Joan Baez Joins the Cast of Vau de Vire Society's THE SOILED DOVE
Performances will run from September 5-November 1.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jul. 23, 2025
Returning for the first time since 2019, the iconic Big Top will rise again on the water's edge of Alameda Point with the San Francisco skyline as the backdrop... ushering in a new chapter for Vau de Vire Society’s immersive, circus-infused dinner-theater experience, The Soiled Dove, performing Friday, September 5 through Saturday, November 1, 2025 (Friday and Saturday night performances only).
Long celebrated as a staple of San Francisco’s subculture performance-arts scene, and the creative force behind legacy events like The Edwardian Ball, Revive (Los Angeles), New Bohemia NYE and 20 years of San Francisco‘s most outrageous nightlife events and nation-wide festival productions, Vau de Vire Society now returns with its most ambitious chapter yet as a symbol of revival and rejuvenation.
Vau de Vire Director and Choreographer Mike and Shannon Gaines team up with Guest Director Stefan Haves (Cirque du Soleil, Teatro Zinzanni) and all-star cast of 30+ circus and variety performers, dancers, and musicians to transport us back to a notorious bygone era in The Bay. Set in 1890’s, Barbary Coast, The Soiled Dove takes us on a rambunctious and titillating journey through danger, desire and ultimately liberation…told through aerial acts, live music, decadent cuisine, and hauntingly beautiful theatrics.
Attendees will enjoy a dinner curated by Work of Art Catering, immersive character interactions, and a fully realized world inside the 12,000-square-foot Big Top, handcrafted by famed Italian designer Scola Teloni. The Big Top will be showcased at Radium Runway, an emerging waterfront entertainment park that adds to the magic of being just beyond the margins. Radium Presents, a planned performing arts center that will be a vibrant location for creatives, just across the water from San Francisco’s shore. Accessible by a beautiful ride on the Alameda Seaplane Ferry, Radium Runway and Vau de Vire have now begun activating the land with events celebrating art and performance.
Bringing her legacy of performance to The Soiled Dove stage, legendary singer, activist, author, and cultural icon Joan Baez joins the cast in the role of ‘Paloma Blanca.’ Baez has endured as a musical force of nature for over six decades, with an unwavering commitment to social activism and the arts. Her classic early 1960s folk recordings included songs that shined a light on injustice and formed the soundtrack to her role in human rights and anti-war struggles.
Since the conclusion of her “Fare Thee Well” tour in 2019, which marked the end of her active touring career, Baez has been busier than ever. Her ongoing series of “Mischief Makers” paintings continues to immortalize risk-taking visionaries like herself who have helped bring about social change with subjects of her portraits ranging from Dr. Martin Luther King to Patti Smith. The long-awaited 2023 documentary film Joan Baez: I Am A Noise has won overwhelming critical acclaim.
2023 also saw the publication of Joan’s highly praised book, Am I Pretty When I Fly?: An Album of Upside Down Drawings and her first book of poetry, When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance, an intimate, autobiographical collection was released in 2024.
San Francisco / Bay Area Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
1.
URINETOWN (Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble)
16.9% of votes
2.
THE DAY THE SKY TURNED ORANGE (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company / Z Space)
9.1% of votes
3.
SWEENEY TODD (Cabrillo Stage)
8.6% of votes
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