SATYRICON to Make World Premiere at SF Eagle Bar This Summer

Based on the 1st century text by Gaius Petronius (in a translation by W.C. Firebaugh), SATYRICON is a new take on a tale as old as the aqueducts. Scribed by local playwright Stuart Bousel, Directed by Andrew Calabrese, it is the first fully produced show by the Eagle Players, a new play development group working out of San Francisco's historic Eagle Bar, a cornerstone of the SOMA LGBTQ and Leather communities.

A romantic comedy set in a crumbling empire, SATYRICON follows the adventures of Encolpius (Jake Gleason) and Ascyltos (Jordan Ong), two “young-ish, handsom-ish, rich-ish” Romans whose long-term relationship comes under scrutiny when they find themselves entangled with Giton (Raymond Harris), a sexually voracious small-time hustler who is himself in love with Tryphaena (Willow Hour), a Roman matron married to Lychas (David Hyman). A night of drinking and slumming through the taverns of Rome soon sends the reluctant lovers on an unexpected odyssey complete with angry gods, shipwrecks, and of course: sex witches. Also featuring Carl Lucania and Edna Raia, the show is a philo-sensual absurdist search for meaning in a world of distractions where nothing seems to matter anymore, lust drives everyone, and whimsical fortune reigns.

Developed especially for the Eagle's multi-stage performance venue, the show plays August 4, 5, 11 and 12 at 7 PM. Tickets are $20 online if bought before July 4th, $35 after or at the door.

Stage managed by Linda Huang, SATYRICON also features the creative talents of Cornelius Green on lights, Manny Santos on costumes, and Larry Tasse on Sound Design.

Stuart Bousel is a playwright, poet, director, actor, and journalist who has been working in the Bay Area since 2002. He's been adapting the classics ever since he made his directing debut with a Tucson production of LYSISTRATA back in 1997 and has wanted to bring his own spin to the SATYRICON ever since he read it on a flight to New Zealand in 2006. Most recently he staged THE TEMPEST at the Point Montara Lighthouse and is currently a company member of Berkeley Shakespeare, but is probably best known as the founder and artistic director of The SF Olympians Festival, an annual new works event that commissioned hundreds of original plays from 2010-2019. This is his second major collaboration with Andrew Calabrese, who directed Bousel's adaptation of A ROOM WITH A VIEW for Actors' Ensemble of Berkeley in 2023. 

Andrew Calabrese moved to San Francisco in 1998 to be part of the thriving performance art scene of the time. Early projects were Thrush TV, a cable access program, and Hardcore Thrush productions, a group that performed drag and queer parodies in various Mission venues. He became one-half of the performance troupe Shandyland, and has been seen onstage in many local  productions by Theatre Rhino, Custom Made Theatre, Exit Theatre, Breadbox, Second Wind, New Conservatory, Impact, the Olympians Festival, Shotgun Players, and more. When in-person theatre halted during the pandemic, he co-created and produced the popular Cooking, Stage Left! series on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

In 2022 he responded to a (seemingly) random Facebook post from the owner of San Francisco's Eagle Bar asking if anyone wanted to “start an experimental theatre group” at the bar. A couple of weeks later Andrew and Alejandro (Lex) Montiel sat down and Eagle Players was created.

“I said to Lex at that meeting that I didn't really have the desire to have my own theatre company…like, I had no great vision for shows I wanted to produce or direct or write or anything! But if he wanted me to open it up and see what the folx wanted to do, I could start a community theatre based right here in SOMA's leather and LGBTQ district.”

Within Eagle Players, ScripTease was formed to help local playwrights develop work by holding monthly readings. SATYRICON is the first full production to come from this process.