Harlem of the West<\/a>\u201d vibrancy, that same area tells a very different story.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTrevin\u0303o-29-1e9387ec.jpg\")
Donte (Darryl V. Jones), left, tells Adar\u00e8 (Trevor Miller) about growing up in the Fillmore in SFBATCO\u2019s \u2018Every Saturday Night.\u2019\u00a0(Alexa LexMex Trevi\u00f1o)<\/p>\n
Cowritten by Michael Gene Sullivan and Danny Duncan and produced by SFBATCO, Every Saturday Night casts the Fillmore itself as the show\u2019s main character. Donte Coleman (Darryl V. Jones), tells stories of his childhood in the Fillmore to the teenage son of a new family looking to buy his home and move in. Having learned the history of the neighborhood, the family is shocked to see that it\u2019s not what they expected. Samuel (Jon-David Randle), the new homebuyer, puts it plainly: \u201cThere aren\u2019t as many Black people as I thought there would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across its 70-year timeline, from the 1950s to present day, the script is constant in its message, if a little hard to follow at times. The production comes alive when it reenacts the different parties hosted by Donte\u2019s mother Ardella (Cathleen Riddley), providing a \u201cnice place where colored folks can rest\u201d at the end of a busy work week. Between these lively parties with loud jazz and busy dance numbers (with music by Othello Jefferson and choreography by the director, AeJay Antonis Marquis), there\u2019s also a fight to save the district from encroaching redevelopment, and to protect Black residents from the removal that its Japanese residents had faced a few years earlier.<\/p>\n
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Doris (Imri Tate) speaks out against urban renewal and the displacement of the Fillmore\u2019s Black community in SFBATCO\u2019s \u2018Every Saturday Night.\u2019\u00a0(Alexa LexMex Trevi\u00f1o)<\/p>\n
Doris (Imri M. Tate) is crusader for this cause, and convinces Ardella to join her. (\u201cI don\u2019t want to be moved out of my home because somebody wants to bleach the Fillmoe like a damn shirt,\u201d Doris says.) In the original song \u201cFor the Greater Good of the Neighborhood,\u201d Doris pleads for Ardella to keep her home, and the audience gets immersed into an anti-redevelopment protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back to the present day, as Donte bonds with the new family\u2019s teenage son, Adar\u00e8 (Trevor Miller), similar efforts are underway. A \u201cWestern Addition Heritage Association\u201d knocks on the door trying to purchase and flip the house, under the guise of keeping it in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTrevin\u0303o-51-44c859bd.jpg\")
Young Donte (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa), center, and others dance the night away at Ardella\u2019s after-hours joint in SFBATCO\u2019s \u2018Every Saturday Night.\u2019\u00a0(Alexa LexMex Trevi\u00f1o)<\/p>\n
San Francisco is an ever-changing city, for better or for worse. In Every Saturday Night, emotional and comedic performances bring the city\u2019s history into the present day. \u201cThere\u2019s still efforts to disappear and erase the Fillmoe,\u201d Marquis said during a pre-show discussion on opening night. \u201cWe are trying to keep it alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Every Saturday Night\u2019 runs through Nov. 1 at The Strand (1127 Market St., San Francisco). Tickets and more information here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Full of vibrant jazz and activist camaraderie, this new musical brings the neighborhood\u2019s history to life. Oct 16,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-498515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n