SAN FRANCISCO MIME TROUPE ANSWERS POLITICAL
QUESTIONS WITH SATIRE
In the broadest sense, they are a theater group. But when you get right down to it, they are more like a comical revolution: debunking myths, pointing out life's absurdities and answering some of the burning political and social questions of our time. All in all, any show put on by the San Francisco Mime Troup is sure to make you laugh, but also to make you see the bigger picture.
As part of its vigorous touring schedule, the Obie and Tony Award winning San Francisco Mime Troup will be bringing their poignant brand of political satire to Laxson Auditorium on the CSU, Chico campus on Oct. 28, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. In addition to the evening performance, the troupe will also be hosting two workshops the following day.
The group's latest piece, "Veronique of the Mounties," finds the U.S. government deeply engaged in its imperialistic quest to save the people of the world from themselves. After bringing "democracy" to Iraq, Syria and France, the U.S. turns its gaze to the terrorist threat on its northern border, Canada. Fiction follows fiction until only one thing can protect America, and launch the Cheney/Rice run for the White House in 2008, Operation Frozen Freedom.
Meanwhile, as the Canadians mobilize to fight off invasion, Royal Canadian Mounted Policewoman Veronique Du Bois is given a dangerous mission: to journey into the heart of American darkness and recover the object that may stop the U.S. military's insane rush to the Great White North.
Amid laughter and music, the play will answer these burning questions: Why would America turn away from its own economic and social problems and attack the peace-loving hockey fans in the north? Who benefits from a constant war on terror? Can a country with a maple leaf on its flag truly be a terrorist threat? And what has Canada got that's more valuable than oil?
The mission of the San Francisco Mime Troupe is to create and produce socially relevant theater of the highest professional quality and to perform it before the broadest possible audience. They do plays that make sense out of the headlines by identifying the forces that shape our lives and dramatizing the operation of these giant forces in small, close-up stories that make our audience feel the impact of political events on personal life. The troupe persistently attacks the barrier that American culture has successfully erected between the public and private spheres. A big part of their mission is to combat racial fragmentation by doing work that crosses racial and national borders. They work to sustain a vision of multi-cultural, multi-national community: to perform plays that not only have multi-racial plots, but also embody many points of view.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe's appearance in CSU, Chico's Laxson Auditorium is sponsored in part by: KPAY Radio, Chico News & Review, The City of Chico, KCHO Radio, and Butte College.
Advance tickets are $10 for CSU, Chico and Butte College students, $12 for children and other students, $14 for seniors, and $16 for general admission (all seating is reserved). Tickets are available at the University Box Office (898-6333) or at the following outlets: Terrace Pharmacy on Longfellow Ave, Cal Java in the Raley's Center on Skyway, and at the House of Color in Paradise. Tickets purchased at the door are $2 extra. For disability related accommodations call 898-4325.
Chico Performances is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing high quality dance, music and theatre to the residents of the North Valley.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is presented by Chico Performances and is supported; in part, by grants from the California Arts Council, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; Western States Arts Federation; and the City of Chico and its Arts Commission.
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More information is available on the web at: www.chicoperformances.com
Downloadable high resolution images are available at: cricket.csuchico.edu/cp/
To contact this artist please call: Spike Wray (415) 285-1717
Artist web page: www.sfmt.org
Chico Performances contact: Daran Marx Finney at (530) 898-6785. This information is available on disk or by email.