One Woman Show: Sherilyn Connelly

The Last Dog and Pony Show and Queer Reading Salon

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sherilyn Connelly is a San Francisco-based writer. The Last Dog and Pony Show is a story of love, loss, regret, redemption and kitty ears. It's an excerpt from her first memoir Bottomfeeder. The Queer Reading Salon will include Liz Latty, Clare Marie Myers, Horehound Stillpoint and Rose Tully.

Photo by Mark I. Chester

One Woman Show:  Meliza Bañales   •   One Bad Year  •  Wed, August 12, 2009

In 2008, a marriage ended, a nephew was murdered, and a job was lost-- and that was only the first eight weeks of the year for Meliza Banales. You'd think it would be a banner time to just throw in the towel, but how can you do that when there's so much meditating and hoola-hooping to do? "One Bad Year" is the story after the story. Using multi-media, dance, bubbles, balloons, science, Xicano-Buddhism, fashion, and astrology the show follows the three selves of Banales -- her inner child, Lil' Missy, her inner-chola, Mari, and Meliza herself-- through their year-long journey of forgiveness, re-invention, and really, really good hair. What we see are not the makings for a stellar tragedy, but rather the ingredients for healing and making it to the other side, relatively unscathed.

Written and performed as part of the AIRspace Residency Program for the '08-'09 season.

More information about the artist Here

SPF4 presents   Aries, Calypso and Cynthia Brinkman

Fri, Sat, August 7, 8, 2009

Brave, new theatre with solo artists

• Aries   A Place in the Moon is a love story where the ancestors, moon, and stars all have a divine impact on how we love, who we love, and how it ends and begins again.

• Calypso   Message in a Bottle is a touching and comedic journey of birth and coming of age.

• Cynthia Brinkman    The Evolution of the Kiss explores female empowerment as seen across three generations and two countries.

More info about the artists Here

One Woman Show:    Sage • Saturday, August 1

My Mother’s Hand and Other Things that Burn with AJ Shanti

My Mother's Hand is one woman's journey from an abusive childhood to forgiveness, acceptance and love. Jamie Cotton is a freelance writer and performance artist who has recently moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. She is interested in writing from the inside out and developing a uniquely female voice. She has appeared in two full-length movies , several shorts, numerous Japanese television shows, as well as, in many print publications both locally and abroad. In 2001 she toured with Caryn Horwitz’s Production of the lesbian comedy Girl Meets Girl in which she played the character of Annie.

More info, including summary and review Here

Queer Acoustic Music   •   Fri, July 31, 2009

A two-piece female band out of San Francisco, Camp Out is an indie-rock band who makes up for their short roster by multi-tasking with instruments, pedals, loop stations, drum machines, and synths. With a full-length debut album set to be released in August of 2009 and a west coast tour to follow, Camp Out works to win you over with their heartfelt and sing-along-able songs.

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Jackie Buerger is a garden variety musician, organic, free of pesticides, and deliciously covered with dirt.
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Mary Roach (at left) is a folk singer who hails from Southern California. She spends her daylight hours at a less-than-stellar cubicle job (which pays the bills) and moonlights as an acoustic folk musician, performing at local dive bars and coffee shops.

SPF4 and the Queer Girl Theatre Project present  Two Evenings of New Dance

July 29-30, 2009

• Heidi Landgraf  (at right) DanceAct’s "Marry Me," a whimsically funny yet serious dance theater piece
• Lindsay Shapiro’s explorations of gender identity and simple intimacies and
• Liz Boubion’s "Sombra", a spellbinding expression of poetry, movement and song

More info Here

Melanie Salazar Case

Queer Girl Theatre Project in association with SPF4 present

Queer Film and Discussion

Melanie Salazar Case, Nanci Gaglio, Jennifer Jigour and Johanna Buchignani

Jul 22-23, 2009   

Have you ever wanted to create a short or full-length film? Need a little inspiration to get those creative juices flowing? We have just the thing for you! Come check out some of the bay area's exciting new queer film maker's as they present new works and discuss the process of formulating ideas for film, creating characters, fashioning story-lines, casting, obtaining funds and more.

More information about the filmmakers Here

July 17-18,2009   •   SPF4 presents

Mary's Dream Theatre

As modern troubadours, Spear Ensemble becomes Mary's Dream Theatre. A TROUPE of actor, acrobat, dancer, musician & poet clowns tackle the topic of transcendence, as they tell the Tale of Mary: in the forest, upon a bed, legs of live trees grow toward heaven, a girl awaits various soul mates, she chooses penitence over consummation. But temptations do arise...

Based on personal experience and myth, Mary's Dream explores transcendence found on a journey through (any denomination of) hell. Dance, physical Theater, Acrobatics, clowning, live music with vocal harmonies, poetry & narrative, guide us through several interlocking stories of tragedy and victory.

SPF4 and Team Lexington present

Forever and a Day

July 15-16 , 2009

Glitz! Glamour! Guns? It’s Forever and a Day, the unbelievable exploits of Special Agent Double Deuce---a man of action, song and dance. His mission: save the world from the evil Doctor Thunderpussy. His allies: The Queen of England, Hollywood’s favorite starlet, and the sexiest President in American history. Fists will fly, tangos will tantalize, and Agent Double Deuce will sacrifice everything he holds dear to destroy the darkest demons within his soul.

June 5-28

The San Francisco Moving Men presented an evening of athletic dance, music and really cute boys. Presenting testosterone driven choreography with a queer perspective and a pop sensibility.

Post-performance receptions benefited local non-profits. 

More info Here. 

June 5 , 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

Jun 14-15, 2009

One Bad Year with Meliza Banales

In 2008, a marriage ended, a nephew was murdered, and a job was lost-- and that was only the first eight weeks of the year for Meliza Baales. You'd think it would be a banner time to just throw in the towel, but how can you do that when there's so much meditating and hoola-hooping to do? "One Bad Year" is the story after the story. Using multi-media, dance, bubbles, balloons, science, Xicano-Buddhism, fashion, and astrology the show follows the three selves of Banales -- her inner child, Lil' Missy, her inner-chola, Mari, and Meliza herself-- through their year-long journey of forgiveness, re-invention, and really, really good hair. What we see are not the makings for a stellar tragedy, but rather the ingredients for healing and making it to the other side, relatively unscathed. Written and performed as part of the AIRspace Residency Program for the '08-'09 season.

Photo by

Melissa Gira Grant

June 11, 2009

SF In Exile Presents
REBEL GIRL: a riot grrl nostalgia show
Curator: Gina DeVries

Riot grrrl was a youth and punk-oriented radical sociopolitical movement that captivated the hearts, minds, raging hormones, and feminist rage of many queer and trans teen girls in the early and mid-nineties. Join the National Queer Arts Festival and San Francisco in Exile for a Riot Grrrl Revival -- where you can once again dress in your leopard print thrift store finery, scrawl SLUT across your midriff, toss that Huggy Bear 7" on the turntable, and make a fanzine extolling the virtues of veganism + vibrators. It's Revolution Grrrl-Style, Now! -- with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Past and present zinestars and grrrl revolutionaries will tell wax nostalgic about the old days, and let you know what they've been up to recently. Zines and cupcakes will be available for purchase.

Jun 10, 2009        AIRspace presents

The Garage All-Stars - Part II
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The Garage All-Stars presents Sherilyn Connelly performing Intersections and Interventions, traveling from the streets of the Tenderloin to the dungeon of a sex club.

Queer Girl Theatre Project presents Remember Me, with recorded interviews and performance.

Calypso (at right) presents “i capture dot show slash reality” examining the digital image and our most intimate understandings.

June 3 , 2009

The Garage All Stars - Part I

Model-turned-actress Philip Huang is here to help you forget the war, the depression, and the torture memos. Ovaries and Corduroy is a 60 min descent into tastelessness, race-baiting, and The Color Purple. Featuring Khalil Sullivan and Thandiwe Thomas.   For a taste:   Click Here

Laura Arrington (at right) presents Thirty Minutes of Wonderful, inspired by southern ladies and set in a Louisiana living room, exposing a culture burdened by ignorance but nourished by heart.

May 31-Jun 1, 2009

The National Queer Arts Festival and AIRspace present

This Many People: The LGBT Seniors Project by Outlook Theater

What does community mean for the first openly gay generation in the US? What do we know about the lives of those who came before us in the struggle for acceptance? How do different generations in the LGBT community learn about each other?

Excerpts of a play-in-progress focus on issues of community and isolation in an aging LGBT population based upon the experiences and personal histories of LGBT Seniors.

May 29-30, 2009

raw & uncut presents

a new performance showcase featuring music and performance with G. Randall Wright, solo theatre with Susan Kanga and new choreography by Jennifer Meek (at right), U Dance Electra, Kerstin Stuart (at left) and Michelle Fletcher.

May 21-23, 2009    •    Rover Hendrix

Ever been to an improv show and thought, “This would be better with less talking?” Or to a modern-dance show and thought, “What if they suddenly started wrestling?” Of course you have!

Rover Hendrix is Michael Michalske and Kurt Bodden. From their background in improv, theater, and various modes of movement (from yoga to martial arts to skydiving), and their physical chemistry together, they create an odd and oddly funny form of improvisation.

Artists website Here

May 14-15, 2009      RAW presents

“Up” is a dance/theatre montage

created and performed by Christina Miglino and explores perceptions of faith through the intangible and what we hold as real, searches for what inspires us to continue on, and grapples with our need to control.

An experimental work saturated with raw intimacy, provocative imagery, and a subtle awkwardness that ignites a curiosity within.

May 4-5, 11-12, 2009, RAW presents

The Unspeakable Act

Featuring 23 Elephants

A hilariously twisted fairy tale you won’t be telling your children anytime soon!

23 Elephants’ plan is to do something right now, using what we’ve got right now, with the people we know right now and right now you are invited to be a part of what promises to be a hysterical, eye-opening and completely original evening of theater bursting with new vitality and fresh incites from this powerhouse cast!

April 24-25, 2009

Featuring new work by Alan Kaiser, Beatrice Basso, Mia Paschal, Megan Cohen and Scott Baker

Tempestuous(ness), or HIStory is a new work being developed by Scott Baker

CUSPperformanceontheverge

May 1-2, 2009

Featuring performances by

Alex Curtis, Pamela Davis, Melenie Flynn

and an excerpt of Failure To Communicate by Val Faschman

Failure to Communicate, based on a true experience, examines the U.S. education and social service systems

April 18-19, 2009

presents

FACT/SF

&

ShiftingForces Productions

FACT/SF performs the World Premiere of “Stricken”, a site-specific work developed while in residency at The Garage.  This work explores the spaces between hysterical states in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of the slightly-destabilized human psyche, the nature of hysteria, the power of the adrenals, and the very human ability to disappear.

Photo: "Stricken " was taken by Tawnee Kendall.  The dancer featured is Catherine Newman.

In their new work “11 Temptations”, Shifting Forces Productions focuses on a series of short connected dances, and videos, which deal with the exposition of hidden desires.

OffLeash

- Who's a good girl?

written and performed by JoAnn Selisker

directed and choreographed by Chris Black

April 16 & 17, 2009

RAW presents

Jen Gwirtz and Kyle Giffiths Band

Passage/Apis

with music by Dave Rodgers and Brian Eno.

Jennifer's work is informed by conceptual art and technology. She mixes the personal and the metaphorical with physical, vocal and verbal vocabularies to find the intersections between physical and mental systems. For example, a printed record of brain waves is encoded manually into music or movement, then sung or danced. By transforming an objective record into the more expressive media of sound, movement and text, the resulting work creates a visceral, temporal and unexpectedly poeticized understanding of what it means to be human. Her latest projects extends from a choreographic practice called "necessary movement," which uses systems of intention and physicality.

April 11, 2009

SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts and The Garage would not exist if it were not for our dedicated supporters and artists. It has been an amazing two years! In 2008 we produced over two-hundred events, serving hundreds of artists and arts organizations. We continue to create a "safehouse" for local performers and foster a creative community that is both inclusive and professional.

SAFEhouse

presents

move(men)t returns for the second year at The Garage and continues to present some of the best male contemporary choreographers in the Bay Area. This year’s program features both veteran and emerging artists in a showcase of athletic and testosterone driven choreography.

April 9-10, 2009

second annual

move(men)t

a men's dance festival

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Mark Foehringer, Folawole,

Sebastian Grubb, Kyle Griffiths Band,

Jason Torres Hancock, Kegan Marling,

FACT/SF,  Stephen Pelton and

San Francisco Moving Men

Curated by Shannon Preto

RAW presents
The Pride and Prejudice Project

presented by Ko Labs Theater Company

The Pride and Prejudice Project is

an unconventional look at a family
ripping through the money, marriage and class ties that bind.

Fusing original text, movement, and music

to create a world where past and
present become one.

Artist website: kolabs.org

March 28-29 2009

Niko Dacumos

March 7, 14, 21, 2009

The Garage’s queer residency program

Join some of the Bay Area’s brightest queer performance voices as they prepare for the 2009 National Queer Arts Festival. A different line-up every week, featuring spoken-word, contemporary dance and experimental theatre.

Courage Group

(Excerpts from) "Dirty Girl": A metaphor for the journey people take to grow into their sexuality and legitimize their awakenings.

March 11 & 12, 2009

(resident artist workshop)

 presents

Courage Group

&

FACT/SF

FACT/SF

FACT/SF performs the SF premiere of “…is all that an(n)a sees” and the US premiere of “Before this we weren’t here”. 

Ishika Seth

March 4 & 5, 2009   •   RAW presents 

an evening of south asian artists          

Theater and dance

Featuring solo performance by Susan Kanga and contemporary dance by Ishika Seth and Karishma    

Sebastian Grubb

and Tara Fagan

(at left)

Michelle Fletcher

Katie Anderson

Lenora Lee

Automatic Art

Shaunna Vella and

Minna Harri

Feb 7 & 8, 2009

RAW (resident artists' workshop) presents

group A
and
PUSH Dance

Two of the Bay Area's most innovative, emerging dance companies premiering new choreography developed in The Garage's residency program

PUSH website by by Raissa Simpson Here

Feb 5 & 6, 2009

Denia Dance  

RAW (resident artists' workshop) presents "Moving toward Meaning," an evening of new choreography by Felice Ana Denia and her emerging San Francisco contemporary dance company, Denia Dance. The works spring from a variety of inspirations and center around the desire to connect with ourselves and one another in a quickly changing world.

The works to be performed have been developed during Denia Dance's residency at The Garage. Guest Artist Kirsten Boyne will appear with Christina Chellette and Felice Ana Denia in a live music and dance collaboration with Japanese flute player Robert Rodriguez and percussionist Mumuka.

Artists website Here 

Jan 4 & 11, 2009

RAW presents choreographer Laura Bernasconi   

Moving Studies

Moving Studies is an informal performance event by Amsterdam-based dance artist and emerging choreographer, LAURA BERNASCONI. With her professional background in western classical dance and classical Indian dance, the evening promises to investigate and synthesize both dance idioms creating dance that crosses and blends the cultural divide between East and West.