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SF Trolley Dances 15th anniversary ~ ‘Men on Boats’ @ A.C.T. ~ Girl ~ Irish Arts & Writers Festival

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with Kim Epifano, choreographer and director of Epiphany Dance Theater, about the 15th anniversary edition of the San Francisco Trolley Dances on October 20 and 21. 

Joining the conversation is Kimi Okada, associate choreographer at ODC and director of ODC School, who has choreographed a site-specific piece for ODC/Dance to be performed at Mission Creek Park. 

Every year for Trolley Dances, Kim Epifano matches artists and ensembles with specific sites along San Francisco’s public transportation lines, inviting them to create a short dance piece in response to the physical environment, architecture and history of the area. This year’s route travels along the N-Judah Muni line, from Mission Creek Park to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

Participating companies include Aisan Hoss and Dancers, Hālau Makana Polynesian Cultural Arts, Robert Moses’ Kin, San Diego Dance Theater and STEAMROLLER Dance Company, in addition to Epiphany Dance Theater. 

From the upcoming A.C.T.production of the play Men on Boats,  we meet with director Tamilla Woodard and actress Katherine Romans. Men on Boats, written by Jaclyn Backhaus, is a hilarious, historical, and subversive tale of ten men, four boats, and two rivers - which contains none of the above. 

The play is based on  the 1869 expedition of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, following Major John Wesley Powell and a crew of volunteers who journey to chart the Colorado River. It runs at A.C.T.’s  Strand Theater (1127 Market Street) in San Francisco from October 17 - December 16.

We talk to contemporary choreographer and performer Monique Jenkinson about Girl,  the first ever, evening-length collaboration between Jenkinson (as her drag queen persona Fauxnique), and her real-life husband and electronic composer Marc Kate, who joins us in the studio. 

In Girl,  Jenkinson and Kate question masculinist power by speaking to the feminine in everyone and asking: “Who is the girl in you?, What could you tell her?” Girl runs at the Joe Goode Annex October 11-13 & 18-20 (8pm). 

Plus, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, talks with Irish author Paul Muldoon about the third annual Irish Arts & Writers Festival, during which fifteen Irish authors, artists, and poets descend on the Bay Area to showcase the best in contemporary Irish arts & literature.

The Irish Arts & Writers Festival takes place in Los Gatos on Oct 12-14, with additional events in Berkeley and San Francisco on October 11, and in Oakland on October 15. 

Open Air with host David Latulippe, heard live on Thursday, October 11, at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…