SF Mime Troupe Performs 7/3-5 at Dolores Park

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The San Francisco Mime Troupe

Takes on Dirty Double-Crossing in Old Texas
in 2004 World Premiere

Showdown at Crawford Gulch

- Spaghetti Western Musical Premieres July 4th Weekend with Free Performances at San Francisco's Dolores Park -

Production will Tour to Parks and Theaters in California through September 2004



28 May 2004 (SAN FRANCISCO, CA) - The San Francisco Mime Troupe brings a new musical "Spaghetti Western" to parks and theaters around the state this summer with Showdown at Crawford Gulch, an original fable about lies, greed, and dirty double-crossing in a dusty old Texas town where the Good go bad, the Bad ain't pretty, and the Ugly get uglier. Tumbleweeds fly as peace-loving citizens of 1886 Crawford Gulch, Texas, face perpetual war with the neighboring Comanche, and townfolk fight to protect their liberties as they are whupped into a frenzy of fear over reported Arrows of Mass Destruction.

Written by Michael Gene Sullivan, with music by Jason Sherbundy and lyrics by Bruce Barthol, Showdown at Crawford Gulch will be staged in indoor venues across Northern California and free in Bay Area parks from July 3rd through the end of September. The world premiere is the July 4th weekend, with shows on Saturday July 3rd, Sunday July 4th, and Monday July 5th at Dolores Park in San Francisco. Curtain is at 2 pm, with live music starting at 1:30 pm.

Sullivan says of the Texas-sized story, "Showdown at Crawford Gulch takes a look into the not-too-distant past to see how xenophobia, greed, and images of bloodthirsty terror were used to 'tame' another desert land-and how those tools are just as powerful today." Showdown at Crawford Gulch is directed by Keiko Shimosato, with Costume Design by Callie Floor, and Scenic Design by John Lowe. The musical stars Mime Troupe Company members Velina Brown, Michael Carreiro, Amos Glick, Ed Holmes, Lisa Hori-Garcia, Michael Sullivan, and Victor Toman.

Sullivan sets the stage for the story-

It is 1886, and a rust red sun rises on the sleepy frontier town of Crawford Gulch, Texas, as its peaceloving citizens start a new day. A silent tumbleweed rolls lazily across the prairie. A coyote cries out. And then...in the distance...the sound of...Drums! Comanche drums, announcing...danger! Crawford Gulch is in danger! Bloodthirsty savages are on the warpath, and this innocent, isolated island of civilization is threatened with horrible annihilation!

Or is it?

Well that¹s what Cyrus T. Bogspavin wants everyone to believe! He's the robber baron from back east who already owns most of the county, leaving only the Town of Crawford Gulch, and the nearby Comanche tribal lands out of his grasp. ... once the Comanche have been pacified out of existence Bogspavin will make a generous offer for their worthless patch of prairie. What in tarnation could it be about this out-of-the-way piece of land that caught the eye of a wealthy man like Bogspavin? What could be on it? Or is it something under it....

Meanwhile, in town, Mayor Canem is the only protection the citizens have from the savage hordes and their constant attacks. Sure, there were some questions back when he was elected, but all that blew over once he and the heroic Sheriff alerted the citizens of Crawford Gulch to the Red threat! Yessiree, since then no one has questioned his legitimacy. Why, he's even introduced a "Home Range Security" program....

But somehow things ain't workin' as smoothly as the Mayor and Bogspavin would like. The townspeople are complaining: Is all this security necessary? ...

Sullivan was a contributing writer for the Mime Troupe's Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan and many other shows, and head writer for Veronique of the Mounties in Operation: Frozen Freedom, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Eating It, and Escape From Cyberia. He has performed leading and supporting roles in a number of Mime Troupe productions, and directed Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan, 1600 Transylvania Avenue, I Ain't Yo Uncle, Knocked Up, Coast City Confidential, Killing Time and Eating It.

The Mime Troupe's shows in local parks are performed at a price everyone can afford - free - and are eagerly anticipated by a local audience that often surpasses 40,000 people over the course of the summer. Additional 2004 Bay Area performance dates and locations include: July 3-4-5 and September 4-5-6 at Dolores Park in San Francisco; July 10-11 at Cedar Rose Park in Berkeley; July 17-18 at Mitchell Park, Palo Alto; July 28-29 at Lake Merritt's Lakeside Park, Oakland; July 31 at Mosswood Park in Oakland; August 1 at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco; August 11 in Montclair; August 12 at Civic Park in Walnut Creek; August 14- 15, Live Oak Park in Berkeley; August 21 at Peacock Meadow, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco; August 22, Washington Square Park in North Beach, San Francisco; August 25, Mill Valley Community Center; August 28- 29, Willard Park/Ho Chi Minh in Berkeley; September 1 in the Menlo College Quad, Atherton.

The production will tour Northern and Central California with dates in Point Arena, July 21-22; Redway, July 23; Arcata, July 25; Napa, August 4; Sebastopol, August 5; Santa Cruz, August 7-8; Bolinas, August 18; Ukiah, August 19; Sonoma, September 2; Davis, September 11; Sacramento, September 12; Grass Valley, September 15-16; Fresno, September 18-19; Merced, September 22; Modesto, September 23; and Stockton, September 24; with the final performance on September 26 at the Progressives Fair in Petaluma's Walnut Park.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater of the highest professional quality, staging plays that dramatize the operation of giant forces in small, close-up stories that convey the impact of political events on personal life. Founded by R.G. Davis in 1959, the company became the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1961 and began performing in local parks in the classical Commedia dell'arte style, adapted and updated to satirize the present. In 1963 the Park and Recreation Commission denied the Mime Troupe a permit, and Davis was arrested for defying the ban. With the help of the ACLU, the Company won the right to perform in the parks, beginning more than four decades of free outdoor public performances. Original scripts took their place next to Commedia beginning in 1965. Since 1970 the Mime Troupe has created at least one new show a year. In 1970 the Mime Troupe became an artist-governed collective, composed of permanent members on the artistic side...actors, musicians, writers, composers, directors, designers and technicians, who create shows, make policy, assign writers and directors, and approve plans for tours, grant sources, expenditures, and special projects. The Mime Troupe won its first OBIE Award in 1968 for "uniting theater and revolution and grooving in the parks." Since then, two more OBIEs, the coveted Tony Award (for Excellence in Regional Theater), the Bay Area Media Alliance's Golden Gadfly Award for Lifetime Achievement, and numerous Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Awards have been added to the list of the company's many honors.

Performances of the San Francisco Mime Troupe are made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of San Francisco Grants for the Arts, James Irvine Foundation, Bernard Osher Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and W. A. Gerbode Foundation.

For more information about the San Francisco Mime Troupe call (415) 285-1717 or visit http://www.sfmt.org