Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wed., June 17, 2020

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Aldo Billingslea, Ph.D., joins us to talk about Vincent Terrell Durham’s thrilling and timely play, Polar Bears, Black Boys and Prairie Fringed Orchids, Friday, June 19, 7 p.m.  It is a free event. Tickets are required: https://tickets.playground-sf.org/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=931
Billingslea, producer and leader of Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project, is a professor of Theater at Santa Clara University where he teaches courses in performance and performance studies, including seminars on August Wilson and American Theater from the Black Perspective. He is an Associate Producer at PlayGround, where he is a longtime company member and past board member, and is a past interim Artistic Director and now board member of the Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco. He was SCU’s inaugural Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and served as the Vice President of the 100 Black Men of Silicon Valley. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Renegade Theater Experiment, and on the advisory board of Gritty City Youth Repertory Theater and on the Board of Regents for Archbishop Mitty High School. As a professional stage actor, he has performed at dozens of theaters nationally and in the Bay Area, and in multiple films.

2. Geoffrey Grier, director, joins us to talk about SF Recovery Theatre's production of David Mamet's "Race," Friday June 19, Juneteenth weekend, in collaboration with PianoFight, 7:30 pm PT in Zoom. Subsequent shows will be re-broadcast Saturday and Sunday, June 20-21:Link to Friday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. PT show: https://www.pianofight.com/virtual-venue/

Suggested $20 Donation  PayPal.me/sfrecoverytheatre

SFRT always supports local artists and for this dramatic reading we will introduce:

Richard "The Face" Wenzel as Jack Lawson

Richard "Tough Guy" May as Henry Brown

Robert "I'm Innocent" Geshlider as Charles Strickland

Phoenyx "Bossy B" as Susan

About SF Recovery Theatre (SFRT) and Executive Director Geoffrey Grier

In the midst of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, where homelessness, poverty, drugs and the misfortunate have congregated and for the most part is ignored by the City’s Officials, is the home of San Francisco’s Recovery Theatre. The Recovery Theatre is a grassroots organization with a lot of local and some municipal support. It is funded by grants from the art and health community in San Francisco with no full time staff, but with a core group of dedicated actors, composed mainly of people in recovery. Its mission is to meet people where they are, provide a medium of communication and deliver a message of hope, consequence and solutions.

 Geoffrey Grier, director of Race, heads the San Francisco Recovery Theatre and hosts The Mr. Geoffrey Show, an on-line show that focuses on the issues, concerns, and events of the Tenderloin community.  Grier has extensive theatre experience, along with many years as a group facilitator at various S.F. treatment centers. He holds a degree in psychology from San Francisco State.  He has also assembled a cast of actors from clients both in and out of treatment to develop his play, "The Spot."