Tut'Zanni Theatre Company to Premiere BEEP & BOP at San Francisco Fringe

Tut'Zanni Theatre Company presents Beep & Bop, a part of the 25th Annual San Francisco Fringe Festival, running September 9 - 24, 2016. Where hunger and imagination collide, there you will find Beep & Bop.

Featuring Tut'Zanni Theatre Company, an international Commedia dell'Arte troupe - company members ALi Landvatter and Patrick Berger.

Where hunger and imagination collide, there you will find Beep & Bop. Where Beep is practical, Bop is imagination. Beep feeds their bellies, and Bop feeds their hearts. A brother and sister up against a world that does not care about them, they must create their own world to help them survive.

Performances will play PianoFight - Second Stage, 144 Taylor St, San Francisco, CA 94102: Friday, September 16th at 7:30 PM; Saturday, September 17th at 6:00 PM; Thursday, September 22nd at 9:00 PM; and Friday, September 23rd at 7:30 PM. Tickets & Passes: $14.99 General Admission online. Visit www.eventbrite.com/e/beep-bop-tickets-25893344691. $12 General Admission at the door.

Tut'Zanni Theatre Company has been researching, practicing, and performing Commedia dell'Arte since 2011, when ALi Landvatter and Dory Rebekah Sibley invited Liam Mulshine, Patrick Berger, Allegra Libonati and Molly Tomhave to join their new troupe. Since then, Tut'Zanni has created three shows. The first, Art for Sale, explored what happens to art when money is a factor in creation. That production was performed in Los Angeles, at the CrisisART Festival in Italy, at the New York International Fringe Festival and toured the southern United States. The second production, Love Letter Lost, used a traditional Italian plotline that played with the question 'Love or money?' It was performed in Chicago at the Filament Theater, at Capital Fringe in Washington D.C. and in New York at the Producers' Club. The third production, Don't Save the Princesses, was featured as part of The Brick Theater's Gameplay festival in Brooklyn, NY in the summer of 2015.

Tut'Zanni's primary inspiration is Commedia dell'Arte, a traditional Italian style of masked street theatre based on classic character archetypes. Though the scenes are often filled with outrageous physical comedy, the deeper themes Commedia dell'Arte focuses on - greed, power, social hierarchies, and sex - are as relevant to our daily lives as they were when the form was introduced hundreds of years ago. The power imbalances and relationships between characters in Commedia dell'Arte can be found everywhere in today's world. Colombina may no longer be a traditional housemaid, but a secretary in an office, still overworked and under-appreciated. Capitano, the braggart, might not be a military captain but a vain wannabe movie star, with his good side always turned toward the camera. Pantalone, the wealthy, tightwad merchant, can easily be found today in our corporate CEOs and power-hungry politicians.

Tut'Zanni strives to bring communities together through physical theatre and folk arts - primarily Commedia dell'Arte, but also clown, music and puppetry. By exploring Commedia dell'Arte and bringing a variety of other mediums to diverse audiences, Tut'Zanni strives to expand the views of not only what theatre can be, but also how it can impact the way we live our lives beyond the theatre. Tut'Zanni uses the stage as a means to incite dialogue and to bring people of different backgrounds together in what we hope will last long past the moment the curtains close.

Tut'Zanni's members live across the US (New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston) and Europe (Arezzo, Italy) and lead workshops across the world.

Celebrating its 25th Anniversary, the San Francisco Fringe Festival brings fresh, daring, exciting theatre of all varieties to open-minded audiences of all persuasions. Often over-the-top and under-the-radar of traditional theatre, "The Fringe" whose motto is No Risk, No Art, has its rabid devotees - and wins more fans every year. Most performances run under an hour and Fringe Fans have fun trooping from venue to venue, seeing as many shows as they can in one day.

The 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival, September 9-24 (every day but Mondays), brings 38 shows to San Francisco's EXIT Theatreplex, 156 Eddy Street and to PianoFight, 144 Taylor Street. Both venues are within walking distance of Union Square and the Powell Street BART station. For complete listings of venues, shows and times go to www.sffringe.org or get the "San Francisco Fringe Fest" mobile app at the Apple App Store or Google Play. You can also call the Fringe Hotline at (415) 673-3847. Tickets are $12 (at the door, cash only) or less per show, with a ten-show Frequent Fringer pass at $85 and a five-show pass at $45. Online sales are available at the Fringe web site, www.sffringe.org.