Announcing Spring 2023 CA$H Theatre Grantees

We are proud to support these projects in the Spring 2023 round of CA$H Theatre Grants. The next application round of this granting program will be in Fall 2023.

CA$H Performs

CA$H Performs is a $5,000 grant that supports fully produced performances of theatre projects that are open to the public.

Crescent Moon Theater Productions

Crescent Moon will present a documentary-theat production, Hold On, When Everything Changes in a Flash, in which refugees and asylum seekers share their harrowing journeys of coming to America. CA$H will fund artist wages and venue rental.

La Lengua Teatro en Español

In the summer of 2023, La Lengua will present a full original production of Doméstica Realidad (Domestic Reality), in Rioplatense Spanish (with an original English translation projected as supertitles) at Brava Theater. This recent play casts light on the unresolved psychological conflict between women and the domestic space, and the household activities historically relegated to women. It is a collaborative creation based on documentary work and interviews of domestic workers, written by Natalia Burgueño, Etelvina Rodríguez, Camila Sanson, Florencia Dansilio, and Sofía Espinosa and first presented in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 2020. CA$H will fund artist wages.

Metzmecatl: Moon Rope Theater

Casting Light into Darkness will be an immersive ritual theatrical production in celebration of Dias de los Muertos that invites the audience to journey with Metmecatl: Moon Rope Theatre and the Ancestors. Led by ritualist and theatre artist Melusina Gomez, founder of Metzmecatl: Moon Rope Theatre, will work with a group of talented theatre artists, musicians, and aerialists to create a poignant and meaningful experience to honor Day of the Dead. Casting Light Into Darkness will be performed in garden spaces throughout Oakland and Marin from mid October to mid November. CA$H will fund artist wages and
production materials.

Oakland Public Theater

Oakland Public Theater will be developing & performing a new theatrical production celebrating the centennial of the birth of African-American author & social critic James Baldwin. This research will culminate in a series of public readings, leading to a new production in 2024. CA$H will fund venue rentals.

Plethos Productions

Plethos’ fall mainstage production, Pride & Prejudice, adapted from Jane Austin’s novel by Kate Hamill, will feature a cast and crew who are primarily people of color. Pride and Prejudice will take place in Castro Valley in September 2023. CA$H will fund production materials, travel reimbursement, and marketing.

Queer Cat Productions

Forgetting Tree is a new work created by Jes “Mojo” DeVille. This will be their first theatrical work as lead artist. Forgetting Tree will premiere in Z Space’s lobby, and virtually, everywhere, November 3-5, 2023. Forgetting Tree is an immersive theatre and dance experience of remembering and liberation ecology. The name evokes a slavery-era ritual in Ouidah, Benin, wherein captured people were turned around a tree to ritually reinforce forgetfulness of their homes. In Forgetting Tree, participants explore an intricately designed living garden filling Z Space’s lobby in a three-part performance: Roots (invocation), Canopy (transcendence), and Trunk (deepening). The ritual is immersive, and shaped like a palindrome, playing through once forward, and once in reverse, featuring storytelling, music, aerial and acrobatic performance, collaboration with living plants through Plantware sensors, allowing plants to make sound, and narration by Rawiyah Tariq. In tradition of Queer Cat Productions’ work in consent-forward accessible participation, audience will move (or sit) around the space, sharing in the ritual. CA$H will fund artist
wages and a made-for-virtual production, including an audio-only version.

CA$H Creates

CA$H Creates is a $2,500 grant that supports the development of artistic theatre projects or capacity-building projects not directly tied to a fully produced performance of a piece.

The Chikahan Company

The Chikahan Company’s PlayGround Innovator Incubator Showcase 2023 production will consist of three short-form plays showcasing the Filipinx and Filipnx American experience in its post-WWII, contemporary, and post-modern phases. It will explore the struggles and triumphs of the Filipinx and Filipinx American community and raise awareness of the issues facing this community (then, now, and the future) and promote greater social justice and equality. CA$H will fund artist wages.

Mike Chin

Mike Chin is developing a new performance work called Men with Names: A Puppet Iliad. It stages and explores transmasculine and Asian diasporic rage by using puppetry, physical theatre, and experimental object theatre to filter moments from Homer’s Iliad through a contemporary lens. CA$H will fund artist wages and puppet fabrication materials.

Nicole Jost

Love U is a new musical with music and lyrics by Maggie Grabmeier and book by Nicole Jost. Love U is a wholesome romantic comedy that follows college freshmen as they discover themselves and each other. When track star Jae meets small town bookworm Mia, she tells a little white lie: that she loves to read. But as the two fall for each other, Jae’s little lie spirals out of control. When the truth comes out, the two are torn apart. Yet, as much as they try, neither can seem to let the other go. In the end, they discover that love, like college, is a kind of learning — and they still have lots to learn. Featuring an all-queer cast of characters, Love U is a coming of age story that will delight any student of the human heart. CA$H will fund artist wages for musicians to arrange the songs for piano, strings, bass guitar, and percussion, and to provide transcription in order to create sheet music.

Julius Rea

Julius Rea is developing an untitled project translating the stories and conversations from the rooms of an HIV / STI clinic. CA$H will fund artist wages.

Lisa Sniderman

The Grieving Project Musical is a spoken word musical about finding your voice, exploring mental health, grieving, and thriving. The Grieving Project Musical follows four characters who have illnesses/disabilities based on Sniderman’s lived experience with chronic illness. Sniderman will work with seven technical consultants to explore/identify how to best capture, use, and make accessible tech elements from live/virtual theater as proof of concept. CA$H will fund the research and development of the envisioned tech elements for the pilot production.

Panelists

W. Fran Astorga (they/them) is an Indigiqueer Latinx playwright/producer residing on Ramaytush Ohlone Land (San Francisco, CA). Their writing has recently been featured by Native Writers’ Theater, Cutting Ball Theater, In The Margin, Howlround Theater Commons, Theater Magazine (Volume 53, Issue 1), and the Latinx Theater Commons. The stories and art that excite Fran most are those that dismantle monolithic expectations for marginalized identities. Connect with Fran at @theyarefran on all social platforms.

Rolanda Bell (she/her) is an actress, model, singer and overall storyteller. She was born & raised in West Oakland, California and is a former student of Laney College (Michael Torres). Her theater credits include ANAIA, Is God Is (Oakland Theater Project), SILVER, Paradise Blue (Aurora Theater Company), STEPMOTHER, Cinderella (African American Shakespeare Company), MOM, Passing Strange (Shotgun Players), Judy Moody & Stink and Last Stop on Market Street (Bay Area Children’s Theatre), I, Too, Sing, America (SFBATCO), SF Sketchfest (Killing My Lobster). Her screen credits include All Day And A Night (Netflix Original Film), Blindspotting (STARZ Original Film), Erica Campbell’s music video “Positive,” and the role of Izzy in deleted scenes from Pixar Animation’s film Lightyear. Rolanda is a member of Oakland Theater Project and SAG-AFTRA, and is represented by JE Talent.
IG/Twitter: @Rolandadene
Facebook: Rolanda D. Bell-Actress

Amal Bisharat (she/her) is a theatre director, theatre maker, musician, and photographer. An Artist-In-Residence at Golden Thread Productions, she is co-producing and directing for their upcoming 2023 ReOrient Festival. She is also currently in the process of creating her first musical, a Palestinian refugee story adapted from the best-selling novel Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Bisharat is a recipient of the 2022-23 TBA Arts Leadership Residency Grant, 2022 TBA CA$H Creates Grant, and 2023 San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Grant. Bisharat believes in the transformative power of art and storytelling whether on a stage, in a photograph, or in the stories we tell ourselves.

Toni Cannon (he/him) is consistently working on finding new ways to express himself through acrobatics. He finds the challenge thrilling, and very relatable to life’s challenges. Toni started his circus career later in life; however, that didn’t stop him from diving deep into his new-found love and passion. He has been lucky enough to train under some great coaches like Master Lu Yi and Dominik Wyss learning disciplines like Chinese pole, partner acrobatics, and hand-to-hand. He has been part of some amazing companies and productions like Topsy Turvy Circus, Circus Bella, This is Acrosanct, When the rainbow is Enuf, and his one-man show Reflection. Follow Toni on Instagram at @acrocannon.

Lisa Drostova (she/her) was the lead theater critic for the East Bay Express for several years before jumping the fence to make art instead of critiquing it. She has since been a company member of Ragged Wing Ensemble and foolsFury, and was the Public Engagement Manager for RWE and The Flight Deck. She acts, directs, and writes for the stage.