Cutting Ball Theater to Present 'RISK IS THIS...'

Cutting Ball Theater continues its 17th season with the adventurous RISK IS THIS...THE CUTTING BALL NEW EXPERIMENTAL PLAYS FESTIVAL, one of the only play festivals in America solely dedicated to experimental works for the stage. Pushing the boundaries of what theater can be, this year's festival features three new works in staged readings. RISK IS THIS... offers a unique opportunity for audiences to see plays in development, alongside the artists creating them, as the works find their theatrical voice.

The schedule for the 2016 RISK IS THIS...THE CUTTING BALL NEW EXPERIMENTAL PLAYS FESTIVAL is as follows:

all of what you love and none of what you hate
By Phillip Howze

Directed by Paige Rogers

March 11 - 12, 2016

Maybe if she cries hard enough this will all pass. Maybe, if she turns up the music, she can drown out the world. Maybe the future isn't inevitable. all of what you love and none of what you hate is one girl's defiant search for harmony despite the disorienting, deafening pitch of our current, total-noise culture. But who can know which voice to follow in a contemporary world of infinite snippets and sound-bites? How to look past the distortions and hear the truth in high fidelity?

MY HOME IS WHERE

Written by Alex Johnson

Directed by Ariel Craft

March 18 - 19, 2016

Some people try to build a scale model of the Crazy Horse Memorial out of Legos. Some people try very hard to fall in love. Some people try to find where they are right now by thinking about where they were just a second ago. A young couple, driven by a vision, travel to work at The Crazy Horse Memorial in Custer, SD. On the way, they get lost, and get some terrible directions. When they finally arrive, it becomes harder to say just exactly where they are.

BOREALIS

By Bennett Fisher

Directed by Rem Myers

March 25 - 26, 2016

When a cryptic but ominous letter arrives from her brother on the oil fields, thirteen-year-old Cozbi sets off for Valdez, Alaska to find him. Armed with a book by Donald Trump and an axe, Cozbi battles her way through the Arctic wilderness, squaring off against a host of monstrous Ass-Hats on each rung of the corporate ladder. Part mythic journey, part workplace satire, BOREALIS is a darkly comic adventure about family obligation, career aspiration, and what we leave behind to make our way to the top.

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. The company has commissioned, developed, and produced new experimental plays, and has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, and the Magic Theatre/Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. In addition to producing West Coast Premieres and re-imaging various classics, Cutting Ball Theater has produced nine World Premieres and seven World Premiere translations. Cutting Ball received the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts, and was voted "Best Theater Company" in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay issue. The company also earned the Best of SF award in 2006 and "Best Experimental Theater Company" in 2012 from SF Weekly, and was selected by San Francisco magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007. Cutting Ball Theater was featured in the February 2010, 2012, and December 2014 issues of American Theatre Magazine. In 2012, Cutting Ball was awarded a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a three-year residency for resident playwright Andrew Saito. The American Theatre Wing, best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, awarded the company with a 2013 National Theatre Company grant. Cutting Ball was also featured in the February 2015 issue of American Theatre Magazine.