Shout Out Loud Season Continues With Treadwell's MACHINAL

Brava! for Women in the Arts continues their ambitious 2008-09 "Shout Out Loud" theatrical season as they celebrate women's month by exploring the complexity and humor of women through multiple productions in the month of March ranging from Penny Arcade's sex and censorship show Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! to Sophie Treadwell's Machinal to an Evening with Eileen Chaiken, creator of televisions's L Word.

On March 12, after the run of Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! on the mainstage, Brava will be presenting Sophie Treadwell's acclaimed expressionistic classic Machinal directed by Evren Odcikin. Machinal is a story of isolation of a young woman whose entire life has been dictated by the people and machines that surround her. She dutifully follows the rituals of work, marriage, and childbirth in hopes of finding peace, but when she begins to discover her own desires and needs, the story takes a turn to the unthinkable. Inspired by the real life case of convicted and executed murderess Ruth Snyder and told with a unique juxtaposition of domestic drama, fast-paced language, an experimental soundscape, and striking visuals, Machinal is considered one of the highpoints of Expressionism in American theatre history. Machinal runs March 11-21, 2009 at Brava Theater Center in the heart of San Francisco's Mission district (2781 24th Street, San Francisco). For tickets and more information, please visit the Brava website at www.brava.org.

Treadwell was a social crusader who championed progressive causes half a century before they became fashionable. She was an independent professional woman - one of the most renowned female journalists of the 20s and 30s and spent her lifetime battling for recognition and juggling the competing roles of professional woman, artist, wife, and mother. "Although Machinal is very much a period piece, the themes and issues it raises are still, unfortunately, very current," says Artistic Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges. "The struggle for modern women to find a meaningful place in society with a balanced life of careers, marriages, and children is as complicated today as it was in the 20s." Combining period costumes with a modern soundtrack that uses live microphones on stage, the production will pay homage to the play's original period while taking a modern look at this classic.

Theatrical expressionism was born in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century and abandoned realistic storytelling to seek to uncover the raw, human energy of modern life. Episodic in nature and filled with archetypal characters, individual versus the larger powers of society and mechanization is a common theme throughout the expressionistic cannon. Although many American playwrights dabbled in expressionism (most notably Eugene O'Neill), it was Treadwell's Machinal that created a truly American synthesis of realism and expressionism.

The play will find an unexpected home in Brava's intimate 2nd Stage with a minimalist production that places the audience all around the action to build on the claustrophobic nature of Treadwell's groundbreaking work. "Machinal is about a young woman's personal struggle with an oppressive society and I think it's essential for the audience to be a part of that society that controls and envelops her life during the course of the play," says director Evren Odcikin.

Juliet Tanner will be playing the central role of Young Woman. Joining Ms. Tanner in ensemble roles playing over 20 individual characters are local favorites Linda Ayres-Frederick (Mother and others), Madeline Brown (Telephone Girl and others), Matthew Chavez (Lover and others), Lawrence Radecker (Husband and others), Randy Rollison (Priest and others), and Christopher White (Doctor and others). The design team behind Machinal includes Josh Goldston Peek (set design), Jarrod Fischer (light design), Will McCandless (sound design), and Steven Lamont (costume design).

Sophie Treadwell (October 3, 1885 - February 20, 1970), was a playwright, journalist, women's rights advocate, and novelist. She maintained a professional career that spanned close to sixty years, from the 1910s to 1970. She is considered today as one of America's most prominent women playwrights of the first half of the twentieth century. Treadwell's foray into the theatre began as an actress in vaudeville and included early mentoring by the famed Polish actress Helena Modjeska. Author of forty plays, Treadwell was one of only a few women dramatists who also directed and produced many of her own works. Her best-known play, the 1928 expressionist drama Machinal, was produced with a young Clark Gable in the cast. She began her career as a journalist while attending the University of California at Berkeley. During World War I, the State Department recognized Treadwell as one of America's first accredited female foreign war correspondents. In the 1920s, she became the only American journalist granted an interview with Pancho Villa at his remote ranch following the Mexican Revolution. She was married to a fellow journalist, the renowned sportswriter William O. McGeehan. Throughout her career, Treadwell divided her time between her family ranch in Stockton, California, New York, Connecticut, Europe and Mexico. She retired to the desert community of Tucson, Arizona, where her bequest of private papers, manuscripts, photographs, and correspondence is housed in the University of Arizona Library Special Collections.

Evren Odcikin is a San Francisco-based director, dramaturg, and set designer. His Bay Area directing credits include Blood Wedding (Shotgun Players), The Greek Play (elastic future), 22 Minutes Remaining (Golden Thread Productions), Edge (Phoenix Arts Theatre), Road to Mecca (Secondwind), Death of Yazdgerd (Darvag), and Heavy Days (Shotgun Theatre Lab). He was the dramaturg on Mother Courage and Her Children, Owners, Quills at Shotgun Players and Blue/Orange at Aurora Theatre Company. He has directed numerous readings and workshops at Magic Theatre, TheatreFirst, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival and designed sets for mugwumpin, elastic future, Golden Thread Productions, Shotgun Players. His upcoming projects include directing Ecstasy (A Water Fable) with Golden Thread and designing the set for Wreckage with Crowded Fire.

Brava! for Women in the Arts is a professional arts organization committed to producing, presenting and cultivating live art celebrating the intersection of feminism and multiculturalism that ignites social changes and empower community. Located in the beautiful Brava Theater Center located in the heart of San Francisco's historic Mission District, we are now entering into our third decade of thought-provoking theater, music and educational programs.