2015 Summer Festival
dance of the holy ghosts
by Marcus Gardley
The Ubuntu Theater Project kicked off its 2015 Summer Festival with a poetic play that sings the blues, dances through time, and tells the gripping story of abandonment and love renewed. "Dance of the Holy Ghosts," written by award-winning playwright and Oakland native Marcus Gardley, tells the story of a Grandfather and Grandson grappling with the past as they search their memories to discover themselves through one another.
The play is set in Oakland, California and offers audiences a powerful and familiar story of loss and reconciliation. Co-Artistic Director Michael Moran directed this gripping play featuring Co-Artistic Director William Hodgson, Keith Wallace, Candace Thomas, Halili Knox and 13 ensemble gospel choir members.
THE BROTHERS SIZE
BY TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY
Oshoosi Size just got out of prison and is now on parole. However, even though Oshoosi is out of prison, he’s hardly free. When Oshoosi has difficulty finding work his older brother Ogun Size, the mechanic, hires him to work at his shop. But Oshoosi’s friend from prison, Elegba, pays an unexpected visit and spins a web that neither of the brothers is prepared to deal with. In this moving drama filled with pain, poetry and laughter, two brothers walk the line between freedom and a prison without bars, locked in a fierce tug-of-war for their own souls.
WAITING FOR LEFTY
BY CLIFFORD ODETS
Odets's 1935 classic tale of thousands of New York City cab drivers fighting for their rights and echoing the complicated politics surrounding labor unions today. Join us in an Oakland auto-repair shop and put some fire in your belly as we celebrate Odets's fighting words and our cultural memory of what it means to fight for human dignity.
GROUNDED
BY GEORGE BRANT
Now being produced across the country George Brant's one woman show has struck a national nerve. Grounded in a windowless trailer outside Las Vegas and flying remote drones halfway across the world in Iraq, the play follows one remarkable woman as she discovers the complex and radical consequences of modern-day American warfare.
2014 Summer Festival
The Ubuntu Theater Project presented its second annual "Breaking Chains" Summer Theater Festival in September of 2014. This was our second annual festival and brought 6 amazing shows to the Bay Area at exciting site-specific venues and offered them at an affordable price for the community to enjoy.
"Breaking Chains" Festival in the News
Our 2014 " Breaking Chains" Summer Theater Festival was highlighted in media outlets across the Bay Area with resounding applause!
East Bay Express - "Breaking Chains" by Sarah Burke
SF Examiner - "Ubuntu's Vivid Military Plays Light Up Hanagr" by Leslie Katz
KQED Arts - "A Dizzingly Random Day at the SF Fringe Festival" by Sam Hurwitt
Post News Group- "Ubuntu Theater Project Hosts 'Breaking Chains' Fesitval" by Taison Kwamilele
Festival Awards
Campo Maldito - WINNER "Best of the 2014 San Francisco Fringe Festival" Award
2013 Summer Festival
In September of 2013 we brought our first theater festival to the Bay Area where performed four plays in four cities through site specific theater! What is site specific theater? That's when we take shows usually performed in a traditional theater out into the community to bring a level of excitement, culture, and cutting edge artistry: allowing our audience to experience live shows like never before. Our shows were performed in exciting spaces for our audiences like parking garages and art galleries, and for social purposes like performing for youth in schools and at Juvenile detention facilities.