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San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sasha Velour's ‘Big Reveal' redraws the boundaries of drag and theater
Other performers might dread glitches during shows. Sasha Velour makes them her co-stars. Her 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' offers no straightforward lip sync. Phone rings, TV static and vertical colored bars, smashed dishes, recording skips, computer viruses and flickering lights constantly interrupt her drag numbers, video art, autobiographical anecdotes and mini lectures on drag history and theory. But if these on-purpose mistakes rip the fabric of the mostly solo show, which opened Wednesday, June 4, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' champion, author and Berkeley native widens them into wormholes and crawls inside to do battle with them. As she tries to claw back control of her bit, she might wind up on the floor in tears, but she's the winner all the same. It's partly a clown show: the garish makeup, the padded body parts, the nightmarish facial expressions, the wordless physical theater fight against absurdist forces too large to understand. But in all those gaffes, larger ideas are also at work. Imperfection is key to understanding drag and camp more generally, Velour says at one point. The art form doesn't work if you don't have self-awareness — if you don't understand your flaws but 'press on' anyway. (The implied corollary: Someone like Trump couldn't do camp even if he wanted to.) In a tough time for theater locally and nationwide, with companies scaling back or closing as funding sources dwindle, 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' suggests that institutional theater programming more drag might be one way forward. Audience members certainly showed up on Wednesday, some even glammed up in drag as opposed to the standard Berkeley Rep audience uniform of earth tones and sensible shoes. And Velour's show itself is more daring, artistic and intellectual than a lot of straight plays. Some of her patter — 'After so many years of backlash,' 'Drag serves as a mirror,' 'We are here, and we are not going away' — is boilerplate; the points might be more effectively made without didacticism. But other bits of monologue evince the scholarly yet frisky understanding of drag that undergirds her book, also called 'The Big Reveal,' with the subtitle 'An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag.' 'Queerness isn't shocking or groundbreaking at all,' she says in the show. 'It's normal. It's boring.' Cultures throughout history have had some kind of drag performance, she points out — even the American military in World War II. It only becomes threatening, she says, when it's no longer performed by straight men. Her costumes — by Diego Montoya Studio, Pierretta Viktori, Jazzmint Dash, Gloria Swansong and Casey Caldwell — are celestial wonders. One skirt hem resembles the orbit of the sometime-planet Pluto, both elliptical and noncoplanar, forming part of an outfit that looks like a bottle of pink Champagne frozen right in the moment of exploding. Another piece blurs the boundary between human and furniture. In one heart-stopping moment, she lines herself up with an outline of a human form projected on a large screen behind her. Without any perceptible change in lighting, she seems to change color, blazing in the gold of a desert sunset. Graffiti gets written on her, and ropes wrap around her; body parts metamorphose and enlarge. Your eyes search for signs as to what's projected and what's tangible. She dissolves in flames. By the end, you half expect her to be able to step through the screen and get swallowed whole, the wormholes covering their tracks like magic. As Velour finds the deviant in the familiar — talk shows, Disney princesses having animal friends, audio montages of iconic phone calls in film, the pixelated desktop of 1990s-era Windows — she makes the case that drag is available to everyone, no matter how weird or normie you are. That thing that tickles you? That you find yourself returning to again and again? Drag is a way you can talk about it, and it belongs on every stage and in every sitting room in America.
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
