Few experiences are as collectively exciting as live sport and live music.
By Paul Duclos
Published: February, 2016
Few experiences are as collectively exciting as live sport and live music. Just days before Super Bowl 50 storms the Bay Area, the San Francisco Symphony and NFL Films invite you to meet them at the intersection of art and football with “NFL Films and the San Francisco Symphony: A Concert of Champions,” hosted by NFL Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen.
The program features the iconic, Emmy award-winning sports filmmaking of NFL Films—cinema that combines sweeping images of stadium pageantry, stirring music and dramatic script lines—on the big screen with a live score performed by the San Francisco Symphony. “A Concert of Champions” promises to unite sports fans and arts supporters as no other evening can. For more, see www.sfsymphony.org.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Playhouse will kick off 2016 with Jennifer Haley’s mind-blowing play The Nether, which challenges audience to confront an explosive and controversial conversation that resonates with disturbing current events of the day. The Nether essentially asks, “How can the virtual world be policed—and should it be?”
Playhouse co-founder Bill English directs the play. Here, in an exclusive interview with Bay Crossings, he explains more about the production and this remarkable theater.
Bay Crossings: The new season begins with The Nether, a challenging play that raises disturbing questions about relationships and identity. How difficult is it to direct a work like this?
Bill English: I’ve found it very challenging. The play deals with some very touchy issues. Part thriller, part science fiction, part love story. Very difficult to find the right tone. Also, we are working with child actors, who are amazing, but it adds a new
dimension to the work.
BC: What other plays have posed similar problems?
English: I think Ideation by Aaron Loeb, which we’ll be taking to 59E59 Theatre in New York in March, was similarly difficult to direct and produce. Part thriller, part farce, we had to skate a fine line between these two contradictory styles to pull it off. And The Nether actually deals with very similar issues as another Aaron Loeb play, First Person Shooter.
BC: Can you describe how SF Playhouse determines which new works are performed each season?
English: That is the province of the artistic director. I see over 50 shows a year and read over 300. In addition, our associate artistic director, Jordan Puckett, sifts thru the hundreds of submissions, reading more plays than I and making recommendations. In the end, we narrow the choices down to 12-15 and then I consult closely with Susi Damilano, our producing director, not just on matters of programming and balancing a season but to make sure the season is viable financially.
BC: Have you leaned any great lessons from a play’s failure?
English: Well, I don’t know that I feel we have had any failures. I’m proud as can be of every show we’ve put on artistically. Some do better than others at the box office, which can be a bit of a mystery. We were discussing the other day that plays about war and cancer have not done as well. These are tough topics. But there are lots of surprises, with shows we don’t have great expectations for sometimes out-selling the ones we expect to make more sales.
BC: What about a smash hit? What’s the secret there?
English: Hmmm. If I knew that, I’d probably be a famous Broadway producer. But seriously, there are some shows you just know will do well. Famous titles like Into the Woods we expected to do well, but were blown away when it set box-office records. We were pretty sure The Motherf----- With the Hat would do well. Theatre is a little like horse racing. You put your best thoroughbreds, best jockey, and best training forward and cross your fingers. Theatre is not a business for the faint of heart!
More can be found here: paulduclosonsanfranciscoculture.blogspot.com.
