San Francisco Mime Troupe

The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which performs free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California, founded in 1959. Despite its name, the group does not perform silent mime, but each year creates an original musical comedy that combines aspects of commedia dell'arte, melodrama, and broad farce with topical political themes. In 1987, the group was awarded the Regional Theatre Award at the 41st Tony Awards.

Origins The group was founded in 1959 by Ronald G. Davis as a medium of expression of his divergent theatrical concepts. The group debuted on October 29, 1959, with Games—3 Sets, and two other plays. By 1961, the group transitioned to the commedia dell'arte format to more thoroughly comment on perceived political repression in the United States, the growing civil rights movement and military and covert intervention abroad.

In the mid-1960s the group started to rely less on the direct commedia dell'arte format and transitioned into having an objective of "teaching, directing towards change and to be an example of change". It also began integrating elements of jazz into its musical composition, eventually leading to the inclusion of a jazz band within the troupe. Their first outdoor performance was in May 1962 at Golden Gate Park. The group also gained notoriety for its numerous altercations with law enforcement, which resulted in performing at benefits to raise money for legal fees. The group was also associated and shared members with the Diggers. In 1967, a benefit called "Appeal IV" featured the bands the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Moby Grape.

They also traveled to Canada and played at Simon Fraser University in 1966 with A Minstrel Show or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel by Gary Davis and Saul Landau.

The music for Minstrel Show was composed and performed by Steve Reich, who worked with the troupe for at least two seasons. The troupe has always been known to employ the best composers and musicians in the area, who work intimately with the actors, writers, and whole theatrical operation. By the early 1970s, the troupe had earned a reputation for opposing capitalism, sexism, and war.

Post-Davis history In the early 1970s Davis left the troupe when it re-formed as a collective, the members of which operate as the artistic director, at which time the troupe produced one of its most successful shows, The Independent Female (1970). In the 1980s, the group's productions retaliated against the Reagan administration.

As well as the park-based shows, the Mime Troupe also tours nationally and internationally, having performed throughout Europe, Asia, South and Central America. The group also facilitates community workshops. They are a nonprofit organization. The season traditionally starts on Fourth of July weekend and ends on Labor Day weekend.

Notable members include: Saul Landau, Nina Serrano, Steve Reich, John Connell, William T. Wiley, Wally Hedrick, Victoria Hochberg, John Broderick, Peter Coyote, Luis Valdez, Barry Shabaka Henley, Bruce Barthol, Joan Mankin, Emmett Grogan, Bill Graham, and Ed Holmes.

Posters for several of the 1970s productions were designed by Jane Norling, and are accessible online.

Awards The Troupe has won three OBIEs, and in 1987, the troupe's Brechtian style of guerrilla theatre earned them a special Tony Award for Excellence in Regional Theater. Red State, the troupe's 2008 fable about a small Midwest town that, after years of being ignored, demands accountability for their tax dollars, was nominated for a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best New Script, as was their 2009 production, Too Big to Fail, which detailed how credit and the philosophy of profit at all costs trap mesmerized citizens in a cycle of debt, while endlessly enriching the capitalists who cast the spell.

Productions 1950s & 1960s

1959: Games—3 Sets 1959: Mime And Word 1960: 11th Hour Mime Show 1961: Act without Words 1961: Event I 1961: Purgatory and Krapp's Last Tape 1962: The Dowry 1963: Ubu King 1963: Event II 1963: Film: Plastic Haircut 1963: Ruzante's Maneuvers 1963: The Root 1964: Chorizos 1964: Event III 1964: Mimes and Movie 1964: Tartuffe 1965: The Exception and the Rule 1965: Candelaio 1965: Chronicles of Hell * 1965: The Minstrel Show or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel 1965: Jim Crow in a Cracker Barrel 1966: The Miser 1966: Film: Mirage And Centerman 1966: Jack Off! 1966: Olive Pits 1966: Search & Seizure 1966: What's That Ahead? 1967: L'Amant Militaire 1967: The Condemned 1967: The Vaudeville Show 1968: Gutter Puppets (Meter Maid) 1968: Little Black Panther 1968: Ruzzante or the Veteran Gorilla Marching Band is Formed 1969: The Congress of Whitewashers or Turandot 1969: The Third Estate

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1970s

1970: Ecoman 1970: Los Siete 1970: Seize the Time 1970: Telephone Man or Ripping off Ma Bell 1970: The Independent Female 1971: Clown Show 1971: The Dragon Lady's Revenge 1972: American Dreamer 1972: Frozen Wages 1972: High Rises 1973: The Mother 1973: San Francisco Scandals of 1973 1974: The Great Air Robbery 1975: Frijoles or Beans To You 1975: Power Play 1976: False Promises/Nos Engañaron 1977: Hotel Universe 1978: Elektrobucks 1979: We Can't Pay, We Won't Pay 1979: Squash 1979: T.V. Dinner

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1980s

1980: Fact Person 1981: Americans or Last Tango in Huahuatenango 1981: Factwino Meets the Moral Majority 1981: Ghosts 1982: Factwino vs. Armagoddonman 1982: Hotel Universe 1983: Secrets in the Sand 1983: The Uprising At Fuente Ovejuna 1984: Steeltown 1985: Crossing Borders 1985: Factwino: The Opera 1986: Spain/36 1986: The Mozamgola Caper 1987: The Dragon Lady's Revenge 1988: Ripped Van Winkle 1989: Seeing Double

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1990s

1990: Rats 1990: Uncle Tom's Cabin 1991: Back to Normal 1991: I Ain't Yo Uncle 1992: Social Work 1993: Offshore 1994: Big Wind 1994: Escape to Cyberia 1994: Revenger Rat Meets the Merchant of Death 1995: Coast City Confidential 1996: Gotta Get A Life 1996: Soul Suckers from Outer Space 1996: 13 Days 1997: Killing Time 1997: Inside Out 1997: The Independent Female 1997: Teen City 1998: The Artist Must Take Sides 1998: Damaged Care 1999: City For Sale 1999: 40th Retrospective

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2000s

2000: Eating it 2001: 1600 Transylvania Avenue 2002: Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan 2003: Veronique of the Mounties 2004: Showdown at Crawford Gulch 2005: Doing Good 2006: Godfellas 2007: Making a Killing 2008: Red State 2009: Too Big to Fail + Source

2010s

2010: Posibilidad or Death of the Worker 2011: 2012 - The Musical! 2012: For the Greater Good, or The Last Election 2013: Oil & Water 2014: Ripple Effect 2015: Freedomland 2016: Schooled 2017: Walls 2018: Seeing Red 2019: Treasure Island

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2020s 2020: Tales of the Resistance: Volume 1 2021: Tales of the Resistance: Volume 2 2022: Back to the Way Things Were 2023: Breakdown 2024: American Dreams 2026: WRECKAGE: A Musical Tragicomedy

Albums 1972: Fillmore – The Last Days 1983: The Album 1984: Steel Town

San Francisco Mime Troupe

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