays for the Creative Writing department. His plays include Absolute Pure Happiness and The Pheasant. His films include Silent Anna and Intermissions directed by Max Sokoloff, and Two Photographsdirected by Dominic Santos.
Kevin Glass (ensemble) is a newcomer to the Bay Area theatre scene and is already in love with the community and its dedication to new works and cutting edge performance – especially Cutting Ball's Avant GardARAMA! You might have seen him doing all sorts of different things in the Shortlived short play competition this year, speaking in an Australian accent in Pianofight's production of Stuart Bousel's Adventures in Tech or most recently as a meta-theatrical device in a leather jacket in The Line.
Michelle Drexler (narrator) has been seen at Theatreworks, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Berkeley Playhouse, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival on Tour, Bay Area Children's Theater, Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, 42nd St Moon, Great River Shakespeare Festival and American Repertory Theatre. She has also played sold out houses at Feinstein's at the Hotel Nikko in SF and the Laurie Beechman in NYC with her identical twin sister, Lily, in A Very Drexler Cabaret. Michelle is a proud native of San Francisco. Emerson College: BFA Acting
Kunal Prasad (ensemble) is a Bay Area native and received an MFA in Acting from The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. He is a long form improviser and trail runner and recently played The Poet in "A Dreamplay" here at The Cutting Ball Theater. He has performed at Berkeley Repertory Theater, City Lights Theater Company, Magic Theatre, New Conservatory Theatre Center, and Un-Scripted Theater Company. Favorite theater credits include: “HIStory” at |the claque|, “homeward” at Red Fern Theatre Company, “Julius Caesar” at Centre Dramatique National d'Orléans, “Room” and “Celebration” at The American Repertory Theater.
Melanie DuPuy (ensemble) was last seen as Margie Walsh in GOOD PEOPLEwith the Role Players Ensemble. She also starred as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire during the Eugene O'Neill Festival where she was named one of the Bay Area's Top Ten Female Performances by Talkin' Broadway, 2015.
Special thanks:
48Hills
KQED