King of Shadows
(formerly known as Sweet Thunder)
In King of Shadows, our second New Works/New Communities project,
we have commissioned playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to create and develop
a new play that re-imagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream through the eyes of marginalized gay youth, setting the action in the urban
jungle of San Francisco. Partnering with MFA students at American Conservatory
Theater (A.C.T.) and community organizations working with homeless LGBT
youth in San Francisco, Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa is tapping into the dreams and
struggles of gay youth who have been rejected by their family, their peers,
and an intolerant society, and are bewildered by their own self-doubts.
Drawing from his own and the real-life experiences of San Francisco youth,
Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa is creating a play that makes Shakespeare’s world
a mirror of their own.
Over the course of the Project, we have:
• Met with homeless and formerly homeless youth at Larkin Street Youth
Services to discuss some of the hardships of life on the streets.
• Explored the text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespearean scholars.
• Toured the Panhandle of San Francisco’s Golden Gate park, a refuge and gathering place for many homeless youth.
• Read and discussed scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream with A.C.T.’s MFA students.
• Led multiple theater and writing workshops with youth at Guerrero House, a 20 bed transitional housing facility in San Francisco’s mission district. Through this series of in-depth workshops, we intend to help the students to craft a night of multi-disciplinary performance.
• Took youth from Guerrero House to see multiple plays, including A.C.T.’s mainstage production of A Christmas Carol (featuring the A.C.T. MFA students), The Mystery Plays by Sweet Thunder Project playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at the SF Playhouse, Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell at Berkeley Rep, and Restoration Comedy at Cal Shakes.
• Engaged LGBT youth at Larkin Street Youth Services’ Castro Youth Initiative in a improv workshop exploring themes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Translated A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a modern context through a series of theater and writing workshops with LGBT youth at LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) in San Francisco.
• Held one-on-one interviews with experts on the LGBT and homeless
communities in San Francisco, including multiple youth at Guerrero House,
a member of the San Francisco police force expert in the risks that LGBT
youth face, and LGBT and homeless youth service providers.
We will continue to work with our community partners Larkin Street Youth
Services and LYRIC to give their youth participants a forum to share their
artistic voices with both their peers and with adults. The project will
culminate with a staged reading of King of Shadows, directed by Sean Daniels,
on February 24, 2007.
King of Shadows is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment
for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Additional
support comes from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund,
along with institutional support from The William & Flora Hewlett
Foundation.
