Premiering at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago before opening on Broadway in 2011, Chinglish, is a comedy by renowned playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang. An American signmaker trying to expand his business into China encounters a number of obvious and subtle complications, not the least of which is traversing the language difference. Hwang witnessed …

David Henry Hwang writes, “Chinglish is about attempts to communicate across cultures and the barriers that separate us, and the most superficial of those is language.” Today, even more than when it opened – and even when Mr. Hwang revised the script in 2015 – Chinglish stands astride the widening gap between US and Chinese …

Every year, San Francisco Playhouse announces (and celebrates) our new season with a reveal party! We were thrilled to reveal our 2023/24 Season with our closest friends and supporters on March 26th, 2023 at our theatre. We are so thankful to all those who attended this exciting evening with us to introduce the six fabulous …

SAN FRANCISCO PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES DYNAMIC GLOBE-TROTTING 21ST SEASON Line-up includes World Premiere and West Coast Premiere plays, runs September 2023 to September 2024 SAN FRANCISCO, CA (27 March 2023) —San Francisco Playhouse has announced its dynamic 21st season, to be presented September 2023 to September 2024. Unveiled at a special event last night to an …

In the 1950s, during the depths of the House Un-American Committee’s evils, with Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist campaign raging out of control, six unrelated guests receive private letters asking them to meet at a remote mansion. None are told that the others will be present. This backstory of an all too familiar web of collective deceit …

The Indigenous basket-weaving culture of the O’otham (Pima Indians) tribe of Arizona is not just integral to understanding the culture which Cashed Out is based upon; equally, it is integral to understanding the depth-full and complex characters that the narrative “weaves” together. Through new beginnings, turbulence, trial & error, forgiveness, ancestry, and (above all) family, …

Cashed Out, a San Francisco Playhouse commission and world premiere, was a rare happy result of the pandemic. Relegated to serving our patrons online, we came up with the idea of a weekly hour-long Zoom program called Zoomlets, each built around a ten-minute play. I selected a play and a director in a microcosm of …

A liberal, tolerant government is overthrown. The revolutionary is the ultraconservative younger brother of the progressive leader who has opened a society previously dominated by their hard-liner father. The progressive leader is exiled into a wilderness where misfits, the homeless, and undesirables have previously been dumped. Making the most of the situation, the exiled leader …

We were lucky enough to be on hand when Paula Vogel’s Indecent opened on Broadway five years ago, and being huge fans of hers already, and galvanized by the production, we began angling to present the play’s Bay Area premiere immediately. At the time we were a long shot due to strong interest from bigger …

If imitation, as the English cleric Caleb Charles Bolton suggested, is the sincerest form of flattery, then writing pastiches – what Merriam Webster defines as “work that imitates the style of previous work” – must be a labor of love. The late Stephen Sondheim, in the context of discussing Follies, called them “fond imitations, unlike …

Follies is, perhaps, Stephen Sondheim’s greatest masterwork, yet it is seldom performed these days because of its technical demands including requiring ten triple-threat leads and a cast of over twenty. We humbly aspire to bring you a Follies that captures its genius, and perhaps, in our intimate setting, with only nine rows in the orchestra, …

In this time when there has been so much focus on immigration, not just in the US and our border with Mexico and Trump’s wall, but in Europe with the migration from the Middle East and now with so many Ukrainian refugees flooding into new lives, our story of Harry Chin and the discriminatory policies …

In our pandemic-devastated world, the prophetic Pulitzer winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes seems even more relevant now than when she penned it. The fracturing of our traditional community and family bonds that was rampant a decade ago has snowballed into the dispiriting dissolution of culture and world we face today. Where …

Due to the rapidly changing global pandemic and recent spike in Covid-19 cases in San Francisco, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the remaining performances of Twelfth Night at San Francisco Playhouse. All performances on Thursday, January 13th, Friday, January 14th, and Saturday, January 15th have been canceled. We are so grateful to our incredible cast, …

Practicing empathy is not easy. To put our money where our mouths are, we must fearlessly challenge the limits to which our hearts will open. Our daily lives, our national and political affiliations come with biases we must constantly confront as we seek to expand our powers of empathy. Perhaps in the time we now …

First performed on the Feast of the Epiphany, Twelfth Night marked a day when accepted ranks and relationships could be turned upside down, with masters serving servants and the court fool playing the queen or king. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, with its subtitle, Or, What You Will (i.e. “as you imagine you are,” or “as I …

In 18 seasons of theatre, San Francisco Playhouse has yet to present a play by Shakespeare. It always seemed to us that there were enough companies tackling the Bard’s work in every corner of Bay Area, and the community didn’t need us to add to the field of riches. So why now, after all these …

Celebrate As we begin our 19th Season, it feels like we have SO much to celebrate. We celebrate physical health and we celebrate the health of our theatre. Thanks to our miraculous donors and subscribers we not only survived the pandemic but thrived, employing dozens of actors, artists, directors, technicians, and staff members. We want …

The concept of “teen-ager” only became part of the public consciousness in post-WW II times. Prior to that, there was little consideration that young people, ages 13-18 merited any kind of  special attention, nor were they thought to have needs that deserved unique consideration. As time has passed since the false “idyllic” 50s, at least in the US, being …

Orwell said “He who controls the Present controls the Past, and he who controls the Past controls the Future.” In other words you can never let some jerks who hate you write your history, because that history will determine who your kids will think they can be. (Orwell didn’t say that last part. But I bet he thought it.)  …

For many years, between theatre grad school and starting San Francisco Playhouse, I earned my living as a musician, playing piano, keyboards, and singing in about as wide a variety of styles as one can imagine—ragtime, Dixieland, blues, jazz—played piano in showcase bars for singers showing up with sheet music, played countless gigs on ships, …

During his Memorial Day address, President Biden said, “Empathy is the fuel of democracy.” I wonder, does that seem like a political statement? To me, it seems like the opposite of politics: that no matter what your political affiliation, being able to put yourself in your adversary’s shoes creates the understanding necessary for the people …

Theatre loves history. Playwrights throughout time have borrowed their plots from historical events, often using true stories from the past to make satirical or cautionary points about their present time. Greek playwrights from the classical era looked back into history, to the Trojan War in particular, to make points about their current social and political …

When I first heard of Gordon Hirabayashi in the late 1990’s, I was enthralled — and shocked. Shocked that I had never heard of his story before. Born and raised in a thriving Japanese American community in the Bay Area of California, I had studied Japanese American history as a college student and later became …

We first noticed Ruben Grijalva, the second of our San Francisco Playhouse–commissioned playwrights to be produced this season, when we saw his production of Anna Considers Mars, which had been itself commissioned by Playground and directed by our co-founder, Susi Damilano, in the Playground Festival, 2019. We were immediately taken by the original quirky nature of Ruben’s voice, his complex and unpredictable characters, and his fearlessness in attacking thorny …

I first heard the sentiment that inspired this play expressed as an irreverent joke. Surely this sweet woman with the salty demeanor intended “shoot me when I can’t drive anymore” not as an earnest request, but as a wry declaration of values; a punchy way to say, “this is who I am.”  But, “who I am” …

We are fanatical storytellers. Everyone in the theatre, from set designers to automation techs, from actors to general managers, are magnetized by the lure of storytelling. We work in a profession that almost never pays comparable salaries to those in other industries with similar skills and training. Most theatre artists make a spoken or unspoken …

SAN FRANCISCO (13 April 2021) — San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced its return to in-person performances with a fully staged production of Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, directed by Jeffrey Lo. The company is expanding its health and safety protocols for audiences to return to the intimate …

I did not imagine, when we started our five-year, 20-play commission program that we would be commissioning a solo piece. The one-person show has never been a regular part of our modus operandi. We have always focused on the interplay of multiple characters on stage. But about three years ago, Susi and I were invited …

When I first started writing this piece in 2018, it was to be a one-character play driven by high tech effects, an experimental bent, and a more cerebral exploration of memory and disappearance. Suddenly all of that changed. The pandemic struck. New York closed down over the weekend. The following Monday, March 16th, 2020, I …

They are calling this the age of disinformation – the systematic and knowing flooding of the airwaves with false statements – the countless barrage of small untruths and the big lies that are so outrageous, how could they not be true? Amplified by the power of social media, disinformation is being used to drive unwitting …

Every year, an amazing grass-roots organization, The Kilroys, selects fifty promising new scripts by women, trans, and nonbinary playwrights that have not yet been produced. While reading through this year’s list, the pandemic struck and alas, we had to furlough much of our staff. But one member of our literary committee, Marie-Claire Erdynast, kept reading …

[hieroglyph]: an origin story I was six years old when Patrick Sykes kidnapped & raped nine-year-old Shatoya Currie (Girl X) in apartment 504 of Chicago’s Cabrini Green housing project at 1121 N. Larrabee St. He left her for dead on the seventh-floor landing. But she survived. I lived with my mother in the Marshall Field …

To say it has been a crazy time this last 11 months, is to beg the obvious. Our heads are reeling from the pandemic, from the election and from all the insanity that has befallen us since. It feels we have all been playing the extras in Homeland or House of Cards, or another one …

Its emphasis on breaking past barriers to discover hope and redemption has made me a fan of Songs for a New World since it first appeared. It’s called a song cycle — like a collection of short stories — so I wanted to give you some thumbnail summaries for each song to help set them …

More than ten years ago, our late amazing publicist, Anne Abrams, introduced us to Brian Copeland and got me on his weekly radio show to promote our plays. She also encouraged us to take a look at a new solo show he was developing, The Jewelry Box . It was impossible not to recognize it …

When Art was first produced on Broadway 22 years ago, it was a brilliant fable about male friendship. An affectionate satire, written by a woman, about the challenges men encounter on the road to friendship; how difficult it can be for men to be open and vulnerable with each other. In Christopher Hampton’s translation, it …

SAN FRANCISCO (October 2020) — San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) were given the green light to film their production of Art by Yasmina Reza on stage at San Francisco Playhouse. The announcement makes San Francisco Playhouse one of the first theatres in the United States to get approval for …

The Reports of Theatre’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. Is the theatre really dead? – Paul Simon When Mark Twain wrote his famous quip in 1897, it was his own prematurely announced death he was referring to. But the phrase seems fittingly applied to the most notoriously struggling art form, the theatre. Why does it …

SAN FRANCISCO (August 2020) — San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) continued its commitment to developing new plays and nurturing the voices of active writers with the selection of the playwrights who will comprise the third year of the company’s five-year commission program. The recipients of these commissions are Julia …

Empathy Into Action We hoped the coronavirus pandemic would teach us something. Surely, some good would come from the fact that it has touched all humans, that for the first time in recorded history, we all face a common enemy. And how profoundly that point has been driven home by the lightning speed at which …

A Message to the San Francisco Playhouse community: We at the Empathy Gym stand in solidarity and love with the black community. We dedicate ourselves to give a voice to the racial injustice in this country. Arts and culture are among the powerful ways that existing racial and ethnic representations, messages and stories are created and shared. While the doors to …

Essential Business We’ve been hearing a lot about essential businesses that have needed to be open during our “shelter in place” period. Pharmacies, groceries, hospitals, banks, post offices. There have been some puzzling inclusions in this category: gun shops, etc? Now, as shelter in place rules are being loosened, we are hearing about another group …

San Francisco Playhouse announced their new Empathy Gym Fireside Chat series which will be streamed live for free on YouTube. Each week, Artistic Director Bill English invites playwrights to join him for a one-hour conversation about playwriting, business, and the future of theatre. Audience members can participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on …

On Sunday, March 29th, we announced our 2020/21 Season with our first ever live streaming Virtual Season Announcement Party. After months of research and preparation, Artistic Director Bill English, Producing Director Susi Damilano, the Playhouse staff, and a star-studded lineup of artists came together and announced five of the six plays that will comprise our …

Right about now, I’m sure many of us are feeling pretty small, isolated, many of us alone, feeling defeated by a microscopic single cell creature, the tiny arm of omnipotent nature, who as we once again are reminded, can humble us humans with a snap of its finger, with so many catastrophic tools at its …

Thirty years ago, in San Francisco at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Real Women Have Curves by Josefina López was given its world premiere. In 2002, it was adapted into an award-winning film starring America Ferrera, which won the audience award for dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was released …

A Line in the Sand All around us, the situation seems dire. The fundamental ties that bind us humans together—family, community, shared beliefs, spiritual connection—are being systematically eroded by runaway greed, political polarization and worst of all, digital addiction. Wherever we look, we see someone frozen to their cellphone, eyes turned away from a simple …

In our January newsletter, we made six resolutions San Francisco Playhouse promises to keep this year. I thought it might be fun to go into a bit more depth on each one. To make our theatre a SAFE PLACE for all people (and animals) To LOOK DEEPLY at both sides of a conflict To EMPATHIZE …

We are worried these days about our privacy. We feel like thousands of eyes are watching us. Surveillance cameras, the info we must share to travel or get credit, the cameras on our laptops. Recent articles have lamented the number of people being falsely arrested when facial recognition software mistook them for a criminal with …

January 2020 First off, a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our End of Calendar Year fundraising campaign. You gave over $400,000 — and big kudos to our board chair, Bill Adler. You successfully doubled his challenge match of $25,000. Yowza!! We’re so grateful to you all for sustaining our empathy gym and …

December 2019 HEARTS BEAT AS ONE We are often reminded of the precariousness of live theatre. That something can go wrong at any moment. Lines can be forgotten, entrances missed, scenery can refuse to move when asked. It is this inherent danger that keeps us on the edge of our seats. We just came through …

As a long-time Cheryl Strayed fan, I was thrilled to see that Nia Vardalos’s wonderful dramatic adaptation of her Tiny Beautiful Things was available. I felt that Ms. Strayed’s courage and capacity to be completely vulnerable about the process of living could be an ideal invitation to our Empathy Gym. Vulnerability is one of the …

Each season, we seek a show that will work well for the holidays. What kind of art do we need this time of year? For millennia, mankind has searched for hope in the dark of winter. In ancient cultures, humans didn’t know whether spring would ever arrive. There was a pervasive terror that if the …

Every once in a while, live theatre generates a miracle. Something that shouldn’t be possible, that everyone says couldn’t be done, that not only defies the odds and succeeds but lifts up the spirts of all involved and serves as a testament to the very best humanity has to offer. Lest you think I exaggerate, …

I’d been hearing about The Daughters for several years from actors who had participated in developmental readings of it around the Bay Area. They were universally rabid with praise and encouraged us to produce it. And when I finally got to see it read at the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, I immediately joined the …

Clare Barron has been shaking up the expectations of Off-Broadway audiences and critics for some time. I first saw Baby Screams Miracle a few years ago largely because a friend was in it, but I was blown away by the edgy sense of danger in Clare’s voice. An accomplished actor, she writes utterly believable roles …

The arc of Cabaret as a force on the cultural landscape reaches back eight decades. The novel Goodbye to Berlin by British author Christopher Isherwood – actually a series of six short stories and novellas including one titled “Sally Bowles” – was first published in 1939. The stories focused on Jews, gays, and others who …

Whew! Our 18-19 Season has fully opened. And what a season it has been. There is always a collective sigh of relief that rises from everyone down at 450 Post when the final opening night opens and all six of our Mainstage shows and our three Sandbox premieres are open. I’m not sure whether it …

The cast of Cabaret sang the National Anthem at the Oracle Park on Wednesday, July 24th when the San Francisco Giants took on the Chicago Cubs. Music Director Dave Dobrusky conducted the performance. Cabaret continues through September 14th, 2019 at San Francisco Playhouse. Tickets are available here.

San Francisco Playhouse is thrilled to announce that their production of Dipika Guha’s Yoga Play will move to Laguna Playhouse this fall. San Francisco Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English will direct, with most of the original Playhouse cast reprising their roles in the Southern California production. See detailed show information and buy tickets on the …

In the half-century since the world premiere of Cabaret, so much in our world has changed and yet so much remains the same. Like the giant mirror that formed the backdrop for the original set, reflecting the audience back to themselves, this great work of art has been, as Hamlet says, “the glass wherein we …

I believe playwrights are the prophets of our time. And it is thrilling when a play we have spent years developing opens at a moment that makes it look ripped out of the headlines. A White Girl’s Guide to International Terrorism was commissioned over two years ago, and yet when it opened in January, the …

The term “significant other” is a generic one. In the ultra-complex diversity of the ways we partner, it is a careful term that reveals no details except the “object of affection.” Who really wants to be a significant other when one could be a wife, a husband, a lover, a romantic partner, a soulmate? It’s …

Yoga Play will be the third play by Dipika Guha to be produced by San Francisco Playhouse. The first two, The Rules and In Braunau, were world premieres in our Sandbox Series. Why are we so attracted to her voice as a playwright? It is because she has a very special lens through which she …

As 2019 begins, our nation remains ripped in half. Divided into camps, we refuse to understand the other side, so that the hatred between parties has become far more damaging than the agenda of either side. We cannot even hear the arguments of our adversaries, having enemized the opposition to the point where there literally …

We met Chelsea Marcantel two years ago at the Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville, Kentucky. This marvelous festival—where we have been taking our patrons for the last two seasons—is the greatest festival of new plays in the country, if not the world, and features many established and younger playwrights, their agents, artistic directors, …

Not only is King of the Yees written by a local playwright, born and raised in San Francisco, but it is a San Francisco story. Set in and around Chinatown, Lauren Yee’s play not only features her Dad as a character in the play, “The King,” but features an actor playing herself, the playwright. As …

San Francisco, CA (November 2018) – San Francisco Playhouse announced casting for Lauren Yee’s King of the Yees, headlined by Obie and Lucille Lortel Award-winning actor and San Francisco native Francis Jue. The play, centered on San Francisco’s Chinatown, was inspired by Yee’s family and their deep connections within the community. Joshua Kahan Brody will …

The version of Mary Poppins that we present on our stage hews much closer to the original spirit of P.L. Travers’s book than to the famous Disney film. In the original book, Ms Travers was much more interested in writing about the evils of the class structure in England. And as lovely as Julie Andrews …

With a commission from Playwrights’ Horizons and other leading theatre companies, prestigious awards, residencies around the country and a budding television writing career, Korde Arrington Tuttle is one of the fastest rising young writers in the United States. We are honored that our 10th Anniversary Sandbox Season will open with the original production of Mr. …

San Francisco Playhouse invites audiences to join the conversation with expert-led discussions following performances of Christopher Chen’s world premiere play You Mean to Do Me Harm. Guest speakers will include Frank H. Wu, George Kich, Dr. Leslie E. Wong, Lee Mun Wah and Geoff Jue. You Mean to Do Me Harm is a psychological exploration of …

We feel deeply honored to have commissioned and presented the World Premiere of You Mean to Do Me Harm by Christopher Chen. A San Francisco native and one of our nation’s most promising young playwrights, Mr. Chen is being commissioned by many of America’s leading theatres. We were also lucky to team up with The …

The Sandbox Series at San Francisco Playhouse focuses on premiering brand new plays, but just “new” won’t do. We assess hundreds of submissions for truly unique voices, playwrights whose approach to telling stories has not been heard before and whose writing gives us a perspective we have not yet seen. Non-Player Character by Walt McGough …

Since the prehistoric cave paintings where the human form was first represented in places like Altamira in Spain, we have all yearned to be remembered, to be seen, and artists have been our only access to immortality, representing us to those who would come after. Social media and selfies have reduced “being seen” to utter …

When we first read In Braunau by Dipika Guha, there were only 60 pages—around two-thirds of a play. The characters and conflict had been set in motion but there was, as yet, no ending. As anyone who has written any kind of fiction will attest, it is the finish to a story that is the …

Every world premiere arrives at our stage via its own unique path. An Entomologist’s Love Story began when Melissa Ross won an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to create a play about the lives of scientists. She went to work as an intern at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, immersing herself …

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) announced today the six plays that will comprise its 2018-19 Mainstage Season. Opening the season with a play commissioned and developed by the Playhouse, You Mean to Do Me Harm by Christopher Chen, the company strengthens its commitment to new voices in theatre. The …

The inspiration for The Effect came when an actual drug trial conducted by the American pharmaceutical company PAREXEL, held at Northwick Park Hospital in London, went terribly wrong. Some of the volunteers suffered horrific side effects, including organ failure and lost fingers and toes. The scandal played across all the London tabloids. Lucy Prebble, the …

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) expanded its commitment to developing new plays and nurturing the voices of active playwrights with the launch of a 5-Year Commission Program dedicated to the creation of 20 new plays over the next 5 years. This will elevate the Playhouse’s acclaimed New Play Program, …

We are fascinated and troubled by the collision between our human consciousness and technology. And in plays like First Person Shooter, Wirehead, and The Nether, San Francisco Playhouse has explored this connection. How do social media and role-playing video games change the way we interact? In First Person Shooter, Aaron Loeb explored the moral responsibility …

Why Born Yesterday? Why now? Why this American classic by the great Garson Kanin which served as a vehicle to birth the stardom of Judy Holliday? First produced in 1946, it was subsequently turned into an Academy Award-winning film, winning a total of 5 Oscars—including one for Ms. Holliday. We think of it in retrospect …

I’ve spoken a lot about empathy. And about how our theatre is an empathy gym. Where we come to improve our powers of compassion. But what does that actually involve? We all know what a work out at our physical gym requires. If we really want to get in shape, it is going to hurt. …

Based on Jean Shepherd’s radio broadcasts and collections of anecdotes, the 1983 Bob Clark film has earned an iconic place in the pantheon of Holiday classics, along with Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. A Christmas Story’s depiction of the dreams of a nine-year-old boy for his ideal Christmas …

Theater Bay Area announced nominees for its 2017 TBA Awards Celebration, and San Francisco Playhouse productions were nominated for 7 awards. The awards will be presented on Monday, October 30th, 2017 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Congratulations to all of the nominees! The nominees are listed below: “Outstanding Properties Design”: Jacquelyn​ ​Scott​ for Seared  …

As I began looking for the play to open our 15th Season, I hoped to find a work that would speak profoundly to the moment in which our civilization finds itself. I hoped to find a fresh voice who has their ear tuned to the pulse of our times, complicated as they are with divisions, …

When someone does something inexplicably terrible, those around them—and all of us by extension through the media—are stunned. “She was so nice!” we say. “He coached little league.” “She jump-started my car.” The heart of darkness often hides behind a placid face, so carefully disguised, that we have no inkling of the turmoil seething within. …

I spoke a few weeks ago at the national convention of the ATCA, the American Theatre Critics’ Association. I had a hard time coming up with what I would say. There is a curious tension between theatre producers and critics. We eye each other a little warily. Producers are acutely aware that critics have the …

Although there have been three wildly successful revivals since, this American musical theatre masterpiece was originally produced in 1983. But like She Loves Me, the other musical to hit our stage this season, it has a long lineage. Originally a French play by Jean Poiret, La Cage was adapted into the great French-Italian film of …

We feel deeply honored to have commissioned and now to present the World Premiere of You Mean to Do Me Harm by Christopher Chen. A San Francisco native and one of our nation’s most promising young playwrights, Chris just won the Obie Award for Playwriting for his play Caught. San Francisco Playhouse has also been lucky …

The Art of Not Knowing We generally associate accomplishment in any field with “knowing.” Finding, discovering, establishing. Who would ever think that not knowing could align with anything more glorious than ignorance? We live in an age of information where certainty is celebrated, where each faction knows that it is right. To not know can …

I’ve been an avid fan of Jen Silverman for a few years. Favorite titles include The Moors, Blink, Crane Story, Phoebe in Winter, and I think all of us at San Francisco Playhouse are thrilled at the opportunity to produce one of her plays! She has a truly unique voice, one of our gifted young playwright/prophets who …

The Mission: To tell stories that uplift our spirits, deepen self-awareness, and nurture compassionate community. It’s been a while since I looked closely at our mission, our promise to our community, and I was glad to feel that this simple phrase still inspires me, that the three-legged stool of our mission still has the capacity to …

Misery Loves Comedy If ever there was a time we need a good laugh, it’s now! With tensions growing in our country, with the constant drama in Washington, and with all our struggles to stay focused on our work and our lives, comedy may be an answer. Maybe it’s the only answer. As Woody Allen …

These mornings it seems grief rolls in like the fog, and I find myself in meditation on the floor in a pile of tears. Something seems to have been irrevocably lost. The vision I always held of a people united by dreams, hopes, and yearnings has been ripped asunder. We cannot speak to our other …

The San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle announced nominees for its 41st annual Excellence in Theatre Awards, and San Francisco Playhouse productions were tabbed for 43 awards. The awards will be presented on Monday, March 27, 2017 at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. Congratulations to all of the nominees! Play Nominaton Nominee Colossal Choreography …

Three boys shared a bedroom in their family’s duplex. There wasn’t much room for anything but the three beds, arranged against three walls with a chest of drawers thrown in somehow on the fourth wall between the door to the hallway and the closet door. Two windows. The boys were 11, eight, and six, with …

We are amazed by the power religious belief exerts in our world. So much good—and so much bad—has been done in the name of religion; and at home and abroad, we are dumbfounded by the power of fundamentalism to wreak havoc on our social and political institutions. What is belief? Why is it such a …

On the day after Thanksgiving, the cast of She Loves Me kicked off Macy’s 27th Annual Great Tree Lighting in Union Square. The cast sang three holiday songs, including “Twelve Days to Christmas.” Watch the video below.

It occurred to me last month while writing “The First Story,” that I was just grazing the tip of the iceberg of the subject of “storytelling.” Certainly, in the theatre it is our life’s blood and the very reason for our existence. As an Artistic Director, it defines my purpose, to decide which stories to …

A country divided, fractured into a half dozen splinter groups. Ungovernable. Where every faction hates every other faction, all lacking the capacity to empathize with the struggles of others. Lacking the ability to even talk to each other, these alienated splinters claw for power, marginalizing minority groups, all driven by the panicky fear that they …

November 2016 Newsletter A group of ancient humans sit huddled around the fire, hunkered down in a shallow cave so the rain doesn’t put the fire out, the sound of distant wolves and other creatures of the night echoing off the cliffs around them. They are eating fresh kill, an elk-like animal that was brought in …

October 2016 Newsletter   In the great Kurt Vonnegut short story, “Who Am I This Time?”, Harry Nash, the awkward hardware store clerk, but also the best actor in town, struggles to relate when off-stage. His mutual crush with Helene Shaw goes nowhere until she discovers that Harry can be romantic, but only if he is …

What a spectacular privilege to open our fourteenth season with a World Premiere commission from Theresa Rebeck. The saga that created this opportunity goes back six years. Always huge fans of her work, we first dipped our feet into her pool with “The Scene.” And when Maurice Kanbar, one of SF’s great philanthropists chose to …

It took four full days to assemble the set of Seared on our stage. The crew worked tirelessly, starting as soon as the final curtain fell on City of Angels on Saturday night, all the way through the following Wednesday. When they were done, our theater had been transformed into a working kitchen! Watch this painstaking process …

September 2016 Newsletter   I was recently at a preview of our current Sandbox Show, “All of What You Love and None of What You Hate.” As the patrons were leaving, I asked a couple about what they thought of the show. They both sighed and admitted that the play had struck a little close to …

In the endless parade of new scripts that cross our desks, 400 to 500 per year, it is tough for one to really stand out. A couple years ago, Jordan Puckett, our associate artistic director and the producer of our Sandbox program, sent me a script by Phillip Howze. I was immediately struck by the …

August 2016 Newsletter   When San Francisco Playhouse moved from 533 Sutter to 450 Post, it was a Herculean undertaking, fraught with grave risks on all sides.  I feared that though we had challenges with our Sutter Street landlord, we might have even more difficulties with our new landlord, the Elks. I feared that the Department …

July 2016 Newsletter   In the military sense, vulnerability means that your position is open to attack, that there is a gap in your defenses, a chink in your armor, an Achilles’ heel. Military strategists work ceaselessly to eradicate any weaknesses in their country’s defenses through which an enemy could penetrate. In the social sense, …

A Tony-winning Broadway hit, a brilliant jazz score by Cy Coleman, and a book by M*A*S*H*-writer genius Larry Gelbart, City of Angels has unfathomably not been revived on Broadway in 25 years. Why do it now? First off, it is a theatrical tour de force, pitting the two worlds of black and white film noir …

When we look back at the last century, since women achieved the right to the vote in 1920, we believe that huge progress has been made. In the 1960s, so much attention was placed on Women’s Liberation. Legislation has been enacted in decades since that protects women from discrimination and guarantees their rights to property …

June 2016 Newsletter   My father, William English, senior to my junior, had high hopes for me – his namesake. In his imagination, I would simultaneously play first base for the Cubs and sit first chair oboe in the Chicago Symphony. He was a dedicated father, and I was an ambitious kid who wanted more than …

When Susi and I saw Red Velvet at the Tricycle Theatre in London, we knew immediately that we would want to bring it to San Francisco audiences. Sadly, we had known nothing about Ira Aldridge, so at the simplest level this play is a wonderful history lesson about this very important actor, a pioneer, who …

May, 2016 Newsletter When I was thirteen, under the influence of Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster, I was determined to become a swash-buckling movie daredevil.  Our Junior High School had recently built a one-story temporary structure that intruded into what was formerly playground space.  My fellow seventh-grade classmates, always at war against teen boredom, quickly …

April, 2016 Newsletter During eleven days in March 2016, San Francisco Playhouse opened three shows on two different coasts.  “Ideation” in New York, “Colossal” on our Main Stage, and “On Clover Road” in the Sandbox. Whew!  So tired!  But recovering today, I found myself remembering a time when such an achievement would have been unthinkable …

I started college at Arizona State with two contradictory ambitions – to play varsity baseball and to act in theatre productions. And for most of my freshman year, I was able to balance the sports and arts commitments pretty well. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I was offered an opportunity to redshirt on …

March, 2016 Newsletter I was an alienated teenager. I spent a vast amount of time alone, face down on my bed, terror-stricken at the prospect of having to interact with other people. But even back then, my strong interest in storytelling manifested itself. Before I had acted in three or four plays, before I had …

February, 2016 Newsletter Several years ago, while in the lobby after performances of “Abigail’s Party,” I would find Allison White, who played Angela, chatting with audience members, and I would frequently hear them ask her, “How did you enjoy the show?” We would both laugh, and then one of us would point out that Allison …

In the early 21st Century, we already think of experience as being offline or online, and we are spending exponentially more of our time in digital realities. For many, surfing Facebook or Twitter, our heads buried in our computers and smartphones, our world is shrinking down to our 5-inch screen. The Oculus Rift is the …

January, 2016 Newsletter I attended my very first live theater performance at the age of 7. I saw Tad Lincoln in the White House as part of an amazing theatre program sponsored by the Evanston, Illinois school district that produced plays specifically aimed at school-age audiences. At the time, I was mostly interested in baseball, …

When I prepare to design a new set or craft a production concept, I often try to picture our stage as a giant 32’ x 16’ mirror in which we see ourselves reflected back. In this imaginary piece of glass, every aspect of theatre – playwriting, scenic design, acting, the costumes and lights, the props …

  The Temporary Forever Before I became an artistic director, before I had a scene-shop and drafting associates and amazing carpenters to actualize my artistic vision – I put on one-off productions in whatever available temporary black-box stage I could rent. I wore all the theatre hats; producer, director, actor, stage manager. Designing them as …

These days, on any given Sunday, it seems that in my neighborhood, there are more people at Starbucks communing with their laptops and smartphones than attending services at traditional houses of worship. Our opportunities to feel connected to something greater than ourselves or to each other have dwindled. Many say that the theatre is dying …

Most of you have heard me talk about the Empathy Gym – how San Francisco Playhouse has built a safe space where our community can practice its powers of compassion and empathy. But why do we need such a space? What makes empathy difficult to practice? Is empathy something that comes naturally? Or do we …

Happy August! Company is in full swing, and we all get a little rest from producing during its long run. I wanted to share some thoughts with you that arose from my first newsletter and many of your responses and questions. The quality that most distinguishes humans is our capacity for change. It is built …

Stephen Adly Guirgis, who has had many plays produced at San Francisco Playhouse, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play “Between Riverside and Crazy.” The Pulitzer committee praised it as “a nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life …

“Grounded” written by George Brant is making its Off-Broadway debut this week at the Public Theater in New York City. The play stars film actor Anne Hathaway, famous for “Les Misérables,” and is directed by Julie Taymor, well-known for receiving a Tony for “The Lion King.” “Grounded” was produced in the San Francisco Playhouse Sandbox …

Our theater is an empathy gym where we come to practice our powers of compassion. Here, safe in the dark, we can risk sharing in the lives of the characters. We feel what they feel, fear what they fear, and love what they love. And as we walk through our doors we take with us …