Cutting Ball Theater Presents THE TENDERLOIN TOUR

Next up in the company's 20th Season, Cutting Ball Theater is reprising its original docu-play about its neighborhood for a community tour, The Tenderloin Tour: Prime Cuts from the 2012 Hit in January 2019.

First produced on Cutting Ball Theater's stage in 2012, Tenderloin - a play created by Annie Elias with Tristan Cunningham, Siobhan Doherty, Rebecca Frank, Michael Kelly, Leigh Shaw, David Sinaiko, and David Westley Skillman - is a live collage of interviews with Tenderloin denizens, a tribute to the unheard voices of a complex and vibrant neighborhood. The Tenderloin Tour opens on January 9 and runs through January 26.

Performances will be hosted at community sites throughout the Tenderloin neighborhood such as Glide Memorial Church, Boedekker Park, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Tenderloin Museum as well as Cutting Ball Theater's own venue. Tickets range in price $35 - $50 and are available for purchase online at cuttingball.com/productions/thetenderlointour or by phone at 415-525-1205. Admission to performances at community sites is pay-what-you-will. Admission to all performances is free for Tenderloin residents.

To create Tenderloin, in the vein of theater documentarians such as Anna Deavere Smith and Moisés Kaufman, Elias and her troupe of actor-journalists took to the streets of the Tenderloin to conduct in-depth interviews with people of the neighborhood. These interviews were woven together to create a script, performed with special care to capture every slight mannerism, stutter, and idiosyncrasy of each interviewee. The creative team's intention was to - through meticulous recreation of subjects, using their own words - amplify their underrepresented perspectives and honor the dimensionality of a neighborhood that continues to be stigmatized.

"Some of the residents and workers interviewed in Tenderloin describe it as a loving community and extol its beauty. Some describe the neighborhood as the one place they feel safe. Beauty, love, and safety might not be the first words to come to many people's minds as they pass through the Tenderloin," says creator-director Elias, "but The Tenderloin Tour offers audiences the chance to hear the points of view of those living and working in this unique and misunderstood neighborhood and to, perhaps, upend fears and assumptions." Creator Elias returns to Cutting Ball to direct The Tenderloin Tour in 2019, a one-hour revitalization of the original Tenderloin. Elias will be joined by two returning ensemble members from the original production, Cutting Ball favorite David Sinaiko and Siobhan Doherty, and two new cast members, Jeunée Simon* and Paige Mayes, both making their Cutting Ball debut. *Jeunée Simon is appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association

"Over Cutting Ball's history, the Tenderloin neighborhood has provided us foundation and community," says Artistic Director Ariel Craft, "so in programming our 20th Season, it was vital to carve space for work that is reflective of that community and presented for that community." In an effort to reach resident communities with The Tenderloin Tour and to acquaint non-resident audiences with Tenderloin hubs, Cutting Ball Theater will be traveling performances to community sites throughout the neighborhood in addition to performances at Cutting Ball Theater's venue.

The performance schedule for The Tenderloin Tour is:

January 9, 2019 at 7pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 10, 2019 at 5pm

UC Hastings College of the Law - 200 McAllister Street, San Francisco

January 11, 2019 at 7pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 12, 2019 at 2pm

Father Alfred E. Boeddeker Park - 246 Eddy Street, San Francisco

January 13, 2019 at 2pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 16, 2019 at 5:30pm

San Francisco Public Library - 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco

January 17, 2019 at 7pm

Tenderloin Museum - 398 Eddy Street, San Francisco

January 18, 2019 at 8pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 19, 2019 at 8pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 20, 2019 at 1pm

Glide Memorial Church - 330 Ellis Street, San Francisco

January 24, 2019 at 7pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 25, 2019 at 8pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

January 26, 2019 at 2pm

Cutting Ball Theater - 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco

The Tenderloin Tour is the product of collaborations and partnerships between neighborhood service and arts organizations with the aim of celebrating its shared community and unifying its populations in conversation. Every performance of The Tenderloin Tour will be followed by a discussion about today's Tenderloin facilitated by a community leader, an initiative in partnership with Skywatchers: a multi-cultural ensemble neighborhood dedicated to creating social change through arts. Throughout the month of January, Cutting Ball Theater's venue on Taylor Street will also be transformed into a community arts space, showcasing fine art and live mini-performances by Tenderloin residents and youth.

To post a comment, you must register and login.