By Victoria Nguyen
Situated on a busy
neighborhood street lined with taquerias, dollar stores and barbershops, the
Mission District’s Brava Theater could be easily missed if you didn’t know it
was there.
But the unassuming, historic
1926 building holds many memories – from its beginnings as a vaudeville house
to a movie art house. Today, it is the home of the arts organization Brava! for
Women in the Arts.
For more than 20 years,
Brava has been the center of advocacy for change and social awareness through
the use of the arts. Rooted in the foundation of feminism, Brava strives to
serve and empower its multicultural and diverse community with thought-provoking
works that stir public discourse. This month, the organization begins its
second full season of plays that are designed to serve a purpose.
“When
people come to a Brava show, I want to know whether or not they like the
project…,” said artistic director, Raelle Myrick-Hodges. “It’s a joyous and
creative space and it inspires.”
The themes of the 2009-10
season, according to Myrick-Hodges, are to highlight emerging local artists and
produce plays that aren’t done often.
The season kicks off with
“Metal+Machine+Manifesto = Futurism’s First 100 Years,” which celebrates the
100th anniversary of F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, a document that
launched the Futurist art movement. The season also will include an adaptation
of “The Beebo Brinker Chronicles” based on Ann Bannon’s lesbian-themed novels
and Lorraine Hansberry’s controversial, “Les Blancs.”
But among the plays
associated with big names, the season also makes space for upcoming local stars
– some of who are barely old enough to vote. The second annual Girltropolis
show is written and performed by The Glass to Diamonds ensemble, an outreach
program that is apart of Brava’s educational division called the Brava Theater
Academy. The youth-driven November show will tackle the issues that affect the
daily lives of teens, like sexual health, “boob jobs” and peer pressure.
“[The Girltropolis show]
lets real girls talk about real causes in a serious space,” said Cathie
Anderson, Brava’s rental productions manager.
In addition to producing
theater works, the organization also presents live musical performances, dance,
movies, as well as community events. One community event called “Dear Allah,
All I Want for Christmas is A Menorah” will take place on Dec. 2. Myrick-Hodges
said the play will be a series of three- to five-minute scenes having to do
with a holiday-related experience. Each playwright will come from a different
background.
“It’s basically like having
a holiday party for the community,” said the artistic director. “And it creates
opportunity for artists to be there [and show their work].”
Though Brava’s current
mission is to give opportunity to all artists, the organization fought a
different fight when it first began. Founded by Ellen Gavin in 1986, the
initial seed for the organization was planted when a group of 75 women artists
met in the Mission District’s Galería de la Raza. Amy Mueller, who was present
at the meeting, said there were many organizations available for women at the
time, but none for women artists.
Mueller, who is currently
the artistic director of San Francisco’s Playwrights Foundation, said there
were a number of studies that showed there was a real bias towards men’s work
in the theater and visual arts scene.
“The people that rose to
prominence tended to be overwhelmingly male,” said Mueller. “It was pretty much
nonexistent for women to get their plays produced.”
What came from the historic
meeting of dancers, visual arts artists, poets and theater artists was a call
to create a collective of women artists. For the next 10 years, Brava became an
organization where new works by local female artists came to develop and be
shown. From its early era came participants like nationally heralded
poet/playwright Cherríe Moraga, director Ellen Sebastian Chang and
writer/activist Jewelle Gomez.
After the Brava team
purchased their current space in 1996, Mueller said that Brava began widening
the breadth of work shown to include not only works created by females, but
also creations that touch upon feminism and women’s rights – no matter what gender
the playwright is. Today, under the direction of Myrick-Hodges, Brava’s mission
continues to evolve.
As Brava’s artistic
director, Myrick-Hodges has helped introduce a full season of plays, a visual
arts gallery and an apprenticeship program. She said her goal is to have Brava
become an essential part of the community’s lives.
“Theater allows a safe place
for discourse when people disagree about things,” Myrick-Hodges said. “People
are conditioned to do email, see movies inside their house, but to have theater
is to have a haven outside one’s self to make one grow as a human being.”
