Stage Fog: Dance and Theater
Stage Fog doesn't have anything against dancers, and to prove it we're featuring some of our favorite companies this week, letting them mix it up with theater. After all, San Francisco is a major dance theater center.
But before we get started, we wanted to call out Theatre Bay Area's Free Night of Theater on October 20. OK, we work at Theatre Bay Area, which is why we weren't plugging the event earlier, and now all the free tickets are gone! You’d have thought it was Green Day, the tickets went so fast. Check out the site anyway; you can show up at the theater of your choice and see if anyone flaked. Or, check out these fabulous other options.
Digging in the Dark at Project Artaud Theater
A bounce-juggling surface that receives vibrations and triggers images. A six-person aerial structure. A LED headpiece that changes color with a toss of the head. And did we mention innovative dance? This is what makes Capacitor one of the most kick-ass dance companies in the Bay Area, and it's also what landed them in Wired magazine and on Tech TV. Well, actually, those effects are brand-new as part of Capacitor's world premiere (the first in two years) that takes the audience on a journey through the Earth's layers to the core--a sort of metaphor for human consciousness. Inspired by modern geophysics and created in collaboration with the likes of The Crucible (for the aerial structure), Digging in the Dark apparently utilizes more than just the theater's stage. No surprise--after all, we fell in love with Capacitor the first time we saw them climb the walls in glow-in-the-dark costumes at SomArts some four years ago.
Playing October 20-30
A(Balinese)Tempest at Cowell Theatre
In documentaries about Balinese shadow puppetry, performances almost always look like small affairs, with people sitting around on pillows watching awesome effects created from a cutout paper puppet and a single candle flame. You won't find that intimate, romantic feel in the modern Cowell Theatre, but you'll still find those whimsical and unearthly shadows, courtesy of ShadowLight Productions, one of the few companies in the country with a background in traditional Balinese puppetry. Of course, this being San Francisco, they replace the candle with more cutting-edge technologies--the light bulb, for one. As part of the "Gathering of Gamelans" festival, ShadowLight presents Shakespeare's already otherworldly drama, utilizing shadow puppets, painted acetate slides, masks and costumes to create images unlike anything you've seen on Bay Area stages before.
Playing October 20-23
Phaedra at Last Planet Theatre
We really like Last Planet Theatre. Really. We can't stop talking about them. So, haven't you gone yet? The company bills their latest outing as an "erotic reworking of the classic myth Phaedra." She was in love with her stepson--how much more erotic can you get? Writer Matthew Maguire sets this adaptation in the belly of American decadence, full of wealth and seduction. Go already.
Playing October 21-November 13
Good Luck With It at The Marsh
When befuddled suburbanites greet comic Will Franken after his shows, all they can manage is a "good luck with it." So you know this has got to be good stuff. Picking up press accolades from New York to San Francisco, Franken delivers his latest solo performance glorifying life's everyday contradictions and jabbing things like slam poetry and insincere celebrations of diversity.
Playing October 22-December 3
BATS Improv at Bayfront Theater
What, you thought the only good improv was in Chicago? While other companies in San Francisco have been popping up like mushrooms, BATS has been around since 1986, turning screwy audience suggestions into gold. They perform Friday through Sunday nights practically year-round, but this weekend they take on the Great White Way with Spontaneous Broadway. Ah, the potential! The players create original songs based on audience-submitted titles, and after the favorite song is chosen, they present the entire musical. If Broadway isn't an obvious target, why not try Elvis? Yep, the next evening the players, corralled by director Joshua Raoul Brody, present an improvised, full-length Elvis movie. No plot required.
Playing October 21-22
Trolley Dances on the F-Line
If you've been thinking lately that Muni sucks, then maybe the trick isn't to think of it as public transportation, but instead as entertainment. If your theatrical experiences on Muni have starred, for example, homeless people balancing their carts between Civic Center and Castro, then let us suggest more professional dancers. Just a train fare affords you a creative ride with Epiphany Productions, which presents dance pieces at stops along the F-line with aerial masters Project Bandaloop, spunky Dance Brigade and the excellent Robert Moses' Kin. Make the journey the destination. Or, at least have fun along the way.
Playing October 22-23
Photo: Lizelle Buckner, Nathan Brumbaugh and Jocelynn Rudig in Capacitor's Digging in the Dark, photo by Mart Sohl