OUT Of Site Relaunches In The Haight-Ashbury With All New Tours

Eye Zen Presents has announced the premiere of OUT of Site: Haight-Ashbury, the third in a series of performance-driven, queer history tours of San Francisco. With a six-week run opening June 12, OUT of Site: Haight-Ashbury is designed to take place in person for small groups Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets at $45 will go on sale May 15 at eyezen.org.

Conceived and directed by Eye Zen Founder and Artistic Director Seth Eisen, OUT of Site launched in 2018 with a sold-out run of performances in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood. The project continued the following year with another sold-out run, this time spotlighting San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, home of the world's first "Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District." Due to the global pandemic, last year's scheduled in-person performances shifted online.

The newest addition to the company's OUT of Site series celebrates the grassroots uprising that made San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood a hub for the Gay Liberation movement from the 1960s to 80s. Actor Tina D'Elia, whose recent credits include the solo show Overlooked Latinas and the award-winning webseries Assigned Female at Birth, will lead audiences on a journey from the Doolan-Larson Building at Haight and Ashbury Streets to the erotic underground of Buena Vista Park to the former site of the notorious Haight Theater and several other points in between.

Along the way D'Elia will perform the role of Peggy Caserta, whose store, Mnasidika, named after a lesbian lover in The Songs of Bilitis, became a center of the city's counterculture, outfitting the likes of the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane, among many others. D'Elia will perform several other roles, as well, from Fayette Hauser, a member of the psychedelic pansexual theater collective known as the Cockettes to gay rights activist and author Gavin Arthur, who used astrology to determine the date to hold the Human Be-In in 1967.

"While in previous years OUT of Site spanned a period of hundreds of years, from Ohlone Two-Spirit rituals and 19th-century stag dances to the founding of the Folsom Street Fair, this year's event is more focused and intimate," said Eisen.

"The running time has been shortened to one hour 15 minutes, and the historical matter covers about 20 pivotal years in the life of the city. Moreover, in keeping with protocols to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the audience size for each show will be limited to 12 people or to whatever the current number is as prescribed in city guidelines at the time of opening."

"Drawing on primary source, archival research and oral histories, we are excited to shine a light on the development of the queer counterculture which has shaped so much of San Francisco's identity. This new edition of OUT of Site aims to honor this queer history with the psychedelic extravagance it deserves."

Eisen invited local playwright Michelle Carter to furnish this year's script. An accomplished writer, Carter has earned a raft of prizes for her work, including the PEN USA Award in Drama and the Susan Glaspell Award. Among her recent credits is Iron Shoes, a co-production of Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble and Shotgun Players.

In support of OUT of Site: Haight-Ashbury, Eye Zen has established a unique partnership with Shaping San Francisco and SF Heritage/Doolan-Larson Building. Eye Zen has also received generous support from CounterPulse, its fiscal sponsor, as well as the California Arts Council, The San Francisco Arts Commission, The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Theatre Bay Area's CA$H Grant and San Francisco Grants for the Arts.

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