Columbia Foundation Awards Grant to San Francisco Mime Troupe

Tony-Award Winning Political Theatre Ensemble Celebrates 45 Years

SAN FRANCISCO, CA Vice President, Technology MarketingWhat a way to say happy birthday! Celebrating 45 years as Amercia's foremost political theatre ensemble, The San Francisco Mime Troupe (www.sfmt.org) has been awarded a $60,000 grant from the prestigious Columbia Foundation (www.columbia.org). The grant, payable over two years, was awarded to fund a two-month play creation workshop at the beginning of the ensemble's next two seasons.

Because our resources are limited, script development has always depended on a large amount of volunteer time from our Collective," says Peggy Rose, the Mime Troupes general manager. The Columbia Foundations generous endorsement of our creative process will allow our artists to focus more intensively on play creation. A solid play often takes months or years to complete its development process. At the Mime Troupe we compress that process into less than three months. Adding an additional eight weeks of focused play creation activity should have a profound impact on what our audiences see in the parks."

Currently, the San Francisco-based collective is touring California parks and public venues with the acclaimed Showdown at Crawford Gulch", an original musical fable about lies, greed, and dirty double-crossing in 1886 Crawford Gulch, Texas. In the pointed but tongue-in-cheek satire, the townsfolk of Crawford Gulch face perpetual war with the neighboring Comanche. Suspicious locals fight to protect their liberties as they are stirred into a frenzy of fear over reported Arrows of Mass Destruction." Since July 4th the Troupe has been touring California with their wonderfully written analogy of the Gulf War and the power of the media to shape opinion" ( New Bayview). Throughout the tour, audiences have cheered SFMT's Greek-style tetralogy around Dubya...call it The Bushiad" ( East Bay Express). Audiences continue to flock to this entertaining, thought-provoking and balanced show." (Santa Cruz Sentinel) with critics noting that the key to the Mime Troupe's 45 years of success is how clever and entertaining their work can be - a badge of theatrical skill, not just conviction." (Seattle Times).

The San Francisco Mime Troupe is different than most theater companies because our plays are typically not created by one person, living or dead, but by a group of artists honing one idea from many voices," said Collective member Ellen Callas. We are thankful to the Columbia Foundation for allowing us the opportunity to focus, without distraction, on the themes we feel will engage our audiences and hopefully inspire them to work together for a better future."

The San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater of the highest professional quality, staging plays that dramatize the operation of giant forces in small, closeup stories that convey the impact of political events on personal life. Founded by R.G. Davis in 1959, the company became the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1961 and began performing in local parks in the classical Commedia dellarte style, adapted and updated to satirize the present. In 1963 the Park and Recreation Commission denied the Mime Troupe a permit, and Davis was arrested for defying the ban. With the help of the ACLU, the Company won the right to perform in the parks, beginning more than four decades of free outdoor public performances. Original scripts took their place next to Commedia beginning in 1965. Since 1970 the Mime Troupe has created at least one new show a year. In 1970 the Mime Troupe became an artist-governed collective, composed of permanent members on the artistic side...actors, musicians, writers, composers, directors, designers and technicians, who create shows, make policy, assign writers and directors, and approve plans for tours, grant sources, expenditures, and special projects. The Mime Troupe won its first OBIE Award in 1968 for "uniting theater and revolution and grooving in the parks." Since then, two more OBIEs, the coveted Tony Award (for Excellence in Regional Theater), the Bay Area Media Alliance's Golden Gadfly Award for Lifetime Achievement, and numerous Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Awards have been added to the list of the company's many honors.

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