San Francisco International Arts Festival Announces Lineup

SFIAF 2017 has announced its performance listings. The full Festival lineup with project descriptions is as follows (projects listed chronologically by discipline: dance, music, theatre/ performance art). An online calendar is available here.

Dance

Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose (USA), Sanchaari - Elaboration
Friday May 26, 8:00pm, Cowell Theater (Festival Family Program)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 90 min. without intermission
The traditional framework of the 2000 year old classical Bharatanatyam dance has engendered many interpretations through its renaissance period of the early 20th century to the present time. This concert Sanchaari - Elaboration presents Abhinaya Dance Company's creative expression of the ancient classical dance technique.

STEAMROLLER Dance Company (USA), Siamese Dream (1997)
Thursday May 25 8:00pm, Saturday May 27 7:30pm, Sunday May 28 3:30pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration 60 minutes without intermission.
Siamese Dream takes the classic Hollywood musical The King and I and the physicality of Hong Kong kung fu movies to create a fantasia of Asian Americana. Awash in the movement are such things as the music of Riyuchi Sakamoto and soundtracks from Hong Kong action flicks. Siamese Dream examines notions and media impinging on Asian American identity.

Alma Esperanza Cunningham Movement (USA),
She Went/Between Mars and Jupiter (World Premiere)
Friday May 26 7:00pm, Saturday May 27 2:00pm, Sunday May 28 5:30pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission.
She Went/Between Mars and Jupiter is an experimental performance installation shaped by the singular experience of being female; a compilation of movement essays that investigate art history, fashion and personal narrative to reframe and transform how we experience the female body in performance.

Joe Landini (USA), sanctuary (IT WILL BE LOUD) (World premiere)
Friday May 26 9:30pm, Saturday May 27 9:30pm, Sunday May 28 8:30pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 40 mins. without intermission.
(IT WILL BE LOUD) is a new performance installation incorporating elements of physical theatre and contemporary dance choreographed by Landini. (IT WILL BE LOUD) also features live performances by percussionist Joe Rayhbuck, videographer Mark McBeth and a cast of eight dancer/collaborators.

AguaClara Flamenco (USA), Agua de Mayo
Friday May 26, 9:30pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating. Duration: 90 mins. plus intermission
AguaClara Flamenco presents Agua de Mayo in a celebration of the improvisatory spirit of flamenco performance, with a refreshing splash of the unexpected. Led by Oakland, CA-based artistic director Clara Rodriguez, both international and local flamenco artists collaborate in a production where the waters of spring merge with tradition, reviving and deepening their connection.

Tango Con*Fusion (USA), Sex, Women and Tango (World Premiere)
Friday May 26 9:30pm, Saturday May 27 7:00pm, Sunday May 28 5:00pm. Southside Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 75-90 mins. without intermission.
When people think about Argentine Tango, it can immediately conjure up the pervasive iconic image of the macho-male and hyper-feminine woman as a classic standard of the form. Yet many feminists dance Tango socially and professionally. How can this be reconciled? Sex, Women & Tango challenges this outdated image to portray today's broad expression of gender roles in this dance genre.

Amy Lewis / Push Up Something Hidden (USA), 16 Electras (World Premiere)
Saturday May 27, Saturday June 3, 2:00pm Black Battery Point.
Tickets: ADMISSION FREE. Duration: 30 minutes without intermission
Amy Lewis presents 16 Electras, an embodiment of sixteen versions of the Electra myth. As the dancers move down the Black Point Battery trail, the myth of Electra is told through song lyrics. The lyrics, written by Lewis, are set to original music composed by Agnes Szelag.

Vishwa Shanthi Performing Arts (USA), Once upon a land...Stories from Magical India
Saturday May 27, 3:15pm, Cowell Theater (Festival Family Program)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 90 mins. without intermission
A dance performance filled with peacocks, snakes, demons and gods re-telling epic stories from ancient India. Demigods and demons are in constant competition for supremacy over the three worlds. The ensuing drama, obstacles, deceit, conflicts, and flirtatious romances unfold in magical tales filled with a cornucopia of Indian mythological characters.

burnsWork (USA), Opero Cado ­(World Premiere)
Saturday May 27 5:00pm, Sunday May 28 2:00pm, Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission
Opero Cado will jettison the audience into the outer limits of improvisational/real-time dance and music creation. The name comes from Latin, opero (v. to labor) and cado (v. to fall). ChristIan Burns and his collaborators offer the audience a blueprint of 'free-fall and labor' to uncover relief, joy and meaning.

Eve Mutso (Estonia), Unknown (2016, US Premiere)
Saturday May 27 8:00pm, Sunday May 28 2:00pm, Cowell Theater (shared bill with Alyce Finwall Dance Theater and Levy Dance Company)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration 60 minutes
Eve Mutso is a former Principal Dancer with Scottish Ballet. Unknown explores the theme of creativity, uncertainty and the inescapable part that taking risk and accepting the possibility of failure has in life.

Alyce Finwall Dance Theater (USA), Almost Human (excerpt)
Saturday May 27 8:00pm, Sunday May 28 2:00pm, Cowell Theater (shared bill with Eve Mutso and Levy Dance Company)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration 60 minutes
Alyce Finwall's signature dance making styles can be athletic, sensuous and often surreal. Her work addresses contemporary culture as well as the richness and turbulence of interior lives through exuberant movement and meticulously crafted choreography. Almost Human will be created in collaboration with dancers Cooper Neely, Isabel Rosenstock, Katie Meyers and Khala Brannigan.

LEVYdance (USA), Pull Me Closer (World Premiere)
Saturday May 27 8:00pm, Sunday May 28 2:00pm, Cowell Theater (shared bill with Eve Mutso and Alyce Finwall Dance Theater)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration 60 minutes
Pull Me Closer is a follow up to Levydance's performative interactive installation Comfort Zone created for the Exploratorium in 2013 (that later toured to Beijing). This new creation by LEVYdance will explore how the vibrations and pulses our bodies create can both pull us apart and draw us closer to each other in a public space. Acting as a sequence of solos, duets and trios, the 20-minute piece will transform the bodies of the dancers into moving energies, abstracting movement to draw geometrical lines and shapes in space that reflect the dynamic of our social interactivity.

Aswan Dancers with the Caravan Band and Joweh Dance Troupe (USA),
The Magic Carpet (Festival Family Program)
Sunday May 28 3:00pm, Gallery 308.
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating. Duration: 90 mins. without intermission
The Magic Carpet is a Middle Eastern Dance and Musical Adventure. The musical carpet will transport you to various countries across the deserts of North Africa, through Egypt, the Middle East and onto the Saudi Arabian Peninsula.

SAFEhouse for the Arts (USA), Summer Performance Festival Showcase (Preview)
Sunday May 28 7:00pm, Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 70 mins. without intermission
A SAFEhouse for the Arts' performance showcase featuring contemporary and post modern dance works by Bay Area based choreographer including Bay Area Dance Collective, Marika Brussel, The Fyber Vision, Chlo & Co Dance, Alyssa Mitchel, Itoro Udofia, The Riley Project, Sienna Williams & Diana Kalaji and Amy + Hannah Wasielewski.

Erica Essner Performance Co-Op (USA), 3 Marks of Existence (2016, West Coast Premiere)
Wednesday May 31 8:00pm, Friday June 2 9:30pm, Saturday June 3, 3:00pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Shared bill with Sarah Bush Dance Project.
Duration: 60 mins. without intermission
Erica Essner Performance Co-Op's new work 3 Marks of Existence is a duet that reflects on the Buddhist doctrine that everything is impermanent. This poignant duet reflects on the nature of change and all that we cling to eventually dissolves, and rests in the temporary.

Sarah Bush Dance Project (USA), Rocked by Women (2014)
Wednesday May 31 8:00pm, Friday June 2 9:30pm, Saturday June 3, 3:00pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Shared bill with Erica Essner Performance Co-Op.
Duration: 60 mins. without intermission
From baby steps to coming out, and first crush to lost love, music by women from the past four decades binds the story of many to one and one to many - transforming everyday memories to the history we all share. This work pays tribute to the women who rock us.

Compagnie Tabea Martin (Switzerland), Field (2016, U.S. Premiere)
Thursday June 1 7:30pm Cowell Theater shared bill with Gu Jiani
Saturday June 3 7:30pm, Sunday June 4 4:00pm, Firehouse.
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 55 minutes without intermission
Three bodies. One field. The 100 best love songs. A performance with three people who believe in the strength of being together.

Gu Jiani (Beijing), Right & Left (2014, West Coast Premiere)
Thursday June 1 7:30pm shared bill with Tabea Martin
Saturday June 3, Sunday June 4, Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission
Right & Left is a haunting tribute to symmetry and its dissolution, ominous and beautiful in equal measure. Gu Jiani fuses incredible precision with an arresting mix of projection and light offering a jaw-dropping perspective on our oldest questions: Why do we love, and how do we stop it from destroying who we are?

punkkiCo/Roadmap10 (USA), A Room (Of Our Own), The feminist performance (world premiere)
Thursday June 1 8:30pm, Saturday June 3 9:30pm, Sunday June 4 2:00pm
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 60 minutes without intermission
A Room (Of Our Own) is a live performance that incorporates moving body, film and art. It is a collaboration with choreographer, dance artist Raisa Punkki, filmmaker Pauliina Punkki and light designer Maria Ros Palmklint. Performers include Mihyun Lee, Meegan Hertensteiner, Fanni Miettinen and film character IT.

Myriam Gourfink & Kasper Toeplitz (France), Marine (2001, US Premiere)
Friday June 2 & Sunday June 4 7:00pm, Saturday June 3 5:30pm. Firehouse
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission.
The dance of Myriam Gourfink explores the depths of the body and its secret, innermost perceptions with great precision, through slow micro-movements. For this solo, with original music by Kasper T. Tœplitz, the choreographer mixes three spaces: earth, air and the theatre in a search for the poetry of gesture.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya with Larry Reed's ShadowLight (USA and Bali),
In Visible Light (World Premiere)
Friday June 2, 8:00pm, Saturday June 3 2:00pm. Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration 60 mins. without intermission.
A work for shadow theater, dance, voice, and Balinese gamelan that paints a story of a mythic tyrant whose arrogance poisons the rivers of knowledge, arts and culture, casting the world into chaos. Saraswati, the goddess of arts, language and learning, fights a magnificent battle to restore balance. Featuring Emiko Saraswati Susilo and guest artist I Dewa Putu Berata.

ABADÁ Capoeira San Francisco (USA and Brazil), Spirit of Brazil 17' - Quebrando Fronterias (Breaking New Frontiers) (Festival Family Program)Saturday June 3 5:00pm, Sunday June 4 2:00pm, Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: ninety mins. without intermission
Spirit of Brazil explores music, dance, and capoeira through a fusion of contemporary and traditional expressions. These arts, born out of a resistance to oppression, reminds us of the power of resistance-a message relevant today. Presented by an international cast, the dynamic acrobatic and athletic movements, history and tradition, and heart-thumping rhythms will leave audiences inspired!

Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos (USA), Cafe Flamenco: Fiesta Flamenca
Saturday June 3, 9:30pm Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating
Cafe Flamenco is an experience. It is the expression, emotion and passion of a Romani art form that is rooted in the tradition of improvisation onstage between the finest flamenco artists, in this case the award-winning artists of Caminos Flamencos. Cafe Flamenco is an idea, where an audience surrounds the artists onstage and, as they do in Spain, participate, enjoy and feel the vibrations of flamenco at its best and most interactive.

JJBro (South Korea), Jimmy and Jack (2015, West Coast Premiere, West Coast Debut)
Friday Saturday June 4 9:30pm, Sunday June 4 7:00pm. Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 75 mins. without intermission
(Shared program with Victor Fung Dance and Scarabe)
Jimmy & Jack won the best choreography under unanimous agreement by Seoul Dance Collection in 2014. The piece is dedicated to people who are hidden and afraid of coming forward, simply because they are different from others. It features the unique wit and characteristic philosophy of the two dancers, JUN Heung-ryeol and PYO Sang-man.

Victor Fung Dance (Hong Kong), From the Top (2015, US Premiere, US Debut)
Friday Saturday June 4 9:30pm, Sunday June 4 7:00pm. Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 75 mins. without intermission
(Shared program with JJBro and Scarabe)
From the Top is a witty dance work that explores the power relations between performers and dance makers. Action on stage is juxtaposed with voiceovers and supertitles to reveal the politics between the ever-demanding choreographer and the dancers who continuously attempt to fulfill the choreographer's artistic "vision".

Scarabe (Japan), Sell Our Body (2014, US Premiere, US Debut)
Friday Saturday June 3 9:30pm, Sunday June 4 7:00pm. Cowell Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 75 mins. without intermission
(Shared program with Victor Fung Dance and JJBro)
Kansai based Scarabe (Fujii Izumi, Yukio Miyahara and Mikiko Shinohara) perform their signature work Sell Our Body. The title expresses the artists' intent to present their world view by channeling their full creativity through the body. It is an intimate piece that employs swift development at close range. Sell Our Body evokes the emotions of the audience ...comically, seriously, dreamily, and wholly.

Music

Latin Rhythm Boys (USA), Puerto Rico - History, Art & Culture
Thursday May 25 Doors & Exhibit: 5:00pm, Performances 7:00pm. Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating.
Duration: 90 mins. plus a 15 min intermission.
An arts exhibition and live music concert focusing on Puerto Rico's contribution to salsa and the cultural enrichment of the U.S. Latin Rhythm Boys is a third-generation Puerto Rican band the brainchild of brothers Earl and Henry Miranda Jr. The group has evolved into a powerhouse of high-energy Puerto Rican music that includes salsa as well as their specialty Jíbaro sound.

GuGu Drum Group (Shanghai), (Festival Family Program)
Thursday May 25 8:00pm. Cowell Theater
Tickets $25 General Admission. Duration: 90 mins. with intermission
This award winning and top rated drum group from Shanghai offers a theatrical drum drama depicting historical and culturally significant drum compositions that present profound insight into unity, human evolution, awareness, wisdom, social commitment, and communication through percussive movements.

MO'FONE (USA)
Friday May 26, 7:00pm Chapel (shared bill with The Amber and Sharman Duran Trio)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 30 mins. without intermission
With its surprising and highly combustible line-up of two saxmen and one drummer, MO'FONE has thrilled audiences with some of the funkiest jazz and jazziest funk being played today. Powering its way through inventive high-energy original compositions, MO'FONE explores its unique instrumentation with a relentless adventurousness, creating a huge sound that belies its compact size.

The Amber (USA)
Friday May 26, 7:00pm Chapel (shared bill with MO'FONE and Sharman Duran Trio)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 30 mins. without intermission
The Amber is the California roots collaboration of singer-songwriters Libby Lavella and Ryland Shelton. Known for their complex, modern interpretation of harmony music and bold incorporation of new stylistic elements, they have recorded for Melomania Productions (The Amber EP) and played some of the most exciting venues and festivals for independent music in America.

Sharman Duran Trio (USA)
Friday May 26, 7:00pm Chapel (shared bill with The Amber and MO'FONE)
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 30 mins. without intermission
Sharman Duran is a vocalist/pianist/songwriter comfortable with the musical complexities of jazz. Though rarely the musical style employed as the vehicle for social commentary, Duran has crafted songs that turn a spotlight on the human condition. The result is a product that through good music and intelligent lyrics amuses, enchants, and makes you think.

Pablo Estigarribia (Argentina), Tango for Piano (2015, US Premiere)
Saturday May 27, 6:00pm Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating
Estigarribia presents Tangos for Piano, music from his Gardel prize 2015 award-winning album with a virtuosic twist to the music of Buenos Aires. He brings a fresh approach by combining classical textures and jazz harmonies to the traditional rhythm and structure of Argentine tango.

Voodoo Cabaret World Music (USA), Rise Above Racism
Saturday May 27, 9:00pm. Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General Admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating.
Duration: Two hours without intermission
This installation of the The Voodoo Cabaret celebrates the diversity of music and religious icons of the Diaspora. This evening brings hymns celebrating the Black Madonna, songs of the Underground Railroad and original songs dedicated to the Orishas and Loas of Santeria and Voudou interwoven with spoken word and storytelling.

Gautam Tejas Ganeshan (USA), New Carnatic Music with Gautam Tejas Ganeshan
Sunday May 28 3:00pm. Chapel
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: two hours without intermission
Gautam Tejas Ganeshan's authentic voice breathes new life into an old musical tradition. He has performed widely in the Bay Area since 2004. He is the founder and director of the Sangati Center, a non-profit chamber music concert series that has hosted more than 400 public chamber concerts in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Trio Balkan Strings (Serbia), Fly by Balkan carpet with the guitar family from Belgrade
Sunday May 28, 7:00pm, Chapel Duration: 90 mins. plus intermission (Festival Family Program)
Tickets: $25 General Admission
Trio Balkan Strings will present a fusion of Romani Swing, Classical music, asymmetrical rhythms and original guitar interpretations of world famous standards. The result is Balkan Swing-World Fusion--the perfect choice for lovers of Balkan, jazz, swing, ethno, classical music or guitar music.

Moe! Staiano Ensemble (USA), Away Towards the Light
Sunday May 28, 7:00pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: $20 General Admission. Duration: 40 mins.
Moe! Staiano is a composer/drummer whose large ensembles, Moe! Staiano Ensemble and Moe!kestra!, have performed in Europe and the United States. Moe's composition, Away Towards the Light, is an exploration of tonal interplay and contrasting rhythms for nine electric guitars, bass and drums composed in three movements.

Ancient Future (USA), Guitar - Sitar Jugalbandi
Thursday June 1, 8:00pm Chapel
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 90 mins. plus intermission
This jugalbandi, a classical North Indian musical duet (literally "tied together"), is unusual because Matthew Montfort is a scalloped fretboard guitar pioneer who's studied sitar, and Pandit Habib Khan is "the Jimi Hendrix of the sitar" according to Beirut's L'Orient le Jour. They are accompanied by tabla master Ferhan Qureshi.

KaDao Yin (Taipei), Four Characters (2015, US Premiere, US Debut)
Thursday June 1 8:00pm, Friday June 2 7:00pmGallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating
Duration: Thursday 90 mins. with intermission, Friday two hours with intermission
(Friday shared performance with Edward Schocker's Crossing Ensemble)
Founded by pianist Shih-YAng Lee and saxophonist Klaus Bur, KaDao Yin are key to a burgeoning improvised music movement in Taiwan. Four Characters (the group's first CD) has a double meaning: each piece carries the name of a Chinese proverb and the group itself is a quartet improvising at the junction of Chinese and Western music.

Edward Schocker's Crossing Ensemble (USA), The Crossing
Friday June 2 7:00pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating.
Duration: two hours with intermission.
Shared bill with Shih YAng Lee and KaDao yin
The Crossing is a long-term project lead by Edward Schocker that creates a new form of ecstatic group improvisation through investigating ancient Asian musical genres, such as Japanese Gagaku and Korean shamanist ritual music, with the goal reaching a state of communication with a "spirit" world.

Shih YAng Lee (Taipei), Improvised Solo Piano
Friday June 2 7:00pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating.
Duration: Two hours.
Shared bill with Edward Schocker's Crossing Ensemble
Composer, pianist and improviser Shih YAng Lee, who last appeared at the Festival in 2015 with performances with Horse Dance Theatre and Melody of China, returns to share an experimental concert with some of the Bay Area's finest improvisers and experimental musicians.

Mariah Parker Indo Latin Chamber Jazz Quintet (USA)
Saturday June 3, 6:00pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission
Duration: 60 minutes

According to Latin Beat Magazine, "Parker and friends blend the rhythmic syncopations of Latin jazz music with the entrancing, asymmetrical meters of East Indian rhythms resulting in first-class world music. Intriguing melodies that draw musical inspiration from... Brazil, Cuba, India and Spain make for an uplifting serene yet passionate musical journey..."

ViBO Simfani (USA)
Saturday June 3 6:00pm, The Chapel
Tickets $25 General admission. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission
World music at its best, ViBO Simfani bridges cultures from around the globe by fusing elements of Latin jazz, folk, classical and Brazilian styles such as Bossa Nova and Choro. The end result is romantic, fun and mystical all at once. With the impeccable performance and arrangements of strings, woodwinds, guitar and percussion, ViBO Simfani reinterprets the traditional repertoire with an original sound.

Richard Marriott with I Made Subandi (USA and Bali), VOYAGE (World Premiere)
Saturday June 3 9:30pm, Sunday June 4 2:00pm, Southside Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 70 mins. without intermission
VOYAGE is a ritual music drama, composed by Richard Marriott and Made Subandi, with Pamela Z, Carla Fabrizio and Sarah Willner, utilizing video and interactive electronics. VOYAGE follows the structure of a Balinese ritual called Calonarang, and is about crossing over the boundaries between nations, the crossroads between cultures, and the territory between life and death.

Fanfare Zambaleta (USA)
Sunday June 4 3:00pm, Gallery 308. Duration: 90 mins. with intermission
Tickets: $25 General admission, Reserved table seating $30-$35. (Festival Family Program)
Fanfare Zambaleta is a juggernaut of a band featuring some of the Bay Area's most exciting young players and seasoned veterans. Emulating the great Balkan brass bands of the past and present, they play Romani, Serbian, Macedonian and Greek brass band music with passion and dedication.

Ancient Future (USA), Global Guitar Summit
Sunday June 4, 3:00pm Chapel
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 75 mins. without intermission
The Global Guitar Summit presents three international acoustic guitar virtuosos who will perform solo and ensemble pieces. The summit features American scalloped fretboard guitar and world fusion music pioneer Matthew Montfort, master Italian guitarist and musicologist Giacomo Fiore, and German fingerstyle guitarist extraordinaire Teja Gerken.

Melody of China with Swapan Chaudhuri and the Ali Akbar College of Music (USA), Passages
Sunday June 4, 7:00pm Gallery 308
Tickets: $25 General admission, $30-$35 Reserved Table Seating.
Duration: 75 mins. without intermission.
The joint program will include mixed ensemble improvisation, a new work by Mr. Chaudhuri as well as Chinese and Indian traditional repertoire. The concert will also feature the world premiere of a new piece in the style of Beijing Opera by composer Gang Situ with Melody of China and a guest vocalist.

Voodoo Cabaret World Music (USA), Rise Above Racism
Sunday June 4, 6:00pm. Chapel
Tickets: $25 General Admission. Duration: Two hours without intermisison
This installation of the The Voodoo Cabaret celebrates the diversity of music and religious icons of the Diaspora. This evening brings hymns celebrating the Black Madonna, songs of the Underground Railroad and original songs dedicated to the Orishas and Loas of Santeria and Voudou interwoven with spoken word and storytelling.

Theatre (including Performance Art, Opera, Readings and Prose Based Events)

Embark Gallery (USA), Visions from the Pit (World premiere)
Thursday May 25, 8:00pm, Friday May 26 9:30pm, Saturday May 27 3:15pm The Chapel
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 45-60 mins with a five minute intermission
Visions from the Pit is a reflection on the trope of 'the Doom,' the medieval European painting genre dedicated to depicting the end of days. Repurposing this concept of the end times, Embark presents visions from the pit-vignettes on chaos, the monstrous and the apocalypse.

Stereoptik (France), Dark Circus (2015, US Premiere, US Debut). (Festival Family Program)
Thursday May 25 8:30pm, Friday May 26 7:00pm, Saturday May 27 4:30pm. Southside Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission.
"Come for the show, stay for the woe." A sinister ringmaster invites the inhabitants of a small city to his circus tent where he presides over breathtaking but catastrophic acts! Paper, ink, sand and silhouettes spring into being in the skilled hands of two visual artists who draw and play music live to build a big top universe, their striking creations projected onto a large screen.

Shaping San Francisco (USA), The Hidden Histories of Fort Mason, Black Point and the North Shore (Festival Family Program)
Saturday May 27, Noon, The Chapel (box-office check in only). Tickets: $13 General Admission
A walking tour with historian Chris Carlsson that begins in the shadow of the Fontana Towers at Van Ness and Bay and concludes at the Fort Mason gates. During the excursion participants traverse the grounds of the old military base and discover nearby histories of farms, soldiers, lost lagoons, water flumes and an epic World's Fair.

Museum of Performance & Design (USA), Oedipus, directed by Jamie Lyons (Staged Reading)
Saturday May 27 7:30pm. Chapel
Tickets: $22 General admission. Duration: 90 minutes without intermission.
Oedipus, the iconic anti-hero, fated from birth for tragedy, who blindly continues on, convinced he has managed to outwit fate. Burgess's accessible, dynamic rendition of this tragedy focuses on the contradictions and complexities of Oedipus' downfall and the pain and suffering of those around him.

Brenda Wong Aoki with Shoko Hikage (USA),
Aunt Lily's Garden, 100 Years of Legalized Racism (World Premiere)
Saturday May 27 9:30pm, Sunday May 28 2:00pm, Saturday June 3 7:00pm, Southside Theater
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 70 mins. without intermission
True tales of resilience: A grandfather who built the railroad, a father in the 442nd - his wife in Poston Internment Camp, aunts and uncles in Hiroshima, a gallon of ice cream, a violin and the birth of a movement. Family stories & memoirs woven with archival photographs and historic film clips written & performed by Brenda Wong Aoki with live music by Emmy Award winning composer & contra-bassist Mark Izu featuring koto master Shoko Hikage.

Niloufar Talebi (USA), Abraham in Flames (staged reading)
Wednesday May 31 8:00pm, Gallery 308
Tickets: General admission $25. Duration: 60 mins. without intermission
A staged reading of the libretto for a new opera inspired by the life and writings of the Nobel-prize-nominated Iranian poet, activist, translator, and folklorist Ahmad Shamlou (1925-2000). Audience feedback is sought in conversation with Ms. Talebi following the reading. Abraham in Flames is scheduled to premiere in 2018 and will be presented at the Festival in 2019.

Brian Copeland (USA), Not a Genuine Black Man (2004)
Wednesday May 31 8:30pm, Friday June 2 7:00pm, Sunday June 4 5:00pm. Southside Theater.
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: two hours including a 15 minute intermission
In 1971, The National Committee against Discrimination in Housing called San Leandro, California a 'racist bastion of white supremacy'. Newsweek magazine came to town. CBS aired a one hour television documentary. The US Commission on Civil Rights conducted hearings. And then, we moved to town. ~ Brian Copeland.

Meyerhold Theatre Center (Russia), One Day We Will All Be Happy (2012, US Premiere, US Debut).
Thursday June 1 8:30pm, Friday June 2 9:30pm, Saturday June 3, 4:00pm.
Southside Theater. Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 50 mins. without intermission
English language adaptation of an award winning Russian play by Yekaterina Vasilieva directed by Vyacheslav 'Sava' Chebotar and produced by the Meyerhold Theatre Center. The one-actor play, a confessional monologue of a schoolgirl, is deconstructed into parts for two actors; the story of the girl's difficult relationship with her mother, school and love that is in turn both comic and tragic.

Rotimi Agbabiaka (USA), Type/Cast (2016)
Friday June 2, 9:30pm Chapel
Tickets: $25 General admission Duration: 70 mins. without intermission.
A queer, black actor dreams of a dazzling career on the stage but faces an industry that isn't always welcoming to applicants who are neither white nor straight. In his latest solo show Rotimi Agbabiaka shape-shifts using monologue, song, dance, and drag to embody, explore, and expose the battles minority artists fight in the exclusive world of American theatre.

Nancy Wang of Eth-Noh Tec (USA), 10,000 Steps (staged reading)
Saturday June 3 2:00pm, Chapel.
Tickets: $25 General admission. Duration: 65 mins. without intermission
Locke, CA was home to 15,000 Chinese immigrant workers who cleared the swampland of the Deltas, building levees that reclaimed 88,000 acres. 10,000 Steps is the story of one feisty Chinese American woman's self-chosen mission to care for the remaining Chinese bachelors of Locke and fight for its citizens to own the land beneath their homes.

About Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
Decommissioned by the U.S. Army in 1962 and converted from a military installation into a nonprofit cultural center and national park site in 1977, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture has long been host to a lively mix of arts, educational and cultural programming on San Francisco's northern waterfront. Each year, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture provides over $2 million in support to local arts organizations, enabling groups to produce diverse and innovative art works at the historic waterfront campus. With a nearly four-decade history as an arts and culture destination, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is now focused on reinvigorating its programming and amenities to better serve and engage the evolving and dynamic Bay Area creative community. Central to this new vision is the commissioning and presentation of adventurous and unconventional art works best realized in nontraditional or historic settings.

In addition to strengthening its artistic programming, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture has recently completed a $21 million renovation of Pier 2. Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture is also currently working with the San Francisco Art Institute to move its graduate program to the pier, which will open in June 2017.

Funders
The 2017 San Francisco International Arts Festival is supported in part by: National Endowment for the Arts, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Koret Foundation, French American Cultural Exchange Foundation, Western Arts Federation, China International Culture Association, Korea Arts Management Services, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Prohelvetia-the Swiss Arts Council, Ministry of Culture of Taiwan, Taiwan Academy Los Angeles and the Bernard Osher Foundation.

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