The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of

political satire Political satire is a type of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics. Political satire can also act as a tool for advancing political arguments in conditions where political speech and dissent are banned. Political satir ...

which performs free shows in various parks in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and around

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, founded in 1959. Despite its name, the group does not perform silent

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

, but each year creates an original musical comedy that combines aspects of ''

commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...

'',

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

, and broad

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical comedy, physical humor; the use of delibe ...

with topical political themes. In 1987, the group was awarded the Regional Theatre Award at the 41st Tony Awards.

Origins

The group was founded in 1959 by R. G. Davis as a medium of expression of his divergent theatrical concepts. The group debuted on October 29, 1959, with ''Games—3 Sets'', and two other plays. By 1961, the group transitioned to the commedia dell'arte format to more thoroughly comment on perceived political repression in the United States, the growing civil rights movement and military and covert intervention abroad. In the mid-1960s the group started to rely less on the direct commedia dell'arte format and transitioned into having an objective of "teaching, directing towards change and to be an example of change". It also began integrating elements of jazz into its musical composition, eventually leading to the inclusion of a jazz band within the troupe. Their first outdoor performance was in May 1962 at

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...

. The group also gained notoriety for its numerous altercations with law enforcement, which resulted in performing at benefits to raise money for legal fees. In 1967, a benefit called "Appeal IV" featured the bands

the Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psyc ...

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American Rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1965. One of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the San Francisco Bay Area, ...

Quicksilver Messenger Service Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, ...

and Moby Grape. They also traveled to Canada and played at Simon Fraser University in 1966 with ''A Minstrel Show or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel'' by Gary Davis and Saul Landau. The music for ''Minstrel Show'' was composed and performed by

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

, who worked with the troupe for at least two seasons. The troupe has always been known to employ the best composers and musicians in the area, who work intimately with the actors, writers, and whole theatrical operation. By the early 1970s, the troupe had earned a reputation for opposing capitalism, sexism, and war.

Post-Davis history

In the early 1970s Davis left the troupe when it re-formed as a

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

, the members of which operate as the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

, at which time the troupe produced one of its most successful shows, ''The Independent Female'' (1970). In the 1980s, the group's productions retaliated against the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...

. As well as the park-based shows, the Mime Troupe also tours nationally and internationally, having performed throughout Europe, Asia, South and Central America. The group also facilitates community workshops. They are a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. The season traditionally starts on

Fourth of July Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...

weekend and ends on

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

weekend. Notable members include: Saul Landau, Nina Serrano, Steve Reich, John Connell, William T. Wiley, Wally Hedrick,

Victoria Hochberg Victoria Greene Hochberg (born December 24, 1952) is an American film and television director and writer. She was one of the Original Six, a group of women directors who created the Women's Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America, ...

, John Broderick,

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' C ...

, Luis Valdez, Barry Shabaka Henley, Bruce Barthol, Joan Mankin, Emmett Grogan, Bill Graham, and Ed Holmes. Posters for several of the 1970s productions were designed by Jane Norling, and are accessible online.

Awards

The Troupe has won three OBIEs, and in 1987, the troupe's Brechtian style of

guerrilla theatre Guerrilla theatre, generally rendered "guerrilla theater" in the US, is a form of guerrilla communication originated in 1965 by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who, in spirit of the Che Guevara writings from which the term ''guerrilla'' is taken, en ...

earned them a special Tony Award for Excellence in Regional Theater. ''Red State,'' the troupe's 2008 fable about a small

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

town that, after years of being ignored, demands accountability for their tax dollars, was nominated for a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best New Script, as was their 2009 production, ''Too Big to Fail'', which detailed how credit and the philosophy of profit at all costs trap mesmerized citizens in a cycle of debt, while endlessly enriching the

capitalists Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a n ...

who cast the spell.

Productions

1950s & 1960s

*1959: ''Games—3 Sets'' * 1959: ''Mime And Word'' * 1960: ''11th Hour Mime Show'' * 1961: '' Act without Words'' * 1961: ''Event I'' * 1961: ''Purgatory and

Krapp's Last Tape ''Krapp's Last Tape'' is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee (actor), Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's e ...

'' * 1962: ''The Dowry'' * 1963: '' Ubu King'' * 1963: ''Event II'' * 1963: ''Film: Plastic Haircut'' * 1963: ''Ruzante's Maneuvers'' * 1963: ''The Root'' * 1964: ''Chorizos'' * 1964: ''Event III'' * 1964: ''Mimes and Movie'' * 1964: ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'' * 1965: ''

The Exception and the Rule ''The Exception and the Rule'' ( German: ''Die Ausnahme und die Regel'') is a short play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht and is one of several ''Lehrstücke'' (Teaching plays) he wrote around 1929/30. The objective of Brecht's Lehrstücke ...

'' * 1965: ''Candelaio'' * 1965: ''Chronicles of Hell'' * * 1965: ''The Minstrel Show or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel'' * 1965: ''Jim Crow in a Cracker Barrel'' * 1966: ''

The Miser ''The Miser'' (; ) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9, 1668, in the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré), theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris. This is a character com ...

'' * 1966: ''Film: Mirage And Centerman'' * 1966: ''Jack Off!'' * 1966: ''Olive Pits'' * 1966: ''Search & Seizure'' * 1966: ''What's That Ahead?'' * 1967: ''L'Amant Militaire'' * 1967: ''The Condemned'' * 1967: ''The Vaudeville Show'' * 1968: ''Gutter Puppets (Meter Maid)'' * 1968: ''Little Black Panther'' * 1968: ''Ruzzante or the Veteran Gorilla Marching Band is Formed'' * 1969: '' The Congress of Whitewashers or Turandot'' * 1969: ''The Third Estate''

1970s

* 1970: ''Ecoman'' * 1970: ''Los Siete'' * 1970: ''Seize the Time'' * 1970: ''Telephone Man or Ripping off Ma Bell'' * 1970: ''The Independent Female'' * 1971: ''Clown Show'' * 1971: ''The Dragon Lady's Revenge'' * 1972: ''American Dreamer'' * 1972: ''Frozen Wages'' * 1972: ''High Rises'' * 1973: '' The Mother'' * 1973: ''San Francisco Scandals of 1973'' * 1974: ''The Great Air Robbery'' * 1975: ''Frijoles or Beans To You'' * 1975: ''Power Play'' * 1976: ''False Promises/Nos Engañaron'' * 1977: ''Hotel Universe'' * 1978: ''Elektrobucks'' * 1979: ''We Can't Pay, We Won't Pay'' * 1979: ''Squash'' * 1979: ''T.V. Dinner''

1980s

* 1980: ''Fact Person'' * 1981: ''Americans or Last Tango in Huahuatenango'' * 1981: ''Factwino Meets the Moral Majority'' * 1981: ''Ghosts'' * 1982: ''Factwino vs. Armagoddonman'' * 1982: ''Hotel Universe'' * 1983: ''Secrets in the Sand'' * 1983: ''The Uprising At Fuente Ovejuna'' * 1984: ''Steeltown'' * 1985: ''Crossing Borders'' * 1985: ''Factwino: The Opera'' * 1986: ''Spain/36'' * 1986: ''The Mozamgola Caper'' * 1987: ''The Dragon Lady's Revenge'' * 1988: ''Ripped Van Winkle'' * 1989: ''Seeing Double''

1990s

* 1990: ''Rats'' * 1990: ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' * 1991: ''Back to Normal'' * 1991: ''I Ain't Yo Uncle'' * 1992: ''Social Work'' * 1993: ''Offshore'' * 1994: ''Big Wind'' * 1994: ''Escape to Cyberia'' * 1994: ''Revenger Rat Meets the Merchant of Death'' * 1995: ''Coast City Confidential'' * 1996: ''Gotta Get A Life'' * 1996: ''Soul Suckers from Outer Space'' * 1996: ''13 Days'' * 1997: ''Killing Time'' * 1997: ''Inside Out'' * 1997: ''The Independent Female'' * 1997: ''Teen City'' * 1998: ''The Artist Must Take Sides'' * 1998: ''Damaged Care'' * 1999: ''City For Sale'' * 1999: ''40th Retrospective''

2000s

Godfellas San Francisco Mime Troupe 2006 b

* 2000: ''Eating it'' * 2001: ''1600 Transylvania Avenue'' * 2002: ''Mr. Smith Goes to Obscuristan" * 2003: ''Veronique of the Mounties'' * 2004: ''Showdown at Crawford Gulch'' * 2005: ''Doing Good'' * 2006: ''Godfellas'' * 2007: ''Making a Killing'' * 2008: ''Red State'' * 2009: ''Too Big to Fail''

2010s

* 2010: ''Posibilidad or Death of the Worker'' * 2011: ''2012 - The Musical!'' * 2012: ''For the Greater Good, or The Last Election'' * 2013: ''Oil & Water'' * 2014: ''Ripple Effect'' * 2015: ''Freedomland'' * 2016: ''Schooled'' * 2017: ''Walls'' * 2018: ''Seeing Red'' * 2019: ''Treasure Island''

2020s

* 2020: ''Tales of the Resistance: Volume 1'' * 2021: ''Tales of the Resistance: Volume 2'' * 2022: ''Back to the Way Things Were'' * 2023: ''Breakdown'' * 2024: ''American Dreams''

Albums

*1972: ''Fillmore – The Last Days'' *1983: ''The Album'' *1984: ''Steel Town''

Notes

References

Sources

External links

The San Francisco Mime Troupe official website
*
San Francisco Mime Troupe Archives
at Special Collections, University Library, University of California, {{Authority control 1959 establishments in California Performing groups established in 1959 American satirists Culture of San Francisco Mime Troupe American political satire Mime Troupe Regional theatre in the United States Tony Award winners Postmodern theatre