21st Century Shakespeare for Our Times
Cabaret Cressida - with Poltergeist Theatre Project
Additional Information
For our fall production, we've partnered with Poltergeist Theatre Project, a new theater company in the Bay Area that takes problematic plays and reinvents them from a queer, feminist perspective.
ABOUT THE SHOW:
Come join us as we take Shakespeare's most explicitly queer play and set it dancing. Refocusing the narrative from the original script, this production puts the queer and femme characters at the center, giving them space to tell their own stories and celebrating the ambiguities, contradictions, and struggles of being a human at war with humanity and oneself. They say "All's fair in love and war," but you'll have to come decide for yourself.
Show Dates are as follows:
October 3-5, 10-12 @8pm
October 6, 13 @ 2pm
The Team
Co-Artistic Director Chris Steele (they/them) and Bay Area theatrical treasure Sean Owens (they/them) direct a cast that features Nic Sommerfeld (they/them) as Troilus, Emily Stone (she/her) as Cressida, Christopher Garay (he/him) as Achilles, Luke Myers (he/him) as Patroclus/Paris/Diomedes, Caroline Portante (she/her) as Thersites/Aeneas/Alexander, Samuel Barksdale (he/her) as Hector/Ajax, Ling Lee (she/her) as Ulysses/Cassandra, Ali Haas (she/her) as Helen/Menelaus, and Chris Steele as Pandarus/Agamemnon/Hecuba.
Focusing on diverse queer representation, this cast of collaborators features trans, gay, nonbinary, bisexual, and femme individuals with extensive careers in Bay Area theatre. Lou Lagalante (they/them) returns to Poltergeist after creating their visceral score for ‘The Julie Cycle’ and sets Shakespeare’s soliloquies to original Weill-Vaudeville inspired song.
Pre-Show
Come half an hour early to any performance to catch a special cabaret pre-show with performances from the characters themselves. Grab a drink, grab a good seat, and snag some Poltergeist Swag--all for a small donation!
All tickets are Pay-What-You-Will, at the door!
Our company
Theater of Others is a San Francisco theater company with a special mission: To add a fresh cultural resource in the City’s Tenderloin district, offering classical theater with a Pay-What-You-Will admission.
All performances are open to the public in the beautifully refurbished Auditorium at the Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.
We are fortunate to have the venue, talent, and community support to put timelessness on stage. In our tangled hierarchy of equal Others, Everyone is welcome. We hereby invite all Others to join in a collective of kindred spirits.
Performances
Our past productions include many Shakespeare works: Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, King John, As You Like It, and Comedy of Errors are just some of our accomplishments. But we also present other classical works.
We are fortunate to have the venue, talent, and community support to put timelessness on stage. Check back for our 2019 productions!
Partners and sponsors
Theater of Others is a project of Theater Residences, Incorporated, a California non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation which serves as an umbrella organization for small theater companies. Donations and grants though Theater Residences, Inc. are tax-deductible.
We operate in partnership with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, which provides affordable housing and services for low-income people in the Tenderloin and throughout San Francisco, and promotes equitable access to opportunity and resources.
Get involved
Theater of Others strives to create a safe and respectful space where anyone and everyone can experience the magic of live theater. In our tangled hierarchy of equal Others, Everyone is welcome. We hereby invite all Others to join in a collective of kindred spirits.
We encourage participation from the community! If you’d like to get involved with one of our productions, please email mgr.theaterofothers@gmail.com for more information.
Auditions
Auditions are held for specific productions throughout the year. We also get together for play readings. These roles are non-AEA/without pay. Typically, we ask actors to prepare a classical monologue in addition to reading sides from the script.
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Play readings
We occasionally host play-reading groups to try out plays under consideration for future productions. These are not public performances, just informal sessions that include reading the plays out loud, with preliminary dramaturgy and open discussion. Participants will read roles without regard for their suitability for casting. Typically, these are works that originated on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, that are not commonly known and are very rarely produced.
Please contact mgr.theaterofothers@gmail.com.