Author: Alfredo Casuso

media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Award Winning Dezart Performs Announces
Campaign for Permanent Home

Now in its 16^th Season of “Fearless, Provocative & Inspiring Theatre” Company Announces Plans for A Flexible Venue

Details Announced at Special December 5^th Event at Hotel Zoso in Palm Springs

www.dezartperforms.org

12 December 2023 – Palm Springs, CA:  For the last 13 years, the multi-award winning Dezart Performs (www.dezartperforms.org) has called the Pearl McManus Theater home. But with the limited stage space, along with inflexible scheduling, they have outgrown the venue. “I fell in love with the theatre and the topics, and the way they were presented,” said Beatrice Keats, founding donor and patron. “And they’re operating in the tiniest little space, they have no space backstage, so I think it’s time for them to have their own theater!”

After a long strategic planning process, Dezart Performs identified a new 4,400 square foot space in Cathedral City’s Canyon Plaza South. The campaign, called the NEXT STAGE CAMPAIGN, is headed by Co-Chairs and founding donors Ann Sheffer and Nancy Bleiweiss-Nevil. This new home will be called the Dezart Playhouse. “The productions that Dezart Performs puts on are not only extraordinary, but they are compelling,” said Cathedral City Mayor Rita Lamb. “I believe the introduction of Dezart Performs to Cathedral City is going to be transformative. It will add vibrancy and intensity, making that area of the community completely compelling.” 

On December 5^th, in a special event at Hotel Zoso Hotel in Palm Springs, details of the campaign were unveiled to a packed and supportive crowd of 150, emceed by “Eye on the Desert” host Patrick Evans and Desert Theatre League award-winning actor, Joel Bryant. Campaign Co-Chair Nancy Bleiweiss-Nevil, founding Artistic Director Michael Shaw, Board President Clark Dugger and several Board members were in attendance, along with other founding donors.

The campaign has been in the silent phase for over a year, with the goal to raise $ 2,200,000 to convert the former retail space into a state-of-the-art Equity Theater.  In addition, the campaign seeks another $200,000 per year over five years to help sustain program and operation costs. “We have had many people make generous pledges and gifts to our campaign. But we have a ways to go to reach our goal,” said Gailya Brown, Director of Development for Dezart Performs.“ “I think it’s important for people to know that this is isn’t just about Dezart Performs. It’s going to be a community resource.” 

“We have been gratified by the enthusiasm and generosity demonstrated by our supporters over the past months. But our work is not yet done,” says Michael Shaw, Dezart Performs’ founding Artistic Director. “Please join us to make this a reality. We can’t do it without the support of the community.”

The new Dezart Playhouse will have versatile, movable seating for up to 125, including the flexibility for proscenium, thrust, theatre in-the-round, or cabaret-style formats. A modern, warm and inviting lobby with a full bar and patio area will be available for use both during performances, and for other non-theatrical events. Full expanded dressings rooms, backstage areas and a designated box office are all part of the design. Besides use by Dezart Performs, the venue will also welcome other businesses and non-profit organizations in the community to make use of the space. Based on the current plan, the Dezart Playhouse will be ready for the 2025 / 2026 Season.

To inquire about how to help support Dezart Performs’ NEXT STAGE CAMPAIGN, contact Gailya Brown at gailya.brown@dezartperforms.org.

Dezart Performs, one of the Coachella Valley’s preeminent theatre companies recognizes that the performing arts enrich the life and culture of a community, promote greater understanding and provoke insightful discussion. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatre company, its mission is to provide an artistic home for bold and cutting–edge plays, creating an atmosphere of artistic growth for actors, writers, and directors who uniquely contribute to the diverse theatrical environment in the Coachella Valley.

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Media contact:  DP&A, Inc. / David Perry (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com 

Renovation and Restoration of Castro Theatre to Begin Spring 2024

February 4 is Final Day of Programming Prior to Top-to-Bottom Architectural Restoration of Landmark & LGBTQ+ Community Icon by Another Planet Entertainment

Completion Scheduled for Summer 2025

11 December 2023 – San Francisco. Another Planet Entertainment (www.apeconcerts.com), stewards of the landmark and iconic LGBTQ space, the Castro Theatre (www.castrotheatre.com), will begin the long awaited restoration of historic venue beginning in early spring 2024. The final day or programming will be February 4.

“Another Planet Entertainment is thrilled to begin the work to restore the Castro Theatre to its 1922 architectural glory and ensure its continued place in the hearts of film lovers, music lovers and the LGBTQ+ community,” said Mary Conde, Senior Vice President for Another Planet. “In addition to restoring the magnificence of Timothy Pflueger’s original design, the Castro Theatre will now be more ADA accessible in the audience, onstage and backstage to all. Additionally, a state-of-the art heating and air conditioning system will be installed, providing comfort and healthful ventilation.  Finally, improved concessions, an expanded lobby, the restoration of the original proscenium arch and new, comfortable and flexible seating will make the Castro a venue that respects its heritage while embracing new, and ever more diverse audiences.”

“One of the defining features of the Castro is the tent-like painted ceiling which has been obscured from view for decades,” noted Jeff Greene, Executive Chairman and Founder of Evergreene, the firm overseeing the preservation work. “This element will be conserved and restored along with  the unique sgraffito murals on the side walls bring the whole back into harmony with Pflueger’s original vision.”

EverGreene was founded in 1978 by Greene, a trained mural artist and innovator, when he was only twenty four years old. Since then, EverGreene has grown from the small painting studio to the largest specialty contractor in the U.S., focused on the preservation of historic buildings, artifacts, and works of art. The EverGreene team has contributed to the restoration and preservation of many of our country’s most significant and iconic masterpieces. From surveys and condition assessments, conceptual planning and design, to the implementation of large scale restoration efforts, we provide custom solutions for complex adaptive reuse and heritage preservation efforts. Evergreene’s multi-disciplinary teams are comprised of conservators, designers, craftspeople, artists, and project managers, bringing specialized education, training, and experience to every project.

Guided by the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Evergreene’s conservation work is implemented at the highest standard under the supervision of our two AIC Fellows and 10 Professional Associates.  Headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, with regional offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, EverGreene works with private, public, and sacred space clients nationwide.

Beginning in 2022, Another Planet Entertainment has partnered with Bay Properties, Inc., owners of the Castro Theatre, on an evolution and preservation of San Francisco’s world-renowned entertainment and LGBTQ community landmark. With a long-standing history of working to preserve and improve historic buildings such as the Fox Theater in Oakland, the Greek Theatre in Berkeley and the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Another Planet seeks to enhance the Castro Theatre by implementing significant improvements to the sound, lighting, production, HVAC and the theatre’s trademark marquee and blade sign, among other facets of the building: all of this, always, with an eye to honoring its unique place in the lives of the Castro and celebrating its communities and residents.

media contact:  Perry (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Obie Award-Winning
 and Tony Award finalist nominee
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME
by Heidi Schreck is Dezart Performs’ second production of the season from January 19-28, 2024

11 December 2023 – Palm Springs, CA:  The acclaimed WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME by Heidi Schreck is Dezart Performs (www.dezartperforms.org) first production of 2024, running January 19 – 28. Part history lesson, part family drama, the Tony Award Nominee and Pulitzer Prize Finalist is a “boundary-breaking play that breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans” (Forbes). When it opened on Broadway in 2019, The New York Times hailed it as “not just the best play to open so far this season, but also the most important.” “It would be hard to identify a work for theatre with its finger more on the pulse of America right now” (The Washington Post).

“In this unique and envelope-pushing play, it’s an uproariously funny, moving, critically challenging and politically charged play,” says Dezart Performs founding artistic director Michael Shaw. “It is a civics lesson, a cry from the heart and a feminist anthem that reminds us again and again that our country was shaped by founding fathers, not founding mothers.”

Profoundly intertwined with Schreck’s life, WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME chronicles the playwright’s maternal line from her great great grandmother onward, examining how the Constitution and its complexities helped shape and sometimes devastate their lives. Toggling back and forth from the present day to the past, the play starts with fifteen-year-old Heidi chronicling how she earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States.  However, the “psychotically polite” young woman with a crush on Patrick Swayze quickly merges with hilarious – and enlightening – result in an exploration of the “penumbra” that is the “hot and sweaty document” of Heidi’s research.  As Heidi states throughout the play, the Constitution is a crucible in every way: for her family, and for the generations of families this document made by-and-for cisgender white men continues to guide.

As noted by The Guardian: “This funny, tragic and deeply unsettling tour de force shows who the US constitution serves — and who it lets down.”All performances take place at the Pearl McManus Theater (at the historic Palm Springs Woman’s Club) 314 S Cahuilla Road, Downtown Palm Springs. Ticket prices are $48 – $55 and may be purchased online at www.dezartperforms.org , or by calling (760) 322-0179. Showtimes are Fridays at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 2pm and 7:30pm; Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.

Dezart Performs, one of the Coachella Valley’s preeminent theatre companies recognizes that the performing arts enrich the life and culture of a community, promote greater understanding and provoke insightful discussion. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatre company, its mission is to provide an artistic home for bold and cutting–edge plays, creating an atmosphere of artistic growth for actors, writers, and directors who uniquely contribute to the diverse theatrical environment in the Coachella Valley.

16th Dezart Performs’ Season Listing

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME 
A dramatic comedy written by Heidi Schreck
Directed by Craig Wells
January 19 – 21; 26 – 28

2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist
2019 Tony Award nominated, Best Play
2019 Obie award for Best New American Play
2019 Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Best New Play
2019 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Play

Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.

“…brilliantly crafted show, harrowing and funny and humane, that accesses the political through the deeply personal.”
– New York Magazine

“A highly entertaining, deeply informative and ultimately hopeful examination of the document that impacts every single one of us, every single day of our lives.”
–Chicago Sun Times

“This funny, tragic and deeply unsettling one-woman tour de force shows who the US constitution serve — and who it lets down.”
– The Guardian

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A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 
A drama written by Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Michael Shaw
March 1-3; 8-10

2022 Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD unfolds in a cubicle where two seated people unexpectedly choose to bring one another into their fragile worlds. Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker seeking to buy a plot of land that belonged to his family many decades ago, realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.” At this desk in the middle of America, loan talk opens up into a discussion about the chokehold of financial insecurity and a bond over the precariousness of parenthood. With humor, empathy and wrenching honesty, Hunter commingles two lives and deftly bridges disparate experiences of marginality.

“Must-see heartbreaker of a play!”
– The New York Times

“Another extraordinary play by Samuel D. Hunter!”
– New York Stage Review

“Easily one of the best of the year!”
–The Wall Street Journal

“…one of the most moving new plays of the year!”
– TheatreMania

“‘A Case for the Existence of God’ Finds What Connects Us All and Holiness in Humanity.”
–The Observer

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MR. PARKER
A drama written by Michael McKeever

Directed by Randy Brenner
April 12 – 14; 19 — 21

At 54 years old, Terry Parker finds himself at a crossroads in his life. After the loss of his partner of 30 years, he finds himself suddenly single and unable to adjust to a world that has moved on without him. After a night of heavy drinking, he wakes up with a 28-year-old bartender-slash-Uber-driver. These two very different people begin a tentative relationship, and what starts out as a one-night stand becomes a journey of self-discovery for a man trying to let go of the past and move forward, while dealing with the pressures of being middle-aged, gay and alone in the ever-changing landscape of today’s America.

“A very intelligent, absorbing look at contemporary relationships and the conflicts that keep us all from aging with joy and peace of mind. This play is a real discovery!”

– Rex Reed

“The protagonist of this new play by Michael McKeever steps gingerly out of grief’s stasis and into the unknown.”
–The New York Times

Thursday, December 7, 2023   

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org    

SAN FRANCISCO PREPARED TO IMPLEMENT NEW CONSERVATORSHIP LAW TO HELP PEOPLE STRUGGING WITH SEVERE SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER  

Under Mayor Breed’s Executive Directive issued in October, City Departments are prepared to begin implementing SB 43 law changes at the beginning of January 2024  

 SB 43 expands the definition of “grave disability” to include those who live with severe substance use disorder and those who are unable to provide for their own personal safety or necessary medical care  

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that San Francisco will be ready at the beginning of January to operationalize Senate Bill 43, a change in State mental health conservatorship laws that expands the eligibility requirements to compel people struggling with severe substance use disorder to get the care and support they need.  

Signed by Governor Newsom last October, SB 43 goes into effect on January 1, 2024. Immediately after the bill was signed into law, Mayor Breed issued an Executive Directive to City Departments to ensure that San Francisco was ready to implement this new policy at the beginning of January.  

Senate Bill 43 expands California’s Lanterman–Petris–Short (LPS) conservatorship law by updating the criteria for determining if a person is “gravely disabled,” the standard for LPS conservatorship eligibility.  

SB43 expands the definition of Grave Disability in two important ways:  

• The law provides a legal basis for conserving individuals who are Gravely Disabled due to the impacts of a severe substance use disorder alone. This adds to the current definition that only allows for conservatorships based on serious mental illness or chronic alcoholism.  

• The expanded definition adds inability to provide for necessary medical care, and/or personal safety to the current definition of food, clothing, and shelter that is related to their mental illness or substance use disorder.  

This will address a situation where psychiatric emergencies involve the use of multiple substances (e.g. methamphetamines and opioids including fentanyl).    

Mayor Breed’s Executive Directive coordinates and gives direction to departments, including the Department of Disability and Aging Services (DAS), the City Attorney’s Office, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) to implement SB 43. The Executive Order provides oversight and coordination, sets implementation timelines, and requires departments to train staff on the expanded definition of grave disability with an improved collaborative workflow.  

The Departments are prepared for the law to go into effect on January 1, 2024. At that time, the Public Conservator will begin to receive referrals under the newly established criteria set forth by SB 43. If deemed eligible after an assessment, the Public Conservator will file petitions with the court to conserve those individuals. For additional information on SB 43 and its implementation in San Francisco, visit this link.  

“People are struggling with severe substance use and mental health challenges in our City to the point where they cannot help themselves. When we have an opportunity to put a new solution into place, we must work quickly to do everything we can to implement it,” said Mayor Breed. “Conservatorship is a complex and long legal process, which is why moving quickly to put the pieces into place is imperative. I want to thank the staff at the various City agencies who have been working hard to ensure that, come January, we are ready to start helping people and changing lives.”  

As part of the conservatorship process, the Superior Court appoints a public conservator to authorize psychiatric treatment of a person who meets the legal definition of grave disability. If the Court determines a person meets the criteria, they can be placed under conservatorship for up to one year, and the conservatorship can be renewed annually if the individual continues to meet the criteria. Only psychiatrists and clinical psychologists may make referrals for conservatorship and only the Public Conservator may file petitions. After appointment, the Conservator works with other City departments to ensure conservatees are receiving proper treatment.    

“Conservatorship is the intervention of last resort. We hope that by working in close collaboration with our City partners to implement the expansion of SB 43, it will help people who need it most,” said Kelly Dearman, Executive Director of the Department of Disability and Aging Services. “Although SB 43 does not change the procedures of existing conservatorships, it will allow us to help people who are not able to provide for their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, personal safety or necessary medical care due to a severe substance use disorder and/or mental health disorder.”  

“The Department of Public Health continues to expand our portfolio of treatment options for those in need while offering a range of services including early intervention, crisis response, as well as inpatient and outpatient care,” said Director of Health, Dr. Grant Colfax. “SB 43 provides us another opportunity in our larger system of care and support to help those with the most acute behavioral health needs.”  

“The previous definition of grave disability was written in the 1970s. Today’s societal challenges are different than they were 50 years ago,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “I am proud of the work our attorneys did to shape and advocate for this expansion of state law. We are ready to assist our clients in ensuring SB 43 is implemented effectively in San Francisco.”  

Over the last several years, Mayor Breed has advocated for a broad range of statewide conservatorship reform, working closely with State Senator Scott Wiener and other State and City leaders, including State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, to successfully pass and implement mental health conservatorship process improvements.  

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Protect Our Marilyn Statement 

“We want to thank the Palm Springs City Council for their serious consideration and for voting to adopt the initiative ordinance which amends the  Downtown Palm Springs Specific Plan to facilitate the vacation of a portion of Museum Way in order to provide permanent pedestrian access and the installation of the “Forever Marilyn” Statue at its present location which has become so cherished a part of downtown. We are hopeful, that after hearing the overwhelming support for keeping the statue in its current location, that those minority voices in opposition will cease from further attempts to block the will of the people at huge taxpayer expense.”

— David Perry, Protect Our Marilyn Campaign