It's the San Francisco Theater Festival, and it's free. Between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday, July 22, nearly 70 Bay Area theaters, troupes, individual actors, music and dance ensembles and more will take the stage for half-hour mini-shows.
"It's an opportunity to get a sense of different theater groups and for them to have a chance to show what they're all about," said festival founder and executive producer Bill Schwartz. "It's to get people interested in going to future productions."
 Above, a (clothed) No Nude Men production. |
One is Marc Samuels, who will bring seven or eight members of his Coastside-based Blue Blanket Improv troupe for their first foray before San Francisco audiences.
Formed in San Francisco, this troupe focuses on improvisation.
Led by recent El Granada transplant Samuels, they will appear on the Stone Stage at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday with a show of children-friendly, short-form improv games.
The actors will call for audience suggestions for game and scene rules, and bring up a volunteer too.
The San Francisco festival is new to the troupe but not to Samuels. "I love it," he said. "This is the best festival ever."
Sunday's festival also marks a milestone for El Granada resident Stacy Malia, who will direct the informative, lighthearted, "Five Short Episodes in the Life of Sacagawea: A Sex Farce" for nine adult actors of San Francisco-based independent theater company, No Nude Men Productions. She has been a member for four years.
The troupe began with San Francisco actor Stuart Bousel, who was fed up with auditioning for shows that called for actor nudity. Now with more than 100 performers from around the country, it presents one-act plays, original works or updated versions of the classics.
Malia discovered the group shortly after returning from a disappointing sojourn in Los Angeles and then conventional jobs in San Francisco, when her love of theater drew her back to the stage.
Her first foray with No Nude Men was in 2003 in "Edward II" by Christopher Marlowe, in which she played Lancaster, a man's role adapted for a woman. The venue was a small, one-room art gallery/theater on a minimalist set with the actors in simple black clothing and barefoot, in order to keep the audience focused on the play.
"It was basically us and the text," said Malia. "It was wonderful.'
Her next outing was Bousel's dramedy "Speak to Me" in which she played a supermodel, which she called a "fun character."
This weekend marks Malia's third outing with No Nude Men at the theater festival. Her first was in 2004 with all-woman, comedic, 30-minute romp "The Book of Genesis, Remastered and Remixed" by No Nude Men member Nirmala Nataraj. Some said it was the hit of the festival."
Next came another 30-minute comedy, "Les Miserable," a takeoff on serious musical "Les Miserables" and a reflection of what Malia calls No Nude Men's focus on fun with smarts.
"We like to do intelligent parodies," she said. "You need to reach out (to viewers) and grab them and make them watch, and still retain some sense of intelligence."
She will direct this year's "Five Short Episodes" by troupe member David Duman, which she said will whisk viewers through real and fictional historical landmarks like Lewis and Clark or meetings with Susan B. Anthony, "the last Indian" Ishi, and a modern-day fiancé. It's rife with sly in-jokes drawn from Duman's commitment to accuracy.
"He's definitely done his homework," said Malia.
So has she. Born in Walnut Creek, she made her stage debut at 6 as Molly in "Annie." Her family lived in New Zealand for a few years due to her father's work, but she grew up in Walnut Creek.
She pursued theater in high school and at the University of Colorado, where she studied theater and English. Then she went to Los Angeles.
She worked in the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge and as a nanny for the family of Hugh Hefner, but she grew disillusioned.
"It frustrated me enough to almost give up on it when I saw the business side of theater in Los Angeles," she said. "Hefner was good to me. Hef's a very nice man. But seeing how things run, in general, in that town ..." and her voice trailed off.
Back then, she said, "I was more naïve than I should have been. Now I'm ready. I want to go back and see what I can do."
Identifying her main theatrical strength as comedy, but also loving the variety of acting, producing and directing, she notes that "as far as taking a show and enhancing it to make it better, that makes me feel accomplished. I love it."
She has an agent in San Francisco and says she's on the right path now. "As long as I'm involved with theater and film and acting and producing and directing, I know where my head's at, and I want that path."
An El Granada resident for a year with boyfriend Andy Decker, she also said she is considering approaching Coastal Repertory Theatre. For now, the former Los Angeles resident likes the coast.
"I love how everyone here is supportive of local things," she said. "I love having organic vegetables delivered to my door by local farmers. It makes me so happy."
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AT A GLANCE
What: San Francisco (free) Theater Festival
Where: Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission and Third streets, San Francisco
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 22
Cost: Free
Information: (415) 543-1718
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