San Francisco Mime Troupe Presents 'Red State'

Just in time for the fall elections, the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe skewers the system which puts the actual needs of the voters last with a new musical comedy, RED STATE. Written by Mime Troupe head writer Michael Gene Sullivan (Making a Killing, GodFellas, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, and the currently touring 1984), with music and lyrics by Pat Moran (Making a Killing, GodFellas, Doing Good) and featuring Mime Troupe veterans Velina Brown and Lisa Hori-Garcia, joined by Bay area favorites Noah James Butler, Lizzie Calogero, Bob Ernst, and Adrian Mejia, RED STATE plays July 4 through September 28 (press opening: July 4 at Dolores Park in San Francisco) throughout the Bay Area in San Francisco, the North Bay, East Bay, and Peninsula. All shows are free and open to the public (unless otherwise noted). For a complete schedule and more information, the public may call 415.285.1717 or visit www.sfmt.org.

It's Election Day in small town America! The Heartland - apple pie, general stores, hard work. But in Bluebird, Kansas, apple pie has been replaced with government cheese, general stores have made way for pawn shops, and hard work on the job has become the hard work of survival. Littered with a crumbling New Deal infrastructure and its monuments to a feisty union past forgotten, Bluebird is ready to slip into oblivion.

But what if a small town in a Red State found itself at the forefront of a political fight? That's what happens when, due to an Electoral College tie, the entire Presidential Election comes down to the one district that, due to a voting machine glitch, didn't report any results. As America awaits a re-vote, the citizens of Bluebird wrestle with even bigger questions- who's going to fix the sidewalk? The roof of the post office? And how are they going to re-open the Library? And it occurs to some of the citizens of Bluebird, with the eyes of the nation fixed on them and the world waiting for a result, that perhaps they might get some long overdue government money if they don't re-vote right away…

Can one little town hold an entire nation's election hostage? Should it? Is bread in the farmhouse tonight more important than deciding who sits in the White House tomorrow? A new President, but not until the new sidewalk is finished? Or should they just pack it in, move away, and try to build a life somewhere else in their Red State?

Founded in 1959, the San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater; their work is political satire and anything but silent. Winner of three OBIE awards and a Tony award for Excellence in Regional Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Troupe creates plays that make sense out of the headlines, close-up stories that make audiences feel the impact of political events on their personal lives. To make this work accessible to the broadest audience possible, the Mime Troupe performs as a regional touring company, presenting their work at a price everyone can afford: free.

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