Get Your Tickets NOW for Last Performances of Sheherezade 13!

Only 3 chances left to see the acclaimed Sheherezade 13: Tomorrow 4/25,  Friday 4/26, and closing Saturday 4/27!

Sheherezade 13 throws down the gauntlet! An evening of 9 fully-produced short plays by Wily West Productions and written by Playwrights Center of San Francisco members, performed by a phenomenal ensemble cast.  Always a mix of the irreverent with the poignant, this year's line-up is fun, quirky, intelligent, and entertaining til the end!

Here's what audiences have to say:

"9-10 minutes plays with one-ten-minute intermission. All world premiers of local playwrights' work by a local top-notch actors. Great direction too. Professionally staged in an intimate 60 seat cabaret theatre."

--GOLDSTAR MEMBER

"I went on opening night and thought it was a wonderful show! Highly recommended."

--J.C.C.

"Two short plays stood out for me. 'Indelible'--about a tattoo artist with anger management issues and a girl wants a butterfly on her butt. Funny and sweet. And then the crown jewel was 'Romulus and Jewel: A 10-Minute Travesty in Five-Acts.' Funniest wildest 10 minutes I have seen in a long long time."

--GOLDSTAR MEMBER

"Congratulations on a great show. Kudos to the playwrights, the directors and the actors. All in all a very satisfying night of theater."

-H.N. 

"This year's Sheherezade is a tour de force of writing, directing and acting with a wide variety of short plays that showcase the skills of all involved, especially the versatility of the actors who play several roles in different plays. Don't miss it!"

--GOLDSTAR MEMBER

Wily West Productions Presents

Sheherezade 13

9 Short plays by PCSF member playwrights

Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy St, San Francisco  

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

April 12-27, 2013

8p.m.

$20 in advance (online); $25 at the door (adults)

Featuring: 

Wesley Cayabyab, Joey Cherney, Abigail Edber, 

Rich Egan, Kate Jones, Karen Offereins, Peter Townley

Directed by:

Brady Brophy-Hilton, Kat Kneisel, Laylah Muran, Ann Thomas

Quinn Whitaker, Producing Director and Lead Design

Wesley Cayabyab, Technical Director

Laylah Muran, Producer

Click on the links below to purchase tickets:
Discounted tickets available for Thurs 4/25 on Goldstar !
Friday 4/26 and Sat 4/27 will certainly sell out, get your tickets here:

AUDITIONS on Sat 4/27 for Full Length Production in October!

Wily West Productions is searching for actors and actresses in a variety of ages for the full-length, world premiere of a haunting new comedy:

HOPE'S LAST CHANCE 

by Rod McFadden

Directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton

October 3-26, 2013

Thursday/Friday/Saturday

Exit Theatre

156 Eddy Street, San Francisco

SYNOPSIS

While spending the weekend at a secluded bed and breakfast, Stan and Angela awake to screams in the night.  Unable to leave until the mystery is solved, Stan and Angela struggle to separate what is real from what is imagined, and they soon realize the answers to those questions are literally a matter of life or death.  Theirs!  Join us for this hilarious and chilling new ghost story.

AUDITIONS

SATURDAY, APRIL 27th, 2013

11:00am -- 4:00pm

StageWerx 

446 Valencia, San Francisco 

(between 16th & 15th Streets, Close to 16th St. BART)

NON AEA ONLY.  ALL AGES AND ETHNICITIES WELCOME!

We are looking to fill the following roles:

ANGELA: 30's professional woman married to Stan.

HOPE:  A ghostly young teenager 12-16.  (Actor could be older)

MRS. CUTTER: 60's spinster and owner of a bed and breakfast.

MACKIE: Mid 60's recluse living in a lighthouse.

CONRAD: Mid 20s-to early 30's.  Imposing.  The ghost of Mackie's dead son.

PERFORMANCE COMMITMENTS
Thursday, Friday, Saturdays, 6:30pm-10:30pm

October 3-26, 2013

No conflicts can be accommodated 

REHEARSALS

First read-throughs in August.  Rehearsals in September, generally weekday nights and weekend days.  Tech week will be 9/29 through 10/03; attendance is mandatory. 

STIPEND

All positions are paid.

HOW DO I APPLY?

If you are interested in reading the script (or just introducing yourself to us):

Send your resume and headshot (any current picture will do) to:

Quinn Whitaker, Producing Director

If you are specifically interested in Hope's Last Chance Auditions please include "Hope Auditions" in the subject line.  Please indicate a 15 minute time slot (between 11-4pm) that would work for you and we will respond with the closest available appointment.

WHAT SHOULD I PREPARE?

Auditions will consist of 1 contemporary monologue (upbeat, comic preferred) and reading from sides of the script, if requested.

Wily West Productions is dedicated to procuring, developing, and producing new plays by San Francisco Bay Area playwrights by planning staged readings, play competitions, and private writing workshops throughout the year.  We are ALWAYS looking to add to our talented and diverse pool of actors!  Your audition may lead to additional acting and production opportunities! 
For additional information, please visit us at www.wilywestproductions.com.

Pay What You Can Night at Sheherezade 13: Thurs 4/18/13!

Think you can't afford to go to "the Theatre"?  
For less than the price of a SF martini, you can enjoy 9 new short plays by local Bay Area Playwrights.  On Thursday, April 18th, we are offering a "Pay What You Can" Night, specifically (but not exclusively) appealing to our fellow actors, directors, writers, musicians, artists and everyone in-between who is feeling the economic pinch.  (And who isn't in the middle of the month in April?)

Two hours of intelligent, engaging, world-premiere theatre for only $10, you ask incredulously?  YES, it's true!  And even better,  you can reserve your tickets online beforehand (and with a credit card) below...

Wily West Productions Presents

Sheherezade 13

9 Short plays by PCSF member playwrights

Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy St, San Francisco

  8 p.m.

Thursday April 18, 2013 ONLY

Pay What You Can Night! 

$10 (minimum) in advance

Click HERE for Tickets

Or simply come to the Box Office between 6:30-8pm with a wad of cash!  We will be happy to accommodate you... and your friends, coworkers, neighbors, countrymen.

Of course, donations above $10 are deeply and sincerely appreciated!!! Even a few extra dollars will help keep independent theatre alive in San Francisco.

See you tomorrow night!

Sheherezade 13 writeup in April 10th issue of SF Weekly!

Lily Jeniak interviewed Sheherezade 13 Executive Director Laylah Muran, as well as playwrights Jennifer Lynne Roberts and Patricia Milton, for an intriguing article in the April 10th edition of SF Weekly.  Titled, "Gener Roles, Local Theatre Confronts the Lack of Women Behind the Scenes", Ms. Jeniak discusses the predominant female presence in this year's Sheherezade and past productions.  

Here's an excerpt:

Sheherezade 13, a coproduction by Wily West Productions and Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, didn't start as a women-centered event. It was born 13 years ago as a staged reading of many short plays to celebrate two departing PCSF board members. Now, it's an annual showcase of fully produced 10-minute plays by PCSF members — coincidentally, mostly female members.

Even before Laylah Muran de Assereto joined the showcase as executive producer and director five years ago, the event already had women in most of the leadership positions.

Muran says she doesn't think it was a "conscious decision" by her predecessors. But now that it's been this way for so long, it's something she says she'd lobby for in the future.

In her first year, she says, "I turned to my colleagues who happened to be women and said, 'Here's an opportunity we don't get a lot.' The next year, it turned out again that I had women directors."  Since then, "I haven't gone, 'Here's a policy I'm making,'" she says. "But I'm proud that it happened that way."

... For Sheherezade 13, the fact that its playwrights are almost all female (seven out of nine this year) is just as accidental as its all-female leadership; the group uses blind selection. "The selection committee doesn't know who playwrights are until they've been chosen," says Muran. "Women just floated to the top." Switching over to blind selection, she says, can be "a big educational wakeup" because "you educate yourself to your own biases."

To read the rest of the SF Weekly article, click here

Not-so-secret additional tidbit: Wily West Productions' Sheherezade 12 last year at StageWerx, featured 7 female playwrights (out of 8) and the 2 female directors--Kat Kneisel and Ann Thomas--both returned to co-direct this year's Sheherezade 13!

Sheherezade 13

Nine short plays by PCSF member playwrights

The Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy Street, San Francisco

April 12 through April 27th 2013

Thurs, Fri, Sat 

8pm

Tickets $25 at the door, $20 in advance (online)

Buy Tickets NOW

Sold Out Opening Night of Sheherezade 13!

Last night we had a full house at the opening night of Sheherezade 13 at the Exit Theatre Main Stage!  In attendance were all of our esteemed directors and playwrights Beverly Butler, Elizabeth Flanagan, Susan Jackson, Rod McFadden, Bridgette Dutta Portman, Jennifer Lynne Roberts, and Diane Sampson.  The enthusiastic audience gave a thunderous round of applause and some said it was the best Sheherezade yet!

Thanks to everyone, cast and crew, for all of their hard work and dedication for a truly smashing night of theatre!

Afterwards, some of the Sheherezade contributors convened at Jasper's Corner Tap and Kitchen in downtown San Francisco to celebrate.

(Note: All photos by, and with thanks to, Quinn Whitaker, Sheherezade 13 Producing Director and Lead Designer!)

Actress Kate Jones and Director Kat Kneisel

(l to r) Actors Rich Egan, Abby Edber, and Wes Cayabyab

Actor Karen Offereins

(l to r) Executive Director Laylah Muran, Playwright Jennifer Lynne Roberts,
Director Brady Brophy-Hilton, Associate Artist Melissa Howell,
and Director Kat Kneisel

Only 7 more performances! Get your tickets now, for an evening of entertainment not to be missed!

Wily West Productions Presents

SHEHEREZADE 13

9 Short plays by PCSF member playwrights

Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy St, San Francisco  

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

  8 p.m. 

April 12 through 27, 2013

$20 in advance (online); $25 at the door (adults)

Purchase Tickets Online

Featuring: 

Wesley Cayabyab, Joey Cherney, Abigail Edber, 

Rich Egan, Kate Jones, Karen Offereins, Peter Townley 

Directed by:

Brady Brophy-Hilton, Kat Kneisel, Laylah Muran, Ann Thomas

Sheherezade 13 opens Tomorrow April 12th!

In partnership with Playwrights' Center of San Francisco (PCSF), Wily West's first full production of the season, Sheherezade 13, opens tomorrow!  Now in it's 13th year, Sheherezade throws down the gauntlet with an evening of 9 short plays by PCSF member playwrights performed by a phenomenal ensemble cast.  Always a mix of the irreverent with the poignant, this year's line-up promises to be fun, entertaining, intelligent and occasionally quirky.

Here are our plays:

After Frank
Written by Patricia Milton
Directed by Laylah Muran

Auto-Incorrect
Written by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Directed by Ann Thomas

Chrysomelidae Hide No More
Written by Jennifer Lynne Roberts
Directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton

Indelible
Written by Beverly Butler
Directed by Kat Kneisel

Laura and Curt: A Story of Love and Big Numbers
Written by Rod McFadden
Directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton

Piñata Fight
Written by Elizabeth Flanagan
Directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton

Romulus and Jewel: A 10-Minute Travesty in Five Acts
Written by Diane Sampson
Directed by Kat Kneisel

Say Uncle
Written by Mordecai Cohen Ettinger
Directed by Kat Kneisel

Two to Five with Three Seconds to Go
Written by Susan Jackson
Directed by Laylah Muran

Wily West Productions Presents

Sheherezade 13

9 Short plays by PCSF member playwrights

Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy St, San Francisco  

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

  8 p.m. 

April 12 through 27, 2013

$20 in advance (online); $25 at the door (adults)

Purchase tickets here

Featuring: 

Wesley Cayabyab, Joey Cherney, Abigail Edber, 

Rich Egan, Kate Jones, Karen Offereins, Peter Townley

Directed by:

Brady Brophy-Hilton, Kat Kneisel, Laylah Muran, Ann Thomas

Quinn Whitaker, Producing Director and Lead Design

Wesley Cayabyab, Technical Director

Laylah Muran, Producer

Hell hath no fury like the women Frank left behind in After Frank.  Fleeting fame and scientific ambition affect a young romance in Curt and Laura: A Story of Love and Big Numbers and the missed chance to ride a heroic-win on the basketball-court out of small town poverty twenty years ago brings old friends to the Stinky Raccoon Saloon in Two To Five With Three Seconds To Go.   In Auto-Incorrect Nate doesn't have a chance with old high school crush Claire, an enthusiastic English teacher,  when his brain starts "correcting" his speech on their first date, but an unexpected similar interest bring two opposites together at the tattoo parlor in Indelible.   When the line between art and life blur too close for her soon-to-be son-in-law's comfort and daughter Midge sees the line, Madeline finds it hard to hide in Chrysomelidae Hide No More.  Athletic and tough Mei-Hua never did Say Uncle and she never will.  And while Maddy and Joe potentially ruin their daughter's birthday and try to unravel the blame in Piñata Fight, the star crossed dog and cat, Romulus and Jewel experience an instant and tragic inter-species passion surpassed by no-one except perhaps their masters' ill-fated love at first sight.

Wily West and Sheherezade 13 Article in Theatrestorm!

Charles Kruger, the lead reviewer and editor for TheatreStorm.com, (an offshoot site of StormingBohemia.com) kindly wrote a wonderful article about the history and mission of Wily West Productions, the partnership with PCSF, and introduces the upcoming Sheherezade 13. He writes:

"... imagine the frustration of the contemporary playwright who sees company after company reviving the old masters while she is relegated to only occasional opportunities, staged readings in storefronts and back offices, or second stage series playing second fiddle year after year to every theatre’s mainstage season. Is it no wonder that sometimes our playwrights wonder if producers believe nobody is writing anything worthwhile today?

Fortunately, San Francisco is blessed with quite a few dedicated young theatre artists who are truly committed, full time, to new plays. In the forefront of this select group are Wily West Productions and the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. Discerning playgoers in Northern California should be aware of their excellent work.

Wily West Productions was founded in 2008 with the specific mission of producing new plays by Bay Area playwrights, using local talent for all aspects of their productions. In the beginning, founder Morgan Ludlow provided the bulk of the plays. As their reputation has grown, however, more and more playwrights have contributed work. Today, there are approximately 100 theatre artists associated in one way or another with Wily West, including nearly two dozen playwrights whose work has been promoted by the company. Many of these playwrights enjoy growing national reputations and have won prestigious awards.

The producing partner for “Sheherezade 13″ is the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco, another leading player in bringing new theatre to the Bay area. The Playwrights’ Center has been pursuing their mission of encouraging and developing local playwrights since 1980. In a workshop environment, they have cultivated playwrights whose work has been produced around the world. Their “scene nights”, where playwrights can bring in selections of work to be read by professional actors with feedback provided, have served the needs of countless artists over the past thirty years.

This year’s “Sheherezade” will be the 13th time that the Playwright Center has presented this festival of short plays, and the second year in association with Wily West. Nine playwrights will be featured this year. Some of the playwrights have multiple Bay Area production credits, while others will be showing their work for the first time. This exciting mix of newbies and oldtimers is essential to the spirit of the festival..."

To read the rest of the article, click here!

We are very grateful to Mr. Kruger for his kind words and thoughtful dedication.  See more columns at: TheatreStorm.com and StormingBohemian.com.  He is also a painter, whose work can be seen at charleskrugerart.com.

Sheherezade 13

Nine short plays by PCSF member playwrights

The Exit Theatre Main Stage

156 Eddy Street, San Francisco

April 12 through April 27th 2013

Thurs, Fri, Sat 

8pm

Tickets $25 at the door, $20 in advance (online)

Sheherezade 13 Preview VIDEO!

Here is a short sneak peak inside Sheherezade 13, the first show of the year by Wily West Productions!  Opening next week at the Exit Theatre in downtown San Francisco, Sheherezade 13 is an evening of fully-produced short plays by Playwright's Center of San Francisco members performed by a phenomenal ensemble cast.  Always a mix of the irreverent with the poignant, this year's line-up promises to be fun, entertaining, intelligent and occasionally quirky. 

Watch this exclusive preview video:

Wily West Productions Presents

SHEHEREZADE 13

New Plays by Playwrights' Center of SF Playwrights

The Exit Theatre Main Stage 
156 Eddy St, San Francisco  

April 12 through April 27th 2013 

Thu-Fri-Sat, 8pm 

Laylah Muran, Producer 

Quinn Whitaker, Producing Director and Lead Design

Directed by Brady Brophy-Hilton, Kat Kneisel, Laylah Muran, and Ann Thomas 

Wesley Cayabyab, Technical Director

With plays by:

Beverly Butler, Bridgette Dutta Portman, Mordecai Cohen Ettinger,

 Elizabeth Flanagan, Susan Jackson, Rod McFadden, 

Patricia Milton, Jennifer Lynne Roberts, and Diane Sampson  

Featuring an Ensemble Cast:  

Wesley Cayabyab, Joey Cherney, Abigail Edber, 

Rich Egan, Kate Jones, Karen Offereins, Peter Townley 

Tickets $25 at the door

$20 in advance (online)

In Less than 2 Weeks: Sheherezade 13!

Get Tickets NOW