SF Chronicle Review: Oakland Theater Project’s ‘Binding Ties’ makes 16th Street Station come alive
“History is as etched into the cracks and rasps of their voices as it is in the show’s incisively culled images. Workers stand mightily before the camera; neither boastful nor timid, they seem to say, “Here I am.” - Lily Janiak, SF Chronicle
Theatrius Review: “BINDING TIES” SHINES MIGRANT STORIES ON RAIL STATION—STREAMING OAKLAND
“Integrating the captivating stories at the actual place of their birth with the unique drive-in setting gives us time for reflection. Congratulations to Oakland Theater Company for a unique, site-specific, historical setting.” - Barry David Horwitz, Theatrius
TICKETS
FEB 11–FEB 28
THU / FRI / SAT / SUN
7:30 PM
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS
(Limited Number)
$5 / $10 / $15 / $20 per vehicle
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS
(Unreserved parking)
$25 / $30 / $35 per vehicle
PRIORITY TICKETS
(Reserved priority parking)
$50 per vehicle
Running Time: approximately 1 hour with no intermission
SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE
Venue: *16th Street Station
16th St & Wood St, Oakland, CA 94607
*This performance is NOT at our theater at Flax Art & Design in downtown Oakland.
30TH ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION
BINDING TIES: THE 16TH STREET STATION
created by Stephanie Anne Johnson with Michael Copeland Sydnor
feb 11–mar 7, 2021
The 2021 Season kicks off with the 30th Anniversary production of Binding Ties: The 16th Street Station, a site-specific art installation show at the historical 16th Street Station in West Oakland, created by Oakland Theater Project’s Resident Lighting Designer Stephanie Anne Johnson with Michael Copeland Sydnor.
Binding Ties uses a theatrical art installation experience by using video projections to casts its story directly on to the historic building where this story takes place and weaves archival images, original audio interviews and captivating historical narratives to tell the story of the former Southern Pacific Railroad workers, and explore the economic and cultural forces surrounding the station and the subsequent migration of Oakland’s Black and immigrant communities in the first half of the 20th century.
This innovative and moving art installation production combines the historical building with original interviews and photographs of its community members, as if the voices and images are coming from deep within the building's consciousness.
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Lead artist Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson (project creator; lighting & projection designer) has been a lighting designer and projection design/installation artist for more than 40 years. Based in the East Bay, Johnson is a pioneer in her field: the first Black woman admitted to the local union in the 1980s, and one of the most prolific designers, theater artists, and ambassadors of African American heritage in our theater community. Both Johnson’s artistic and lighting design work have been featured at numerous well-known national venues, from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco) to La Mama Theatre and the Apollo (both New York City), among many others. In addition, she has worked with numerous international and local groups, and has been a core company member at Oakland Theater Project since 2015. Dr. Johnson has received numerous awards, including the Gerbode Design fellowship. October 30, 2012 was declared “Stephanie Anne Johnson Day” by the City of Berkeley. For a full biography, please visit www.lightessencedesign.com
Michael Copeland Sydnor was a multifaceted artist - performer, producer, visual artist, and arts administrator. He was an integral part of Binding Ties: The 16th Street Station in 1991. In subsequent years he continued on to create the performance piece Binding Ties Suite: A Montage of Rail Experiences and numerous train related mixed media pieces art works one of which was commissioned by the City of Oakland. Mr. Copeland Sydnor died in 2012.
The original production in 1991
drive-in performance
MAY 28–JUL 3
THU / FRI / SAT / SUN
8:00 PM
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS
(Unreserved parking)
$25 / $30 / $35 per vehicle
PRIORITY TICKETS
(Reserved priority parking)
$50 per vehicle
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS
(Limited Number)
$5 / $10 / $15 / $20 per vehicle
CAst
The Remembrance
The Woman *Dawn L. Troupe
The Reading
Marguerite Simpson *Dawn L. Troupe
Helen Mills Margherita Ventura
A Woman Kimberly Daniels
Begin the Beguine
A young man Leon Jones
An older woman *Dawn L. Troupe
The Healing
Joe Benoît Monin
Ellen *Dawn L. Troupe
*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers
WORLD PREMIERE
BEGIN THE BEGUINE: A QUARTET OF ONE ACTS
by Kathleen Collins
co-directed by Dawn L. Troupe
and Michael Socrates Moran
MAY 28–JUl 3, 2021
Bay Area audiences can be among the first to experience never-before-produced theatrical work of the prolific filmmaker and playwright Kathleen Collins, with the World Premiere of BEGIN THE BEGUINE: A Quartet of One Acts, co-directed by Michael Socrates Moran and Dawn L. Troupe. Collins’ work as a Black filmmaker, writer and playwright in the 1970s and ’80s was largely under-recognized during her lifetime. Vinson Cunningham wrote in The New Yorker, “Collins was, foremost, an artist and an interpreter of the striated psyche. Her most striking characters are black women of a creative or intellectual bent—writers, dancers, designers, professors—whose quotidian struggles with marriage, motherhood, and work take on cosmic proportions.”
Running Time: approximately 1 hour with no intermission
DRIVE-IN PERFORMANCES
APR 9 – MAY 16
WED / THU / FRI / SAT / SUN
8:00 PM
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS
(Unreserved parking)
$25 / $30 / $35 per vehicle
PRIORITY TICKETS
(Reserved priority parking)
$50 per vehicle
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS
(Limited Number)
$5 / $10 / $15 / $20 per vehicle
LOCATION
All performances take place in the parking lot for the Oakland Theater at FLAX art & design in Downtown Oakland.
The Oakland Theater at
FLAX art & design
1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Oakland 94612
WORLD PREMIERE
THE WASTE LAND
by T. S. Eliot
adapted for the stage by John Wilkins
directed by Michael Socrates Moran
featuring Lisa Ramirez
Apr 9–may 16, 2021
“Here is no water but only rock /
Rock and no water and the sandy road”
T.S. Eliot’s classic poem The Waste Land comes to life in a world premiere adaptation for the stage that speaks to the current crisis caused by the pandemic. Featuring award-winning actor and playwright Lisa Ramirez in a one-person performance, Oakland Theater Project’s production gives urgent expression to the mysterious blend of personal, spiritual, psychological, national and existential threads Eliot weaves together in his masterwork. The Waste Land explores the way in which life itself has been hollowed out by human hands, while within the vivid expression of the poem itself, art stands as a testament to the capacity for human hands to enliven our void and create a path toward renewal.
Running Time: 60 minutes, with no intermission
indoor performance
OCT 8–31
FRI / SAT / SUN
7:30 PM
GENERAL ADMISSION
(Seating assigned upon arrival)
$25 - $35 — Sliding Scale
PRIORITY TICKETS
(Reserved seating)
$50
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS
(Limited Number)
$10 - $20
*Ticket sales close 2 hours before the start of each performance
**Due to the constraints of COVID-19, there will be NO TICKETS SOLD at the THEATER. You must purchase your tickets online or by phone.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS
Due to COVID-19, Oakland Theater Project’s production of Every Brilliant Thing will have several safety measures in place to ensure the safety of audience and staff.
Safety Measures:
Seating will be assigned to guests with space between all groups
All OTP staff and artists are vaccinated
All audience members must show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test (within 72 hours) to enter our theater
Masks are to be worn at all times by audiences and staff - except for the performers when in the act of performing
Cleaning and sanitizing protocols in place
Click here to learn more about visiting us at our theater and safety protocols before your visit.
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe
starring William Hodgson
directed by Michael Socrates Moran
oct 8–31, 2021
Bay Area audiences can be among the first to experience the powerful theatrical work that has captured audiences across the country. Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe captures the moving, big-bellied laughs, and heart-wrenching moments in the shadows of loss and depression.
Featuring Co-Artistic Director William Hodgson, Oakland Theater Project brings this celebrated play to the Bay Area for the first time. Every Brilliant Thing helps us to collectively grapple with all we have lost in this pandemic and how we reconnect at the individual and community level.
Run Time: approximately 60 minutes with no intermission
CAst
Narrator *William Hodgson
*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers
LOCATION
All performances take place in OTP’s Oakland Theater at FLAX art & design in Downtown Oakland.
The Oakland Theater at
FLAX art & design
1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Oakland 94612
indoor performance
NOV 12–DEC 19
THU / FRI / SAT / SUN
7:30 PM
GENERAL ADMISSION TICKET
(Seating assigned upon arrival)
$25 - $35
PRIORITY TICKET
(Reserved seating)
$50
PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKET
(Limited Number)
$10 - $20
LOCATION
All performances take place at Oakland Theater Project at FLAX art & design in Downtown Oakland.
The Oakland Theater at
FLAX art & design
1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Oakland 94612
CAST
Sabra
Jean Dark
Angie
May
Bell
Daniela Cervantes
Romeo Channer
Metsehafe Eyob
Charlotte Ying Levy
Success Ufondu
sAiNt jOaN
(burn/burn/burn)
WORLD PREMIERE
by Lisa Ramirez
directed by Michael Socrates Moran
NOV 12–DEC 19, 2021
Oakland Theater Project has commissioned the world premiere of sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn) by award-winning playwright Lisa Ramirez and directed by Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran, a contemporary re-imagining of the Joan of Arc story seen through the lens of teenage girls in Oakland. Stories and timelines combine as moments from the past reverberate into the present, illuminating the revolutionary vision of Joan of Arc, exploring solidarity in the face of oppression, and revealing the way this classic heroine’s spirit continues to permeate our world today.
At once humorous and harrowing, this 60-minute chamber piece unravels at a break-neck speed, alternating between realism and an avant-garde theatrical style as the past and present collide, turning the Saint Joan myth on its head and revealing the ways in which each of us is both the savior and destroyer of a world that is burning.
Preview: Fri Nov 12 & Sat Nov 13
Opening Night: Sun Nov 14
Running Time: 60 minutes, no intermission