San Francisco Mime Troupe Opens 51st Season With POSIBILIDAD 7/3-9/19

The Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe opens its 51st season with POSIBILIDAD, or Death of the Worker. Wilma Bonet (Too Big to Fail) directs Velina Brown (Too Big to Fail, Veronique of the Mounties, Red State), Lisa Hori-Garcia (Too Big to Fail, GodFellas, Red State), Brian Rivera (Doing Good), and Michael Gene Sullivan (GodFellas, Making a Killing), along with Rotimi Agbabiaka and Maggie Mason, who make their San Francisco Mime Troupe debuts, in this modern song and tango about politics in the workplace. Written by Michael Gene Sullivan and Ellen Callas, and featuring a live band under the direction of Pat Moran (music and lyrics), POSIBILIDAD plays July 3 through September 19 (press opening: July 4 at Dolores Park in San Francisco) throughout the Bay Area in San Francisco, the North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula, and Santa Cruz. All shows are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted).

For a complete schedule and more information, the public may call 415.285.1717 or visit www.sfmt.org.

A small U.S. factory is shutting down. All of the workers are losing their jobs, and to add insult to injury, they have also lost their last two weeks of pay and retirement funds, which were raided over the years to pay stock dividends. They are despondent, but feel there is nothing they can do, so they put in their last shift and raise a glass to their years together. As they the Factory for the last time, one of the older Workers gets snagged on a machine; interpreting this as an act of defiance, The Boss calls security. The Situation escalates and before anyone has a chance to think, the Workers have accidentally occupied the Factory!

During the negotiation process, The Boss tries intimidation, patriotism, and Red Scare tactics, while the Workers just try to figure out what the heck they're doing. Some say wreck the place. Tea Baggers say it's all the government's fault. Others blame the Union. One Worker, an Argentine ex-pat, says they should consider running the Factory themselves and is immediately labeled a Commie. At night, as the occupying Workers entertain themselves with songs and stories, the Argentine comes forward again and tells the tale of a similar strike back home. As more of the Argentine's story unfolds, the parallel plights of the American and Argentine Workers play out side by side. While the Americans struggle to keep their factory occupation from becoming politicized, the Argentine strike is deeply political. In the end, both the American and Argentine Workers are victorious, but which resolution will ultimately keep the power in the Workers' hands?

Wilma Bonet returns to San Francisco Mime Troupe to direct POSIBILIDAD. An actress and Mime Troupe Collective member in the early 1980's, Bonet directed last season's 50th anniversary production Too Big to Fail. She most recently directed Jose Rivera's School of the Americas and Sandra Cisnero's The House On Mango Street for Teatro Vision; other regional directing credits include productions at TheatreWorks, Asian American Theater, Women's Will, TheaterFIRST, and Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, among others. As an actress, Bonet recently appeared at Marin Theatre Company in Octavio Solis' Lydia, at the Mark Taper Forum in Luis Alfaro's Electricidad, and at the Denver Center Theatre Company in Jose Cruz Gonzalez's September Shoes; additional acting credits include productions at American Conservatory Theater, Campo Santo, California Shakespeare Theater, Thick Description, El Teatro Campesino, and The Old Globe. She is the recipient of a Bay Area Theatre Critics Award and Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award.

Head writer Michael Gene Sullivan joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1988 as an actor and began writing for the Mime Troupe in 1992; he directed his first Mime Troupe production in 1995, and became head writer in 2000. He has performed in, written, and/or directed over 20 Mime Troupe productions. As an actor, Sullivan has appeared in productions at American Conservatory Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, Magic Theatre, Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theatre, among others. He is the author of the award-winning one-person show Did Anyone Ever Tell You - You Look Like Huey P. Newton? and 1984, the critically-acclaimed stage adaptation of George Orwell's dystopic novel, which opened at the Actor's Gang Theatre in Los Angeles under the direction of Tim Robbins.

Writer Ellen Callas co-founded political sketch comedy troupe Hit and Run Theater in 1976. Since joining the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1986, she has worked as a writer, actor, and director, and has held many behind the scenes production titles; she has also served as project director/teacher for the Troupe's ongoing Youth Theater Project. Callas continues her long career as an improvisational theater performer.

San Francisco Mime Troupe composer, lyricist, and musician Pat Moran has worked with the Mime Troupe since 2005's production of Doing Good. Additionally, Moran is a teacher with the Mime Troupe's Youth Theater Project, a freelance musician, and a private guitar instructor. He can be seen performing regularly with a number of Bay Area bands, including Lord Loves a Working Man (2009 SF Weekly Best Soul/Funk/R&B Award Winner), which recently opened for Les Claypool at the Fillmore, and Khi Darag; he was a guest artist at the University of San Francisco in 2009.

Founded in 1959, the San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater; their work is political satire and anything but silent. Winner of three OBIE awards and a Tony Award for Excellence in Regional Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, about which The New York Times stated, "Anyone concerned about the state of global politics -- and about the state of political humor -- should listen to the Mime Troupe's message," creates plays that make sense out of the headlines, close-up stories that make audiences feel the impact of political events on their personal lives. The New York Post called the Mime Troupe "America's oldest and finest street theater," with the The Boston Globe concurring, "You're never only watching a political theater piece, but rather a double barreled re-invention of politics and theater at once." To make this work accessible to the broadest audience possible, the Mime Troupe performs as a regional touring company, presenting their work at a price everyone can afford: free.

For more information, the public may call 415.285.1717 or visit www.sfmt.org.