The Move to SF State

Bay Area Artists Take A Tour

With the Festival Program’s scheduled move to San Francisco State University just over a year away, more than two dozen artistic directors and co-creators of Bay Area performing arts companies and ensembles recently attended a Site-Visit to nine possible on-campus venues as potential places to present their work at the Festival in June 2023.

Attendees included such local luminaries as Coco Duhon-Kelley, David Kleinberg, Dhyanis Carniglia, Emad Bonakdar, Erling Wold, Felicity Hesed, Jesselito Bie, Joel Streicker, Jong Lee, JP Frary, Karen Seneferu, Kimi Sugioka, Lluis Valls, Lynn Lohr, Moe Staiano, Nancy Wang, Niharika Mohanty, Robert Kennedy, Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, Sha Sha Higby, Shinichi Iova-Koga and Valerie Fachman.

The tour, hosted by SFSU Operations and Events Lead, Aaron Benn and Associated Students Senior Director of Event Services, April Rudnick, took in McKenna Theater, Knuth Hall, the Lab, Jack Adams Hall, Little Theatre and the incredible new BECA television studios (among others) before ending for a reception in The Depot in the Cesar Chavez Student Center. The stages on campus range from audience capacities of 50 to 1,200 people (not including Cox Stadium, but that’s for another story).

It was the San Francisco Circus Center’s Artistic Director, Felicity Hesed's first time visiting the campus venues and she was amazed with the variety of stages. She said the McKenna Theatre and the open stage outside of Jack Adams Hall would be perfect for the organization's performances. Felicity said, “We do circus. We do really big things that take up a lot of space.”

The Little Theatre was another favorite among artists. JP Frary, a storyteller from San Francisco, returned to the campus 33 years after performing Arthur Kopits “Indians,” in the campus's Little Theater. JP said returning felt surreal and he spoke about his plans for next year. 

“What we’re gonna do is have a musician on stage… it would be storytelling with music in between each act and hopefully the music would be referencing the story,” said JP. The former SFSU alumni said the Little Theatre’s perfect for the two concepts he wants to give life to.

Another SFSU Alum, Shinichi Iova-Koga, artistic director of inkBoat, attended with sometime collaborator composer Moe! Staiano of Surplus 1980. The pair took extensive notes and gave conspiratorial nods.

Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, were also captured by the Little Theatre and Jack Adams Hall’s outside stage. The fellow storytellers and Eth-Noh-Tec directors, incorporate music, dance and spoken word to present Asian stories to audiences of all ages. 

At the reception Nancy shares her next project, a mystery titled, “Shadows and Secrets,” would be perfect to present in either venue. The artist began to craft ideas on how to tell the story based on the stages at the campus. 

Special thanks to the College of Liberal and Creative Arts and Associated Students for organizing and hosting the tour.

We are trying to schedule the next Artist Site Visit during April. For more information, artists interested in attending should contact Festival Director, Andrew Wood (email [email protected] or call the SFIAF office phone at 415-399-9554)