Theater Around The Bay: Happy Boxing Day!

Happy Holidays Friends and Fans!

We hope you’ve been having an excellent holiday season!

Boxing Day seemed like the perfect time to announce some more exciting news about this upcoming year, which includes the return of Theater Pub’s producing side! Maybe it’s because Founding Artistic Director Stuart Bousel is such an unapologetic anglophile, or maybe it’s because we hope this news will knock you out- with happiness!

A new year should always bring changes and we’re happy to announce that James Grady has been formally made Theater Pub’s official Music Director. James is originally from Scottsdale, AZ, but has called San Francisco home since 2008, and has firmly established himself in the local music and theater scenes. His first music directing gig was the 2011 Theater Pub holiday spectacular, a concert version of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. The following year he music directed and sang the role of Roger in Theater Pub’s RENT. Most he was the music director of Kristin Hersh’s RAT GIRL, adapted for the stage by Stuart Bousel. Other credits include playing guitar in the band of Custom Made Theatre’s production of NEXT TO NORMAL, performing in the house band for several Killing My Lobster shows, and playing the role of Roger in RENT at Altarena Playhouse.

Another great change: our longest running Theater Pub columnist, Marissa Skudlarek, not only took on running our Twitter account this last year, but has agreed to wear the crown of Pint Sized Tzarina! This means she’ll be running the long anticipated PINT SIZED V, so if you’re a writer, director, or actor, keep your eyes peeled for chances to get involved with this year’s festival! Marissa is a San Francisco-based playwright and arts writer. She is a frequent collaborator of Theater Pub, which produced her short plays DRINKING FOR TWO and BEER THEORY in the 2010 and 2012 PINT-SIZED PLAY Festivals, respectively. Theater Pub has also afforded her opportunities to write heroic couplets in praise of props masters (ODES OF MARCH), translate and produce a Jean Cocteau play (ORPHEE), do silly things while dressed in a fake beard and a toga (CONGRESSWOMEN) or reindeer antlers and smudged mascara (CODE RED) — and, of course, to write her biweekly column “Hi-Ho, the Glamorous Life.” Since moving to the Bay Area in 2008, Marissa has also been heavily involved with the San Francisco Olympians Festival, which commissioned her full-length drama PLEIADES in 2011 (just produced this past year) and her first screenplay, APHRODITE, OR THE LOVE GODDESS, in 2012. Marissa’s other full-length plays include DEUS EX MACHINA (Young Playwrights Festival National Competition winner, 2006), MARGINALIA, and THE ROSE OF YOUTH (Marilyn Swartz Seven Award, 2008). Her shorter plays have been produced by Un-Scripted Theatre and the San Francisco One-Minute Play Festival; and she has worked in a literary/dramaturgical capacity with Cutting Ball Theater, the Bay One-Acts Festival, and Portland Center Stage. Marissa grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, and double-majored in Drama and French at Vassar College.

Megan Cohen will continue to run Saturday Write Fever along-side Stuart Bousel, and we are pleased to say we have formally taken on three co-hosts to assist with keeping one of San Francisco’s most beloved monthly theater events fun and friendly! Sam Bertken, Andrew Chung, and Jeunee Simon have all been a tremendous part of Saturday Write Fever for the last year, helping out and subbing, often times carrying an evening on their own. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome them to the “official” Theater Pub family and look forward to another year of getting the audience writing and acting on the stage of the EXIT Cafe!

And now for our biggest announcement!

A new chapter for Theater Pub means an opportunity to restructure and change the way we do things in order to plan for a longer, better, more sustainable future. In practical terms, this has meant the hiring of two new Artistic Directors, each of whom will be helping four months of the next calendar year, working to continue Theater Pub’s tradition of generating smart, exciting, daring work while upholding our impeccable standards of inclusivity, opportunity, and fun. We are excited beyond expressing to announce that Tonya Narvaez and Meghan Trowbridge have agreed to take on these roles and we can’t wait to see what they’ll bring to the Pub!

Tonya Narvaez is a writer and actor originally from the Midwest and southern California, where she studied Theatre Arts at California State University, Long Beach. She is currently the Production Manager for Loud and Unladylike and writing a piece in the San Francisco Olympians Festival VI: Wine Dark Sea. She’s worked with a number of Bay Area theater companies, including: Battle Stache Studios, Awesome Theatre Company, Thunderbird Theatre Company, No Nude Men Productions, Custom Made Theatre Company, Sleepwalkers Theatre, The Mess, and Guywriters.

Meghan Trowbridge is a playwright and singer living in San Francisco, CA. She writes for SF’s premier sketch company Killing My Lobster, Berkeley’s playwright incubator Playground-SF, the science and culture webzine Mathom House, and Good Morning, Good Morning: a collaboration of misfits. Her plays have been produced by the SF Olympians Festival, FoolsFURY, and Inkblot Ensemble under her pen name Meghan Kathleen O’Connor. She is a proud member of the comedy improv team Chinese Ballroom, performing regularly around the Bay Area and beyond (like Sacramento). She has worked with TheaterPub since it’s inaugural season, and lubs this company very much.

To find out more about our current (and past) staff, you can always check out the bios (and sexy head shots) on our San Francisco Theater Pub Team page.

Happy Holidays and we hope you will join us in the new year for the three performance run of SATYR NIGHT FEVER, a bawdy comedy by Annette Roman and Bryant Turnage, directed by Greg Young and featuring Tony Cirimele, Annabelle King, Genevieve Perdue, and Karl Schackne! The show plays Saturday, January 17, at 2 PM at THE HALL (1028 Market Street), Monday, January 19, at 8 PM at PIANOFIGHT (144 Taylor Street), and Monday, January 26, at 8 PM at PIANOFIGHT (144 Taylor Street). As always, admission is FREE, with a $5 donation suggested at the door.

See you at The Pub!