Theatre Bay Area Awards $57,500 In CA$H Grants

Theatre Bay Area announces the grantees for the 75th round of the CA$H | Theatre program. Since the program's start, over $2 million has been awarded to over 700 grantees.

In the Fall 2020 round, 15 Bay Area artists and arts companies from the North Bay, East Bay, and San Francisco were selected to receive a CA$H grant. Seven companies and eight individual artists will receive funding for project development, production costs, or capacity-building projects.

The timeline for each of these productions varies, with some planning to do live productions in a post-pandemic world while others will be creating projects that audiences will be able to see from their computers. A full list of recipients and their projects is below. Full project descriptions are available at www.theatrebayarea.org/cashgrants

Applications for the Spring 2021 round of CA$H | Theatre grants will be available online on February 16, 2021. Interested applicants are encouraged to attend an online information session on Monday, March 1 at 5:30 pm PST. More applications and guidelines are on the TBA website.

Fall 2020 round of CA$H | Theatre grants:

CA$H | Performs grants are $5,000 awards intended either for the fully produced public performances of an artistic project or for projects that support the creation of work for multiple artists. Total CA$H | Performs grants awarded this round: $40,000

CA$H | Performs grantees, Fall 2020:

BoomShake Music (San Francisco) for Roasted Yam for the Ancestor's Soul

In collaboration with Oakland-based musicians and BoomShake's community participants, Roasted Yam for the Ancestor's Soul (RYAS) explores the role of food in cultural identity, systems of oppression, memory, and resistance through musical theatre.

Eye Zen Presents (Daly City) for OUT of Site: Haight Ashbury

Following their past theatrically immersive tour through SOMA, Eye Zen Presents now brings this experience to the Haight. These tours focus on queer social movements and the development of LGBTQ+ subcultures that lead to gay liberation, utilizing new technology to place audiences in physical sites of LGTQ+ ancestry.

Latinx Mafia (Daly City) for Latinx Mafia Incubator Series

A vehicle to celebrate the complexities of latinidad culture, this series creates a specific space for Latinx playwrights to share Latinx stories using Latinx players. This series aims to bring more Latinx representation to the theatrical landscape of the Bay Area.

Metzmecatl, Moon Rope Theatre (Woodacre) for When the Moon Call you Home

An immersive environmental circus-theatre fable set for Spring 2021 exploring artistic representation of dreaming and folklore.

Beatrice Thomas (Vallejo) for Black Benetar's Magic Cabaret

Fusing elements of circus, magic, and drag performance, this performance looks at race and cultural allyship in the U.S while exploding white fragility along the way.

Dazié Rustin Grego (Oakland) for The 45th

Born out of the trifecta of the coronavirus, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the horrors of the Trump presidency, this docu-drama inspired by experimental performance and monologue, highlights the impact of Donald Trump's presidency on Black and Brown people.

Sabrina Wenske (San Francisco) for Karen

Following multiple female figures in society, Karen will satirize celebrating white fragility and focus on marginalized white communities who don't feel accountable for perpetuating white supremacy.

Skyler Cooper (San Francisco) for A One-Man Show

Audiences will follow Cooper as he details his journey as the closeted daughter of a Baptist minister forced to reckon with his identity in the wake of his mother's death.

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CA$H | Creates grants are $2,500 awards intended either for the development of an artistic project or capacity projects that improve the applicants' ability to create or present art. Total CA$H | Creates grants awarded this round: $17,500.

CA$H | Creates grantees, Fall 2020:

The Forum Collective (Oakland) for The Möbius Channel

A devised episodic series following, questioning, and critiquing current topics of news coverage while comparing bias and its ability to sculpt differing narratives.

Queer Cat Productions (San Francisco) for Annual Black Queer/Trans Commission

Queer Cat Productions will create the inaugural version of a yearly commission for a Black Queer/Trans artist as a part of their effort to support artists, create queer theater, and fight anti-Blackness.

UpLift Physical Theatre (San Francisco) for The Unimaginable Code

Told through the style of a Greek tragedy, The Unimaginable Code opens a dialogue about CRISPR-Cas9, a tool that is able to edit genes. This production has been inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstien and research into the ethics and science of CRISPR.

Rebecca Pingree (Alameda) for This is Not Moose & Tweety

A devised, virtual performance that parodies the current state of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion work inside theatre companies and arts organizations.

Eteya Trinidad (Alameda) for Inheritance

A postcolonial ghost story set in Northern California that examines the impact of trauma on mothers' and caretakers' lives and its transference between generations.

Bob Shryock (Oakland) for Passing Through

Inspired by the events and experiences around the playwright's childhood as a Filippino immigrant, this production will employ devising methods and an ongoing cycle of creation with audience engagement.

Tierra Allen (Oakland) for Web Portfolio

Funding the creation of Tierra Allen's online portfolio so that they may actively pursue a career as a freelance theatre artist and attract new collaborators.

CA$H (Creative Assistance for the Small (Organization) and Hungry (Artist)), founded in 1999, provides vital financial support to individual theatre artists and small, professionally-oriented companies with operating budgets under $100,000. CA$H | Theatre is an entirely artist-driven granting program. Each cycle, a panel of five artists and administrators is assembled to review the applications and make all granting decisions. Panelists go through rigorous training to assure equability.

The CA$H | Theatre program is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the San Francisco Grants for the Arts, and the generosity of Toni Rembe Rock and Arthur Rock. Since its inception, the CA$H program has awarded almost $1.9 million to 705 artists and organizations.

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