Raelle Myrick-Hodges News

After a summer of preparation, Brava gets ready to open its much anticipated 2009-2010 season. The second season under the new Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges looks like Brava has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

Good theatre should be like good food, the more you know about where it came from and how it was made, the better it tastes.

After a summer of preparation, Brava gets ready to open its much anticipated 2009-2010 season. The second season under the new Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges looks like Brava has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

On October 18, 2009, Brava joins the week long celebration of the 100 year anniversary of Futurism with SFMOMA, Italian Cultural Institute, UC Berkeley, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and The San Francisco Center for the Book.

Thirteen theatres (13) theatres and ten (10) individuals have been selected to participate in the ninth round of the New Generations Program, a grant initiative cooperatively designed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG). In nine rounds of the program, over $12.5 million in grants have been awarded to over 200 theatres in support of three grant objectives.

Brava! for Women in the Arts celebrates the completion of its first theatrical season under the new direction of Artistic Director, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, with a special end of the year event. ?Seven plays in Seven months. We have plenty to celebrate,? says Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges,? We went from producing one production every few years to seven productions this season alone. We hired over 175 local actors, directors and production artists and I believe we have a ton to be proud of ? particularly during this economic climate.? Brava?s 2008-2009 season was a surprise, with two World Premieres, three Regional Premieres, and an extension of its education program with two Main Stage productions. The company also presented series of special events including a musical performance Trios Los Panchos, an Evening with L Word?s creator Ilene Chaiken and Martin Luther King celebration the night before the first African American president of the United States was inaugurated.

Brava! for Women in the Arts continues their ambitious 2008-09 'Shout Out Loud' theatrical season with their second world premiere of a local playwright's work. On April 30, Brava will be presenting Molly Rhodes' For All The Babies' Fathers, directed by Jessica Heidt.

Brava! for Women in the Arts presents the World Premiere production of Over the Mountain written by local playwright Brian Thorstenson. Over the Mountain has a full Bay Area artists design staff including original music composition and music performed by Meklit Hadero, lighting design by Derek Duarte, set by Jerold Enos with Brava's Raelle Myrick-Hodges directing. Set in a fictitious town, the narrative begins when a female poet is detained by her local government for inappropriate creative propaganda.

Brava! for Women in the Arts continues their ambitious 2008-09 'Shout Out Loud' theatrical season with their second world premiere of a local playwright's work. On April 30, Brava will be presenting Molly Rhodes' For All The Babies' Fathers, directed by Jessica Heidt.

Brava! for Women in the Arts presents the World Premiere production of Over the Mountain written by local playwright Brian Thorstenson. Over the Mountain has a full Bay Area artists design staff including original music composition and music performed by Meklit Hadero, lighting design by Derek Duarte, set by Jerold Enos with Brava's Raelle Myrick-Hodges directing. Set in a fictitious town, the narrative begins when a female poet is detained by her local government for inappropriate creative propaganda.

Brava continues its celebration of Women's History Month with an exceptional month of programming. After closing Penny Arcade?s infamous sex and censorship show, Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!, Brava is opening Machinal this week, directed by Evren Odcikin and written by Sophie Treadwell, one of the most prominent women playwrights of the 20th century. Then on March 20th, Brava will be hosting ?An Evening with Ilene Chaiken,? producer and creator of the L-Word, one of the most popular television shows about women.

Brava celebrates Women's History Month with an exceptional month of programming. Opening this week is 'Machinal' by Sophie Treadwell. Sophie Treadwell is one of the most prominent women playwrights of the 20th century. And then on March 20th, Brava will be hosting An Evening with Ilene Chaiken, producer and creator of the L-Word, one of the most popular television shows about women.

Brava celebrates Women's History Month with an exceptional Month of programming including the infamous Penny Arcade in 'Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!'; 'Machinal' by Sophie Treadwell, one of the most prominent women playwrights of the 20th century; and a conversation with Ilene Chaiken, creator of the 'L-Word'.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater announces the extension of the company's current production of Mar?a Irene Forn?s's poetic and penetrating MUD. MUD will extend for an additional week of performance, playing now through February 15 at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-30) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006. It is 1973 and Mae has just begun to learn how to read; things finally seem to be taking a turn for the better. As she tries to rise above her humble Midwestern origins, Mae must keep the two men in her life, foster brother and former lover Lloyd, and new boyfriend Henry, from dragging her back down. Little does Mae know that the first strong decision she's ever made about her life may be the last decision she will ever make. 'After spending two weeks at the Dialog Festival in Wroclaw, Poland last year, I came back to San Francisco with a new idea about what really good and interesting theater ought to be,' said MUD director Paige Rogers. 'The sense of humanness I experienced, where the audience breathes along with the performance, is such an elemental aspect of theater and something I feel Cutting Ball can give its audience in its new performance space. I am directing Fornes' MUD with this idea, that less is more, and I believe that each audience member will take away something personal and different that will stay with them for a long time.'

Brava! for Women in the Arts continues their ambitious 2008-09 'Shout Out Loud' theatrical season as they celebrate women's month by exploring the complexity and humor of women through multiple productions in the month of March ranging from Penny Arcade's sex and censorship show Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! to Sophie Treadwell's Machinal to an Evening with Eileen Chaiken, creator of televisions's L Word.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1).

Brava is proud to present Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! (B!D!F!W!) as its first main stage production of its 2008-2009 season. After touring 22 cities around the world, Brava is excited to bring this groundbreaking work to San Francisco audiences. 'In a town that is so progressive, I was surprised that this show still hadn't made it to San Francisco so when I was creating my first season as the Artistic Director at Brava, I made sure that it was scheduled in this season,' says Raelle Myrick-Hodges, the Artistic Director at Brava. In 1990, during the Senator Helms' National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Censorship Crisis, performance artist Penny Arcade submitted her Sex and Censorship Show, B!D!F!W! as her NEA Fellowship audit. Although B!D!F!W!, which is a blend of political humanism and erotic dancing, was not awarded a fellowship, it did go on to play for an unprecedented year Off-Broadway in New York as an underground hit and then went on the road and became a commercial mainstream hit play in 22 cities around the world, turning the political correctness of the theatre world upside down, and heralding the zeitgeist as B!D!F!W! proved that content and sensationalism cannot co-exist. Irish grandmothers, to people of all ages, from all walks of life joined Penny Arcade and her cast of erotic dancers on stage for the audience dance break at the center of the performance. B!D!F!W! went on to establish erotic dance as a feminist art form and the comedic cultural criticism broke down the separation and isolation between people of diverse racial, ethnic, sexual and economic groups and left an international Neo Burlesque Movement in its wake.

San Francisco's cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater announces the extension of the company's current production of Mar?a Irene Forn?s's poetic and penetrating MUD. MUD will extend for an additional week of performance, playing now through February 15 at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-30) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006. It is 1973 and Mae has just begun to learn how to read; things finally seem to be taking a turn for the better. As she tries to rise above her humble Midwestern origins, Mae must keep the two men in her life, foster brother and former lover Lloyd, and new boyfriend Henry, from dragging her back down. Little does Mae know that the first strong decision she's ever made about her life may be the last decision she will ever make. 'After spending two weeks at the Dialog Festival in Wroclaw, Poland last year, I came back to San Francisco with a new idea about what really good and interesting theater ought to be,' said MUD director Paige Rogers. 'The sense of humanness I experienced, where the audience breathes along with the performance, is such an elemental aspect of theater and something I feel Cutting Ball can give its audience in its new performance space. I am directing Fornes' MUD with this idea, that less is more, and I believe that each audience member will take away something personal and different that will stay with them for a long time.'

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle ; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1). Each GAP reading will be followed by an audience discussion of the contemporary issues raised in each work. Additionally, the company announces that it has received a $20,000 grant from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation to support the Global Age Project. For information on GAP events (free and open to the public) an d Betrayed, the public may call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1).