American Conservatory Theater Announces Recipients of ArtShare for 2017–18 Season

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Associate Artistic Director Andy Donald announced today the recipients of ArtShare, A.C.T.'s community space-sharing initiative, for the 2017-18 season. Created in 2012, the community space-sharing initiative provides free performance space for small and mid-sized companies without permanent performance space, as well as for independent artists, who would benefit from being in residence at one of A.C.T.'s spaces in the Central Market area. These spaces include The Costume Shop (1117 Market St.)-A.C.T.'s 49-seat black-box venue-and The Rueff, a multi-use event and performance space located at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater (1127 Market St.). The 2017-18 season of ArtShare is made possible by generous support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Says Donald: "At a time when many arts groups are struggling to stay in-let alone find-performance venues, we are thrilled to continue our tradition of welcoming a new cohort of diverse local artists into our spaces. This season's ArtShare recipients represent the variety and depth of work happening across the city, and we look forward to giving them a stage in the heart of San Francisco."

As a component of A.C.T.'s expanded community engagement programs and audience-building efforts, ArtShare was designed to foster new relationships with Bay Area artists and provide a performance space in which artists and organizations without a permanent performing space can present thought-provoking work. A.C.T.'s goal through ArtShare is to reach a broader range of organizations, welcoming those with diverse perspectives, bold artistic visions, and the desire to reach communities.

The recipients of ArtShare for the 2017-18 season are:

CAMPO SANTO
MASQUERADE, THE GLOBAL COURTYARD
August 16-27, 2017
Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
The Rueff at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater

Campo Santo-in collaboration with Rashad Pridgen and the Global Street Dance Masquerade-presents the theatrical premiere of Masquerade, The Global Courtyard. This dance ritual performance piece honors and calls up the spirits of those lost in the struggle of the four corners of the global courtyard: AIDS, Black Lives Matter, The Female Divine, and The Local Ancestors. In dance ritual surrounded by original text, video, film, music, and movement, this experience culminates a series of site-specific outdoor ritual masquerades performed by the Global Street Dance Masquerade.

Paying homage to the ancient tradition of masquerading worldwide, the Global Street Dance Masquerade recognizes the root of this multi-dimensional ritual coming from the African continent and its diaspora. Integrating contemporary street dance practices, the work reveals linkages between urban contemporary and traditional dance techniques.

This piece was created by Rashad Soul Nubian Pridgen, with writings by Luis Alfaro, Colman Domingo, Star Finch, and Chinaka Hodge, and visuals by Joan Osato. Scenic installation is by Tanya Orellana, the design team includes Alejandro Acosta, Juan Wonway Posibul Amador, Ashley Smiley, Brittany White, and the piece features live music by Adan Ortega. Masquerade, The Global Courtyard will be performed by Soul Nubian with Delina Patrice Brooks, Britney Frazier, Dezi Solèy and the Masqueraders.

ALTERTHEATER
COW PIE BINGO AND BONDAGE (performed in repertory)
January 11-21, 2018
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m.
A.C.T.'s Costume Shop Theater

AlterTheater will present two plays from its AlterLab playwright residency, the world premiere of Cow Pie Bingo by Larissa Fasthorse, and the Theatre Bay Area recommended production of Bondage by Star Finch.

Playwright Larissa Fasthorse draws from her experiences growing up in the rural heartland of America in Cow Pie Bingo, which follows two awkward misfits on the county fair circuit. Charming and funny, Cow Pie Bingo explores the pitfalls of living a black and white life in a world of gray . . . and trying to teach math to a cow.

Bondage played for 10 performances in Marin County in 2017, ending at Corte Madera's independent bookstore Book Passage, where it played to sell-out crowds, and earned rave reviews. Bondage was a Princess Grace Award semi-finalist. Influenced by Afro-Surrealism, Bondage tells the story of Zuri, a mixed-race girl attempting to forge a new future as she passes over from girlhood to womanhood. Star Finch's previous work includes her debut play, H.O.M.E., hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "visionary and poetic."

NADHI THEKKEK
BROKEN SEEDS (STILL GROW)
March 17 & 18, 2018
Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m.
A.C.T.'s Costume Shop Theater

Nadhi Thekkek (Artistic Director, Nava Dance Theatre) collaborates with visual artist Rupy C. Tut (Art by Rupy, Oakland, CA) to create a mixed-media dance theater work called Broken Seeds (Still Grow), linking the hyphenated­-American, immigrant experience to the displacement of their ancestors during the devastating 1947 Partition of British India. This multi­-disciplinary production sources poetry, eyewitness accounts, and current events to understand the current political climate while contextualizing what it means to belong somewhere.

SAMMAY DIZON
March 22-24, 2018
Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.
A.C.T.'s Costume Shop Theater

SAMMAY is a choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary performing artist of Bikol, Kapampangan, and Ilokano descent. She envisions a future where our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. Her work transcends the boundaries between performance art, dance theatre, and performance ritual. Whether working in the context of current sociopolitical turmoil or unearthing intergenerational traumatic truths, SAMMAY seeks to fill the dissonance between humans through art and desires to open portals for us to remember, heal, and return. SAMMAY will be performing a yet-to-be-named dance piece.

Previous ArtShare recipients include: Alter Theater Ensemble, BAYCAT, Caterina Dance, Community Works West, Do It Live, Fools Fury, Goat Hall, Imaginists, Kearny Street Workshop, Kevin Rolsten, Ixalt, Just Theater, Jump! Theatre, Magic Theatre, Marga Gomez, MFR Productions, Mugwumpin, Orchestra Collective, Playwrights Foundation, ReACT, SF Playhouse, The Posse Foundation, Theater Rhinoceros, Under The Table Ensemble Theatre, Yes All Women, and 6NewPlays.

For additional information on ArtShare or to purchase tickets for the various performances, visit www.act-sf.org/artshare.

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