The Magic Theatre 2023 Year Long Performance Passes Available Now

The Magic Theatre has announced the 2023 Year Long Performance Passes are now available for purchase. The programming for the calendar year 2023 will include the World Premieres plays THE TRAVELERS by Luis Alfaro (February 15 - March 5, 2023), THE N* LOVERS by Marc Anthony Thompson (May 3 - 21, 2023), and JOSEPHINE'S FEAST by Star Finch (August 2 - 20, 2023). These three World Premieres plays continue the Magic Theatre's legacy of premiering bold, new plays and highlight the first Home Company Campo Santo as a co-producer of two of the plays. These plays, artists, and collaborations are emblematic of the overall energy and ethos of the whole space and organization in this new era!

2023 will also bring new events from the Magic Theatre's Resident Companies and Resident Artists and Community Collaborators, including:

• Resident Program
• New Performances Program
• Collaboration Program
• New Commissions Program
• Play Development Readings

We entered a new era- and despite all the madness- our enthusiasm and energy are ready to engage even more as this golden age is in effect! We started 2022 battling variants and still managing to premiere two long gestating world premiere plays from two amazing women Miranda Rose Hall and Sam Chanse, directed by two incredible veteran directors Lisa Peterson and Giovanni Sardelli. We opened up the space for 5 resident companies- and now are ready for more world premiere plays, and even expanding the Residency Program to include 2 major new residencies to our already powerful company fellowship. We brought back "A Huey P Newton" creator Roger Guenveur Smith for a premiere run of "Otto Frank"- and now will premiere the first play of his chief collaborator Marc Anthony Thompson. We named Star Finch Playwright-In-Residence- and will begin the 2022 holiday season with a premiere filmed performance from her as we prepare her new premiere play for next year. We began development with longtime Magic Theatre veterano Luis Alfaro for his new play- and that piece will set off 2023. We have brought the new into the historical Fort Mason Center and the Magic Theatre- and have only just started doing what this new golden age is about - generating new work at all times in all of the spaces, to make this the most live Home to the most folx in the Bay that we can. Jam with us- and cop the 2023 Performance Pass- and jump start your experiences with us by engaging in the rest of 2022: from the Saint John Coltrane Church to Samar Al-Sabar to Star Finch to the LoveLife Foundation to Tongo Eisen-Martin and Ahkeel Mestayer to Lorraine Hansberry Theatre to Resident Curator Juan Amador to Naomi Iizuka and Play On!- and yes, even more. That is the vibe, that is the onda, that is the energy we bringing for this new age into 2023- and we need you all! Please check out some of the many offerings for 2023.

- Lead Director Sean San José on behalf of the Magic Theatre Fam

The Magic Theatre's 2023 Performance Pass includes a ticket to all three Magic-produced World Premiere plays AND the ability to choose an additional event from the many other projects throughout the year that interest you most out of a wide variety of our brand new programming and collaborations, which will continue to be announced throughout the year! 2023 Performance Passes are starting at $120 for LIMITED TIME ONLY- this special offer gives you this affordable price through the end of October- and are available now at MagicTheatre.org. The tickets are priced and valued individually at $70 per ticket, so the price of $120 for 4 shows! is a true bargain, at more than half the regular cost. Our Performance Pass is mainly about offering what we feel is the most exciting array of artists and performances, while making it completely accessible and welcoming, true to our new mission. At the same time, all our actions and initiatives are also focused on creating a new structure in the theatre world by redefining non-resonant structures and strictures and allows for a reinvention and reinvigoration for audiences and artists. So, when we create a Performance Pass, we are also no longer using the term or structure of "theatre seasons"- the seemingly arbitrary calendaring of events from September to June that hold no weight or logic to those outside of the narrow "LORT" theatre vision. We want to create a space, and therefore performances and plays that are for All the People, theatre inclined or not. We want to be a destination for culture that features plays and theatrical storytelling across definitions. Some semanticas involved, but truly about aligning our actions to our main goal of making the Magic Theatre a Home to more folx by rightfully centering People of Color throughout. Making our way through a pandemic surely has revealed deep chasms in culture, ineffective ideologies, and alienating audiences and artistic practices. As large as those ideas are- they CAN all be opened up and overcome to create true community in our theatre spaces.

This 2023 year of new performances at the Magic Theatre will feature three world premiere plays, developed and produced by the Magic Theatre, and two of the plays- The N* Lovers and Josephine's Feast- will be co-produced and developed with Home Resident Company Campo Santo. We are building the year around these new plays and exponentially exploding the offerings by filling the year with Residency Productions, Plays, Performances, and Programs. The rest of the offerings will include: Residency Program: an original world premiere play from the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; Special Events: the 2nd annual Special event curated and hosted by Board Member (and newly minted Emmy Award Winner) Colman Domingo; Collaboration Program: new production from Crowded Fire Theater; Music Program: Resident Curator DJ Wonway Posibul Jazz Nites; weekly Sunday Services from the legendary Saint John Coltrane Church; and more and more and more.

The Magic Theatre 2023 Performance Pass offers 3 world premiere p plays and your choice of one of our more than a dozen other performance offerings! Read this advance article from the SF Chronicle: https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/no-season-no-subscription-in-magic-theatres-2023-lineup

the Magic Theatre-produced 2023 World Premieres are:

THE TRAVELERS

By Luis Alfaro

Directed by Catherine Castellanos

February 15 - March 5, 2022

This play features an all male presenting cast of Latine and Filipinx men (Juan Amador, Daniel Duque-Estrada, Guillermo Yiyo Ornelas, Brian M. Rivera Kinan Valdez, Ogie Zulueta) and all all femme and nonbinary collaborative design team (Catherine Castellanos, Perla Barraza, Maria Frangos, Christina Hogan, Sara Huddleston, Tanya Orellana, Joan Osato, GG Torres, Brittany White.) Luis Alfaro is an essential part of the Magic Theatre's recent history (four productions, three world premieres in the last decade) and will be at the center of the future of the works we generate at the Magic Theatre. Continuing Alfaro's amazing work that is emblematic of our State- the immigrant life, the city rearing, the migrant roots- he aims to make a new play that reflects on the state of our state, and therefore our country. Alfaro sets us inside a near abandoned Catholic monastery, as he explores the disconnect to community through a cast of men in search of connection and corazon with intimate honesty and inspired humor. These travelers are emblematic of our communities of the Central Valley as they seek some soul connection in our State that is building prisons over schools and forgoing any sense of faith over fear mongering. In the original voice of our Latine world- Alfaro's writing breaks through religious dogma, recognizes our cultural connections, and offers a solace for our communal souls. Alfaro's Bay Area works include premieres at the Magic Theatre: Oedipus el Rey, Bruja, This Golden State: Delano; and with several local theatres: Alleluia, The Road, Electricidad, and more. Alfaro is part of the Artistic Leadership at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles and on the Faculty at University of Southern California, among his many positions and titles. Previously Alfaro was the Playwright In Residence at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at Ashland, where his play Mojada was produced (as well as being produced throughout the country at Victory Gardens and NYC's Public Theatre, both shaped and rewritten for the specific Latine community in each city, under the direction of Chay Yew.) That play evolved out of the play Bruja, which originally premiered at the Magic Theatre.

THE N* LOVERS

By Marc Anthony Thompson

Directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe & Sean San José with the author
May 3 - May 21, 2022

Marc Anthony Thompson is a world renowned composer, songwriter, musician, performer- who has spent the past two decades creating new performance pieces for the stage with the great Roger Guenveur Smith. In his first full fledged play, Marc Anthony takes us into the incredible and inspired true story of a couple who miraculously escaped from chattel slavery from a plantation in Georgia to freedom in Boston. Rather than create a historical biography of this real legend, this piece uses it as an exploration of Race through a nouveau minstrel show, with song, scenery and subject matter- but completely controlled and through the lens of Black creation. This piece will be ground breaking- from its current shocking title The N* LOVERS to its intentional inversion of minstrelsy by centering an all Black cast to portray people across race, to the way music can work separately, "but equally" in theatrical storytelling. We are excited to embrace new voices for the theatre tackling tough histories and legacies in a surprising and shocking structure that allows us to enter the uneasy history of slavery, while contemplating it with current aesthetics. This genre breaking piece will layer Thompson's new play with original music, movement, and videography to push against the stripped vaudeville set-up of footlights and sheets as it responds to this huge historical story directly and inventively to engage us in the horror and humor, the loss and the love of the past and present. The play features an all Black company of five Rotimi Agbabiaka, Donald E. Lacy, Jr., Troy Rockett, with design by Marc Anthony Thompson, Brittany White, and more to be announced. This project is a recipient of the 2022 Gerbode Theatre Awards for Marc Anthony Thompson and Campo Santo, and will be co-produced by Home Resident Company Campo Santo

JOSEPHINE'S FEAST

By Star Finch

Directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang

August 2 - August 20, 2023

In this new play Star Finch gives us a family reaching to find its future and to figure a way to release from the past. This new play follows a matriarch on the verge in the most groundbreaking and gorgeous way. It is intentionally about a Black Mother, ready to make an inspired and somewhat unknown change, as she steps into the future and therefore foists her family too into confronting change. Star manages to weigh issues of legacy and spirituality alongside the very present-tense of funny-as-hell family dynamics, and gives us an expansive view of the Black family as a way to break open and/or embrace our own beliefs and desires. Directed by the legendary director Ellen Sebastian Chang, this fundamentally-family drama play will be layered with ritual and righteousness. Star Finch is a leader in Campo Santo and is a Playwright in Residence at the Magic, as well as a Mellon Foundation/HowlRound Theatre Commons Resident with Crowded Fire and Campo Santo. Her other plays include: H.O.M.E., Side Effects, the forthcoming Shipping & Handling, lead writer for Babylon is Burning, The Divines' Corner of Ethos de Masquerade, and more. The titular role of "Josephin" is assayed by Margo Hall, with a local company including Tierra Allen, Trevonne Bell, Britney Frazier, Donald E. Lacy, Jr. Jasmine Milan Williams and a design team of Russell Champa, Christina Hogan, Tanya Orellana, Christopher Sauceda, Brittany White, and more to be announced. This play has been developed in the Mellon Foundation/ Howl Round Theatre Commons Playwright Residency, and will be co-produced by Home Resident Company Campo Santo.

About the Magic Theatre

Since the company's founding in 1967 by visionary John Lion, the Magic Theatre has identified and cultivated writers on the cutting edge of American theatre, serving as a vital center for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard developed and premiered his Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, True West, and Fool for Love during his decade-long Magic residency (1974-84), forever altering the shape of American drama.

The Magic Theatre has now entered a new Golden Age with the appointment of Sean San José as the new Artistic Director in June, 2022. San José is the first Person of Color to fully lead the organization in its 50+ year history. With this new leadership Magic is dedicated to making the Magic Theatre a home to more people by rightfully centering People of Color throughout the organization. The Magic Theatre, while continuing to premiere bold and new plays as it has done for 54 years, has expanded its vision and programming with these new Programs: new Residency Program- which includes Home Resident Company Campo Santo and the historic Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (Artistic Director Margo Hall), along with Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (Co-Artistic Directors Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Rotimi Agbabiaka), Ellen Sebastian Chang/ Sunhui Chang and the newly announced Saint John Coltrane Church, and TigerBear Productions, and the incoming Play On! Shakespeare; new Performances Program, telling theatrical stories in dance, poetry, and music led by San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin; and Resident Artists, which is highlighted by Playwright In Residence Star Finch and Resident Curator Juan Amador, Resident Producer Jerome Gentes, and designers Russell Champa, Tanya Orellana, Joan Osato, Christopher Sauceda, and Brittany White, Hybrid Program by Ashley Smiley. In addition to the new Leadership Team and Staff (Daniel Duque-Estrada, Michael Ferrell, Brechin Flournoy, Stephanie Holmes, Sara Huddleston, Kevin Nelson, Sean San José, Christopher Sauceda, Aidan Stone, Liam Vincent), more than doubled Board of Trustees, the Magic Theatre has launched its new branding by an otherwise co., and has energetically, artistically, and aesthetically shifted the whole space in ethos and activation, a redesign of the spaces (lobby, cathedral, and theatres, including multiple new wall sized murals by local artists Mister Bouncer (Miguel Perez) from the Trust Your Struggle collective, Adrian Arias, and a space filled with legendary Black art from the Saint John Coltrane Church by Emory Douglas, Mark Roman, and Deacon Mark Doox. The space is open year round now for engagement and entertainment, arts and activation from the plays to the people- the Magic Theatre is Home for bringing the City inside.

The Magic Theatre is located in the Marina District of San Francisco, at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123). For more information, visit MagicTheatre.org or call the box office at (415) 441-8822. The performance schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm.

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