A RASHOMON World Premiere Set for Magic Theatre and Campo Santo

The Magic Theatre and home resident company Campo Santo are pleased to announce the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere 'a rashomon.'

Conceived by Joan Osato, 'a rashomon' is written by A.M. Smiley, directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, and starring Britney Frazier. 'a rashomon' will perform from November 18- December 6, 2026, at the African American Artist & Cultural Complex (762 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94015).

Opening Night is Saturday, November 21, 2026 at 8pm. Tickets are available now at MagicTheatre.org.

A Rashomon

San Francisco. Downtown, Market Street, the Cable Car turn around. One of the major thoroughfares of the City, shopping district, bustling business of yore.. now fading into nocturnal shadows, at all times. Modern times...

The City setting takes place inside a big shadow box, the walls for video and puppetry. The setting inside the box is a eulogy, a service, a Sermon on the Mount, the stages of grief from Divine- the preacher, the witness, and the spirit guide.

As Divine takes us through the service and the loss of this Black life.. She tries to make a sense of it.. In telling the tale, she has visions of alternating, differing, and conflicting stories in a rashomon effect way of what happened...

The loss of this Black life becomes on a parallel path with the loss of Black life in the City. The loss of Black life is visually and story wise told through the Black Crows of San Francisco, and throughout history.

Divine takes us through these stages of grief in a maximalist and moment to moment way. The lifespan of this lost life is expressed visually- in dance, and in imagery of voices of the City- seen and heard. All of the pieces a rashomon are left for us to contemplate the loss of this one Black life as it echoes the gutting of Black life writ large in San Francisco.

Ashley Smiley follows her personal and artistic narratives about San Francisco as a City in fight and faith, as a Black native citizen. Her play Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad was a pulsing, poetic, smashing and successful premiere at the Magic Theatre with Campo Santo in 2024.

This play marks the first Magic Theatre and Home Resident Company Campo Santo collaboration since the commencement of the new leadership chapter of the Magic Theatre. In July, 2026 the theatre announced the new leadership team of the Magic Theatre: Sarah Nina Hayon- Artistic Director, Daniel Duque-Estrada- Producing Director, Joan Osato- Director of Sustainability and new Managing Director Perla Vanesa Barraza. This premiere is part of continued programming that focuses on new play development and premieres, resident companies, and centering of People of Color. This play along with Lorraine Hansberry's 'Soulful Christmas' are both a sustaining of the commitment to new works and local companies. These productions are part of a whole new layout of programming, premieres, and populating of the space that the new leadership team is currently developing. This production is a testament to the commitment to new works, local artists, a resilient production while the theatre weathers and reconfigures through a turbulent financial landscape at the present.

This project also marks a great synergy and true collaborative connection- as one conceived and led by Joan Osato. Joan is, as noted, part of the new leadership team for the Magic Theatre, and is also the longtime Producing Director of Campo Santo. In addition to her organizational leadership, this project marks a true visioned project led by Joan. Working intimately with longtime collaborators Ashley Smiley and Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, along with the creative team, this project is a many years in development dream project.

The world premiere play "a rashomon", conceived by Joan Osato, written by Ashley Smiley, and directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, uses the "Rashomon Effect" narrative approach ('storytelling/psychological phenomena where the same event is described in different/contradictory ways by witnessing storytellers.') Taken from the classic Akira Kurosawa film- we are transporting it to modern day San Francisco, the middle of downtown. The murder from the original story remains, but here- a native son of the City has died, his body seemingly unnoticed, unseen.. This is "NoSomeBody."

The 'Rashomon Effect' here is not did a Black man die unnoticed in the City- but HOW did he die, and WHY do we not mark it... The search for answers is told by the denizens and spirits of the corner where the body was found- and told in the oral tradition, but also in ritual, filmed sections, audio speeches, movement, and dialogue with the audience. We explore the varied responses to the questioning and investigating of the death. Who killed Black neighborhoods; who causes ubiquitous deaths through streets filled with government sanctioned opioids; who allows the psychological, structural, political, personal, and private deaths of Black folx in our once vibrantly Black city. It is answered in the grieving of lost life, the celebrating of joyful spirit, the cleaving of new policy ideas, the necessary communing around violent change to our City, communities, cultures.

In the words of one the City's native Black writers- the creator of the text for "a rashomon"- Ashley Smiley responds: "Set at the intersection of Powell and Market Streets, a true portal through San Francisco- a Black Son of the City passes away, disappearing in plain sight, to be briefly resurrected with a constantly gnawing grief. San Francisco has an extraordinary ability to disappear Black citizens in broad daylight, a devastating cultural dialysis."

In an honoring and homage to the real loss of the real life Black San Franciscan Robert Henry Johnson, we find the inspiration and need to tell this tale. Johnson, an exceptional artist in so many ways, died in anonymity on Market Street. HOW? As Smiley cries out: "How did a Black performer that everybody knew disappear on the streets of his birthplace- die at one of the busiest intersections in San Francisco- and nobody knew? This singular story, speaks to the many stories of Black people, businesses, and cultural institutions erased in real time throughout San Francisco. With the Black Community only accounting for 3-5% of San Francisco, more than ever it is important that work is created about Black icons and legends." "a rashomon," acts as ritual, leaning on the art of augury, a spiritual tradition in which one reads/receives messages through the movements and actions of crows, masquerade, music, and prayer- to simultaneously unearth and lay to rest the Spirits we have lost to physical and spiritual houselessness, substance abuse, grief, cultural deracination and other hazards of living, loving, and creating in San Francisco.

'Like much of the work Campo Santo develops, creates, and premieres- "a rashomon" is rooted in place. So much of the work too is about this place- our City, San Francisco. And as always since our original mission statement 30 years ago- "we want to tell stories that reflect the world we live in.. the streets we grew up on, the houses we live in, the corners we hang on.. The rhythms, the languages, the ghosts .. all that. ' This new piece follows and expands that vision- just as the City expands. And in some ways the City contracts- making it more necessary for us to stay committed to real representation and reflection in how we embody our projects. This play is a reflection of much of that, but it is also a preservation piece. Not only a story of preserving spirit, but preserving space for those pushed outside of power structures. And the plays can put those folx in the center of the story and focus them as the rightful storytellers. The work holistically continues to be about reflection- reflecting our world and representing. And for us that has always been a multi-cultural world- People of Color before the use of the term- but the ethos is ever alive in the work.. This play reflects that in the story and in collaborative creators. We are in so many ways a collective of artists, and continue to be.'
-Sean San José

*About the change of venue

We're excited to share that The Magic Theatre's upcoming production of A Rashomon will take place at the African American Art & Culture Complex (AAACC). This move is more than a change of venue. It is an opportunity to bring this important work into a space whose cultural significance deepens its resonance. The African American Art & Culture Complex is a vital home for Black artistic expression, cultural memory, and community in San Francisco. Given A Rashomon's engagement with the erasure of Black life, culture, and community, presenting the work at AAACC creates a meaningful connection between the play and the living cultural landscape around it.

A great inspiration in transporting Kurosawa's "Rashomon" to modern San Francisco is the local legend Robert Henry Johnson. In his too short lifetime, RHJ not only was deeply connected to AAACC artistically, but along with his mother, was a nearby resident.

This venue shift is also rooted in the belief and commitment to create collaboratively. One of the only ways arts groups will survive and thrive will be to continue to collaborate. The grouping of the Magic Theatre, Campo Santo, and AAACC is emblematic of the exciting, organic, and beneficial cross organizational collaborations that help create more work and broaden all of our circles.

We believe this setting will offer audiences a powerful way to encounter the work, bringing its questions into conversation with a place deeply rooted in the artistic voices and histories that shape San Francisco.

We're grateful to AAACC for welcoming this production and look forward to sharing A Rashomon with you in this new setting.

Thank you for being part of The Magic Theatre community. We look forward to seeing you there.

Quotes

'Like much of the work Campo Santo develops, creates, and premieres- "a rashomon" is rooted in place. So much of the work too is about this place- our City, San Francisco. And as always since our original mission statement 30 years ago- "we want to tell stories that reflect the world we live in.. the streets we grew up on, the houses we live in, the corners we hang on.. The rhythms, the languages, the ghosts .. all that. ' This new piece follows and expands that vision- just as the City expands. And in some ways the City contracts- making it more necessary for us to stay committed to real representation and reflection in how we embody our projects. This play is a reflection of much of that, but it is also a preservation piece. Not only a story of preserving spirit, but preserving space for those pushed outside of power structures. And the plays can put those folx in the center of the story and focus them as the rightful storytellers. The work holistically continues to be about reflection- reflecting our world and representing. And for us that has always been a multi-cultural world- People of Color before the use of the term- but the ethos is ever alive in the work.. This play reflects that in the story and in collaborative creators. We are in so many ways a collective of artists, and continue to be.' --Sean San José

'If a Black man dies on Powell and Market, but nobody saw it... how tf did that happen? Thus this upcycled reinterpretation of Kurosawa's Rashomon where fallen native sun of SF, Robert Henry Johnson, is the Samurai, the witnesses are layered passerby and the only reliable witnesses are the crows. It is only right to ask these questions on the stage Robert Henry Johnson watched his mother perform on, in the building he danced through his entire life, across the street from the building grew up in. ' -A.M. Smiley

'Some stories matter, and some stories matter most because they take place and are told by and for the community that has been left to hold the real-life consequences of the events we receive as story. Ashley Smiley's 'A Rashomon' heralds a unique collaboration between The African American Art and Culture Complex, Campo Santo, and the Magic Theatre. For the first time, all three will team up to present an experience unlike any that each organization has presented before, at the AAACC's Buriel Clay Theater. 'A Rashomon' holds the histories of a life, a community, and the culmination of 30 years of Campo Santo's galvanizing way of making stories come alive; and for the Magic Theatre it continues the tradition of groundbreaking storytelling while beginning a new chapter in artistic and producing collaborations. We're profoundly thankful to The African American Art and Culture Complex and Ashley Smiley for the opportunity to rush into a new future, together.' -Daniel Duque-Estrada

'A Rashomon is a story that is deeply rooted in San Francisco; it asks us to grapple with who gets seen, who gets remembered, and who gets left behind. It asks us to reckon with the systemic conditions that allow a human being to become invisible, and demands that we pay attention.' -Sarah Nina Hayon

About the Magic Theatre

Since the company's founding in 1967 by John Lion, the Magic Theatre has identified and cultivated writers on the cutting edge of American theatre, serving as a vital center for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard developed and premiered his Pulitzer Prize-winning play and his seminal classics, forever altering the shape of American drama.

The Magic Theatre is now about the last home standing of Regional Theatres committed to the development, creation, and premiere of new plays. The Magic has been in a new age since the appointment of Sean San José as the Lead Director in 2021. With that leadership the dedication has been to make the Magic Theatre a home to more people by rightfully centering People of Color throughout the organization, all the while focusing on invaluable creation and communing around new performances and plays. The Magic Theatre, while continuing to premiere bold and new plays, expanded its vision and programming with creation and inclusion of its now central Resident Companies Program, which includes: Home Company Campo Santo, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience, Play On Shakespeare, Rainbow Zebra Productions, as well as the home for the legendary Saint John Coltrane Church; and Resident Artists: Playwright In Residence Star Finch, Resident Curator Juan Amador, and others. In the past five years, the Magic Theatre has aesthetically shifted the whole space in ethos and activation of the spaces (lobby, cathedral, and theatres), including multiple new wall sized murals by local amazing artists Mister Bouncer (Miguel Perez), and Cece Carpio from the Trust Your Struggle collective, Adrian Arias, Ka'Halla, and a space filled with legendary Black art from the Saint John Coltrane Church by Emory Douglas, Mark Roman, and Deacon Mark Doox. The space has been open year-round for engagement and entertainment, arts and activation from the plays to the people.