Episode: 4 San Francisco Mime Troupe

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guest: Michael Sullivan, Board Member, San Francisco Mime Troupe

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host.

Series Introduction: This episode is part of a series of interviews we conducted through our participation in the Bay Area Video Coalition’s TV Show titled San Francisco Nonprofits Spotlight. The interviews were conducted via Zoom from April to June 2020 during the height of the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Shelter in Place requirements. The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the pandemic. 

Show Guest Michael:  It's going to be "Tales of the Resistance" brought to you by The San Francisco Mime Troupe.  Will, anybody listen, how will we pay for it? We won't be able to pass the hat after the show. You know, the Mime Troupe doesn't take corporate money. So our budget is made up of donations from the audience and foundations and government grants.

Episode Intro Show Host George:  In this episode we feature the voice of Michael Gene Sullivan, a Board Member, writer, director and performer of The San Francisco Mime Troupe. Over the past Sixty Plus Years The San Francisco Mime Troupe Collective has created and produced theater through the lens of the working class by exposing social and economic injustice with a call to action to make the necessary changes on behalf of working people. The collective’s mission is to present their work to the broadest possible audience with both artistry and humor and thus, their performances are free and performed in public parks throughout California and the nation.

Show Host George:  I'm joined remotely via zoom by Michael Gene Sullivan, a board member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe who has directed, written and starred in more than 30 productions since starting the collective back in 1988. Thanks for being here, Michael. I'm sure that number has actually gone up since, you know, over 30 these days.

Show Guest Michael: Yeah, I try to update my bio. And also, I didn't join the collective in 1988. That was first time I did a show with the Mime Troupe. They asked me to join the collective, but I really wasn't sure if I wanted to for a little while, it seemed like a lot of work and it is.

George: The Mime Troupe has been around for over 60 plus years. If you could just kind of give the audience just a little overview of the Mime Troupe, especially the fact that, your mission is to provide these incredible performances out in parks throughout the whole San Francisco Bay area. And actually, you've done it in other countries

Michael: Yes. So, the Mime Troupe has been around since uh,1959. There's always some dispute over that. And we've been doing political theater. I haven't with them, but people did. Since then. And, the idea was always, you know, what, people get confused by the name Mime, but Mime is actually the exaggeration of everyday life and story and song.

So, you can talk, you don't have to be stuck in a glass box wearing leotards As much fun as that sounds. and we've always been trying to use theater actively as an, as an activist tool, rather than just doing psychological dramas, where basically you open the side of a house, you see some freaked out family members who have a difficult time than the house closes and you go, you go to your home and that has nothing to do with you.

The Mime Troupe has purposefully and actively tried to affect the audience openly. We make no bones about it. And so, from my group's history, we have not had an artistic director, we've had a, collective of artists who operate as the Artistic Director kind of running the company.

And we also have a board, but the board is really there because we have to have a board, I'm on the board. Um, you know, by law, you kinda, gotta have one and they're great supporters of the Troupe. The vast majority of our shows are done free and outdoors to the widest possible audience, because anybody can afford to see a Mime Troupe show cause they're free.

And we perform around the Bay area and Northern California. We tour across country. I've been overseas, a number of times at the Mime Troupe, always with our message of comedy and activism and theater kind of mashed together. It's like a Brecht had been funnier.

George: Thank you. How has the, COVID-19 epidemic really impacted the Mime Troupe's, traditional summer touring season, which is coming up here in a month or so, especially your annual kind of kickoff on the 4th of July at Dolores Park?

Michael: Well the first thing that happened was we had to push back our 4th of July opening a month. We're just gonna wait because people aren't going to feel comfortable coming out. And we're not sure if we'd have enough time to rehearse also actor's equity, um, which is the union that protects, you know, actors. Mime Troupe is a member of, the union and the union said they were not going to let anybody do productions, no contracts, nothing until things had cleared up. Because they don't want the actors to feel, to be under pressure by producers to be in dangerous situations, like right up with people. So, we pushed it back to that, and then we started examining, well, what would happen if we couldn't do the show at all?

And what else could we do? And we just, we thought about, and we've been doing research on radio plays to do a radio serial rather than one play to do like nine. You know, like 20 minutes, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, and then eventually an hour-long show and to have the actors record them in their homes. And then we take all that information, put it together into one radio play and then put it out once a week.

And I think that's what we're going to do. Um, I can just say that that's what we're going to do. We already, uh, I mean, I'll be writing most of the shows, but I'll be joined with other writers, Marie Cartier, Ellen Callas a long time Mime Troupe member and, uh, Daniel Savio who will be writing words and music for the shows, but that's what we're going to do.

It's going to be "Tales of the Resistance" brought to you by The San Francisco Mime Troupe.  Will, anybody listen, how will we pay for it? We won't be able to pass the hat after the show. You know, the Mime Troupe doesn't take corporate money. So, our budget is made up of donations from the audience and foundations and government grants.

It's not, you know, the Wells Fargo, AT&T and PG&E Mime Troupe. So. how, how will we pay for it? Will we be able to? That's a good question. We did get one grant from the government, which is covering some of our production period, but not all of it. So, we'll see. But interesting thing is that if the radio thing works, it is something that we're, hoping to continue in future years, even after the parks reopen and everyone's out there running around woo hula hoops and Frisbees and watching Mime Troupe shows.

That we might still do the radio shows every winter, you know, a new one, depending on whatever the political issue is at the time. I didn't mention this, but definitely do political theater. All of our shows are original shows that are written about political issues of the time to give people information and to kind of whip them up, to get agitated and involved in the whatever's going on.

George: And it sounds like it could be a really great new a model for  the Mime Troupe. So, what are the other things that the collective does is you do a lot of community outreach. You have a whole education projects program with internships. You've got summer workshops. You have your youth theater, community workshops. How has the whole pandemic impacted that?

Michael: Well, it's made all of those, um, difficult or impossible, our afterschool program, the YTP program has shifted to kind of being online, for the fall. But YTP is,  very specifically, is helping teenagers, not only to tell their own stories and teaching them how to write an act and direct and create plays that are about their lives, but it's also about them creating their own company each year, them interacting with people that they normally don't deal with.

Kids from you know one part of the town, kids from another part, it's not just one school we're dealing with its kids from all over, having a chance for them to kind of expand their sensibilities beyond their neighborhood a bit more. And that's something we can't do as easily, remotely.

I mean, these, students and teens have access to all of this technology, and they can you know interact with kids from San Francisco to Mongolia, to, Timbuktu. But to actually be with them to actually share the space with someone who's very different. And so, we're missing that even though our youth theater project is going to do, like I said, an online version and our other school project, which is the, Don Stevens, young California writers project.

We've gotten a grant to pay for this, which is a personal grant, which is super cool. But it requires a school to be open. It's when one of our teachers goes in and teaches playwriting for 10 weeks, uh, in school and at the schools are nobody. We simply can't do it. So, it's very difficult   When it comes to our internships.

Um, so many of our internships are around production and creating plays and being in the room, people come from all over the world to study with us about how do you do this? How do you make a play so quickly? That is so on point with politics and what is the collaboration like? And we can't do any of that this year, even though we have grants to cover internships.

You know, for the first time in a decade, we have, some grants that can actually pay interns to come and stay with us in San Francisco and give them dough on at least for writing. But it would be irresponsible for us to even really try to get, students to come at this point.

George: So, back to solutions. I know, recently you created the Mime Cast, which is streaming on your website. Uh, another way to continue to reach out to the community. How can people who are watching this who have been, Mime Troupe, Collective fans for decades and or their friends said that we're going to go see them in the summer and we're not sure that's going to happen. How can people support the effort, get engaged a bit difficult to volunteer, but, thoughts and ideas?

Michael: Well, Like the point of the Mime Cast is really, let people kind of get to know Mime Troupers better. There are people that have worked with us who are gone, or they've, been with the company a long time. And the audience in general really doesn't know these people outside of the Mime Troupe.

And so, I want to try to make sure that the community understands their ownership of the company to a large extent that we are there for them. And it's easier if they know we are. And in terms of, uh, helping the company in these ridiculously, difficult times. I mean, I'm going to be keeping, updating our website to make sure that people always kind of know, well, this is when the next show is going to be on with our summer.

Um, here's the history of the Mime Troupe to get the word out. One thing I just did yesterday was I was watching a John Oliver show and he talked about how he made, um, postage stamps for his show for characters that he talks with on. And you can do that. So, I made Mime Troupe postage stamps, which I ordered, and I'll look at, and if they look good, you can always buy ah Mime Troupe postage stamp. That really doesn't help us financially. We don't get any money from that if that happens, but it's just a way to kind of get the word out, just, Oh, look Mime Troupe stuff. Um, and any times someone can go online and just donate money to the Mime Troupe to make sure that we can keep doing the work we're doing.

When we do our regular summer shows, it costs about $25,000 a week. I think something like that, it's like $15 to $20 and really depends on where we go. People don't know that. Some people think that the Mime Troupe work that the individual members worked for free. They're like, Oh, it's so great for you to volunteer all this time.

It's like, no, this is a job. It is, a seasonal job that we are all woefully underpaid for, but we do get paid. And so, if somebody wants to support the Mime Troupe, they can go to our website and there's like a donate button, they could buy some of our merchandise and wear it. Every once in a while, we go on the road, I'll be in like LA or something and I'll see somebody and they go, Hey, I got my Mime Troupe T shirt on and I'm like, great.

When was the last time you wore it? And the other about a year ago when I saw you. It's like no, wear it all the time, just wear it. And so, keeping the word out about theater in general, knowing that it's important to support the performers, you know, all of the theater, artists, designers, directors, writers, and everyone, whenever you can.

And if a show comes up and so much stuff, is happening now online, if you see a show online, don't think of it as this really cool thing that you got to do for free. Go ahead and make a donation. The reason those organizations, including the Mime Troupe cannot, charge people to watch those things because the mechanism for doing that, it's very difficult.

It's easier to let people see it for free. But if you see it for free, make a donation to that company. You know, not just the Mime Troupe, I mean, you see the Mime Cast and like, Hey, I want to donate fine. And then when our shows come along, please do follow the company, watch the shows and donate. But really for every theater company, every performer, everything you see online that as you're sitting at home thinking, wow, I'm trapped in my home and I need entertainment.

And all of these performers are putting their work out there, make a donation to them. Even if it's an individual artist, Venmo them some dough, five bucks. Here you go. I liked your dance piece. I think all of the theaters need that constant support and it's also a kind of a spiritual support. It is great when you put something on, if you sing a song on Facebook and somebody likes it, but you can't buy bread with a, like, you know, just ask the person, if you really liked it, it meant something to you. If you've seen it over and over again, how can I Venmo you some dough? Do you have a PayPal account?

I just like to contribute to you continuing to be an artist. Um, what's her name? Marcella Orca, a playwright who just put on Facebook that, she had a gig she's living in Chicago. She just moved there. She was planning to move to Los Angeles so she could do a, film adaptation of a play of hers.

And all of that is gone. All of that work is gone, and all of her income is gone. So, she has to like to move in with her cousin and she's an established playwright. But that was her entire income stream was from writing and it's nothing's happening. So please do support the Mime Troupe in every way you can 

George: Thank you, Michael. That was great. Final question would be with the meltdown. What do you see as positive things that might come out of all this?

Michael: Well, I don't know. that's a tough one. The City of San Francisco said they were going to be supporting artists, but they only chose to support a very narrow range of artists, which was unfortunate, I think. And that's made it difficult. I think the things that'll come out of it as a real discussion about, um, public healthcare.

And national health care. And, I think that if we push hard enough, a lot of the unions and workers will be more empowered because suddenly these people that are considered essential workers now, they were essential workers before. We just ignored them. You know, and they will be essential workers in the future now is the time for them to kind of grab power.

So, a lot of things could come out of this well.  there are a lot of legislatures that are now suddenly under siege by terrorists. And that might end up changing some of the laws around just malicious running around with guns.  So, I think there's a few things that, could come out of this, but we have to stay vigilant and we have to press our, elected employees to not to think about themselves.

And as usual, not just about lining their own pockets of where they're going to end up when they ended up in their next job. But to, you know, make the world a better, easier place for the vast majority of us that are the working class. Now is the kind of the time to push that is not the time to back off.

George: Thank you for the time today, Michael, please stay safe and healthy out there. Give my best to the collective, and, I appreciate all of the really hard work

Michael: Thanks, bye.

Episode Outro- Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voice of Michael Gene Sullivan, a Board Member, writer, director and performer of The San Francisco Mime Troupe. In addition to the live performances during the summer touring season, The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s members are engaged in bringing their vision of collective storytelling through providing internships, summer workshops, the youth theater project along with the Young California Writers Project.  The San Francisco Mime Troupe also works with other non-arts partners to create community workshops. To find out more about their upcoming radio serial of nine plays please visit www.sfmt.org

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoyed the insights, points of view and personal stories from the voices of change makers and their nonprofits featured in the series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofit and staff members, featured in this episode please go to my web site georgekoster.com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to this episode. Please consider a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada as well as the wonderful team at Bay Area Video Coalition. Go to www.bavc.org to find out more about Bay Area Video Coalition’s services. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to georgekoster.com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows like this. Please rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and share this story with your friends. Follow us on twitter@georgekoster and please email us at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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