SAN FRANCISCO—Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Marcelo Javier, co-founders of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company, present a free show, SFBATCO Live with Rod and Marce, two Thursdays of each month for cabaret performance and two Thursdays for a talk show, throughout this fall at 6 p.m. (PDT) on Twitch.
From the company’s website, the performance features songs from various genres, including original pieces, personal stories and banter that seeks to create an engaging, funny and deeply heartfelt evening of virtual theatre. The performance includes four parts: Songs Of The Golden Age, Hella Theatre, Amy Winehouse Tribute Show and Paint For The Back Row. Each show features San Francisco cabaret with G. Scott Lacy, who’s a musical director. Special guests from the show include Alex Akin and Angela Travino.
According to an interview with Jackson, Hella Theatre will be presented as a premier podcast with special guests focusing on various topics relevant to the theatre, including how the pandemic has affected the theatre industry and how the company supports Black Lives Matter through theatre art.They also announced a special speaker for this month’s Hella Theatre: Aldo Billingslea, a performer and professor of Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University. Billingslea will discuss reasons for Black art not being funded. Another podcast, Paint For The Back Row, will invite a drag queen artist to share theater make-up knowledge and experience.
For October’s performances and podcasts, Jackson revealed that they are currently planning to have the following subjects: Voting America, Rodney Earl Jackson’s 30 Birthday, LGBTQ with Branden Noel Thomas and Halloween. Furthermore, Jackson will be talking about being an artist on his 30th birthday journey and reasons why some artists don’t make it far in their career as part of his show.
A note from Jackson Jr. and Javier on the SFBATCO blog reads:
“We believe that deep down, there is a rainbow on the other side!”
According to the note, the co-founders strive to keep creating theatre performances for audiences through streaming during the pandemic.
Jackson Jr. and Javier established their company in 2014 which previously located at the African American Art and Culture Complex. It is currently situated at Brava Theatre Center in Mission District. Their past production I, Too, Sing America, won three Theatre Bay Area Awards, and Death And The Artist was announced as a TBA Awards Recommended Production in 2019. Visit SFBATCO for more information.
