BOA X: Bay Area One Acts Festival March 6, 2011

A decade in the making, Three Wise Monkeys (3WM) Theatre Company is proud to announce its festival program for The 10th Annual Bay One Acts Festival (BOA X), the premiere, curated theater festival in the Bay Area, taking place Wednesdays – Sundays, March 6th – 26th, 2011, at Boxcar Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets are $20-$32 at the door or online at http://bayoneacts.org/

Celebrating ten years of excellence, BOA fully produces the best short plays by local playwrights from the most exciting independent theater companies in San Francisco. It is the only event that stimulates such a high level of collaboration amongst so many independent companies in the area, and it is the only festival in the region that produces an anthology of the plays selected for production each year. This tenth year is dedicated to the festival’s founder, Richard Bernier, who passed away in October of 2010. In a move to ensure BOA’s vitality, relevance and success, last year for BOA 9, Bernier hired Jessica Holt as Artistic Director to focus the festival on bringing together and highlighting the cutting edge work of the Bay Area’s best independent theater companies. This year, Holt has signed on 11 companies and 70+ local artists to create two full programs of intrepid, vital new theater running in repertory.

For ten years, BOA has gathered the local independent performing arts community in a dynamic annual month-long festival. BOA X features a hand-picked selection of eleven bold and adventurous short plays by local Bay Area playwrights Sharif Abu-Hamdeh, Crish Barth, Tim Bauer, Stuart Eugene Bousel, Jon Brooks, Megan Cohen, M.R. Fall, Bennett Fisher, Daniel Heath, Sam Leichter and the dynamic, movement-based 11th Hour Ensemble. Each play is then assigned to a company who is tasked with producing the piece. BOA X producing partners include 11th Hour Ensemble, Instrumental Theatre, No Nude Men, PianoFight, Playwrights Center, Round Belly Theatre Company, Theater Pub, Threshold, and Woman's Will, all of which share a commitment to the development and production of new work. BOA has tapped local directors Paul Cello, Rob Ready, Alex Curtis, Kate Jopson, Sara Judge, Sara Staley, Colin Johnson, Allison Combs and Ryo Harada, Julia Heitner, Stephanie Renee Maysonave, and 3WM artistic director Jessica Holt will also helm a play.

This festival creates an incredible instant theater community in San Francisco – building bridges between companies, cultivating connections between artists, and encouraging enthusiasm for the short play form. It’s also become a springboard for extraordinary new partnerships and collaborations between artists and companies, which continue to enrich the local landscape long after the festival ends. The festival has produced some of the hottest playwrights working today including Trevor Allen, William Bivins and Lauren Yee, to name just a few. Previous producing partners include Asian American Theater Company, Boxcar Theatre, Climate Theatre, Dark Room Productions, Sleepwalkers Theatre and the Playwrights Foundation. This year the festival will also feature post-show spotlights where producing partners, directors, and playwrights will talk about the new work development process.

Festival Tickets will go on-sale February 4 at 8 am. on Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets are $20 for General Admission. $32 tickets include VIP seating and a copy of this year's festival anthology. Wednesday and Thursday performances are pay-what-you-can for students. For complete festival program schedule and for information about advance ticket purchase, please visit: www.bayoneacts.org. For more information, please call (415) 891-7235.

Official Website: http://bayoneacts.org/