Cutting Ball Theater's SUPERHEROES to Run 11/21-12/21

Cutting Ball Theater opens its 16th season with the World Premiere of SUPERHEROES, written and directed by Sean San José. Featuring Myers Clark, Juan Amador, Donald E. Lacy, Jr., Britney Frazier, Ricky Saenz, and Delina Patrice Brooks, SUPERHEROES plays November 21 through December 21 (Press opening: December 2) at the Cutting Ball Theater in residence at EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street) in San Francisco. For tickets ($10-50) and more information, the public may visit cuttingball.com or call 415-525-1205.

Defiant, passionate, and bursting with poetic energy, SUPERHEROES tells the story of a journalist working to separate fact from fiction as she investigates the sordid history of the crack-cocaine epidemic. Partially inspired by Bay Area reporter Gary Webb's groundbreaking investigative journalism into the relationship between the CIA and Nicaraguan émigré-drug traffickers, this incendiary new play traces a lyrical labyrinth through churches, courthouses, and street corners in pursuit of a shocking truth. SUPERHEROES was developed as part Cutting Ball's 2013 edition of RISK IS THIS... The Cutting Ball New Experimental Plays Festival, one of the only play festivals in America solely dedicated to experimental works for the stage.

"My generation is marked by two epidemics: AIDS and crack. At the end of the day, my work must respond to that, personally and professionally," said writer and director Sean San José. "Superheroes delves into the stories, lives, and communities forever affected by this war and epidemic. Recalling Catfish Row from the Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and August Wilson's Hill District in King Hedley, these stories and experiences live ghostly and gargantuan here today."

Continued San José, "I am thrilled by the possibility of new collaborations and merging to more directly address and reflect the issues we are exploring with Superheroes and the lingering effects of the crack epidemic. I feel both inspired and challenged to meet Cutting Ball Theater's commitment to broaden their output to more accurately and effectively reflect the community and neighborhood in which they reside.

I feel the whole culture expands and benefits when we open ourselves up and broaden our horizons to collaborate on creating more storytelling opportunities. I am charged with the possibilities Cutting Ball and I have working with the communities of the Tenderloin and the Bayview, how we can learn from sharing these stories and bring new work to these non-theater spaces. I feel the partnership we are forging can be the mark of a new era in outreach and theater creation."

"The theme for Cutting Ball's 16th season is Injustice, in which we start by examining injustice here at home with the World Premiere of Sean San José's Superheroes, a penetrating exploration of the crack cocaine epidemic in San Francisco," said Cutting Ball Artistic Director Rob Melrose. "In the same way we asked our audiences to look at our neighborhood in a new way, to see the people and hear their stories, to see beyond the veneer of crime and decay with our 2012 production of Tenderloin, with Superheroes we ask audiences to consider the issues of social justice and drug use in San Francisco and how the veneer of crime and decay got here."

Continued Melrose, "Partially inspired by former San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb's investigative journalism, Superheroes is a thread through the labyrinth of drugs, money, and addiction. What excites me about this play is that in addition to a documentary level of truth, Sean takes a brutal story and teases out the humanity in it, enabling the impact of the production to reach far beyond Cutting Ball's theater walls. I have admired the work of Campo Santo and Sean San José since I moved to the Bay Area over 15 years ago and I am thrilled to be working with him at Cutting Ball on this stunning new work."

Additionally, Cutting Ball received a $40,000 Creative Work Fund grant and a $10,000 Venturous Theater Fund grant to partially fund SUPERHEROES. The CWF grant is focused on the partnership that Cutting Ball has created with Glide Memorial Church; the company will present a small segment of the production at Glide during a Sunday Celebration, and writer/director Sean San José will work with Glide's community on a series of writing workshops that encourage creative expression, particularly in relationship to experiences with the crack cocaine epidemic either as witnesses or survivors. Cutting Ball will also host a writing workshop for the Tenderloin community, which will include residents of the Cadillac Hotel and members of SF Recovery Theater. During the run of SUPERHEROES, San José will also hold workshops and work with the Bay View's Bread of Life Church.

Sean San José is a writer, director, performer, and the former program director of the Performance Program for Intersection for the Arts and its resident company Campo Santo. He collaborated on works with more than 500 artists in his time at Intersection, overseeing, developing, and helping to create works for artists including Jimmy Baca, Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers, Chinaka Hodge, Denis Johnson, Dennis Kim, Luis Saguar, Greg Sarris, Vendela Vida, Philip Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, Naomi Iizuka, Octavio Solis, Daniel Alarcon, and Luis Alfaro. Additionally, San José was the creator and project director of Alma Delfina Group-Teatro Contra el SIDA and Pieces of the Quilt, a collection of more than 50 short plays confronting AIDS, which included original works by Rhodessa Jones, Danny Hoch, Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Irene Fornes, David Hwang, Craig Lucas, and Tony Kushner, among others. Recent awards include a Gerbode Foundation Playwright Collaboration Grant with Richard Montoya and one of the inaugural Irvine Foundation Artist Residencies for the de Young Museum.

Cutting Ball Theater has assembled a talented ensemble for SUPERHEROES. Myers Clark, who appeared in Cutting Ball's productions of The Death of the Last Blackman in the Whole Entire World and Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, returns to the company as Free in SUPERHEROES. Credits include productions at Campo Santo (Angry Black Whiteboy), American Conservatory Theater (Holy Crime), and the Douglass Morrison Theater (An Ideal Husband); he will appear in African-American Shakespeare Company's upcoming production of Xtigone in 2015.

Juan Amador makes his Cutting Ball debut as Bayuncoso in SUPERHEROES. Credits include productions with Campo Santo (Block by Block, Tree City Legends, Holy Crime) and Shotgun Players (Daylighting). Also making his Cutting Ball debut is Donald E. Lacy, Jr. as Rev. Lacy is a writer, director, actor, comedian, and radio talk show host. Television and film credits include Cherry with James Franco, Jack directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Blood In, Blood Out directed by Taylor Hackford, the NBC drama Trauma, the ABC sitcom Hangin' With Mr. Cooper. Stage credits include productions at Berkeley Repertory Theater, California Shakespeare Theater, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, and Odyssey Theater, among others. Since 1979, Lacy has been a weekly announcer on KPOO 89.5 FM.

Britney Frazier makes her Cutting Ball debut as Magnolia in SUPERHEROES. Credits include productions with Shotgun Players (Daylighting, Bulrusher, The Voyage), Intersection for the Arts (Mirrors in Every Corner), Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (Fabulation), Brava Theater (Daughter's Eyes), and Marin Theater Company, among others. Also making his Cutting Ball debut is Ricky Saenz as Nicoya. He is a member of Campo Santo and was recently featured in Placas by Paul Flores at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; small screen credits include roles on NBC's Southland and Trauma, The Mentalist on CBS, and Hulu's East Los High. Delina Patrice Brooks rounds out the cast of SUPERHEROES as Aparecita. A Bay Area native, Brooks has studied and performed across the U.S., Western Europe, the Philippines, and Guinea, West Africa. Credits include productions at African-American Shakespeare Company (Cinderella), Willows Theater (Hair), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Youth Speaks, Black Choreographers Festival, The Crucible, and Marc Bamuthi Joseph's Living Word. Additionally, she has performed with Zap Mama, Nas, and Damian Marley, among others.

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