Our 5th annual Canciones del Mar concert was a dream!

"THE SACRED RADIANCE OF THE SUN"

- King Lear

Our 5th annual Canciones del Mar concert was a dream. Thank you dancers, listeners, and stellar musicians! 

Photos: ACT OUT Photography, Jim Norrena

A standing ovation for the jaw-dropping sunset streaking resplendent colors across the sky, melting everything into liquid gold, and slipping off into violet clouds. 

Big thanks to our friends at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and to the warm wooden embrace of ferryboatEureka. We'll be back! 

Meantime, the songs of el pulpo (the octopus) y el calamar (the squid), of sailboats and canoes and the teasing love affair of the waves against the sand, murmur in our memories...

Photo: Lauren Matley

Mother Lear starts this weekend with private home performances in SF and San Anselmo!

On opening weekend you can find mama Lear on the roof of a dramatic SOMA warehouse, surrounded by the urban jungle, as well as amongst live oaks upon a golden hilltop. 

Be sure to catch We Players' trademark exterior open space performances of Mother Lear in the South Bay at Montalvo Arts Center, and in San Francisco at the beautifully expansiveMcLaren Park. Find unique intimate performances under The Sukkah at The Jewish Community Center East Bay, and at other spectacular private residences around the Bay Area.

HEAR THE SONGS OF THE SEA

Canciones del Mar pulls into port in just ten days!
Saturday, 9/23, 6:30pm

We Players' Music Director, Charlie Gurke

Come celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month at Canciones del Mar, aboard Eureka, the 1890 side-wheel paddle steamboat at Hyde Street Pier.

Have a listen to La Piragua, from Canciones del Mar!

Join our "Captain's Club"! 
Any donation to We Players made between now and 9/23 in the amount of just $10 or more puts you in the Captain's Club!

We're delighted to offer complimentary  Canciones del Mar drinks to our Captain's Club members.

Please note: We can not accept any donations on-site at the event and drinks will not be available for purchase.

So wet your bosun's whistle and join the Captain's Club today!  

JOIN THE FINAL BEOWULF PERFORMANCE

The final 2 performances of BEOWULF draw nigh, and Saturday's is sold out!

Photo: Lauren Matley

Join us for this fever-dream of memory and forgetting, a ritual that will both include your participation and leave you suspended in the shadows...

Catch the final performance of BEOWULF this Sunday!

The journey begins at sunset
at the SF Maritime Museum.

Wrestle with humanity and monstrosity under the stunning expanse of the sky and in the warm embrace of our mead hall. 

2 weekends of BEOWULF remain - catch it while you can!

"HANDS DOWN ONE OF THE BEST, MOST VISCERAL PIECES OF THEATRE I HAVE SEEN... I LEFT SHAKEN AND RAW."
-John S

Photo by Lauren Matley

Think for a minute about what it would be like to have no light, only total darkness.
What a candle would mean to you…

BEOWULF: 
We expect this work to challenge... it is unlike any other We Players' production to date. We invite you to journey into strange new territory and to release expectation of the usual.

"The performers labour and labour for the audience; every welling of laughter and emotion in me felt wrought from determined and sacrificing humans." - Colin S

It is a fever-dream of memory and forgetting, a ritual that will both include your participation and leave you suspended in the shadows...

"Charlie Gurke, Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Bruce Ackley, and Steve Adams clothed in their own versions of early Middle Ages furs, hides, and rough robes become an integral part of the storytelling, offering a musical score like none any of us has likely ever heard nor will long forget." -Theatre Eddys

BEOWULF has only 2 weekends remaining.
Join us before it’s too late!

The journey begins at sunset
at the SF Maritime Museum.
Only through April 16. 

Wrestle with humanity and monstrosity under the stunning expanse of the sky and in the warm embrace of our mead hall. 

It's Alive!

The monster is awake and the heroes are rising!
BEOWULF has opened!

Photo: Loe Matley

Hear what our audiences are saying:

"BEOWULF is sensational. I have never experienced anything like it... We Players know how to offer a play experience like no other. Way beyond play... Beyond anything." -David 

"BEOWULF is stunning. Looking forward to seeing it again!" -Kathleen

"I really felt like we were collectively mourning for our country, mourning for our fallen humanity that has departed from nature, from instinct, from listening. The dynamic shifts that broke the meditative, ritualistic rhythms were like waking up from a dream, but into another dream --almost the nightmare of reality." -Adriana 

"I keep thinking of the ending procession image; the final preparation before facing the unknown." -Sabrina

Take the BEOWULF challenge. Join us!

The journey begins at sunset
at the SF Maritime Museum.
Thursday - Sunday, March 11 - April 16. 

Wrestle with humanity and monstrosity under the stunning expanse of the sky and in the warm embrace of our mead hall. 

On a tight budget?
Join the BEOWULF rush ticket mailing list.

BEOWULF Cast Spotlight: Shinichi Iova-Koga

As the the artistic founding director of inkBoat physical theatre and dance company, Shinichi has performed throughout North America, Europe and Japan in theaters and site specific locations. We are beyond excited to have him co-directing this project! Here are some of his thoughts about working with We.

Describe your experience of this collaborative process. How is it similar or different from past projects/ experiences?

Shinichi: From one perspective, it’s a usual collaboration in that we must let go of outcome... because anything that any of us might preconceive will not fit how others, operating from a different paradigm, approach material. So, the process requires listening. In the best of worlds, we create a hybrid performance that takes the best from all concerned.

Photo: Lauren Matley

What is new (or so old it’s new) in this process?

Shinichi: I have not been an “actor” or memorized lines or worked with a text script since 1994. That performance, a Tadashi Suzuki version of “Trojan Women,” was performed at NOHspace in San Francisco, directed by Yukihiro Goto. I played a warrior, wielding a sword.
I have not directed traditional actors since 1991. At that time, I was the founder and director of an experimental, visual and text based theater company called “Vox Theater.” The set designer of that time, Frank Lee, still works with me on inkBoat productions.

Check back to learn more about our other collaborators and see Shinichi live in our upcoming production of BEOWULF March 18-April 16
Tickets on sale now! http://www.weplayers.org/beowulf-2017
 

The Trio Happening

Along Aquatic Park beach goers encountered the Graeae, a mythological trio of women from Ancient Greece, respectively called Dread, Horror and Alarm.
The Trio: Caroline Parsons, Maria Leigh and Julie Douglas
Location: Aquatic Park, San Francisco
Date: July 26th, 2014

Encountering the Trio

Saturday July 26, 2014
at THREE o’clock
on the beach at Aquatic Park
(directly in front of the Maritime Museum building)
FREE!

You’re invited! To the first public sharing of The Trio’s practice. The women who wielded elemental powers as the Weyard Sisters in We Players recent Macbeth at Fort Point, continue their exploration of other mythical trios. Join us for a picnic on the beach at Aquatic Park and encounter The Trio between the sand and the sea.

WHERE: Find the Maritime Museum building. Find the clock on the museum facade. Face the water. The Trio is somewhere on the the beach. Meet at the red We Players flag in the sand. They’ll come to you when it’s time.

The Maritime Museum is located at the far end of Beach Street, next to Ghiradelli Square in the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood of San Francisco.

WHEN: 3-5pm, Saturday July 26, 2014

WHAT TO BRING/HOW TO PREPARE:
This event is free! But please do:
– Bring a picnic! We’ll have some snacks to share, please bring your own as well.
– Bring a beach towel or blanket, sunscreen and warm layers.
– Prepare to kick your shoes off! This party is in a sandbox.

WHAT ELSE:
The sharing will be immediately followed by a conversation with The Trio. We are eagerly seeking your experience! Your responses will directly inform the next iteration of our work.

Soy Tu Mar (I Am Your Sea)

Canciones del Mar: Songs of the Sea

I have played all sorts of concerts in all kinds of venues but “Canciones del Mar; Songs of the Sea” (curated by Charlie Gurke from We Players) is a very unique and fun concert because our performance will happen aboard a beautiful historic ship, the Balclutha, in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

For an hour and a half Jose Roberto Hernandez (guitar, vocals), Charlie Gurke (saxophone), David Pinto (bass) and Edgardo Cambón (percussion, vocals) and I will take you to a world of sea and love with stories and song.

I’m particularly excited about this year’s performance as I will be sharing one of my original songs, “Soy Tu Mar” (I Am Your Sea), a song that speaks about the sea, or better said, the sea speaks about itself, about its memories, about its joys and fear…through me.

I am very honored to be playing with such broad and talented musicians. We all come from different musical backgrounds so I will be playing and singing songs that, at times, may take me out of my comfort zone which I find to be very exciting as playing and singing styles of music different from mine takes my musicianship to another level. Really looking forward to this beautiful collaboration!

— Diana Gameros, Vocals & Guitar
Canciones del Mar

Meet the Musicians of Canciones del Mar

Canciones del Mar: Songs of the Sea
on Saturday, July 19th at 6pm aboard the tall ship, Balclutha.

I think of the musicians of Canciones as an all-star ensemble, but when putting this group together, I wasn’t looking for the flashy, virtuoso kind of ‘all-star’. Each member of this ensemble is a virtuoso musician and composer in their own right, but I chose each one more for their interpretive sensitivity than their ‘chops’. I wanted to be sure that the themes we’re expressing, the variety of metaphor that the sea provokes, would be artfully expressed.

I’ve had the pleasure of performing with Edgardo Cambon’s large and small ensembles, Candela and Latido, for the past several years. Originally from Montevideo, Uruguay, Edgardo is a master percussionist and vocalist with a breadth of knowledge and experience performing the music of Latin America, from Argentinian tango to the salsa of El Barrio. Edgardo is especially fluent in the popular and folkloric music of Cuba, and opens each Canciones performance with a chant to Yemaya, the Afro-Cuban deity of the sea.

Originally from Juarez, Mexico, Diana Gameros is known to most of her fans for her original songs of ‘love, longing, and hope’, performed in a diverse style that blends elements of latin music with rock, world music, and jazz. I knew Diana would be a perfect fit for the Canciones ensemble when I heard her perform solo, playing very original and personal arrangements of classic boleros and rancheros from the latin american tradition.

I came to know Jose Roberto Hernandez when we spent the better part of a year bringing the music of Latin America to elementary school kids across San Francisco through a program with the SF Symphony. Jose Roberto is not only a master guitarist and vocalist with a wealth of knowledge of the bolero and nueva trova traditions, but is also skilled in folk instruments from around Latin America, including his native Tabasco, Mexico.

David Pinto is one of the many musical treasures we are lucky to have here in the Bay Area. A native of Peru, David is best known for his work as music director, arranger, and bassist for Susana Baca. In addition to his particular expertise in Afro-Peruvian music, David performs with the bay’s best salsa, folkloric, and latin jazz ensembles.

— Charlie Gurke
We Players Music Director

We Players and San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
It’s a mouthful of a name, for a very special place on the northern waterfront of San Francisco. And it is very much an artistic home for We Players, thanks to a robust Cooperative Agreement that spans 2012-2017. We recently had a meeting with SAFR (the NPS code for that 15 syllable name) where our agreement was referenced, and I took the opportunity to revisit the language in our “Statement of Work” –

“We Players will produce various site-specific traveling theatre productions and other art and community engagement programs at various sites throughout San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. In the course of the programs, park visitors will be encouraged to explore multiple park areas. Programs will be presented both during the day and evening, daytime programs will be accessible to all park visitors at no charge. Programs will generally be ticketed (some offered free of charge) and open to the public. ‘We Players may offer focus group workshops, i.e., art workshops open to the public.’”

In our planning meeting and again as I re-read this, I am reminded how much the staff at the Park respect Ava and I, admire the quality of our work, and appreciate our professionalism. I understand that trust today, having created two full-scale site-integrated theatre productions, presented several music concerts, and hosted multiple workshops and parties at the Park in recent years. What’s amazing to me is that San Francisco Maritime went out on a limb to establish We Players as a cooperating agency in 2012 – just a year after being established as a formal organization, and only a few months after we received our non-profit status. Just as (then site-supervisor) Amy Brees’ invitation to a three-year creative residency on Alcatraz Island, 2009-11 helped us shape our programming and design our organization to truly address our mission, San Francisco Maritime’s partnership is helping We Players deepen our practice and further our mission of connecting people with place.

Deliberately shaping We Players’ lasting creative contributions to the Park is what’s most interesting to me as we continue working with the lovely staff and volunteers aboard the historic ships, on Hyde Street Pier and in the Maritime Museum. As site-integrated performing artists, we excel at creating ephemeral beauty, captivating audiences with full sensory experience, and provoking thought on the shared themes embedded in a story and site. And, we are very interested in sharing the fruit and scattering the seeds of our practice, which we find central to a creative and fulfilling life in healthy relationship with people and place. I look forward to developing and sharing our programming at San Francisco Maritime this fall, and working with our artists and Park staff to create new interpretation programs that will hopefully live on long after 2017.

– Lauren D. Chavez, We Players Managing Director

Travels with A Masked Man

Written and performed by John Hadden
ONE NIGHT ONLY – Friday, October 12 @ 8pm
Location – Passenger Deck of the Eureka
This event is by-invitation only. If you would like to be our guest, please Email Us

Haunted by unanswered questions about his childhood overseas, a man confronts his father—an ex-CIA officer who ruminates darkly on the American Empire, the human animal, and himself. Hadden, who plays both characters, evolved the play from many hours of conversations he taped with his father eight years ago. Alternately poignant and hilarious, the play evokes memories and responses about parents and children and growing up during the Cold War.

John Hadden is a longtime director and actor. He was a founding member of Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA and is currently the Artistic Director of The Theater Company at Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, NY.

Following the one-hour performance, desserts and tea accompany a discussion conducted by We Players’s managing director Lauren Chavez, with artistic director Ava Roy and John Hadden.