“The Gun” examines the central role of guns and gun violence in contemporary American society. The Imaginists are commissioning acclaimed Hungarian theater director Árpád Schilling to create “The Gun,” a new work that will bring his outsider’s eye to the role that guns and gun violence play in American society. Building on a longstanding artistic…
“J-Town, Chinatown, Our Town,” is a multi-disciplinary work rooted in the artist’s 121-year family history in San Francisco. The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is commissioning award-winning storyteller and playwright Brenda Wong Aoki to create “J-town, Chinatown, Our Town” (working title), a major multi-media and multi-disciplinary theater work based on true stories about people…
“Calamity Joy” traces the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and the death of Mac’s own mother, a Christian Scientist who refused treatment for cancer because of her beliefs. “Calamity Joy” is a new play by MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac exploring Christian Science and its founder, Mary…
Stanford Live will commission, develop, and premiere a contemporary but historically-informed reimagining of Scott Joplin’s early 20th century opera “Treemonisha.” The work’s creative team, led by director Weyni Mengesha, librettist Leah Simone Bowen, and composers Jessie Montgomery and Jannina Norpoth, will bring to the work an entirely new libretto and an expanded musical language incorporating…
“BABA” is a vocal-theater work inspired by “sworn virgins,” a disappearing social phenomenon of women living as men in remote regions in the Balkan highlands. “BABA” is a work of contemporary vocal theater, created by internationally-acclaimed Slovenian director, composer, and conductor Karmina Šilec for Kitka, an Oakland-based women’s vocal ensemble known for its musical and…
“Alas y Raices (Wings and Roots)” is a new work about migration, developed through a bi-national collaboration between theater companies and community members in San Jose, California and Mexico City. San Jose’s Teatro Visión is commissioning Mexico City-based director Salomón Santiago and his street theater ensemble, La Quinta Teatro, to create “Alas y Raices (Wings…
“The Black (W)hole” is a multidisciplinary theater production and work of public ritual that will serve as a spoken word and movement elegy for Oakland youth killed before the age of 30. Destiny Arts Center will commission spoken word artist, playwright, and 2017 TED Global Fellow Marc Bamuthi Joseph to conceive, write, and perform in…
“We, the 100 Million,” is a series of place-based, community-driven choreo-poems performed with music and multimedia storytelling exploring inequity in the United States. “We, the 100 Million” expands on the work of PolicyLink over the past two decades to advance racial and economic equity in the United States by combining data, policy, performance and poetry.…
“A Thousand Ships,” tells the story of the women who came to the Bay Area to work in the shipyards during World War II. Building on the tremendous success of their 2017 production of “black odyssey,” California Shakespeare Theater is commissioning a new work by acclaimed playwright and Oakland-native Marcus Gardley as part of its…
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is commissioning Bay Area writer, performer, and producer Rafael Casal, best known for his debut film “Blindspotting” (2018), to create a new performance piece at the intersection of musical theater, spoken word, and hip hop-driven narrative. Casal and his artistic collaborators will use the piece to talk honestly…