Bay Area’s national influence
If the first two entries below speak to where the Bay Area theater scene came from, the next might give a glimpse of where it’s going. The future of theater is colorful. It’s deeply concerned with implicit politics, with the values embedded in narrative arcs, with how internal hierarchies and decisionmaking processes affect what’s onstage. And it’s emphatically not centered in New York City. Sam Shepard: The greatest plays of Sam Shepard, who died this year, seem to encompass both any descriptor you might apply to them as well as its opposite. “Buried Child,” “Fool for Love,” “True West,” “Curse of the Starving Class” and “A Lie of the Mind” are earthy yet surreal, starkly funny yet grotesque, savage yet full of heart. It’s hard to imagine any contemporary artist taking up the reins of Shepard’s macho, cowboy aesthetic, or being able to tear an American family apart in a way that seemingly reverberates across the Western horizon, the way Shepard did. That’s as it should be — we need plays and aesthetics for our own time — but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel deeply the loss of a mighty conjurer of both the distance and the primal connection between loved ones, a poet of dusty landscapes, a chronicler of men who are unknown even, or especially, to themselves. Carey Perloff, Tony Taccone and Robert Kelley: The announcements that these three artistic directors plan to depart their theaters — ACT, Berkeley Rep and TheatreWorks, respectively — came in rapid succession this year, presenting a once-in-alifetime opportunity (that’s without hyperbole) to reshape the Bay Area’s theatrical landscape. These are the three biggest nonprofit theaters in the region, and their next generation of leaders get an outsize say in what theater means in the Bay Area — what kind we produce, for whom and to what end. Taylor Mac’s “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music”: Theater doesn’t have to be staid. Audiences don’t have to be quiet. Shows don’t have to fit neatly into two-hour segments. And we don’t have to accept our heritage sitting down. Taylor Mac’s 24-hour show, performed in four six-hour segments at the Curran, blended musical and sartorial circus with historicist takedown and sobering reckoning. To combat our racist, ageist, sexist and homophobic history, Mac declares, we must sing the songs of our unsung — Native Americans and lesbians, blacks and Jews.
“Thomas and Sally”: Marin Theatre Company’s production of Thomas Bradshaw’s world premiere is notable both for the script itself — about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, his slave who bore him six children — and for the heated discussion it spurred among artists and audiences. What special responsibilities do a playwright and a theater company have when they decide to tell a story of a slave (or someone else who lived under historical oppression)? And who gets to make that call? The show might have closed in October, after protesters passed out flyers at many performances, but we’ll probably be wrestling with those queries for seasons to come.
“Black Odyssey”: In a year of outrage and outrage fatigue, Cal Shakes’ production of Marcus Gardley’s play, a music-infused, African American retelling of Homer’s epic, was sheer joy. Talents blazed, in the form of Dawn L. Troupe’s otherworldly singing; Margo Hall’s sly comic timing, J. Alphonse Nicholson’s musicianship as both singer and drummer; Omozé Idehenre’s emotional commitment; Lamont Thompson’s effortless cool.
Lauren Gunderson: American Theatre magazine’s announcement that the Bay Area’s own Lauren Gunderson is America’s most-produced playwright of the 2017-18 season was a victory not just for this writer, who’s known for her zippy, compassionate and intellectually curious work, but for the whole region. It testified to the fact that you don’t have to look to Broadway, or even to New York, for strong and vibrant new plays that the rest of the country is going to want to see. The national map is dotted with centers of new play development, and the Bay Area is among the most prolific of them all.
#MeToo in the theater, too: The allegations that movie producer Harvey Weinstein abused and raped many women over whom he wielded power have already reverberated far beyond the film industry. In Dallas, women came forward with stories about how former Dallas Theater Center director of new play development Lee Trull allegedly abused them. In New York, the Public Theater held a town hall gathering this month about how to handle sexual harassment in the theater industry. The Chicago theater community, which is still reeling from 2016 revelations about long-standing abuse at storefront company Profiles Theatre, has created the Chicago Theatre Standards, detailing workplace safety practices for both union and nonunion artists. Bay Area theater: Do we have to wait for something horrible to happen in our community to take action of our own?
Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicle’s theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak