Latest news with #BerkeleyRepertoryTheatre
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland comedian, ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!' champ steps up to support Bay Area arts amid NEA fallout
Theater and dance fans concerned about the widespread terminations of National Endowment for the Arts grants can now help affected Bay Area organizations by attending a performance by Oakland's own W. Kamau Bell. The polymathic Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning TV host, comedian, podcaster, author, documentarian, Substacker and 'Celebrity Jeopardy!' winner is reprising his 'Who's With Me?' at Berkeley Repertory Theatre from June 17-22. Ticket sales from the stand-up comedy show, which Bell performed at the same theater last month, will benefit more than a dozen organizations whose NEA grants were abruptly revoked under President Donald Trump's administration. More Information 'Who's With Me?': Written and performed by W. Kamau Bell. Performances begin June 17. Through June 22. $35-$250. Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. 510-647-2949. 'People think everybody's equally rich in show business, but that is not the case,' he explained with a laugh. 'I live in the Bay Area with three kids.' That's where his Berkeley Rep came in. 'Kamau was the first person to reach out to me in response to the devastating NEA news, with the simple but profound question 'How can we help?'' Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer said. 'This is what it looks like to stand together, and we are so lucky to do so alongside such a brilliant and generous artist.' 'When I finally got to do shows in the Peet's, I just felt super-like, 'I've made it!'' he said, referring to one of the theater's main stages where he performed an earlier version of 'Who's With Me?' He also workshopped 'W. Kamau Bell Gets His Act Together' at a studio in the theater's school during two separate runs last year. Beneficiaries of his newly announced run include American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Crowded Fire Theater, Dance Brigade/Dance Mission Theater, Magic Theatre, Marin Shakespeare Company, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Children's Fairyland, Oakland Theater Project, San Francisco Youth Theatre, Theatre Bay Area, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and Zaccho Dance Theatre. Ed Decker, artistic director of New Conservatory Theatre Center, one of the affected organizations, posted on Facebook the notification he got from the NEA saying his theater's world premiere of 'Simple Mexican Pleasures' by Eric Reyes Loo 'does not align' with the Trump administration's new priorities for the agency. Those priorities, the letter goes on, include historically Black colleges and universities, 'Hispanic Serving Institutions,' tribal communities, Asian American communities; the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; houses of worship, skilled trade jobs, disaster recovery, the military and veterans. Other priorities include 'make America healthy again' and 'make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful.' Decker told the Chronicle that Berkeley Rep's invitation to be a part of Bell's event was about far more than the proceeds. 'I felt the warm embrace of our creative community standing together to help,' he said. For Bell, who has lived almost entirely in the Bay since 1997, the decision to stage the benefit came down to his own artistic origins. 'I feel very clear that who I am is because of who I met in the Bay,' he said. 'I feel happy to be in a place where my help can be helpful.' Earlier this month, Berkeley Rep received a $40,000 donation in response to the NEA chaos from another artist, Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan, whose 'Red' and 'Swept Away' have both run at the theater.
San Francisco Chronicle
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
This playwright just bailed out Berkeley Rep after its NEA cancellation
As theaters across the Bay Area and the country reel from canceled National Endowment for the Arts grants, one local company is getting relief from an unlikely source: an artist. Tony Award-winning playwright John Logan is donating $40,000 to Berkeley Repertory Theatre — the same amount the company was set to receive from the federal agency to support the Ground Floor, its new play development program. 'Without the support of regional theatres like Berkeley Rep I wouldn't be a writer today,' Logan said in a statement. 'Young writers, singers, actors, poets, musicians, filmmakers, composers, and painters all across America benefit from not-for-profit arts institutions.' Confusingly, Berkeley Rep had already received the government grant before it received a 'notice of termination' on May 2. Managing Director Tom Parrish told the Chronicle via email on Wednesday, May 14, he worries this means the NEA will seek to 'rescind' the grant in the future, so the company is currently appealing the termination decision, even though it still has the funds in hand. Amid all the uncertainty, Logan's gift is both a relief and a 'morale boost' for everyone at the company, according to Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer. 'It was truly amazing, in the midst of such a dark and demoralizing week of news from and about the NEA, to get an email out of the blue from the incredible John Logan,' she said in a statement. Logan has a long history with the heavyweight downtown Berkeley company. His musical 'Swept Away,' featuring the music of the Avett Brothers, had its world premiere there in 2022 before heading to Broadway two years later. 'Red,' a drama about Mark Rothko that garnered Logan his Tony Award, ran at the company in 2012. His other theater work includes 'The Last Ship' and 'Moulin Rouge,' and he wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 'The Aviator,' 'Gladiator,' 'Alien: Covenant' and 'Any Given Sunday,' among others. The Ground Floor, created in 2012, counts among its alums the cool kids of the theater world locally and nationwide: Madeleine George and Dan Hoyle, Denmo Ibrahim and Jeffrey Lo, David Adjmi and Lila Neugebauer, Erika Chong Shuch and Baruch Porras-Hernandez. Itamar Moses workshopped 'The Ally' here before it became a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize in Drama; Ashley Smiley, Margo Hall, Sean San José and Joan Osato developed 'Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad' here before its world premiere at Magic Theatre. This year's Ground Floor lineup, to be announced at a later date, includes 23 projects by more than 100 artists.
San Francisco Chronicle
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Review: Berkeley Rep's ‘The Aves' devastates in the best of ways
When we talk about aging, fatalism outweighs compassion. Lose eyesight or the ability to go for a jog, and the world might affect pity, sure. But really, there's nothing more natural than time's ravages, and getting older, as they say, beats the alternative. But what if there were another alternative? Such is the heady thought experiment of Jiehae Park's 'The Aves,' which explodes assumptions about decline and mortality. Berkeley Repertory Theatre's world premiere, which opened Wednesday, May 7, finds a way to express how the most ordinary and universal human experiences feel new, shocking and tragic when they finally happen to you. To reveal any more specifics about the ingenious scenario Park presents would constitute a spoiler. When the show begins, it could be about almost anything. An old man (Bill Buell) and an old woman (Mia Katigbak) sit on a park bench. At first, their small talk about the weather and birdsong might suggest they don't know each other; the main clue otherwise is that they sit a little too closely to be strangers. Their flatly delivered conversation seems of little consequence — the taxonomy of pigeons and doves, the likelihood of impending rain — for a frustratingly long time. You might find your eyes gravitating toward the wonder of Marsha Ginsberg's set design, in which the narrow path holding the bench sits above a massive pool of water speckled with chartreuse leaves. Somehow, the petal-like foliage drifts in a circle around the bench at the center, a bit like a watch's second hand in reverse (tellingly, movement is counterclockwise), perfect for a show about the passage of time. All that apparent chitchat, you'll come to realize, is freighted with meaning. It's a little inane and circular, but there's a peace to it. Over decades, the two characters — whose names are never given — have forged the kind of relationship where you don't have to sound smart or interesting. At their age, simple, nonjudgmental togetherness prevails; the pair might as well be cooing at each other as pigeons do. If that sounds liberating, one person's oasis is another's bondage. In 'The Aves,' contentment is doomed to perturbation, the same way birds keep rippling the set's pond. And since the show takes place in the near-future, the dissatisfied can do more than wallow. By the time a young man (Daniel Croix) and young woman (Laakan McHardy) enter, the elderly pair have made a devastating, life-altering, sci-fi decision requiring unspeakable sacrifice. But Under Knud Adams' direction, delivery stays uninflected, and it perplexes and unnerves to see such weightiness tossed off like it's nothing. Still, the offbeat rhythm helps you break out of your own comfort zone to genuinely ask yourself: Given the opportunity, would I ever do the same? And what would I do if my partner did? An expert craftsperson, Park writes the kind of jaw-dropping reversals that make you wish you could watch whole scenes all over again, knowing what you know now. As intoxicating as her premise is, though, 'The Aves' doesn't explore all that it might. In eschewing the histrionics that her idea might elicit in the real world, Park leaves unspoken a lot of jealousy and resignation, regret and recrimination that you and I might feel, but the actors just hint at. Melodrama just isn't this show's style, and keeping things X-Acto knife-lean likely serves its thought experiment nature. Maybe it's easier to imagine yourself in someone else's place when they're an outline you can fill in. In any case, 'The Aves' invites you to take that final step for the characters: cry the tears they don't on the way home from the theater, clutch your partner more firmly that night or wish all the harder for someone who might be willing to watch the birds with you in companionable silence.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Community rallies around arts groups after federal grants are cancelled
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways The Brief The National Endowment for the Arts rescinded their awards for 2025, putting many Bay Area art organizations in jeopardy. The organizations have until the end of the week to submit an appeal against the grant cancelations. Arts groups are doubling down with community support. SAN FRANCISCO - Bay Area artists are feeling the burn, and using that as fuel for their comeback. The National Endowment for the Arts rescinded their awards for 2025, leaving organizations uncertain of the future. Now, arts organizations are doubling down with community support. What they're saying Tom Parrish, the Managing Director for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, told KTVU the Bay Area is home to swathes of creative people who have proven to be more than happy to offer their backing. "This is a very arts and culture-rich region, and there are a lot of wonderful supporters who support that work," Parrish said. Still, the NEA's news comes as another blow in a string of difficult years for most of these organizations. A lot of these arts groups are still trying to build an audience back from the pandemic. "These are very challenging and troubling times for arts organizations everywhere," Parrish said. "By the federal government moving away from funding the arts, they're basically saying the country does not value the arts." Parrish said Berkeley Rep is already working on their appeal, which is due by the end of the week. The backstory In the email sent Friday, the NEA said it's updating its grantmaking policy and focusing on projects "that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President." The email listed those priorities as, "projects that elevate the Nation's HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions, celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, foster AI competency, empower houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, make America healthy again, support the military and veterans, support Tribal communities, make the District of Columbia safe and beautiful, and support the economic development of Asian American communities." Parrish said the Berkeley Repertory Theatre's work does not conflict with the NEA's updated policy. "We think that our work is still aligned with the priorities which is why we are appealing the decision," Parrish said. Local perspective For more than 55 years, Berkeley Rep has been developing artists and creatives. With the loss of a grant for their incubator program, The Ground Floor, artists developing new work will take a hit. "We've had hundreds of projects that we've incubated here, a number of them have gone on to Broadway," Parrihs said. "We had two shows on Broadway this fall that resulted from the work of The Ground Floor." This follows grant cancellations by the National Endowment for the Humanities last month. At the Oakland Theater Project, Managing Director Colin Mandlin said the organization lost $55,000 between the NEA and NEH, threatening an educational program and a 2026 stage adaptation of the novel Moby Dick. "Our ability to perform year-round and produce this many shows definitely hinders on both individual giving as well as government grants and foundation grants," Mandlin said. "There seems to be a lot of confusion, a lot of uncertainty, some moving parts." In San Francisco, The Lab is a 40-year-old experimental arts organization in the Mission District providing space and resources for creatives, who criticize the Trump administration for silencing their expression. "The idea of the arts as a place where people can give voice to a lot of the communities and a lot of the ideas that are generally excluded from the dominant society is the core part of the granting programs, and I think we're seeing that start to come apart with the current administration," said Andrew Smith, the executive director of The Lab. "This is one more way of stifling descent, of crushing opinions are outside of the mainstream." Smith said it's dealing with a $20,000 budget gap for projects already underway. He credits the community for helping him raise half of the money. "When something like this happens, we see people turn out in mass," he said. Similarly, Mandlin said the community has helped him raise $30,000, but they're still short $25,000 in funding. While many organizations may take this challenge as motivation to close, Mandlin perceives it differently. "This feels like a moment to lean in and be bold and put forth an inspiring message and something for the community to rally behind," he said. The message across the board is the same: regardless of what's happening in Washington, there is something arts supporters can do. "People can show up, donate, buy tickets," Parrish said. The organizations have until the end of the week to submit an appeal against the grant cancelations. KTVU reached out to the NEA for more information about their guidelines for grants, and did not hear back. With President Trump threatening to eliminate the organization, critics say it would be a blow to American culture. The Source National Endowment for the Arts, KTVU reporting
San Francisco Chronicle
02-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘The music is in good hands': SFJazz names new CEO following yearlong search
After a year under interim leadership and a nationwide search, SFJazz has appointed Gabrielle Armand as its new chief executive officer. A seasoned arts executive and longtime leader at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Armand will officially assume the position on July 1, guiding the Bay Area's premier nonprofit jazz institution through a pivotal moment of both challenge and opportunity. 'It's the right time for me to make a big move like this and come into a city so deeply rooted in the arts, creativity and vibrancy,' Armand said. 'San Francisco is in a moment of regeneration, and there's so much excitement about its next chapter. It felt like a natural fit.' Armand has nearly two decades of experience in arts marketing and strategic partnerships, most recently serving as chief marketing officer and vice president of brand, sales and marketing at Jazz at Lincoln Center. There, she led transformative initiatives in media, corporate sponsorships and audience development that significantly elevated the organization's national and international presence. She now brings that expertise west, joining SFJazz as it contends with financial pressures, changing demographics and the lingering effects of a pandemic that disrupted the live performance landscape. 'The richness of her experience at Jazz at Lincoln Center combined with her lifelong passion for the art form makes her the perfect leader for us,' said Coye, the board's president. 'We are excited for the opportunities ahead as Gabrielle helps expand the reach of jazz regionally and nationally, while deepening our commitment to education and artist support.' Armand steps into her new role at a critical juncture. SFJazz, widely recognized as one of the most influential jazz presenters in the country, faces growing questions about its long-term sustainability, community engagement and strategic direction, like many local arts institutions. She replaces Susie Medak, the former managing director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, who served as interim CEO following Greg Stern 's decision to step down at the end of December after 4 ½ years with the nonprofit. Armand will work in close partnership with Blanchard, an Emmy-winning trumpeter and twice Oscar-nominated film composer known as a leading figure in contemporary jazz. 'I see myself being on a listening tour for at least the first few months and spending real time with Terence to understand all the things that he wants to do,' Armand said, 'and then work together to kind of put together the priority list and the action plan.' Their collaboration pairs Blanchard's artistic vision with Armand's strategic leadership. 'We're both keenly aware of our responsibilities in our respective lanes,' Armand noted. 'We see opportunities to cross-pollinate where it makes sense, but most importantly, we're committed to supporting one another. Terence is such a versatile and accomplished musician, I have enormous admiration for his artistry.' Blanchard echoed her sentiment, calling Armand 'an outstanding leader with a deep understanding of the jazz world.' 'I'm excited to partner with her in advancing the vision and impact of SFJazz,' Blanchard said in a statement. During her time at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Armand spearheaded a bold expansion into digital media, launching an in-house record label, a dedicated streaming channel and award-winning broadcast content. 'Both of our organizations have been intertwined in many ways over the past decades and this is a sign of our maturation,' said Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. 'Gaby's leadership will reflect a deep understanding of the civic, cultural and mythological significance of jazz. She will make ethical, fiscally responsible, and intelligent decisions that will bring new energy to our ecosystem. The music is in good hands.' Armand sees similar opportunities at SFJazz, which has already experimented with online concerts and expanding its educational programming. 'SFJazz has an incredible foundation,' she said. 'My goal is to build on that and elevate the organization to new heights. It already has the essential ingredients every arts institution needs in times of transition: strong artistic leadership, an amazing staff and a supportive board. Those are the key elements you need whenever you're trying to turn things around, start a new chapter, or go in a different direction.' With more than 30 years of experience across music, media and nonprofit sectors, Armand is no stranger to leading complex organizations. Still, she acknowledges the unique significance of this role — and this moment. 'SFJazz has long been a beacon in both the San Francisco and national arts communities,' she said. 'It's a place where diverse voices and ideas are nurtured and celebrated. As we approach the country's semi-quincentennial, it feels especially meaningful to lead an institution rooted in jazz, a uniquely American art form that has always taken a lot of different cultures within this country, integrated them and made space and been a place to support all kinds of different artists.'
