Based on the novel "A Christmas Carol" By Charles Dickens
Adapted for the stage and Directed by Michael Gene Sullivan
December 14 - 29
At Z SPACE, Steindler Stage
450 Florida St. In San Francisco 94110
“ "A Red Carol" is a leftist's dream wish for the Holiday season, and every other day of the year. It hits hard at people who "weigh everything by profit,” ruling class propaganda, and the idea that ignorance and want will keep the poor entrenched in the stations."
"Seasonal charity is a great concept, but SF Mime Troupe can't be satisfied with any trickle-down economics, Christmas time or not. Bravo comrades!”
BroadwayWorld
Six people,
telling the story,
playing all the roles,
in an abandoned industrial space.
This isn't your average, feel-good Christmas tale.
But it was never supposed to be.
We all know the story: The redemption of a cranky miser at Christmas, a ghost story designed to let an audience feel good about themselves for not being heartless.
But Charles Dickens wasn't trying to make people feel good, he was trying to show them a stark reality, scaring them into being more human. He wrote "A Christmas Carol" to shake up society, and with "A Red Carol" we are re-establishing his story as the revolutionary call-to-action he intended.
With music, joy, and plenty of harsh truths about his time and ours, "A Red Carol" is the demand for economic and social justice Dickens wanted then, and we need now.
"People always think this story is about you,” Bob Crachit tells Scrooge.
“But it ain’t about you, it’s about us - and how we let ourselves get infected with your ideas, your greed, your lies, its you steppin’ over the hungry and homeless and us following your lead, it’s us lettin’ you turn our government into a casino, listenin’ while you say day after day that profit is the new god, and us not standin’ up and shouting "NO!"'
“It ain’t about you," Cratchit says. "It’s about us.”
~
Featuring traditional music
with Additional Lyrics & Arrangement by Daniel Savio
Music Consulting by Bruce Barthol
Sound Design & Engineering by Taylor Gonzalez
Stage Managed by Karen Runk
Cast
Mike McShane
as Ebenezer Scrooge
MIKE MCSHANE
Mike McShane is an award-winning veteran film, television, and theatre actor who has performed on stages from London to Broadway. Mike got his start with Faultline - a groundbreaking improv troupe based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mike was a company member of Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, and the SF Shakespeare Festival, and hiis West Coast stage credits include - Henry IV Part 1, Hamlet, King John, Alls Well That Ends Well, The Winter’s Tale (California Shakespeare Festival), Waiting For Godot, You, Nero (Berkeley Repertory Theater), A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to The Forum, Golden Boy,(American Conservatory Theater) A Bright Room Called Day, The Stick Wife (Eureka Theater), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Little Foxes, Cousin Bette, The Seagull, and Tonight At 8:30 (The Antaeus Theater Company) Broadway credits include: La Cage Aux Folles, and Taller Than A Dwarf. In London West End he appeared in: Assassins, Little Shop of Horrors, and La Cage aux Folles (Menier Chocolate Factory). In film Mike achieved peak nerdom by being a villain in Doctor Who, driving the Batmobile whilst dressed as a Klingon, and as Friar Tuck kicking Kevin Costner in the face in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Other film credits include Richie Rich, Tom & Huck, Office Space. His TV credits include Seinfeld, ER, Frasier, Malcolm in the Middle, Wayward Pines, Doctor Who, NCIS:LA and NCIS, he is a past nominee for a Daytime Emmy, and was honored with a Cable Ace Award. Mike is extremely happy to be joining old friends and new comrades in a great American institution, The SF Mime Troupe. Keep Kicking.
Velina Brown
VELINA BROWN
Velina Brown is thrilled to be a part of the long awaited premier of A Red Carol. Velina started working with SFMT as an actor, singer and collaborator in 1992. She began directing SFMT projects in 2020 with the radio series Tales of the Resistance. She then co-directed the 2021 Season of Tales of the Resistance II. The Troupe created this radio series in lieu of our usual park tour during quarantine for which we won Best of the Bay. She most recently directed the Mime Troupe’s critically acclaimed Summer 2024 musical political satire American Dreams. As a principal performer in the Troupe Velina has played the Devil in Deal With the Devil, Veronique in Veronique of the Mounties, she's played Condoleeza Rice three times, and was both an actor and Contributing Lyricist on GodFellas and Making a Killing. Velina's most recent shows with the Troupe include Tales of the Resistance, A Red Carol, Walls: No Human is Illegal, Schooled, Ripple Effect, For The Greater Good: Or the Last Election, Red State, Too Big to Fail, and Posibilidad: Or Death of the Worker for which she won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Principal Actress. www.velinabrown.com
Lisa Hori-Garcia
LISA HORI-GARCIA
Lisa Hori-Garcia is an actress, director, and teaching artist who regularly works between San Francisco and Denver. She was most recently seen performing in the world premiere of Andrew Rosendorf's play "Stockade" in Colorado. Back in San Francsico, Lisa co-directed Word for Word's production of Murakami's "A Strange Library" with fellow Mime Troupe comrade Keiko Shimosato Carreiro. Lisa has been a collective member with SFMT since 2004 as an actress, producer, director, and serving as the program director of SFMT’s Youth Theater Project. Lisa is grateful for the opportunity to perform in the fully staged version of SFMT’s “Red Carol” after being part of the development process from its very beginnings. Lisa received her BA from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and her MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. She is a member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA.
Jed Parsario
JED PASARIO
Jed Parsario (AEA) is excited to return SFMT! He is an Oakland-based, TBA-nominated actor, and teaching artist. He is a company member of PlayGround, Red Ladder Theatre Company, and a collective member of Analog Theatre. He was last seen in CenterRep’sThe Legend of Georgia McBride (Jason/Rexy) dir. by Elizabeth Carter. Other credits include American Conservatory Theater (Sweat), Magic Theater (various), Marin Shakespeare Company (various), SF MimeTroupe (Breakdown), Shotgun Players (White), and SPARC (Complete Works of William Shakespeare). He is proud to give back to the community through his work as a teaching artist and facilitator of workshops with underserved communities throughout the Bay Area through his work with Red Ladder.
BRIAN RIVERA
BRIAN RIVERA last performed with the Mime Troupe in parks around the Bay in Treasure Island (2019), Posibilidad, or Death of the Worker (2010), and Doing Good (2005). He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award winning revival of The King & I at Lincoln Center, playing The King of Siam on occasion. Last year, Brian officially played The King in the West End UK & Ireland Tour of The King and I. Online, he can be heard in Mime Troupe's Tales of the Resistance 2020 & Vol. 2, a series of radio play episodes available to hear at www.sfmt.org. Brian's other Bay Area credits include the US Premiere of The Orphan of Zhao at ACT & La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Yellowjackets, and California Shakepeare Theater's American Night. He is a proud member of Campo Santo Theatre Company, residents of The Magic Theatre. Brian was part of the cast of Luis Alfaro's Travelers, which recently won the Will Glickman Award for best play to premiere in the Bay Area in 2023. He also recently won the Charles Dean Award for Excellence in Bay Area Theatre Performance. Brian is a graduate of SFSU's Drama Department, and is a proud member of AEA & SAG/AFTRA. Brian can be seen next summer playing Jerry Garcia in The Magic Theatre's premiere of Richard Montoya's Jerry Garcia in The Mission.
Brian Rivera
Keiko Shimosato Carreiro
KEIKO SHIMOSATO CARREIRO
Keiko Shimosato Carreiro is a Collective Member, actor, designer, co-writer, and director with the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. She has performed at American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory, The Magic Theater, San Jose Stage, The Aurora Theater, Word for Word, Oakland Theater Project, Center Rep., and Marin Shakespeare Company. In 2020 Keiko Co-founded Kunoichi Productions (Female Ninja productions) innovative, multidisciplinary theater combining Eastern and Western Theater Traditions.This fall she will be Co-Directing an Immersive Production of A Strange Library by Haruki Murakami for Word for Word at Z-Below..
Musicians
DANIEL SAVIO - PIANO
Daniel Savio started his professional theater career playing keyboards for the Mime Troupe in 2006, and since 2020 he has been the Troupe's resident composer/lyricist. This year Daniel led the band, was co-arranger, and composed additional music for SFBATCO's original musical Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin. He was recently musical director for the Marin Mountain Play production of Kinky Boots. Daniel has been MD of numerous community and children's productions at theaters in the North and East Bay. He has a BA in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
GUINEVERE Q - BASS GUITAR
Guinevere Q (they/them) (Musician) is a musician, organizer, published poet, journeyman installer in Local 510 Sign & Display Union, and graduate of the University of San Francisco. In addition to singing and playing bass in The Wyatt Act and SUNQ with drummer/partner Jason Young Sun, Guinevere produces original electronic music. Q has had the privilege of performing in many prestigious venues and festivals, including the San Francisco Arts Festival, Emerald City Comic Con at the Seattle Convention Center, the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, Haight Street Fair, and many more. Guinevere has had the honor of playing with incredibly inspiring musicians, including Grammy Award winning Fantastic Negrito, David Kendrick of DEVO, Randy Jones (the Cowboy) of The Village People, and others.
JASON YOUNG - PERCUSSION, MANDOLIN
Jason Young, aka Young Sun, grew up acting in musical theater, commercials, and film since the age of 6 and is a Bay Area native. After studying theater and music at Foothill College in Los Altos, CA, Young Sun went on to record over a dozen albums as a singer and multi-instrumentalist. He has toured with stage-show-focused bands, such as The Wyatt Act, SUNQ, Doctor Striker, and Revolushn. Young Sun has performed with many notable musicians, including members of DEVO and Village People. Young Sun's original compositions were nominated for a Theater Bay Area Award for his work as composer and drummer in the play Shiner with FaultLine Theater. Young Sun joined The San Francisco Mime Troupe in 2022 with the musical Back To The Way Things Were. He hopes to bring his love of theater, performance, music, activism, and political avant-garde art to the collective.
Script, Music, Direction
Michael Gene Sullivan
Writer/Director
MICHEAL GENE SULLIVAN - PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR
Michael is an Actor/Writer/Director/Activist based in San Francisco. He is an alum of the Playwrights Foundation, and has been awarded both a Djerassi Arts Center Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship as a dramatist. Michael is also Resident Playwright for the Tony and OBIE award-winning (and always revolutionary, never ever silent) San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he has written or co-written over 30 plays, including 1600 Transylvania Avenue, Too Big To Fail, Freedomland, Making a Killing, Back To The Way Thing Were, the Tales of the Resistance radio/podcast series. This past season, in addition to writing SFMT’s summer hit American Dreams, his play Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin opened to critical-acclaim at the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company, and his stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 - already translated into six languages and performed in fourteen countries on five continents - was produced by The Aurora Theatre. Michael’s other plays include The Great Khan, which premiered at San Francisco Playhouse, San Diego Rep. and Chicago’s Red Twist Theatre. Michael has taught playwriting at the American Conservatory Theatre, SFMT’s Young California Writers Project, has guest lectured on play creation or taught playwriting workshops at Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, and USC. For ten years Michael was also a Contributing Writer for The Huffington Post. Michael’s directing credits include work with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Marin Shakespeare Company, the African American Shakespeare Company, Mystic Bison Theatre, TheatreFirst, and a dozen productions with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. As an actor Michael has performed at theaters throughout the Bay Area (including at all four of the Bay Area’s Tony-winning theaters), has toured nationally and internationally - including off-Broadway and at the Kennedy Center.
Daniel Savio
Musical Director,
Additional Lyrics and
Musical Arraignments
DANIEL SAVIO - MUSICAL DIRECTOR, ARRANGEMENTS, ADDITIONAL LYRICS
Daniel started his professional theater career playing keyboards for the Mime Troupe in 2006, and since 2020 he has been the Troupe's resident composer/lyricist. This year Daniel led the band, was co-arranger, and composed additional music for SFBATCO's original musical Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin. He was recently musical director for the Marin Mountain Play production of Kinky Boots. Daniel has been MD of numerous community and children's productions at theaters in the North and East Bay. He has a BA in music from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Production Team
TAYLOR GONZALEZ - SOUND DESIGN & ENGINEERING
Taylor has been working with the Mime Troupe since he was 16 years old. His work began with the Youth Theater Project (YTP) as a student. Since then he has been an intern, assistant as well as taught and designed lights and sound for YTP. He was the lead audio editor, engineer, and designer of Tales of the Resistance. Other work includes time as a studio and live audio engineer for local bands and music artists, as well as a sound designer for various theaters and dance companies around the bay area.
KIEKO SHIMOSATO CARREIRO - COSTUME DESIGN
Keiko is a Collective Member, actor, designer, co-writer, and director with the Tony Award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe. She has performed at American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory, The Magic Theater, San Jose Stage, The Aurora Theater, Word for Word, Oakland Theater Project, Center Rep., and Marin Shakespeare Company. In 2020 Keiko Co-founded Kunoichi Productions (Female Ninja productions) innovative, multidisciplinary theater combining Eastern and Western Theater Traditions.This fall she will be Co-Directing an Immersive Production of A Strange Library by Haruki Murakami for Word for Word at Z-Below..
MARIE CARTIER - PROPS
Marie has been working with the Mime Troupe since 2012. Born and raised in San Francisco, where she is honored to fulfill many duties from event producer to writer to prop designer. Favorite jobs at the Mime Troupe include props and scenic painting for 2019's Treasure Island, writing on 2023's Breakdown and the 2021 radio play Hobos in Space, as well as working with the brilliant young minds of SFMT's Youth Theater Project. She is a founding member of Bow & Arrow Circus, also playing many roles including writer, lighting designer, acrobat, and clown. Most recently, she has been producing "Artists Unite for Palestine" events to raise funds for emergency relief for Gaza with @sf.artists.for.palestine. Marie received her Masters in Social Work in 2021 and currently works full-time as a clinical social worker.
JIM CAVE - LIGHTING DESIGN
Jim Cave is a Core Company Member of Word for Word Performing Arts Company. He has designed lights for Word for Word, Campo Santo, the Magic and Eureka Theater companies, Intersection for the Arts, Z Space and Second Evening Arts, among many others. He’s happy to be working with The San Francisco Mime Troupe. He occasionally cooks for the Troupe when they visit Oakland and Berkeley.
KAREN RUNK - STAGE MANAGER
Karen moved to SF with the intention of only staying for a few months... Well over two decades later she's still here! This is largely due to the talented folks at the SF Mime Troupe and thanks to Golden Thread Productions where she has been a Resident Artist since 2018 (aka the before times) - but mostly it's due to rent control! Runk first experienced the Troupe by stage managing two '97 youth projects, Revenger Rat Meets the Merchant of Death and Inside Out. After which she ran screaming into the arms of the Magic Theatre and there she stayed, contently for two years. The Troupe then wooed her back for their '99 Summer Production City For Sale. Still under the Troupe's wooing spell she's stage managed a plethora of their summer shows. Runk has also stage managed with Word For Word, Magic Theater, SFShakes, Intersection for the Arts, and African American Shakespeare Company.
SYDNEY BLAKE - ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
Sydney is an emerging stage manager, excited to return to the San Francisco Mime Troupe for A Red Carol, after assisting on the workshop of A Red Carol in 2022. Recently, she worked as Assistant Stage Manager for the closing weeks of Torch Song at Marin Theater Company. Sydney holds a B.A. in Theater Arts from San Francisco State University (2023), with credits including Feeling Home with Fuse Theater and Marisol with SF State. After taking a year break to focus on managing Toy Boat by Jane in the Richmond district, Sydney is excited and honored to work in the theater world once again!
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is proud and excited
to be co-presenting "A Red Carol" with
About Z Space
Z Space is a non-profit theater company located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District. They produce their own works, foster and subsidize the development of other creative artists with our Subspace program, and serve as a presenting home to a wide variety of performing arts organizations through our curated rental program. Operating out of an old can-making factory, they now activate two performance venues, an 83-seat intimate theater (Z Below) and a 236-seat flexible theater space (The Steindler Stage), with a warehouse aesthetic and an adventurous edge. Z Space is also home to Word for Word, our resident theater company that brings works of fiction to the stage in their own unique style.
A Red Carol
