MITTENS AND MISTLETOE to Play Dance Mission Theater, 12/18-27

Savor the season with something a little sweet (but oh so good for you)! The Bay Area's homegrown Sweet Can Productions presents an intimate theatrical circus experience for the holidays with the sixth edition of MITTENS AND MISTLETOE: A WINTER CIRCUS CABARET. MITTENS AND MISTLETOE plays for a limited engagement December 18-27 at Dance Mission Theater (3316 24th St. in San Francisco). For tickets ($18-65) and information, the public may call 415-225-7281, visit brownpapertickets.com or sweetcanproductions.com.

This astonishing production, a charming, light-hearted, variety program suitable for all ages, features innovative clowning, spectacular circus feats, and holiday high jinks from some of the most talented Bay Area and international theatrical circus artists (Eulalie Blanc, Switzerland; Beth Clarke; Jamie Coventry; Natasha Kaluza; Marria Kee, Andrey Pfening and Jeremy Vik) in an unforgettable program that will amaze, delight, and inspire the entire family. MITTENS AND MISTLETOE, directed by award-winning clown duo Coventry & Kaluza, features live music from New Orleans-based harpist Luke Brechtelsbauer, comedy performances, and performances on slack rope, aerial hoop, hula hoop, and juggling. Jasper Patterson (son of Howard Jay Patterson, one of the founders of the legendary Flying Karamazov Brothers) emcee's this year's holiday revelry. Additionally, for the first time ever, Sweet Can will host a late night performance of MITTENS AND MISTLETOE for adults only. Called "simply beautiful to behold" by SF Weekly and "intimate, surprising, humorous...magical" by the San Francisco Chronicle, Sweet Can presents this special holiday treat for 15 performances only.

Clown duo Coventry & Kaluza have developed a unique blend of comical characters, music, and circus skills; this is their fifth year directing MITTENS AND MISTLETOE. Clown school sweethearts, this award-winning comedy duo has been seen throughout the Bay Area and beyond, in the ring with Circus Bella, onstage with Sweet Can, Circus Finelli, Circus of Sound, and the New Pickle Circus, among others. Additionally, Coventry & Kaluza won Best Comedy/Clown Act in the American Circus Festival two years in a row. Jamie Coventry has a background in theater, music, and education. He attended the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center, and has developed his own show about his experience as a clown. He also formed Tin Sandwich, a neo-vaudevillian harmonica ensemble that plays blues, jazz, pop, Balkan, and Tango. Natasha Kaluza attended the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center, and studies voice at the Jazz School in Berkeley. She is perhaps best known for her signature style of hula hooping which incorporates "B-girling" and funk dancing. 2013 marked a decade of collaboration for Coventry & Kaluza.

Luke Brechtelsbauer has worked on the ring crew of the Big Apple Circus, as a clown in Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, and as a harpist with the Caravan Stage Company. A graduate of the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center, he has been playing the harp for over two decades. He is also a bagpiper, and builds sets and props. He has lived in Brazil, Scotland, and China, and currently resides in New Orleans.

About the circus theater artists:

Eulalie Svetlana Blanc comes from a circus artist family. She toured Europe with her wire-walking mother, and at the age of ten, she began performing aerial silk and ring on stage in front of audiences in the Swiss town Basel. She is currently studying in Lausanne, in a special school that exists only in Switzerland, where the students study in the morning and train in their artistic specialty the rest of the day. Thanks to a circus life, she is fluent in German, French, Italian, and English.

Beth Clarke is one of a hand-full of women who perform on the slack rope. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale de Cirque, she has also studied with Masha Dimitri and Szilard Skeley, two of the world's most renowned slack rope artists. Performing credits include The Seven Fingers, Circus Cirkor, Cirque Elioze, The Pickle Family Circus, The Discover Channel, Disney, and many other circuses, varieties and theatrical groups throughout the world. She is one of the founders of Sweet Can.

Marria Kee is one half of Ninja Hoops, a martial arts, acrobatic, juggling, and hula hoop duo that has performed and taught in 12 countries over the last 5 years. When she's not touring, she plays, trains, and performs around the Bay Area. She also teaches acrobatics, parkour, and hooping classes.

Jasper Patterson is a product of the new vaudeville movement. He is a performer, musician, writer, director, and experience designer in the Bay Area and has directed and performed in productions and festivals around the world. His current projects fuse circus and comedy improvisation with installation and reactive technology.

Andrey Pfening was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He spent his childhood in Samara, Russia, and at the age of 12 moved to America and has resided in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since. He began training parkour in high school and is now a recognizable member of the parkour community as a teacher and as a performer. Credits include Velocity Circus, Paradizo Dance, Scott Wells Dance Co., Athletic Playground, Wes Terray films, and most recently as an acrobat for the San Francisco Opera production The Trojans.

Jeremy Vik loves juggling and handstands, but also has a fondness for Shakespeare and musical theater, which he has been performing around the Bay Area 8 years. He is a graduate of the San Francisco Circus Center's Clown Conservatory and Professional Acrobatics Program.

The mission of Sweet Can Productions is to create intimate, heartfelt performances in which the audience and performer easily connect. Sweet Can presents the circus performer as a human being, and uses the performer's circus skills to make connections by demonstrating the shared emotional experiences that unite us all. Formed in 2006 at the San Francisco Circus Center by founding members Beth Clarke, Kerri Kresinski, and Daniela Steiner, Sweet Can was established with the artistic goal to bridge the gap between traditional circus and theater. Where most Bay Area circus performers were resigned to performing in night clubs, at corporate events, as incidental performers for major theatrical productions, or at non-professional community events, Sweet Can Productions wanted to allow for complete artistic expression, and embarked upon creating a production rooted in traditional circus, theater techniques, and improvisation, creating an intimate theatrical circus experience in which circus artists provide stage substance and not merely stage decoration.

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