Presidio Theatre 2022 Fall Season Announced

San Francisco, CA, July 6, 2022 – The Presidio Theatre performing arts center fall season will explore historic and contemporary issues of race, climate change and political power, Executive Director Robert Martin has announced. The season ranges from popular music in Berlin on the eve of WWII to mixed-heritage and Indigenous futurist views about humans’ relationships to climate and nature, from incisive films about the geo-political turmoil of the 1960s and 70s to a one-man show about race and identity, the season brims with gravity and the boundless resilience of the human spirit. Featured artists and performances include New Century Chamber Orchestra, writer/actor/comedian Brian Copeland, Dancing Earth, films by Judith Ehrlich and Stroll Down Penny Lane, a musical review focusing on the life and work of Paul McCartney. The complete fall season schedule, which runs September 16 through October 16, may be found below. For more information, visit www.presidiotheatre.org.

“We are proud to present a fall season lineup that digs deep into some of the serious issues of our time, using the power of popular and traditional cultures to shine a light on how the arts reflect, shape and transform our world for the better,” says Robert Martin. “The season’s eclectic mix features far-ranging topics including 30s pop songs in Berlin, mixed-heritage futurism in dance, one man’s experience of racism growing up in the Bay Area, documentary films about Vietnam War resistance and Nixon-era intrigue. It is a compelling mix of artists and work that collectively resonates on themes of resilience and triumph.”

PRESIDIO THEATRE FALL 2022 SEASON SCHEDULE

All performances at the Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco For tickets and information: www.presidiotheatre.org

New Century Chamber Orchestra 
Berlin 1938: Broadcasts from a Vanishing Society 
Friday, September 16, 7:30pm
Saturday, September 17, 7:30pm
Sunday, September 18, 3pm
Tickets on sale September 1

New Century Chamber Orchestra opens its 30th Anniversary Season with a gripping musical radio drama that will transport you back to the seismic cultural shifts happening in Berlin in 1938. Gathering clouds of war in Europe loomed large over the events of that year, fueling the songwriters of the era to create works that are stunning in their candor, humor and commentary about the rapid changes in German society and growing threats of violence. In this innovative multimedia production, Music Director Daniel Hope and New Century will take you on a fascinating musical tour of works by Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, and more, while vocalists Thomas Hampson and Horst Maria Merz narrate the action in the dual roles of radio broadcasters and singers.

Dancing Earth 
Between Underground & Skyworld 
Saturday, September 24, 7pm
Sunday, September 25, 2pm
Tickets: $25–$45

In their latest work, members of mixed-heritage dance company Dancing Earth investigate renewable energy from differing ancestral, cultural and practical perspectives. Between Underground & Skyworld seeks to balance Indigenous Elders’ cultural teachings with the realities of a new generation struggling for survival in the apocalyptic present. The audience is invited into dreamscapes of balance and harmony and future-looking possibilities for connection and renewal. The performance will use mobile installation, oration, dance, music, immersive media and eco-innovative from design company’s mixed-heritage dancers, artists, and collaborators.

Brian Copeland 
Not A Genuine Black Man 
Friday, September 30, 7pm
Saturday, October 1, 7pm
Tickets: $25–$45

This record holder for San Francisco’s longest running solo performance returns for two nights only. In 1972, when Brian Copeland was eight, his family moved from Oakland to San Leandro, California, hoping for a better life. At the time, San Leandro was 99.4 percent white, known nationwide as a racist enclave. This reputation was confirmed almost immediately: Brian got his first look at the inside of a cop car, for being a black kid walking to the park with a baseball bat.

Brian grew up to be a successful comedian and radio talk show host, but racism reemerged as an issue—only in reverse—when he received an anonymous letter: “As an African American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because YOU are not a genuine Black man!” That letter inspired Copeland to revisit his difficult childhood, resulting in this one-man show.

In an evening of laughter, tears and sociology, Not a Genuine Black Man is a hilarious and insightful look at Bay Area history, and at the ways in which our upbringings make us who we are.

Stroll Down Penny Lane
Saturday, October 8, 7:30pm
Tickets: $25–$45

Stroll Down Penny Lane is a live performance paying tribute to one of the most iconic songwriters of our age: Paul McCartney. The show includes songs spanning McCartney’s career – from early influences, to the Beatles, through the Wings period, and beyond. You’ll also hear songs that have never been performed in concert. The musical experience is enhanced with stories, evocative images and animation, illuminating the creative process, musical tricks of the trade, the social climate of the times and McCartney himself.

Joe Anastasi aka Prof. Stompensplatt (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Winter (lead guitar and vocals) and Mike Sugar (bassist, electric cellist, melodica, synthesizer, and vocals), Mark Abbott (drums and vocals) and Matt Twain(Keys and vocals).

Judith Ehrlich Resistance Films
The Boys Who Said No! 
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Presented by the Presidio Theatre in collaboration with Futures Without Violence
Tuesday, October 11, 7pm The Boys Who Said No!
Wednesday, October 12, 7pm The Most Dangerous Man in America
Both screenings will be followed by a post-show Q&A with the director and guests
Tickets: $15

The Boys Who Said No! 

Inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, activists Joan Baez and David Harris take center stage in the youth-led movement to resist the Vietnam draft.

As the war in Vietnam raged, hundreds of thousands of young men opposed to an unjust war said “No!” to being drafted into the military, risking up to five years in federal prison. Their individual courage and collective nonviolent actions helped end a tragic war and the draft. The Boys Who Said NO! by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Judith Ehrlich (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers), is the story of a mass movement of young people who chose conscience over killing.

The film features a diverse array of draft resisters who appear in well-chosen archival footage and sharp contemporary interviews including Daniel Ellsberg, Randy Kehler, Mark Rudd, Michael Ferber, Cleveland Sellers, and Bob Eaton.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers 

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist in the Pentagon, concludes that America’s role in the war is based on decades of lies. He copies and leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to the New York Times and then to The Washington Post, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War – as well as a Supreme Court ruling expanding press freedom. After The Times started publishing The Pentagon Papers in June 1971, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger told his staff that Ellsberg was “the most dangerous man in America who must be stopped at all costs.”

Ellsberg and a who’s-who of Vietnam-era movers and shakers give a riveting account of those world-changing events in Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers by award-winning filmmakers Judith Ehrlich (The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It) and Rick Goldsmith (Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press). A co-production of ITVS in association with American Documentary | POV.

About The Presidio Theatre 

The historic Presidio Theatre was built in 1939 by the U.S. Army with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Theatre is located next to the Parade Grounds on the Main Post of the Presidio of San Francisco in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In 2017, after lying vacant for 25 years, the Theatre underwent a $44 million renovation transforming it into a contemporary performing arts center through the vision and generosity of the Margaret E. Haas Fund. The Theatre is now a home for a growing number of beloved San Francisco Bay Area artists and events including the Children’s Theatre Association of San Francisco and an annual holiday show called Panto in the Presidio. In addition to presenting public performances and films, the Theatre offers free events for 7000+ public school children and teachers each year, hosts community meetings, provides classes and  serves as a rental venue. Learn more by visiting www.presidiotheatre.org or by following @presidiotheatre on Instagram.

###