This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

UPDATE: Mime Troupe Cancels Mill Valley Show

San Francisco Mime Troupe, the local institution with a colorful history, is forced to skip tonight's show after its truck breaks down.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe cancelled its scheduled performance tonight of 2012 - The Musical at the Mill Valley Community Center because the group's truck, used to transport the stage, set, costumes, sound equipment and musical instruments broke down and was deemed inoperable by mechanics. 

 

Don't let the word "mime" fool you: there will be no silent little men in white face paint with flowers sticking out of their top hats at tonight's San Francisco Mime Troupe show at the .

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In fact, there will be nothing silent at all about tonight's performance of 2012 - The Musical, a scorching political satire about corporate greed and the art of selling out. While rooted in the 16th century Italian tradition of Commedia dell'Arte, as well as silent, movement-based comedy forms, the troupe has, over the past five decades, blazed a thoroughly contemporary and far-from-silent trail in the world of political comedy.

2012 - the Musical opened the Tony-Award winning troupe's 52nd season earlier this month, and now joins a long line of productions whose titles speak to their tongue-in-cheek perspectives: recent shows include 2010's Posibilidad, or the Death of the Worker, 2009's Too Big to Fail and 2006's GodFellas.

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Founded in 1959, the Mime Troupe has become a storied part of San Francisco's performing arts scene. With their unflinching yet humorous take on modern politics and the headlines of the day, the company has been pushing people's buttons since its earliest shows. Their first outdoor show, staged in 1962 by company founder R.G. Davis in San Francisco's Washington Square Park, drew the ire of the city's Parks and Recreation Committee, who denied them a permit to perform the following year on grounds of obscenity.

That conflict eventually led to a landmark court case that established the rights of performing-arts groups to perform uncensored in the city's parks, and the troupe has been performing free in parks around the city and the Bay Area ever since.

With their potent mix of comedy and politics, the Mime Troupe has earned both impressive and quizzical distinctions throughout its history. Not only is it the only company ever to dramatize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a mistaken-identity farce and perform it in both West and East Jerusalem (1989's Seeing Double, for which it won its third OBIE award), it is also the only touring ensemble ever to win a Tony Award for Excellence in Regional Theatre (1987). Its alumni include a who's who of the Bay Area performing arts community, including Mill Valley resident Peter Coyote and the late Bill Graham, who served as the group's business manager in the sixties.

Tonight's show, 2012 - The Musical, uses the familiar world of political theater to skewer corporate funding of the arts, or the "art of mass distraction." BAM! is a small political theather company, struggling due to lack of funds and facing a moral dilemma: should they accept funding from The Man (a supposedly "green" corporation), thus saving the organization from financial ruin, or should they resist selling out? And is it possible to sell out just a little bit?

Given the crowded landscape of arts organizations in the Bay Area and the diminishing funds available for the arts, it's a question that the Mime Troupe has been forced to ask itself over the years. Earlier this year, the troupe sent out a special appeal for donations as it faced a $50,000 hole in its operating budget. But the organization has answered that question with a resounding refusal to sell out, even just a little bit, which is why they continue - year after year - to offer their shows free of charge.

The 411: 2012 - The Musical starts at 7 p.m. (music at 6:30 p.m.) on the back lawn of the Mill Valley Community Center. Performance is free to the public. The troupe returns with 2012 - The Musical on Aug. 31 at the same time. Click here for more information.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?