OCT 20 - NOV 19
Rossum’s Universal Robots
by Karel Capek, translated by Paul Selver, adapted and directed by Chris Steele
The Robots have taken over. It's official, we are living in the future and humanity is only a distant memory. Join a cast of four Robots as they perform the last ever Human Play, written just before the great Robot Wars of Emancipation. Much information will be shared, the lost Human art of "humor" will be examined, and together as Robots we will celebrate our vast superiority to man!
- Originally debuted in the 1920s, this play is the origin of the word Robot. A melodramatic, apocalyptic, Artificial Intelligence satire stemming from the Marxist rumblings of Eastern Europe in that era, RUR predates even the seminal futurist work Metropolis in its examination of how human hubris and the onslaught of advanced technologies might be the downfall of man. Equal parts funny and prescient, this play in the age of AI Chatbots and Robot Police Dogs rings even more harrowing.
Run Time is 2.5 hours including a 15min intermission
Ages 8+
FOR ACCESSIBLE TICKETS
Need Accessible seating? Add any ticket tier to cart. During checkout under "Additional Details" click "check this box for accessible seating" for an accessible floor seat for you (and a companion if purchasing two tickets).
SPECIAL EVENTS
THIRSTY THURSDAY DEAL: 10/26 @ 7PM
Get a FREE DRINK with your ticket purchase
*Specialty Drink not included*
TALK BACK WITH THE CAST & DIRECTOR: 10/29 @ 2PM
Join us for a post-show talk back with the cast, director, and assistant director to discuss the play and creative process. Light refreshments will also be provided.
FREE COMMUNITY & ED NIGHT: 11/2 @ 4PM
Free showing for our community and education members. Snacks included. Plus a post-show discussion with some special guest in the tech industry to discuss AI and the human experience.
Please email our box office to reserve your free tickets if you are a downtown San Francisco resident or are an education org/school.
COVID CAUTIOUS NIGHT: NOV 5 @ 2PM
Masks are required
RUR Trailer
Video by Gwen Park
PRODUCTION PHOTOS
Photos by Ben Krantz
Cast
JESSE DIM (she/her) MARIUS, RADIUS, & DR. GALL
Jessica is new to the professional theatre world, and Rossum’s Universal Robots is her first professional theatre experience. She lives in San Francisco.
REBECCA PINGREE (she/her) SULLA & DR. ALQUIST
recently played Judith in The Dignity Circle at Central Works, Adira in Michael Moran’s Exodus to Eden at OTP, Bridget Potter in the original cast of The Kilbanes’ The Code with ACT YC, The Baker's Wife in Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Berkeley Playhouse, and an assortment of puppets (and herself) in Shadow Circus’ Voidville. She’s also performed throughout the Bay Area, including with TheatreFirst, Shotgun Players, Marin Theatre Company, Ray of Light, PlayGround, and more. She holds an MFA in Collaborative Theatremaking from Rose Bruford in London, and is a regular deviser/performer for Analog Theatre’s Mask Monday series at Standard Deviant Brewing in SF analogtheatre.org.
ALEXIS ROYECA (she/they) HELENA & ROBOT HELENA
is a Filipina storyteller born and raised in the Bay Area. They are thrilled to make their professional acting debut with Cutting Ball! They’ve studied with Studio A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theater, and Bindlestiff Studio. They proudly credit City College of San Francisco as their primary source of training. Her most recent work is as a director for Bindlestiff Studio: Stories High. When not on stage, you can find them in a classroom working with differently abled students. Second to her love of stories, is her love of sweets...most notably tiramisu and ube.
NIC A. SOMMERFELD (they/them) DR. DOMIN, DR. FABRY, & PRIMUS
is thrilled to be returning to Cutting Ball after understudying in Pony last year. Nic is a trans/nonbinary actor and playwright based in San Francisco. They have performed with such companies as Z Space, Marin Theater Company, Berkeley Playhouse, FaultLine Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, KML, and The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. They also perform as their drag king persona, Chester Vanderbox. You can find Chester every Monday night at Amado's for Mixtape Monday with his drag wife Polly Amber Ross. If they're not writing, in rehearsal, or in drag, they are probably crocheting something.
DESIGN TEAM
CARLOS ANTONIO ACEVE (he/they) SCENIC DESIGNER
is a Bay Area based designer and theatre maker whose practice centers on new
works and social justice theatre. Selected designs credits include: The Displaced,
Crowded Fire Theatre; Walls, San Francisco Mime Troupe; PrEP Play, or Blue Parachute, New Conservatory Theatre Center; Long Day’s Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill Festival of Theatre in New Ross Ireland; Justice, Marin Theatre Company; Dream Hou$e, Shotgun Players; Cruzar la Cara de la Luna; West Edge Opera, and Cyrano, Aurora Theatre Company. Carlos would like to thank Cutting Ball and the creative/production team of Rossum’s Universal Robots for their hard work and dedication. carlosdesignssets.myportfolio.com
SONYA BERG (they/he) COSTUME & PROPS DESIGNER
is a non-binary Costume Designer and Fabricator. They are dedicated to creating complex visual world through understanding the role dress plays in self expression and society. Their theatrical works include: the costume design for King Lear (2019) which played in the Walt Disney modular theater, Fight Song (2019) a new work which premiered at the Hollywood fringe festival and traveled to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, Sweat the Opera (2019), The Wolves (2018), IncorpoReality (2017), I'm Alive you Bastards and I Always Will Be (2015).
They also have worked as a costume designer on Film: The Hunter-a music video for Alpine Universe directed by Daniel Sheahan, Apotheosis directed by Max Pearce, Nomad directed by Max Pearce, Hardcore Halbert directed by Riley Lynch, Get Kissed or Die Brian directed by Liat Kongrad (2020) a, and Circle Opens directed by Nico Savigno (2018). They hold a BA in Theater from Oberlin College, and an MFA in Costume Design from California Insititute of the Arts (CalArts).
JAX BLASKA (they/them) A.D. / DRAMATURG
is a San Francisco-born creative maker and collaborator dedicated to transformational theatrical experiences. They make and support art that celebrates process, curiosity, and the unconventional, and incorporates interdisciplinary performance, nonlinear storytelling, immersive exploration, ritual, spectacle, and a healthy dose of the absurd. Jax works in production, arts administration, and creative collaboration with a diverse variety of Bay Area artists and organizations, including FACT/SF, Detour Dance, EyeZen Presents, and Cutting Ball Theater, where they will serve as the inaugural Directing Apprentice for the 2023-24 season. They hold a BA with honors from Yale University, and can occasionally be found in alien drag (Nasturtium!).
YAMILETTE CARRIÓN (they/she) SCENIC & PROPS DESIGN APPRENTICE
is a visual artist, drag performer and new scenic design apprentice. They love to transform and combine their love for drawing and painting and combine it with their performing arts. They enjoy things that are cute, pink, scary, and filthy. The seek to apply all their art skills in this new exciting opportunity with CBT.
ALEXANDRIA FAKAYODE (she/her) SOUND DESIGN APPRENTICE
is an actor & sound designer born and located in the Bay Area. She graduated with a B.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine, with an emphasis on acting and sound design. She began her Bay Area theater journey as a MAD Fellow at Shotgun Players in Berkeley, CA. She is very passionate about the creation of new work that pushes boundaries and starts important conversations about the world we live in. She is excited to be joining the Cutting Ball team as the 23'-24' Sound Apprentice!
MICHEAL KELLY (he/him) SOUND DESIGNER
ENKIDU KHAN (they/them) TECH & STAGE MANAGER
is a multi-disciplined theatre artist that has worked in a variety of positions, including, but not limited to, as a playwright, a lighting and projection designer, a director, a stage manager and an artistic director. They studied theatre and performance with an emphasis in new works and devised theatre at Oklahoma City University. They moved to the Bay Area at the tail end of 2021 and worked administratively in the production office at the American Conservatory Theater for almost a year and a half. Some of their favorite credits include stage managing The Poes, a devised live cinema experience, and writing and directing Learning to Forget.
WOLFIE LEWANDOWSKI (they/them) LIGHTING DESIGN APPRENTICE
is a Technician and Lighting Design Apprentice at Cutting Ball. When they're not working at CBT, they're also a House Manager and House Technician at Z Space, as well as an actor, performer, and musician. They're always looking for something new to learn about theatre, and are excited to be a part of the Cutting Ball community!
TREVOR MEYER (she/her) COSTUME DESIGN APPRENTICE
is a rising star in the creative community, celebrated for her outside of the box design capabilities and captivating drag persona. With a diverse background in graphic design and improvisational theater, Trevor infuses a distinctive and imaginative touch into every endeavor she embarks on. Previously working with Cutting Ball in stage management, she is excited to dive head first into a more hands-on creative position. Look forward to seeing her work and growth this season at Cutting Ball.
RAY OPPENHEIMER (he/him) LIGHTING DESIGNER
is a San Francisco Bay Area based lighting designer, educator, and creator who has been bringing his boundless curiosity, chimerical aesthetic, and Sisyphean perseverance to lighting design and education since 2005. Ray is an active company member with Mugwumpin and Shotgun Players.
CHRIS STEELE (they/she) DIRECTOR & ADAPTER
is a queer trans nonbinary performance artist, writer, and activist. Their work centers on highlighting queer narratives throughout history and combating bigotry and white supremacy. As an actor, she has performed with companies across the Bay including We Players, NCTC, Cutting Ball, SF Shakespeare Festival, and SF Playwrights Festival. As a writer they premiered adaptations of Miss Julie, Troilus and Cressida, and Dracula with queer collective Poltergeist Theatre Project; had short plays produced by The Pear, PlayGround, and Cutting Ball; debuted their solo drag show The Bride with PlayGround Solofest; and were commissioned by Custom Made to adapt The Tempest. Her award-winning drag persona Polly Amber Ross can be found on IG @pollyamberross.
QUINN TODD (they/he) STAGE MANAGEMENT APPRENTICE
Has been in the Bay Area for 5 years. Quinn has worked in the queer drag night life scene since the beginning of the pandemic with dozens of drag artists like Mary Vice, Carnie Asada, and Mocha Falalatte as a resident show stage manager for shows such as Pillows, Carnies Playhouse, and Polly’s Follies. The logistics and wrangling the performers together as well as setting stage for each person struck a burning passion for stage management and production logistics. They’re excited to be CBT’s first ever stage management apprentice to learn the formal logistics and fine tune their craft. Quinn is excited to be a part of CBT’s season mission to uplift queer voices and local San Francisco talents.
HECTOR ZAVALA (he/they) PRODUCTION MANAGER
A true Queer Latinx renaissance human. They mix their studies in Performative Art, Acting, Dance, Multimedia, Costumes, Set Design and their love for theater to instill their own style of culturalism, carrying with them the weight of the universal struggle to defend one’s own. A founding member of LatinxMafia, they have participated in international festivals such as FITLA, (International Latin Theater Festival of Los Angeles), the Edinburgh Theater Festival and the Ibero-American Art Festival and currently participating in the 51st International Cervantino Festival. They have collaborated with greats from the “Chicano” community, toured his one man show Seeking the Last Gay Man in 2021-23, and produced and starred in La Leyenda de Georgia McBride in Mexico City.