A MURDER OF CROWS Comes to the Cutting Ball Theater, 3/8

The Cutting Ball Theater's Hidden Classics Reading Series continues with A MURDER OF CROWS by Obie-winning playwright Mac Wellman, on March 8, 2015.

Set in America's Heartland in the wake of the Gulf War, A MURDER OF CROWS satirizes a family struck down by the toxic winds of pollution. Susannah reels from the death of her father, killed under a pile of radioactive chicken droppings. With her brother slowly turning into a statue in the garden and fed up with the rest of her greedy family, Susannah finally follows her dead father's advice and leaves to live with the crows. Exploring consumerism, post-traumatic stress disorder, patriotism, and the human condition, this scathing, apocalyptic comedy pinpoints the poisons in everyday life, mocking our hypocrisy about true and false heroics. Rem Myers directs.

This season, Cutting Ball's Hidden Classics Reading Series celebrates a variety of works ranging from the ancient Greeks, the Spanish Golden Age, Expressionism, Postmodernism, and contemporary satire. The series offers a profound look at some of the most adventurous authors to write for the stage in a program that continues to be one of San Francisco's best-kept secrets.

Co-founded in 1999 by theater artists Rob Melrose and Paige Rogers, Cutting Ball Theater presents avant-garde works of the past, present, and future by re-envisioning classics, exploring seminal avant-garde texts, and developing new experimental plays. The company has commissioned, developed, and produced new experimental plays, and has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, and the Magic Theatre/Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. In addition to producing West Coast Premieres and re-imaging various classics, Cutting Ball Theater has produced nine World Premieres and seven World Premiere translations. Cutting Ball received the 2008 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie award for outstanding talent in the performing arts, and was voted "Best Theater Company" in the 2010 San Francisco Bay Guardian Best of the Bay issue. The company also earned the Best of SF award in 2006 and "Best Experimental Theater Company" in 2012 from SF Weekly, and was selected by San Francisco magazine as Best Classic Theater in 2007. Cutting Ball Theater was featured in the February 2010, 2012, and December 2014 issues of American Theatre Magazine. In 2012, Cutting Ball was awarded a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a three-year residency for resident playwright Andrew Saito. The American Theatre Wing, best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, awarded the company with a 2013 National Theatre Company grant. CuttingBall was also featured in the February 2015 issue of American Theatre Magazine.

The reading will take place on Sunday, March 8 at 1pm at The Cutting Ball Theater in Residence at EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor St., San Francisco. Readings free and open to the public. For more information, visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205.