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EXIT Theatre is an alternative theatre located at 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco, California, in the downtown Tenderloin neighbourhood. The theatre operates four storefront theatres and annually produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the second oldest fringe festival in the U.S. and the largest grassroots theatre festival in the San Francisco Bay Area, and DIVAfest, dedicated to creating new plays by women writers.EXIT Theatre began in 1983 when the founder and artistic director Christina Augello directed a group of retired vaudevillians and method actors in two performances of a new play in the lobby of a San Francisco residential hotel.
Early plays at EXIT Theatre include Sadie’s Turn (the first full-length play by noted Native American poet Mary TallMountain), Mystery of the Fourth Wall (the West Coast premiere in 1989 of Mary Zimmerman), and Like (the first full production of beat poet Diane di Prima’s 35-year-old sound play). Recent premieres by EXIT Theatre include Waiting for FEMA by Karen Ripley and Annie Larson, and Guns and Ammunition by Sarah McKereghan. Other new work included mugwumpin's Nightgown Symphony, RIPE Theatre's Arrythmmica and resident playwright Sean Owens' Odd By Nature, selected “San Francisco’s Best Comic Playwright” by SF Weekly.
In 1992 EXIT Theatre founded the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The Fringe Festival is a non-censored and non-curated theatre festival and performers selected through a public lottery. The Fringe presents about 200 performances by about 35 different performing groups during the twelve-day festival which starts the Wednesday after Labor Day. Performances are at EXIT Theatre and other locations in downtown San Francisco.
In 2002 EXIT Theatre founded DIVAfest and premieres have included Last of the Red Hot Dadas by Kerry Reid with a soundscape by Pamela Z (based on Dada artist Baroness Elsa von Fretag Loringhoven); E.O. 9066 by Liebe Wetzel (a found object play based on the Executive Order 9066 that interned Japanese Americans during WWII); and Crystal Daze by Deborah Eubanks (dealing with mothers, daughters and methamphetamine addiction).
THE TEAM
Christina Augello, Artistic Director
Richard Livingston, Managing Director
Amanda Ortmayer, Production Manager
The Exit Theatre
San Francisco Fringe Festival
156 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
USA
mail@theexit.org
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.