So what’s next, we hear you ask! Indeed, that is the question on all our lips. As you know, we are deep into negotiation for a new performance space about a block from the Paramount Theater in Oakland’s up-and-coming Uptown arts district. We will keep you informed as the process continues, but we anticipate it will be a few months before we can make any definitive announcements. In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed: this is a very important time for us, as we approach this major step forward in our development, and in the development of the arts in Oakland. Work is going forward as we speak on next season. If it turns out we are not able to occupy our new space in time for a three-show season starting in the fall, we will look elsewhere to present as full a program of terrific, provocative and entertaining theatre as we can. So stay tuned - these are exciting times!

And once again, thank you all for your support and participation in the future of TheatreFIRST. We look forward to seeing you all in our new home very soon!

Click here to listen to the KFOG special

Friday, April 4 Caprice Haverty

Sunday, April 6 Kristin Callahan

Friday, April 11 Roberta Stern & Caprice Haverty

Sunday, April 13 Caprice Haverty

Friday, April 18 Staci Haines

Sunday, April 20 Roberta Stern & Caprice Haverty

Saturday, April 26 Paula Statman

Sunday, April 27 Roberta Stern & Caprice Haverty

Last year, a play opened at a small theatre in a London pub to almost no controversy. Plenty of emotion, yes, but no mud-slinging, no outrage. Stephen Brown had achieved with Future Me the almost impossible: he had written a play about one of the most rage-inducing social taboos - and had humanized the monster.

TheatreFIRST is delighted to be presenting the U.S. premiere of a play that might well have enjoyed a higher profile opening off- Broadway. Instead, Stephen Brown recognized TheatreFIRST’s unique credentials to produce this compelling piece: our commitment to plays that provoke and challenge, and that explore deeply some of the most urgent social issues; our audience that seeks plays that challenge their perceptions and prejudices; our history of premiering some of the most important British playwrights’ works in the United States (David Hare, Moira Buffini, Shelagh Stephenson, Robin Soans, Edward Kemp, Sue Townsend…).

Peter, Brown’s protagonist, is a successful, intelligent, articulate, sensitive young man. But somehow he falls into a vortex of unlawful desire, and commits an act that makes us ask: are there some crimes that are just too heinous to forgive? Brown’s play is so finely balanced, it makes knee-jerk responses seem trivial and irritating. Instead, we are forced to ask: Is he more than what he’s done? And should he be allowed to build a “Future Me”? Brown’s depth of research into this subject, which few people take the time to consider, pays off handsomely as he presents a range of characters and viewpoints that are bound to unsettle and provoke. This is high-stakes playwriting, underpinned by unswerving honesty and deeply-felt compassion.

TheatreFIRST, which was forced to vacate its downtown premises in Old Oakland last June, has since been involved in a highly challenging quest for a new performance space in Oakland. Unlike Berkeley and San Francisco, Oakland has no small spaces with a performance history that match the needs of TheatreFIRST, or the dozen and more other companies that have since expressed an interest in sharing such a space. The search goes on, and last month the company entered negotiations for a building in the nascent arts district of uptown Oakland (near the Paramount and Fox theaters). If all goes well, the company hopes to announce a four-show season there, opening in the fall of 2008.

Meanwhile, TheatreFIRST will return to the venerable Berkeley City Club, where it presented the highly successful Mooi Street Moves in 2004, for this production. Dylan Russell returns to direct it; she last directed the company’s award-winning production of World Music (starring L. Peter Callender) for the company in 2006. TheatreFIRST has assembled an extremely strong cast for this production, including veterans Dana Kelly (Racing Demon, A Map of the World, etc.), Allison Studdiford (Racing Demon, Death & The Maiden) and Dana Jepsen (Loveplay), along with TheatreFIRST newcomers Maggie Mason (who was featured in the longest-running BBC TV program Grange Hill in the nineties), Ryan Purcell and Peter Ruocco.

Playwright Stephen Brown will be flying in from London for the opening, and a reception and discussion after the show; press are warmly invited to attend this event on Friday, April 4th at 8pm. He will also be available in person for interview between March 29th and April 3rd. Post-show talkbacks will also be held throughout the run: details will be announced soon.

Production details:
Future Me by Stephen Brown
Directed by Dylan Russell

Featuring: Dana Jepsen*, Dana Kelly*, Maggie Mason, Ryan Purcell, Peter Ruocco, and Allison Studdiford*.
(*Members, Actors’ Equity Association)

Dates and location:
Berkeley City Club Theater
2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley
Preview: Thursday, April 3rd - 8pm
Opening: Friday, April 4th - 8pm (including reception with the playwright)
Run: Thursday - Saturday 8pm, Sunday 3pm, through May 4th.
Location is wheelchair accessible.

Ticket prices: Thursday, Sunday $23; Friday, Saturday $28; Preview $10
Under 25’s: Always half price.
Seniors, students, TBA members: $3 discount
Pay what you can: Thursday, April 10th.

Box Office and Information: 510 436 5085
www.theatrefirst.com

Watch the Future Me Trailer

Read our dramaturg’s thoughtful essay about working on Future Me, and how it has affected her

TheatreFIRST’s sell-out run of Future Me must close Sunday, May 4th.

Although most shows have sold out, there are still some tickets remaining for the final weekend of Stephen Brown’s provoking and brilliantly-acted new play. Rob Hurwitt in the SF Chronicle calls it “riveting…an evening of intensely well-realized, gripping performances”.( Click here to read Rob Hurwitt’s full review.) Our audience says it’s the most thought-provoking play they have seen in ages, and they are still talking about it days, even weeks later. As one audience member remarked: “Thank God someone has had the guts to take the lid off this subject. We really need to talk about this”.

Just nine months after it received its highly acclaimed opening at London’s Theatre503, this extraordinary drama of transgression and forgiveness is thrilling and engaging Bay Area audiences. Booking is open now, so click on the link above to make your reservation.

TheatreFIRST is in negotiations for a new, dedicated performance space in the Oakland uptown arts district. We are deeply grateful to our donors for making this possible. We will keep you informed as negotiations progress. Meanwhile, see you at the City Club!

Production details:
Future Me by Stephen Brown
Directed by Dylan Russell
April 3 – May 4
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley
Location is wheelchair accessible.

Featuring: Dana Jepsen*, Dana Kelly*, Maggie Mason, Ryan Purcell, Peter Ruocco, Allison Studdiford*
(*Members, Actors’ Equity Association)

Preview: Thursday, April 3
Opening: Friday, April 4
Run: Thursday-Saturday 8pm, Sunday 3pm
Closing: Sunday, May 4

L-R David Fierro, Rowan Brooks, Noah James Butler, Chris Ayles

L-R Mitchell Field, Lindsey Murray

Emily Jordan

L-R Mitchell Field, Rowan Brooks, Noah James Butler, Garth Petal

We are meeting the challenge, as you would expect, in a unique way. Responding to the author’s creativity under a deadline, we have posed a similar challenge to 16 of the Bay Area’s best – not to say most intrepid – actors. With less than 2 hours’ rehearsal, they will create and perform versions of seven short plays – and then the audience will get to contribute to the process of creation.

The seven plays are witty, moving, funny, surreal, intense, and bizarre. And each one of them is a little gem of theatre. Come and see these talented actors, led by Artistic Director Clive Chafer, present these exquisite miniatures – and then we’ll all work together to create new and different versions of the pieces. This will be a unique experience of spontaneous theatrical creation. DON’T MISS IT!

This event is FREE. We will be asking for donations at the end of the evening. Seating is limited. PLEASE LET US KNOW YOU ARE COMING BY CALLING 510 436 5085 TO RESERVE A SEAT.

365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan Lori-Parks
at Temescal Arts – 48th and Telegraph, north Oakland
(next door to Lanesplitter Pizza Pub)
8pm – Friday June 15th
Featuring: Casey Bastiaans, Megan Briggs, Noah Butler*, Lauren Grace*, Tim Hendrixson*, Mary Knoll*, Amy Kossow*, Sylvia Kratins, Adrienne Krug, Austin Ku*, Terry Lamb*, Karen Marek*, Eryka Raines*, Sandra Schlechter, Tom Reilly, Patricia Silver*
Two Staged Readings
As part of our ongoing process of evaluating scripts for possible performance, we will be presenting staged readings of two plays on Sunday June 17th and Monday June 18th at 469 9th Street (just 2 doors down from where we performed this season) on the second floor. Both readings will be followed by an audience discussion. These events are free, donations will be gratefully accepted!

Sunday, June 17th – 7pm
The Women of Lockerbie
by Deborah Brevoort
directed by Marilyn Langbehn

In 1988, when PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, the media put the focus on the victims and their families. But what went largely uncovered was the incredible story of the residents of the small town on which the tragedy rained down. This extraordinary play is inspired by real events that followed the disaster. But instead of being a painful trudge through history, this is a brilliant and beautiful work of creativity springing from the events of December 21, 1988. Using the style and structure of Greek drama, Brevoort has found a way to capture the immense emotional dimensions of the story. The result is compelling and cathartic.

This event is FREE. We will be asking for donations at the end of the evening. There will be a brief post-show discussion to evaluate the play for a full production in TheatreFIRST’s next season.

The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort
at 469 9th St., in Old Oakland (2 doors down from our old space)
7pm – Sunday, June 17th
Featuring: Brendan Godfrey*, Lauren Grace*, Kelly Ground, Scarlett Hepworth, Lindsey Murray, Lynne Soffer*, Michael Barr*
Monday, June 18th – 7:30pm
The Clearing
by Helen Edmundson
directed by Clive Chafer

“Oliver Cromwell is justly regarded in Ireland as a symbol of historical racial persecution as potent as Adolf Hitler…” This powerful, award-winning drama is a passionate and poetic account of the devastating effects of Cromwell’s Irish policy on one small farming community, bringing its conflicts within touching distance of the present. A terrific tale of love, betrayal, and heroism.

This event is FREE. We will be asking for donations at the end of the evening. There will be a brief post-show discussion to evaluate the play for a full production in TheatreFIRST’s next season.

The Clearing by Helen Edmundson
at 469 9th St., in Old Oakland (2 doors down from our old space)
7:30pm – Monday, June 18th
Featuring: Larkin Boero, Chloë Bronzan, David Collins, Danielle Levin*, John Mercer. Robert Parsons*, Edwin Richards

Come be a part of the excitement. Theatre is alive at TheatreFIRST!
See you there!

(*Members, Actors’ Equity Association)

Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance is John Arden’s masterpiece, and possibly the most deeply moral and humane anti-war play ever written.

Regarded as a classic since it was written in 1959, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance is a striking theatrical response to the dubious morality of a war being fought on a distant land for debatable reasons (sound familiar?). Four soldiers arrive in a mining town in the grip of a strike, and in the dead of winter. Their apparent mission – to recruit more soldiers for an unpopular foreign war – masks their actual intent: to confront its people with the realities of warfare.

The play is witty and impassioned, and written in a kind of rough-hewn poetry that grabs the ear and engages the heart. With a brilliant cast of 13, it’s the kind of epic-but-intimate drama TheatreFIRST excels at.

Don’t miss the regional premiere of this extraordinary play whose topical urgency is truly compelling.

“This is a spell-binding, mind-challenging drama that touches greatness, and what is more, it is written in that wonderful Arden language that seems to be hewn out of granite” Michael Billington – The Guardian

Featuring: Chris Ayles*, Rowan Brooks*, Noah Butler*, Ekow Daniels, Mitchell Field, David Fierro, Norman Hall, Emily Jordan, Larry LePaule, Garth Petal, Tom Reilly, Sue Trigg, Mike Vaughn*
(*Members, Actors’ Equity Association)

Dates and location:
Old Oakland Theatre
481 Ninth Street (at Broadway), downtown Oakland
Preview: Thursday, May 3rd – 8pm
Opening: Friday, May 4th – 8pm
Run: Thursday – Saturday 8pm, Sunday 3pm, through May 27th.

Ticket prices: Thursday, Sunday $21; Friday, Saturday $25; Preview $10
Under 25’s: Always half price.
Seniors, students, TBA members: $3 discount
Pay what you can: Thursday, May 10th.

Box Office and Information: 510 436 5085

“A late-Shakespearean romance kind of plot blends passionate argument, both intellectual and emotional, that what matters is not the label of one’s faith but the quality of one’s humanity… Edward Kemp’s terrific translation balances gravitas with comic deftness” – Financial Times

*March 9-11 at Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St., San Francisco

May 3 – May 27, 2007
Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance by John Arden, directed by Clive Chafer
Four deserters bring the body of a dead comrade-in-arms back to his home town, a community in the grip of a paralyzing strike and cut off by snow. Musgrave, their leader, is determined to bring home to the townspeople the realities of warfare – by any means necessary. A vivid, muscular, suspenseful drama blending earthy poetry with raw theatrical power.

“Spell-binding, mind-challenging drama that touches greatness; and what is more, it is written in that wonderful Arden language that seems to be hewn out of granite.” – Guardian

To subscribe, just give us a call at 510 436 5085. You can do it over the phone in just a couple of minutes. Or we can send you the form and you can take your time. Either way, don’t miss out on the Bay Area’s most inspiring and thought-provoking season!

Shows run Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm.

See you at the theatre!

Click here to subscribe now!

All for (almost) free!

Come and join us for TheatreFIRST’s second annual TheatreFEST.

Free staged readings of plays under consideration for next season.

Come help us choose the best!

(Each reading will be followed by a brief post-show discussion.)

Plays TBA

June 8, 9, 15 & 16, 2007 at 7.30pm

481 9th Street, Oakland

“Exceptionally well-performed… fresh, intense and strikingly immediate…finely tuned and affecting… the kind of thing Clive Chafer’s company does best.”
- Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

The Arab-Israeli Cookbook is a drama created from the everyday realities of life in Israel and the occupied territories, where nothing is truly “everyday”. The project began when the Caird Company sent writer Robin Soans and two directors to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank in 2003. There they met with an extraordinary cross-section of people from the cultural patchworks that make up both the Israeli and Palestinian communities. They heard about the daily heroism that residents take for granted, and the incredible spirit of survival that exists on both sides of this seemingly unbridgeable divide.

They also discovered the importance of food to every cultural and ethnic identity that calls this tiny plot of land home. The result is a verbatim play, featuring only the words of 42 of the courageous, committed, creative and possibly crazy people who live there. Eight actors will bring their voices to vibrant life (while preparing real Mediterranean dishes onstage!), and bring insight and understanding to the melting pot of Middle Eastern affairs. A truly unique and moving play from the frontline of what many consider to be the world’s most momentous and perilous conflict. First performed at London’s Gate Theatre in 2004, it recently received its highly acclaimed US premiere in Los Angeles, and a much lauded revival at London’s Tricycle Theatre.

Read Rob Hurwitt’s full review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/14/DDG4NFMU8H1.DTL&hw=Arab+Israeli+Cookbook&sn=001&sc=1000

See the play! Buy the Cookbook (on sale in the lobby)!

“Heartbreaking” - Time Out; “Stunning” - Daily Mail; “Magnificent” – Guardian

Locations:

December 1-4, 2005: Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida (between, 17th and Mariposa), San Francisco

Schedule of performances:
Thursdays – Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 3pm
Single ticket prices:
Thursday, Sunday $18; Friday, Saturday $22; Preview $10

Under 25’s: Always half price.
Seniors, students, TBA members: $3 discount

Box Office and Information: 510 436 5085

See Calendar for details.

Click here to subscribe!

This event is supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program