Experimental theater on the wacky and wild side
The 19-year-old Cutting Ball Theater has long been known as one of the Bay Area’s most reliable sources for unruly, experimental theater. With its Variety Pack, an 11-day festival now in its second year, audiences get to see those artistic experiments in their earliest phases — as wild hypotheses and impulses, as tantalizing what-ifs and imaginings.
The series of shorts, readings and workshops will feature left-field classics by Antonin Artaud and Federico Garcı a Lorca, and new plays by Morgan Gould (who just directed “Straight White Men” at Marin Theatre Company) and Aurin Squire.
On Thursday and Friday, Nov. 8 and 9, you can catch “Short Cuts,” featuring contributions from four directors in one evening, including new Cutting Ball artistic director Ariel Craft as well as Susannah Martin (who just helmed the fabulous “Women Laughing Alone with Salad”). Two riffs on myths round out the bill, with Maya Herbsman offering a queer take on Eurydice and Persephone and Erik Pearson delving into Cyclops. Variety Pack: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8; 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9; 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 10-11. Through Nov. 18. $15. Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor St., S.F. 415525-1205. www.cuttingball.com