Cutting Ball Theater Extends KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT Through 6/23

Cutting Ball Theater announces that it will add an additional four performances of its current World Premiere ofKRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT, San Francisco playwright Andrew Saito's poetic portrayal of the heart of the city. Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose directs KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT, featuring Felicia Benefield, Wiley Namen Strasser, David Sinaiko, Marjorie Crump-Shears, Mimu Tsuimara, Maura Halloran, Caleb Caberera, and Drew Wolfe. KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT plays now through June 23 (added performances: Thursday, June 20, 7:30pm; Friday, June 21, 8pm; Saturday, June 22, 8pm; Sunday, June 23, 5pm) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205.

KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT dazzles with sublime, surreal language and images fit for a Dalí painting in a play about love and longing in the neglected neighborhoods of a fictional city. At the center is Scarlett, a woman who takes care of her grandmother by pulling wild animals out of her ears and letting them loose in her backyard menagerie. She makes her living as best she can off of the dreams and desires of married men who are willing to sacrifice everything for her. Drumhead, a lowly morgue worker with a wild imagination, comes across a carnival poster boasting of the wonders of Scarlett and can't get her out of his head. He too has a relative to care for: his Navy veteran father, who lost his legs in a war and spends his days reenacting great battles in the bathtub. KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT follows these seeming misfits on their journey to find each other.

About KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT, Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Andrew Saito's metaphor-packed language soars... 'Krispy' is a flight of fancy." Adam Brinklow from Edge SF and San Francisco magazine noted "if you want a show worth taking a chance on, this is the one that'll send you home feeling like you really saw something," and Jean Schiffman at the San Francisco Examiner called the production "surreal...funny...[playwright Andrew] Saito's language is lush and lyrical."

KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT was workshopped during Cutting Ball's 2011 RISK IS THIS...festival. Additionally, the company was recently awarded a grant for $166,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a three-year residency for resident playwright Andrew Saito. As part of Saito's residency, Cutting Ball Theater is able to present the World Premiere of KRISPY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT. The grant will give Saito a full time salary and health benefits at Cutting Ball for the entire three years, with options to receive additional developmental funds. The grant is Cutting Ball's largest grant to date.

"Andrew Saito's writing is some of the most evocative, innovative writing we have come across in our 13-year history," said Cutting Ball Artistic Director, and director of KRISTY KRITTERS IN THE SCARLETT NIGHT, Rob Melrose. "What interests me most about Andrew is his wild imagination and his deep commitment to community and social justice. Andrew is influenced by Suzan-Lori Parks, Marcus Gardley, and Will Eno; all playwrights Cutting Ball has produced and whom Andrew first experienced at our theater early in his career. He is deeply versed in the history of the avant garde and one of the most exciting experimental playwrights writing today. I am really looking forward to working with him and dreaming with him about what it means to be an excellent, forward-thinking theater in this day and age."

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. Cutting Ball Theater has partnered with Playwrights Foundation, and the Magic Theatre/Z Space New Plays Initiative to commission new experimental works. The company has produced a number of World Premieres, West Coast Premieres, and re-imagined various classics. 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 and 2012 issues of American TheatreMagazine.

The Performing Arts program at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seeks to support institutions that contribute to the development and preservation of their art form, provide creative leadership in solving problems or addressing issues unique to the field, and which present the highest level of institutional performance. The Foundation's grantmaking philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, developing thoughtful, long-term collaborations with grant recipients and investing sufficient funds for an extended period to accomplish and achieve meaningful results.

Photo by Rob Melrose

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