San Francisco Bay Space Theatre Firm Honors U.S Park Providers Ranger In New Roots Theatre Pageant
Ninety-nine and counted through Wednesday, September 22, when Betty Reid Soskin (Rosie Riveter World War II Home Front Historical Park), the senior park ranger for the US National Park Services, turns 100 and the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company continues to pay Tribute with rehearsals for “Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin”.
The performance is one of eight projects in the first two-day New Roots Theater Festival taking place on October 16-17 at the historic Brava Theater Center in San Francisco’s historic Mission District. Ms. Soskin has received the Bay Area famous “Golden Girl Award” from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc. San Francisco Chapter among her many awards and accolades; The West Contra Costa County School District renamed a middle school in her honor on her date of birth, September 22nd and Sunday, September 26th The Rosie Riveter Trust honors Ms. Soskin at her sold out personal gala.
SFBATCO is honored to be the first theater company to tell the story of Reid Soskin in support of lead artist Jamie Zimmer, who is creating a musical based on Reid Soskin’s book “Sign My Name to Freedom: A Memoir of a Pioneering Life” with original music by Mrs. Reid Soskin. “The planning of the New Roots Theater Festival has been in progress for months and we are delighted to have the special honor of sharing Ms. Soskin’s advocacy and lifelong community service,” said Mecca Billings, president of the SFBATCO Board of Directors . “We are doubly honored that your daughter Di’ara Reid will be there for the premiere of ‘Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin’.”
Awards for the achievements of Ms. Reid Soskin and the SFBATCO production “Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin” will be given. “As a board member of Rosie the Riveter Trust, I am delighted that SFBATCO is celebrating Betty Reid Soskin on her 100th birthday. As the oldest active park ranger, she is dedicated to sharing her experiences as an archivist during WWII, and she has the experiences of blacks and other minorities given a much-needed voice during World War II and a treasure trove for the National Park Service and Rosies, women in the workforce and people of color across the country, “said Michelle Fadelli, secretary of the Rosie Riveter Trust Board of Directors .
“As Jamie Zimmer, a Chinese-American artist from LBGTQ, along with Joanna Haigood, Laura Elaine Ellis, and Dr. John Calloway, Ms. Soskin, an African American woman, paid tribute to ‘Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin’ is a manifestation of SFBATCO’s mission to produce compelling theater that builds community, fosters intercultural dialogue, and promotes social justice, “said Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., co-founder of SFBATCO. “To synergy with Ms. Soskin’s life, we both have the beginning of September,” said Marcelo Javier, co-founder of SFBATCO.
“We are celebrating our seventh anniversary this month and Ms. Soskin is celebrating her centenary, which in a different sense means the ‘new’ and the ‘root’ in the ‘New Roots Theater Festival’.
An original SFBATCO project, “Sign My Name To Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid-Soskin” explores the original music and metamorphic life of Bay Area legend Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest living park ranger in the United States, lead artist Jamie Zimmer (2020 graduate of California Jazz Conservatory) selected unpublished music recordings from over fifty years ago, interviews and articles to create the first presentation of this musical. Laura Elaine Ellis will join as director choreographer, Joanna Haigood as associate choreographer and Dr. John Calloway as Associate Musical Arranger.
During the two-day festival, theater-goers can create their own theater experience by mixing and coordinating the “performance blocks”. In addition to “Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin”, SFBATCO also plays “Shining” by in-house playwright Aidaa Peerzadas, a reinterpreted Afro-futuristic interpretation of the Greek myth of Phaeton, and SFBATCO’s own Othello Jefferson, Jamie Yuen -Shore and Christine Chung and the revival of “I, Too, Sing America”.
Performances by legacy partners include: The African-American Shakespeare Company (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare {short version}[Revised]; “The Lorraine Hansberry Theater (LHT Artistic Director, Margo Hall and Traci Tolmaire’s” In the Evening by the Moonlight “via friends: Lorraine Hansberry, Nina Simone and James Baldwin); AfroSolo (Founder, Thomas Simpsons San Francisco: Variation of Black Joy , White supremacy and hope!); ” Cuicacalli Ballet Folklórico (“México Lindo y Querido”); and PUSH dance. Two days of thought-provoking performances are available for $ 30 for a “Two-Block Package” (4 projects) or $ 50 for the entire Festival “Four-Block Package” (8 projects).
For specific ticket information, click this link: https://www.sfbatco.org/schedule. For more information about the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company, please visit: www.sfbatco.org.
