Cutting Ball Theater Presents THE TEMPEST 11/5-28

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater opens its 11th season with a distinctive take on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose helms this compelling tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption in one of Shakespeare's most magical and romantic plays. David Sinaiko, Caitlyn Louchard, and Donell Hill, who were featured in last season's hit production of Tbe Bald Soprano, return to the company in THE TEMPEST. THE TEMPEST plays November 5 through 28 (Press opening: November 11) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006.

Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio usurped his position. Kidnapped and left to die on a raft at sea, Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, survived. After 12 years, fortune has at last sent his enemies his way, and the exiled Duke of Milan uses sorcery to cause a storm, shipwrecking his treacherous brother, and company, on the enchanted isle he now calls home. But magic works both ways in this tale when the creatures of the island turn against Prospero and his daughter falls in love with his enemy's son. In the tradition of Cutting Ball's uniquely San Franciscan version of The Bard's The Taming of the Shrew and expressionistic Macbeth, Cutting Ball's three-person chamber version of THE TEMPEST promises to give an up close and personal look at the monsters lurking inside all of us.

"Why mess with Shakespeare? Our version of The Tempest aims to illuminate the many connections between the characters and take more risks with Shakespeare's text and words," said Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose. "We are looking to present a contemporary interpretation of the play that is in conversation with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and the dream-like dramaturgy pioneered by August Strindberg, now found in the films of David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive), Tarsem Singh (The Fall, The Cell), and Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento), as well as the novels of Haruki Murakame (Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle) and video installations of Bill Viola." Continues Melrose, "For 10 years, Cutting Ball has re-envisioned classic works. Our goal is to create productions that focus on particular themes or obsessions within a play that an audience member might not see in a more conventional production. We feel very fortunate to have found an audience who has been willing to go on these risky explorations with us."

Associate Artist David Sinaiko (Prospero/Alonzo/Stephano) returns to Cutting Ball Theater in THE TEMPEST. He most recently appeared in the company's productions of Krapp's Last Tape, ...and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, and Endgame, as well as The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, The Sandalwood Box, Ajax for Instance, Macbeth, 365 Plays/365 Days, Woyzeck, Chain Reactions, and as part of The Hidden Classics Reading Series and Risk is This...The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival. Other recent credits include Golden Thread's Jihad Jones & the Kalashnikov Babes, Crowded Fire's Wreckage, and SF Playhouse's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Additionally, Sinaiko has been seen at the Goodman Theatre, The Actor's Gang, and in the popular Bay Area one-man production of David Sedaris' SantaLand Diaries. He was a founding member of Chicago's New Crime Productions.

Also featured in THE TEMPEST are Cutting Ball Associate Artists Caitlyn Louchard (Miranda/Ariel/Gonzalo/Sebastian/Trinculo) and Donell Hill (Ferdinand/Caliban/Antonio), who were featured in last season's acclaimed production of The Bald Soprano. Louchard's Bay Area acting credits include A View From the Bridge with Actor's Theatre of San Francisco, Measure for Measure with Shady Shakespeare, and Tell It Slant with the Pear Avenue Theatre/Bootstrap Foundation; as a teaching artist, she has worked with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks, and Peninsula Youth Theatre. Hill was recently seen in Stanford Summer Theater's Electra Festival; he made his professional theater debut at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Amy Freed's You, Nero.

In addition to THE TEMPEST, Rob Melrose, Artistic Director and co-founder of Cutting Ball Theater, has directed several productions for the company, including Krapp's Last Tape, The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, Avant GardARAMA!, Endgame, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamletmachine, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Mayakovsky: A Tragedy, Roberto Zucco, The Vomit Talk of Ghosts (World Premiere), The Sandalwood Box, Pickling, Ajax, for Instance, Helen of Troy (World Premiere), and Drowning Room (World Premiere). Additionally, he has translated No Exit, Woyzeck, Pelléas and Mélisande, and Ubu Roi. Melrose's other directing credits include productions at the Magic Theatre (An Accident), Guthrie Theater (Happy Days, Pen), California Shakespeare Theater (Villains, Fools, and Lovers), and Crowded Fire (The Train Play), among others. He has assistant directed productions at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival (Hamlet, Oskar Eustis, director), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (The Pillowman, Les Waters, director), American Conservatory Theater (Indian Ink, Carey Perloff, director), Guthrie Theater (Othello, Joe Dowling, director), and Yale Repertory Theatre (Twelfth Night, Mark Rucker, director). He is a recipient of the NEA / TCG Career Development Program for Directors, and is currently The Public Theater's artist in residence at Stanford University. He also recently directed the World Premiere of Lydia Stryk's An Accident at the Magic Theatre.

Following Cutting Ball's production of THE TEMPEST, the company presents Eugenie Chan's retelling of the Ariadne myth BONE TO PICK, which received its World Premiere in Cutting Ball's 2007-2008 season as part of Avant GardARAMA!; this provocative play, starring Paige Rogers, will be accompanied by a newly commissioned companion piece, DIADEM, in January. The company is also poised to present the Bay Area Premiere of playwright Will Eno's LADY GREY (in ever lower light) and other plays in March, followed by RISK IS THIS...THE CUTTING BALL NEW EXPERIMENTAL PLAYS FESTIVAL in May. In addition to the mainstage season, Cutting Ball Theater continues its Hidden Classics Reading Series with five new installments. The entire 2010-11 season will be staged in San Francisco at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor.

Co-founded in 1999 by theater artists Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present, and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts, and developing new experimental plays. Cutting Ball Theater has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, the Magic Theatre, and Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. The company has produced a number of World Premieres, West Coast Premieres, and re-imagined various classics. Voted "Best Theater Company" in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of The Bay issue, Cutting Ball Theater also earned the Best of SF award in 2006 from SF Weekly, was selected by San Francisco Magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007, and received the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts. Cutting Ball Theater was recently featured in the February 2010 issue of American Theatre Magazine and awarded the honor of Best Theater Company in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay Issue.

TICKETS:

For tickets ($15-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call

800-838-3006; discounts available for students, seniors and groups.