"Absolutely San Francisco" comes to the Hollywood Fringe!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: John Doherty, 415.992.8168, [email protected]
The Alcove Theater, 414 Mason Street, #502, San Francisco, CA 94102
ABSOLUTELY SAN FRANCISCO – Long-running San Francisco Hit Comes to Hollywood Fringe
Writer/Composer Anne Nygren Doherty Stars in Poignant Postcard from the City by the Bay, June 28 – August 18
San Francisco, CA – May 12, 2012 Not Quite Opera Productions’ long-running, one-woman musical Absolutely San Francisco comes to the Hollywood Fringe Festival with the show’s author, Anne Nygren Doherty in a tour-de-force performance, playing a total of 6 “typical” San Franciscans (3 men, 3 women) who ride a cable car together and get lost in a life changing fog. The 90-minute show plays Thursday June 14 at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday June 17 at 2:30 at Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles.
Poignant, whimsical and funny, Absolutely San Francisco is a musical allegory about the SF take on the American Dream. The plot concerns Sunshine, a free-spirited casualty of the 60s, and her attempt to make a permanent home beneath “Cupid’s Span,” the giant bow-and-arrow sculpture that graces the Embarcadero. Beleaguered by the city – in the form of meter-maids threatening to tow her shopping cart – Sunshine has to find someone with power to help her fight City Hall. Guided by signals from the city’s enormous main television antenna, Sutro Tower, she sets out on a quest that takes her on a cable car ride with conductor Naima, shopkeeper Grace, engineer Narayan, gay wine-merchant Jeffrey, and hippie-billionaire Davo. When the car breaks down and a mysterious fog turns day to night, eliminating any trace of the city, the characters find themselves in a Twilight Zone episode that forces them to question reality until they find a way out.
The insightful, whimsical book and lyrics by Anne Nygren Doherty turn the city’s stereotypes inside out and reveal the heart and soul of a city where the atypical is typical – where hippies, drifters and dreamers rub elbows with make-a-buck immigrants and the top 1% of the “1%.” The audience laughs, cries and comes away deeply moved by the hidden bonds that tie these seemingly disparate people together.
The show portrays the city – known world over as a metaphor for personal freedom, social revolution and the pioneer spirit – as harboring a secret beneath its picture postcard reality: its love-hate relationship with change. Thanks to this conflict between freedom and restriction – and maybe thanks to the San Andreas fault – the show’s inhabitants forever feel they’re on shaky ground. The result of Sunshine’s unpredictable comic journey is to unite the contrasting characters and heal the wounds inflicted by their American Dreams.
Nygren Doherty plays all of the roles, using simple hats and props to indicate character. Watching the rapid-fire transformations between characters is also part of the fun, but the idea that one woman plays all the roles underscores one of the show’s central themes: that there is a human bond between all people, however disparate they seem. As Sunshine says, “Everybody comes to California looking for something… even if you were born here, you have to be looking for something, even if it’s only acceptance, because the search is what ties us all together.”
About Not Quite Opera
Not Quite Opera Productions is one of a handful of companies in the US that is devoted exclusively to the development of original musical theater. As part of its mission, NQO holds monthly writer/composer forums, produces a bi-annual cabaret of new works by local writers and composers, and is in the process of developing several new shows to be revealed in 2013.
Dates, Times, and Tickets
WHERE: Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
WHEN: Thursday, June 14th, 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 17 at 2:30 p.m.
TICKETS: $13 – general admission, $10 – fringe participants
www.absolutelysanfrancisco.com
Venue phone: (323) 962-1632
SHOW CONTACT: Anne Doherty, Not Quite Opera Productions 415.992.8168, [email protected]
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS
Absolutely San Francisco – Poignant, whimsical and funny, Absolutely San Francisco is a musical allegory about the SF take on the American Dream. Writer-composer Anne Nygren Doherty plays 6 “typical” San Franciscans (3 men, 3 women) who ride a cable car together and get lost in a life changing fog. You will laugh, cry and come away deeply moved by the hidden bonds that tie these seemingly disparate people together. Book, music and lyrics by Anne Nygren Doherty. Thursday, June 14th, 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 17 at 2:30 p.m. at Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, $13 – general admission, $10 – fringe participants; www.absolutelysanfrancisco.com; Venue Line: (323) 962-1632
SHOW CONTACT: Anne Doherty, Not Quite Opera Productions 415.992.8168, [email protected]
PRESS CONTACT: John Doherty, 415.992.8168, [email protected]
