Today, Bay Area playwright collective 6NewPlays announced that tickets are now on sale for CHAMPAGNE, a play by Bay Area playwright Barry Eitel (The Ice Cream Sandwich Incident, The Speakeasy), performing at the Randall Museum (199 Museum Way, San Francisco 94114) June 21 - July 15, 2018. As the penultimate production by 6NewPlays, CHAMPAGNE is a surreal trip through a party at a Pacific Heights for a new social media start-up. Through a haze of ego and booze, the company and its founders are crucified by a collection of mistakes, from selling off user data to murdering fellow executives. Tickets are $20 and are available at brownpapertickets.com.
CHAMPAGNE explores how the culture and trends of Silicon Valley have resounding consequences beyond the Bay Area. Operatic in tone, CHAMPAGNE brings in elements of modern dance, found sound composition and video projections. The play examines the high-mindedness of Silicon Valley's thought leadership, as well as how the entrepreneurial visions of 'changing the world' clash with the realities of capitalism. With a plotline that echoes real current events, CHAMPAGNE hinges on social media start-up that is in the throes of selling its users data to morally unsound advertisers, dealing with corrupt funders linked to violent extremists on the other side of the world, and the repercussions of an unearthed memo that questions the ability of women to work in tech.
Says Eitel, "As a Silicon Valley correspondent for an international news outlet, I have transmuted my experience in the world of tech industry deals, culture and dreamers into this work. CHAMPAGNE explores how the drive to build personal brands on social media compares to the drive to build atomic bombs."
Under the direction of LeeAnn Dowd, the creative team for CHAMPAGNE includes Natalie Barshow (costume design),
James Goode (sound designer and composer), Bernadette Flynn (set design), Maxx Kurzunksi (lighting design), and Bridgette Loriaux (choreography).
After a recent $9 million renovation, the
Randall Museum-a one-of-a-kind art and science education center-reopened to the public in February 2018. The Randall Museum is a facility of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
Barry Eitel is a San Francisco playwright and a recipient of the 2016 TITAN Award for playwrights from Theater Bay Area. His play The Ice Cream Sandwich Incident was produced by FaultLine Theatre at PianoFight in August, 2016 and considered the "Best New Work" of 2016 by Theatre Arts Daily. His immersive jazz musical The Cool, produced by Watt/Dobson Productions, had a sold-out run at Amado's in San Francisco in 2017. He is the original Head Writer for Boxcar Theatre's The Speakeasy, leading a team of nine to create a breathing novel set in a Prohibition-era speakeasy. His short plays have been produced by Shotz, SF Theatre Pub, Arabian Shakespeare Company and Pan Theatre. His play Lemons was produced by the Emerging Artists Lab at San Jose Rep. Published by Smith & Kraus, Barry is a founding member of 6NewPlays, a Bay Area playwright collective, and is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago.
www.BarryEitel.com
The Bay Area playwright collective
6NewPlays work to help solidify the Bay Area theater scene as a hotbed of innovation and creativity. As each playwright becomes the producer of their own play, the group hinges on productions that may be considered risky or unconventional in structure. Members include Erin Bregman (That It All Makes Perfect, 2017), Eugenie Chan (Madame Ho, 2017),
Christopher Chen (Home Invasion, 2016), Andrea Hart (dark is a different beast, 2016) and Brian Thorstenson (Wakefield, 2018).
