Photo Flash: Cutting Ball Theater Presents SUPERHEROES

Cutting Ball Theater opens its 16th season with the World Premiere of SUPERHEROES, written and directed by Sean San José. Featuring Myers Clark, Juan Amador, Donald E. Lacy, Jr., Britney Frazier, Ricky Saenz, and Delina Patrice Brooks, SUPERHEROES plays November 21 through December 21 at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($10-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205. BroadwayWorld brings a first look below!

Defiant, passionate, and bursting with poetic energy, SUPERHEROES tells the story of a journalist working to separate fact from fiction as she investigates the sordid history of the crack-cocaine epidemic. Partially inspired by Bay Area reporter Gary Webb''s groundbreaking investigative journalism into the relationship between the CIA and Nicaraguan émigré-drug traffickers, this incendiary new play traces a lyrical labyrinth through churches, courthouses, and street corners in pursuit of a shocking truth. SUPERHEROES was developed as part Cutting Ball''s 2013 edition of 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.

"My generation is marked by two epidemics: AIDS and crack. At the end of the day, my work must respond to that, personally and professionally," said writer and director Sean San José. "Superheroes delves into the stories, lives, and communities forever affected by this war and epidemic. Recalling Catfish Row from the Gershwin''s Porgy and Bess and August Wilson''s Hill District in King Hedley, these stories and experiences live ghostly and gargantuan here today."

Continued San José, "I am thrilled by the possibility of new collaborations and merging to more directly address and reflect the issues we are exploring with Superheroes and the lingering effects of the crack epidemic. I feel both inspired and challenged to meet Cutting Ball Theater''s commitment to broaden their output to more accurately and effectively reflect the community and neighborhood in which they reside.

I feel the whole culture expands and benefits when we open ourselves up and broaden our horizons to collaborate on creating more storytelling opportunities. I am charged with the possibilities Cutting Ball and I have working with the communities of the Tenderloin and the Bayview, how we can learn from sharing these stories and bring new work to these non-theater spaces. I feel the partnership we are forging can be the mark of a new era in outreach and theater creation."

"The theme for Cutting Ball''s 16th season is Injustice, in which we start by examining injustice here at home with the World Premiere of Sean San José''s Superheroes, a penetrating exploration of the crack cocaine epidemic in San Francisco," said Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose. "In the same way we asked our audiences to look at our neighborhood in a new way, to see the people and hear their stories, to see beyond the veneer of crime and decay with our 2012 production of Tenderloin, with Superheroes we ask audiences to consider the issues of social justice and drug use in San Francisco and how the veneer of crime and decay got here."

Continued Melrose, "Partially inspired by former San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb''s investigative journalism, Superheroes is a thread through the labyrinth of drugs, money, and addiction. What excites me about this play is that in addition to a documentary level of truth, Sean takes a brutal story and teases out the humanity in it, enabling the impact of the production to reach far beyond Cutting Ball''s theater walls. I have admired the work of Campo Santo and Sean San José since I moved to the Bay Area over 15 years ago and I am thrilled to be working with him at Cutting Ball on this stunning new work."

Photo credit: Laura Mason