With the anxiety of March Madness lingering for some basketball fans, SF Playhouse’s next offering seems well placed to be a winner. “FLEX” by Candrice Jones envelops the audience in a basketball-fueled world through May 2.
Jones, who played competitive girls basketball in high school and college, brings her knowledge and love of the sport to the stage as she tells of a 1998 high school team in southeast Arkansas. Under Jones’ capable hands, the play has these young women striving to perfect their athletic skills and also dealing with the challenge of being young, Black and female in the rural South.
While East Bay resident Margo Hall has been directing her actors through the many challenges on and off the court, her husband, Emmanuel Blackwell, has been busy teaching and honing the performers’ basketball skills.
Blackwell brings a wealth of experience to his position as basketball consultant. The program coordinator with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department for 45 years, Blackwell has coached basketball as well as every other sport. In his position with SF Playhouse, he is tasked with helping the cast acquire the basketball skills needed for the show including the complicated offensive play for which the play is named.
“Three or four of the girls played basketball in middle school or high school but the rest have never touched a basketball,” Blackwell said. “They’ve all worked hard to get the moves, especially the flex play. It’s difficult to learn, but they are running it well.”
Blackwell is also impressed with the level of commitment and physical preparedness of the cast.
“There are a lot of nuances in the game, and you have to be prepared and in shape because basketball will test your body,” said Blackwell.
SF Playhouse rented various gyms in the area for the cast to practice their basketball skills in addition to working on lines and character development at the rehearsal space with Hall.
Safety is also a high priority for Blackwell as he runs the cast and their understudies through the various plays necessary for the show.
“They have something like 20 performances, and they’re out there bumping and grinding. You need to make sure no one twists an ankle or something,” Blackwell said. “They need to learn how to roll and dive and not get hurt. Then, they also have to concentrate on knowing their lines and developing their characters. Just a lot going on. I had no idea this play involved so much.”
“FLEX” performs through May 2 at SF Playhouse, located at 450 Post St. in San Francisco. For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or go to sfplayhouse.org.
Oakland: Stephen Sondheim’s dark, satirical musical, aptly titled “Assassins,” explores the lives of nine people from American history who assassinated or attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents.
With book by John Weidman, “Assassins” looks at the dark side of the American Dream where alienation and personal frustration can lead to national violence.
Leave it to Oakland Theater Project to present a bold interpretation of Sondheim’s timely, controversial work. Directed by Weston Scott, the show’s nine characters will all be played by actor Adam KuveNiemann. By making this a one-man show, Scott demonstrates how every dreamer, outcast and would-be revolutionary can exist within a single individual.
“There’s a weird thing about this show where it sometimes feels like it’s speaking to people on the right, and sometimes it feels like it’s speaking to people on the left,” said KuveNiemann. “And you start to realize it’s not a right/left thing that there is a way of feeling on the outside like there’s been a lie that America has offered up that is not being paid off that can be utilized by the right, and by the left. Whatever the rhetoric that lie still exists. There’s still that disparity. There’s still the hurt and still the isolation of a lot of Americans.”
“Assassins” runs through April 5. For tickets go to oaklandtheaterproject.org/assassins.
Alameda: Altarena Playhouse will hold auditions for Noel Coward’s “Fallen Angels” on Sunday and the following day
Set in 1925 London, this decadent and highly entertaining comedy tells of two best friends who both had the same dashing Frenchman as their lover long before marrying. Now, the Frenchman has returned and requested to see them. As their husbands play golf, the women plot and plan, with some help from a very worldly housekeeper, as they await a visit from their former lover.
Katina Psihos directs. Rehearsals begin July 8 with performances Aug. 21 through Sept. 20. For more information and to sign up for an audition slot, go to altarena.org/auditions/#list.
Reach Sally Hogarty at sallyhogarty@gmail.com, and read more of her reviews online at eastbaytimes.com/author/sally-hogarty.