Many Bay Area theaters are responding to long-term pandemic difficulties in part by programming safer fare: the well-known titles and crowd-pleasers that might lure even couch potatoes away from Netflix for a night.
But Magic Theatre, which has been led since 2021 bySean San José,is taking a different approach. Three slots in its 2024 lineup, announced Monday, Oct. 2, are world premieres.
“It’s the only way to do it,” San José told the Chronicle with a smile.
The schedule — Magic emphatically eschews the word “season” as being confusing to the newcomers it hopes to attract — commences with “Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad” (Feb. 28-March 17). Ashley Smiley’s play, which will be directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges, is about the displacement of San Francisco’s Black residents and centers on Sloosh, a queer Afro-Latina from Bayview-Hunters Point. San José calledSmiley,a San Francisco native and the program manager at the Bayview Opera House, “the voice of now, the voice of the future.”
“If we want the place to feel like the Muni bus, then you need someone who is able to write to that experience,” he added.
Next up are two plays written by Japanese American writer Naomi Iizuka and performed by the same all-star cast: Juan Amador, Daniel Duque-Estrada, Kina Kantor, Nora el Samahy, Jeuneé Simon and Mia Tagano.
“Garuda’s Wing” (June 5-23) is set in Borneo and Jakarta and directed by Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Artistic DirectorMargo Hall. “Richard II” (Aug. 22-Sept. 8), to be directed by Karina Gutiérrez, is Iizuka’s contribution to Play On! Shakespeare, a commissioning project created byOregon Shakespeare Festivalto translate each of Shakespeare’s plays into modern verse.
San José and Iizuka have a long history of collaboration through Campo Santo, the company San José co-founded in 1996 that’s now one of many resident companies at the Magic. San José hopes producing the two scripts back to back sends a clear message to audiences that when it comes to Shakespeare, “we’re approaching them like new plays,” he said.
Also happening next summer is Magic’s first show at the recently renovatedPresidio Theatre.
“Jerry Garcia in the Lower Mission” (July 11-21) is part concert and part play, all immersed in archival film footage of Garcia’s early years in San Francisco. It also reunites Magic Theatre with Richard Montoya of Culture Clash, the outrageous Latino comedy troupe that traces its own roots to the Mission District. San José is set to co-direct with Montoya, who is the writer and a performer in the show. Others on the bill include Lisa Hori-Garcia, Aidaa Peerzada, Brian Rivera and Sharon Shao.
Montoya, said San José, “is really interested in exploring a part of San Francisco history through this very tight time period in Jerry Garcia’s life that gives you a sense of both what he became, but also what became of the Mission, what became of our city.”
The show, San José added, “is going to feel like listening to a concert in a bar and hearing stories at the same time.”
2024年,魔术还希望继续space-sharing partnerships with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and Crowded Fire Theater, among others.
“We’re all so frightened and fragile about the future of theater in this moment,” San José said. But to him, the way forward can’t be to be proprietary about the work, the artists or the space. His ethos is to say, “It’s a space, and it could be your space, and it can be my space.”
Performance passes to all four shows are available at an early-bird discount of $150 through Nov. 30 by calling 415-441-8822 or visitingwww.magictheatre.org.
Correction:An earlier version of this story misstated how many world premieres will be presented by the company. There will be three, with “Richard II” making its Magic Theatre debut.
Reach Lily Janiak:ljaniak@sfchronicle.com