Okay…
I know it’s been a while.
First off, some good news-
The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s production of
“A Red Carol” was a critical and audience success!
“A welcome addition to the A Christmas Carol’s adaptations.”
“Wonderfully acted and directed experience.”
“A fierce critic of poverty and social stratifications, (Dickens’) views are at the forefront of A Christmas Carol and perfectly aligned with director Michael Gene Sullivan
and the Mime Troupe’s mission.”
Broadway World
The plan is to make ‘A Red Carol” an annual production, but that all depends on funding. You might be surprised to learn that in our capitalist culture - and especially in our current political climate - it’s no piece of cake to raise money for an activist reimagining of a Dickens classic.
Especially with “Red” in the title.
Capitalism is weird that way.
But the show did well, Z Space was a wonderful partner, and if you know anyone with $150,000 lemme know so we can do it again this coming Christmas!
But after the show closed I, along with a lot of folks, went into a bit of a funk. Every time the checkout person at the grocery store asks how I’m doing I always pause and say “I haven’t felt right since November.” And each time the checker looks at me with a soul-dragging heaviness and says some version of “I know what you mean.”
So I gotta admit - this year started off with a terrible “BANG!”
The sort of “BANG!” 70 million voting citizens saw coming, but that a little over 70 million voters either didn’t see coming, or didn’t care about because they thought the “BANG!” was only going to “BANG!” on the people they wanted the “BANG!” to “BANG!”
The racists, the sexists, the xenophobic, the homophobic, and the transphobic joined with the selfishly Libertarian, the hatefully nostalgic neo-Confederates, the deluded wannabe Capitalists, the wealth-worshipping tech fanboys, the just flat-out stupid, and The Fooled to undermine government Of, By, and For the People in favor of a spray-tanned idiot Man Baby and his drug-addled Neo-Nazi car salesman friend.
They all thought THE “BANG!” wasn’t going to come back and bite them in their star-spangled asses.
But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
Our current government is split between White Male supremacists, obsequious toadies who cringe in their swastika-shaped shadows, rapacious vulture capitalists, and the few brave heroes who stand up and say “No!”
(Clearly I’m not numbering the current Senate leadership of the Democratic Party in the list of heroes.)
Thomas Paine once said “These are the times that try men’s souls.” He was talking about times when it seems the forces arrayed against common sense have become unassailably entrenched, and when any support among our fellow citizens for an obvious oppressor is unfathomable and disheartening. (Remember - when it came to breaking off from the English Empire only a third of colonists agreed, a third wanted to stay English, and a third didn’t care either way.)
But now is not the time to relax.
I know many of you have been in the fight to evolve this country into something more just and equitable for decades, but as much as we would like there to be a Radical Retirement Program, where we could all sit on a porch and talk about the bad old days we helped put an end to, it just doesn’t work that way.
I turns out there really is no finish line when it comes to revolutionary change.
Like rust, the forces of greed and oligarchical power never sleep.
And as Paine also said it is better for us to fight whatever the fight is now so that our children don’t have to. They will have other struggles, but you do what you can to make it easier for the next generation of revolutionaries.
So one thing I’ve been doing is political video essays!
Back when I was writing for Huffington Post and Daily Kos a friend of mine, Christian, suggested I start a YouTube channel. I did a few videos, but with all the political writing I was doing for theatre my head was kinda full, and I didn’t feel like I had time to do more.
Now I have time!
So this is a link to my YouTube channel:
And here is the first video in the series:
Velina is being her normal subversive self directing this show at
Gateway High School here in San Francisco:
Set during a high school student body presidential election,
it’s a biting satire of a step-by-step, how-to guide on how to ruthlessly grab and maintain dictatorial power.
Ya know that’s timely.
"Jen may have lost her election for student council president, but with a little help from Julius Caesar, she can always overthrow the school government instead.
Anytime an ambitious, angry potential despot utters the phrase “democracy sucks”, Caesar appears to lead them down the path to ultimate power.
But as her coup escalates from choosing an appropriately glorious title and signature look to naming scapegoats and seizing the media, Jen must ask herself just how far she is willing to go.
A wickedly smart comedy that explores how autocrats, past and present, consolidate power and exploit our fears."
Thursday 4/24: Visual Art Department will have a gallery showing at 5pm,
There will also be 30 mins of music before each show presented by
The Music Club
Thurs 4/24 6:30pm Music, 7pm Show
Friday 4/25 3:30 pm Music, 4:pm Show
AND
6: 30pm Music, 7pm Show
Sunday 4/27 4:30pm Music, 5pm Show
at
Gateway High School
1430 Scott Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
