SF Mime Troupe's Working Class Culture & Actor's Equity Playwright Michael Sullivan

Review: Sf Mime Troupe’s ‘Disruption’ Is Especially Urgent In Today’S Divided Times
https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/review-sf-mime-troupe-s-disruption-is-20760566.php

By Bay City News Service
July 8, 2025

By Jean Schiffman

Maybe it's the perilous times here in our divided country. Maybe it's the especially bone-chilling ways we're experiencing these times in our much-maligned city (San Francisco), or the daily news we may have read on the morning of July 4.


Maybe it's this, maybe it's that.
But "Disruption-A Musical Farce," the San Francisco Mime Troupe's latest satirical-political show, which opened on Independence Day (the company premieres a new, original musical in Dolores Park every July 4), feels more on-the-nose, more urgent, than ever, both blood-stirring and funny.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, cuts in vital services, Silicon Valley ethics, the evils of capitalism: They're all part of the mix, but the plot is well-crafted and pointed without ever losing sight of the human comedy.
For decades, the Mime Troupe collective has chosen a different theme for every show--each exploring a targeted social/political issue from a comical, left-wing perspective--and urged audiences toward action.

This first year of Trump's second presidency, the issues feel so overwhelming that Mime Troupe playwright Michael Gene Sullivan's script (with additional dialogue by Marie Cartier) seems to send one specific message: disrupt.
Augie (played by Jed Parsario) works in a diner called "Fried T'ings" (yes, even the coffee is somehow fried). A Filipino immigrant since age 3, Augie is in an orange jumpsuit when we first see him, with a tough-as-nails cop (Sullivan, who also directs the show) yelling at him to "Shut up!"
Augie knows two things: the mantra his parents taught him, "From each according to ability, to each according to their need," and the fact that Filipinos rose up to successfully unseat dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The obligatory villain is smirky city employee (and Silicon Valley loyalist) Zubari (Alicia M.P. Nelson), who sashays around with her cell phone, chatting with her personal consultant, A.I., about which vital services San Francisco ought to cut. The fire department is one of the first to get the ax.

And there's the required revolutionary, too, longtime Troupe member Lizzie Calogero's earnest and excitable Elizabeth, who assumes a variety of pseudonyms--Che, Orwell--to hide her identity.
Four actors play multiple roles effortlessly, aided by Keiko Shimosato Carreiro's colorful costumes and wigs.
The action is propelled forward in various ways, including interjections from TV newscasters, each starting midstream with a lugubrious "... and there were no survivors" before proceeding cheerfully to "In other news ...").
A few images stand out: "It's like the frog in the pan of water on the stove," warns rabble-rouser Elizabeth. "Turn the fire up fast, the frog notices, and jumps out. But increase the heat slowly, and the frog adapts, little by little, to the pain ..." The opening day audience joined in on the chorus to longtime Troupe music director-composer-lyricist Daniel Savio's "Frogwater": "You need to act now or lose your civil rights in the... frogwater!" (Savio, Guinevere Q and Jason Young comprise the band.)

The point is made quite succinctly in this tight, focused (despite its expansive topic) show.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe's "Disruption-A Musical Farce" continues through Aug. 3; see schedule below. Admission is free for most performances; a $20 donation is suggested. For more information and to RSVP, visit sfmt.org.
July 10 (7 p.m.): Davis Senior High School, Davis (indoor, RSVP required)
July 12 (2 p.m.): Panhandle, San Francisco
July 13 (3 p.m.): London Nelson Community Center, Santa Cruz
July 16-17 (7 p.m.): Lakeside Park, Oakland
July 19-20 (2 p.m.): Live Oak Park, Berkeley
July 23 (7 p.m.): Z Space, San Francisco (indoor ticketed show, $20-$50, RSVP required)
July 26 (2 p.m.): Ukiah High School, cafetorium (indoor, RSVP required
July 27 (3 p.m.): La Plaza Park, Cotati
Aug. 2-3 (2 p.m.): Live Oak Park, Berkeley