COPS AND ROBBERS Returns to the Marsh San Francisco Tonight

Law enforcement officer, hip hop star, Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira examines the lines between "right" and "wrong" in COPS AND ROBBERS returning to the Marsh San Francisco for a limited five week run. Featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, and others, this solo tour-de-force made national news, selling out its entire original run and three extensions at The Marsh Berkeley last Fall. It will now return to play The Marsh San Francisco for a fixed engagement this Spring. A piercing look into the dysfunctional relationship between law enforcement, the media, and the black community, COPS AND ROBBERS is centered on an officer-involved shooting. Writer/performer Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira takes the viewer on an emotionally charged ride with unexpected twists and turns, as he seamlessly travels through 17 characters, each with his or her own convictions, logic, and prejudices. COPS AND ROBBERS, written and performed by Ferreira and co-directed by Ami Zins and Lew Levinson, will play Fridays at 8:00pm, tonight, April 24 - May 22, 2015 at The Marsh San Francisco Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia St, San Francisco. For tickets ($20-$35 general, $55/100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055 between 1 - 4pm, Monday through Friday.

In COPS AND ROBBERS, Ferreira takes no prisoners as he challenges the viewer to question all preconceived notions of justice. Writer/Performer Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira is a rapper, actor, and screenwriter from Oakland, California. He is one-third of Flipsyde, an alternative hip-hop band that has toured internationally with artists such as Snoop Dogg, The Black Eyed Peas, Akon, The Game, Busta Rhymes, and more. Flipsyde has written anthems for the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. The band continues to enjoy several song placements in television, film, and sporting events. In 2009, Piper won the Creative Promise Award for screenwriter at the Tribeca Film Festival for his CIA thriller: Walter's Boys.

In the spring of 2010, after attending a rally seeking justice for the death of Oscar Grant (at the hands of law enforcement officers at the Fruitvale BART station) Piper paid his way through a Bay Area law enforcement academy, eventually graduating in the top percentile and delivering the commencement speech. The paradox of being a member of the Black community and a hip-hop artist, while simultaneously working in Law Enforcement, served as the inspiration to write COPS AND ROBBERS.

Though Piper is not a stranger to the stage, COPS AND ROBBERS is his first venture into theater. The ingenuity of this play led to him being a scholarship recipient for a performance workshop with Anna Deavere Smith at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The Cops and Robbers Project consists of a one-man-play, an audio play, a 6-song musical soundtrack, and a book written by Piper and his wife Dawn Williams Ferreira, Ph.D.

Co-director Ami Zins is a director, producer, educator, and film industry consultant. She was Director of the Oakland Film Office from 1998-2011, for which she received numerous awards, including being honored by the Directors' Guild of America. In addition to her theater and film work, Ami teaches in the Motion Pictures and Television Department at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. As Director of the Oakland Film Office, Zins facilitated productions such as Moneyball, The Pursuit of Happyness, Matrix Reloaded, and Matrix Revolutions, among many others and spearheaded the development of the Oakland Film and Media Center. Zins has taught at Laney and Contra Costa Colleges, developed a role-play program for AC Transit, and directed over a dozen plays in the Bay Area, most of which dealt with themes of social justice, a natural outcome of having been raised by parents active in the Civil Rights movement.

Co-Director Lew Levinson has produced and directed over 40 full-length college, community, and professional plays in the Bay Area, often focusing on issues of relevance to the African-American community and/or performed by actors of color. These have included A Soldier's Story, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, The Colored Museum, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Dutchman. He has also guest directed with the Danny Glover Acting Workshop in San Francisco, and was founding president of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Jewish Theatre. Levinson won a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle "Best Actor" Award in 1981 for his portrayal of Billy Bronco in Sylvester the Cat vs. Galloping Billy Bronco, and has acted at many Bay Area theaters including Berkeley Repertory, Magic Theater, Willows Theater, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and others. Levinson has appeared in several films and had a starring role in the award winning feature film Less by Gabriel Diamond.

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