Tuesday, September 22, 2009

San Francisco: Radical Theatre Festival panel discussion v 2.0


41 years ago in 1968 San Francisco State College hosted a 5-day Radical Theatre Festival which brought together Bread and Puppet Theater, Teatro Campesino and the San Francisco Mime Troupe for a week.  Among the events were a parade, workshops, lectures, many performances and a panel discussion between the founders of those three groups: Peter Schumann, Luis Valdez and R.G. (Ronnie) Davis.

Now on November 1, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, those same panelists -- Schumann, Valdez and Davis -- will reconvene to discuss the state of radical theater now, 41 years later.  That's way cool.  The proceedings from the original event in 1968 were written up in a 48-page booklet, Radical Theatre Festival, published by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, which can occasionally be found via used book dealers.  I hope this anniversary event will be similarly documented.

Additionally there will be several SFMT exhibits in the SFSU library over the span of several months, and screenings of 2 films:  Troupers (1985) and Have You Heard Of The San Francisco Mime Troupe? (1968).  See the very impressive full schedule of events.  Those of us who can't travel to the west coast for the public screenings may have to content ourselves with viewing the DVD of the former (available via the Mime Troupe Boutique) and reading this review of the latter (NY Times, 6/28/68).

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