by BWW News Desk | Published June 20, 2018
San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced the three plays that will comprise its 2018-2019 Sandbox Series of world premieres: graveyard shift by Korde A. Tuttle, The White Girl’s Guide to International Terrorism by Chelsea Marcantel, and The Fit by Carey Perloff. The plays will be presented at The Creativity Theater and A.C.T.’s Strand Theater.
The announcement marks the tenth season of the program dedicated to nurturing new works-the only subscription series in the Bay Area devoted to world premieres-and joins the six previously-announced Mainstage Season shows to complete the Playhouse’s nine-play 2018-19 Season.
The plays join a Sandbox Series that has achieved significant critical and commercial success in recent years, including two of the past five Will Glickman Awards for Best New Play, a successful Off-Broadway run of Ideation, and the world premiere of George Brant‘s Grounded, which went on to international acclaim. Two former Sandbox shows, including last season’s You Mean to Do Me Harm, have transitioned to the Playhouse’s Mainstage in subsequent seasons.
The series also heralds the first new play developed in San Francisco Playhouse’s 5-Year Commission Program. The White Girl’s Guide to International Terrorism by Chelsea Marcantel is the first of 20 plays to be commissioned by the Playhouse over the next five years.
The 2018-2019 Sandbox Series of World Premieres:
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
October 10th to November 3rd, 2018
World Premiere by Korde A. Tuttle
When Janelle relocates to Texas for the opportunity of a lifetime, she and her partner, Kane, are reminded that the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be horrific. For three Waller County police officers, how might those same consequences manifest themselves along racialized and gendered lines? graveyard shift is a love story about collision, opposing ideologies, interests, truth, and how the characters in this play make sense of them. Or don’t.
THE WHITE GIRL’S GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
February 6th to March 2nd, 2019
World Premiere by Chelsea Marcantel
Teenage best friends Blaze and Rowena see no future for themselves in their burnt-out hometown, where employment is down, drug addiction is up, and hope is extinct. Then a voice reaches out to them from deep within the internet with a startling offer: the girls can help to build a new Utopia, if they can just get across the world to join a band of “freedom fighters” in the Middle East. What is the true nature of this internet siren? And are the promises she makes worth the enormous sacrifice she demands? For Blaze and Rowena, this cocktail of heroism, hope, and teenage impulsivity is too potent to resist, and they are plunged into a fight to claim their own identities in an arena where the stakes could not be higher-for themselves, or their native country. The White Girl’s Guide to International Terrorism was commissioned by San Francisco Playhouse as part of its 5-Year Commission Program.
THE FIT
June 5th to June 29th, 2019
World Premiere by Carey Perloff
It’s a fight for survival in the Silicon Valley world of venture capital. Sakina, an Indian-American venture capital associate, has big dreams of financing her idea of a bio-receptive, information-gathering fabric. But will she fit in a place where her values and identity must be compromised for her goal to be realized? Ethics, tribalism, and the intentions of business are tackled as Perloff delves into the shark tank of finance.
About the Sandbox Series
The Sandbox Series is part of the New Play Program at San Francisco Playhouse, which includes the Monthly Reading Series, the 3-play Sandbox Series of world premieres, and the 5-Year Commission Program. The Playhouse’s commitment to new works has been honored by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Edgerton Foundation, The Biller Foundation, The Zellerbach Foundation, The Hewlett and Gerbode Foundations and the American Theatre Wing. The program has achieved significant critical and commercial milestones: two Will Glickman Awards; the Sandbox Series smash hit Ideation, which recently completed a successful Off-Broadway engagement; and George Brant‘s Grounded, which went on to international acclaim after its world premiere in the Sandbox Series.
Mainstage Season
The San Francisco Playhouse 2018-19 Mainstage Season will begin with the world premiere of You Mean to Do Me Harm, originally commissioned and performed in the Playhouse Sandbox Series, followed by an innovative take on the magical musical Mary Poppins, presented during the holiday season. The New Year will kick off with King of the Yees, Lauren Yee‘s family comedy about San Francisco’s Chinatown. The Mainstage season will continue with the Bay Area Premiere of Dipika Guha‘s Yoga Play that takes us on a journey toward enlightenment in a world determined to sell it, followed by the Bay Area Premiere of Significant Other, Joshua Harmon‘s Broadway hit about romantic yearning. The season will conclude with the ever-resonant Tony Award-winning musical Cabaret by Kander, Ebb and Masteroff. About San Francisco Playhouse
Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described by the New York Times as “a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around,” and deemed “ever adventurous” by the Bay Area News Group. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city’s premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action.
The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian’s Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award, as well as three consecutive Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Entire Production in the Bay Area (2016-2018). KQED/NPR recently described the company: “San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English‘s commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage.”
San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.
Ticket Information
Sandbox Series Subscriptions are available immediately online at www.sfplayhouse.org, or by calling the box office at 415-677-9596. Subscriptions are $60 for three plays. Single Tickets ($30) will go on sale to the public in summer 2018
