Margo Hall News

This morning, Berkeley Rep's Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer announced the return of The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Thirteen projects from 29 talented artists across the Bay Area have been selected for its Summer Residency Lab.

This change in organization leadership follows an announcement last month that Brad Erickson would be leaving the executive director position. Erickson is set to depart at the end of the calendar year after 18 years of service.

Magic Theatre announced today that the Company will host its 2021 Gala THE NEW AGE OF MAGIC: CELEBRATING NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SEAN SAN JOSÉ in-person outside The Firehouse at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Magic Theatre announced today that the Company will host its 2021 Gala THE NEW AGE OF MAGIC: CELEBRATING NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SEAN SAN JOSÉ in-person outside The Firehouse at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123) on Thursday, August 5, 2021 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Magic Theatre announced today that the Company will host its 2021 Gala THE NEW AGE OF MAGIC: CELEBRATING NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR SEAN SAN JOSÉ in-person outside The Firehouse at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123) on Thursday, August 5, 2021 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. 

Black artists face unique challenges in their careers on a daily basis. Every other Thursday, join San Diego REP’s Development Coordinator and local radio personality Ahmed Dents as he has a conversation with influential Black artists about what they have faced and how the future must change.

Magic Theatre has announced that Sean San José will be the company’s next Artistic Director, succeeding Loretta Greco in the post. San José will begin working with Magic Theatre in June 2021 on a part-time basis, transitioning to full-time in August 2021.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation announced today the inaugural recipients of The Rainin Fellowship, a new initiative to support visionary artists working across disciplines in the Bay Area.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation announced today the inaugural recipients of The Rainin Fellowship, a new initiative to support visionary artists working across disciplines in the Bay Area. Administered by United States Artists, the Fellowship has awarded four artists with unrestricted grants of $100,000.

Less than two weeks remain to stream Erika Dickerson-Despenza's [hieroglyph], co-produced by San Francisco Playhouse  and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.

BWW Review: [HIEROGLYPH] at SF Playhouse

[hieroglyph] traverses the intersection of environmental racism, sexual violence, and displacement, examining the psychological effects of a state-sanctioned man-made disaster on the most vulnerable members of the Katrina diaspora. This work is part of award-winning playwright Dickerson-Despenza’s planned 10-play Katrina Cycle of plays focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina in and beyond New Orleans.

When Lorraine Hansberry Theatre announced last September that Bay Area theatre luminary Margo Hall had been appointed as its first female Artistic Director, it felt like a promise of good things to come. Six months later, the venerable company is back up and running full steam ahead with its first staged production since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], available to stream on-demand March 13th through April 3rd. Hall directed this as a co-production with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s long-time collaborator San Francisco Playhouse, and would seem to be the perfect director to bring it to life. Dickerson-Despenza is a Tow Playwright-in-Residence at New York’s Public Theater who centers her writings on Black women’s land legacies and distinct experiences of environmental racism. Telling the raw, honest story of a 13-year-old girl struggling Post-Hurricane Katrina, wrestling with being displaced to a new city while secretly coping with the PTSD of an assault at the Superdome, [hieroglyph] is part of Dickerson-Despenza’s 10-play Katrina cycle focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned, man-made disaster rippling in & beyond New Orleans. Hall describes the play as “tragically beautiful.” Patrons may support the organization of their choice by purchasing tickets from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at lhtsf.org or from San Francisco Playhouse at sfplayhouse.org. BroadwayWorld spoke with Hall last week, just as she was preparing to meet her cast in person for the first time after weeks of Zoom rehearsals. Speaking to her, I got the distinct impression of someone who is exactly where she needs to be right now. This may be her first stint as an artistic director, but in so many ways she has been preparing for this role her entire life. Her decades of experience as an actor, director, playwright, professor and activist all coalesce to serve her in her new role. We talked about her hopes to expand Hansberry’s purview, the need to create culturally-specific theatre, and the exigencies of producing theatre and TV (she is also acting in the new “Blindspotting” series!) during Covid times. Throughout our conversation, I was struck by the sheer joy she exudes for making theatre and for finding herself in a place where she can create new opportunities for Black theatre artists.

[hieroglyph] will be fully produced and filmed on stage at San Francisco Playhouse, presented as an on-demand video stream from March 13th through April 3rd, 2021.

Today (January 15) in live streaming: Adam Pascal in concert, Blue Ridge ​by Abby Rosebrock, and more!

Theatre Bay Area (TBA), the San Francisco Bay Area's theatre arts service organization, voted two new members onto its board of directors—Brenda Wong Aoki and Dawn Monique Williams. Both Aoki and Williams are originally from the Bay Area and are recognized nationally for their respective work.

Aurora Theatre Company has announced the company’s newest Originate + Generate (O+G) commission, Bay Area playwright Cleavon Smith (The Flats). Smith has been commissioned to create a new play specifically for Aurora. The working title of the piece is MORE OFTEN THAN NOT.

Lisa Steindler, the Executive Artistic Director of Z Space, one of the nation's leading laboratories for the development of new work and the organization she has led since 2007, has announced that she will step down from her role in April 2021.  

Theatre Bay Area (TBA), the San Francisco Bay Area's theatre arts service organization, voted two new members onto its board of directors—Armando Fox and Anne Younan.

San Francisco Playhouse announced a re-imagining of its 2020/21 Season, re-focusing their programming on digital formats to serve their community through the coronavirus pandemic.