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

Kevin Rolston’s Critically Acclaimed 
“Deal With the Dragon”

Comes to Palm Springs Cultural Center
May 29 – June 8

One man comedic tour-de-force is latest production from
Jerome Joseph Gentes’ TigerBear Productions

tigerbearproductions.com

27 March 2025 — Palm Springs, CA:  Kevin Rolston’s critically acclaimed Deal with the Dragon, a three-character, one-man performance hailed as “truly bravura” (Edinburgh Guide) and “meticulously written and exquisitely performed” (Huffington Post), comes to the Palm Springs Cultural Center for a limited run, May 29 – June 8. Developed with and directed by M. Graham Smith, written by/starring Rolston, and produced by Jerome Joseph Gentes’ TigerBear Productions in association with Desert Ensemble Theatre, the captivating comedy unfurls a cunning grown-up fairy tale laced with terror. Audiences will experience a full, complete production of this free-wheeling fantasy, which was selected as one of the top 20 theater shows (out of 900) to see at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe by The List. Deal with the Dragon runs Thursday through Sunday at 7:30pm, with Sunday matinees at 2pm at the Palm Springs Cultural Center (2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA). For tickets and more information, visit desertensembletheatre.org, dealwiththedragon.com, or tigerbearproductions.com.

“It’s a smooth and sexy mix of smart, funny, and sophisticated,” said Gentes, whose ground-breaking production of the edgy interactive opera UNBOUND, set in a gay sex club, wowed Coachella Valley audiences in 2022. “It’s aperfect combo for Palm Springs locals and visitors alike.”

Deal with the Dragon, Rolston’s first solo show, finds an artist desperate to land a gallery show at a prestigious museum, an acolyte who will stop at nothing to protect the artist’s process, and a flamboyant rival competing for the same museum slot. All are portrayed by Rolston in a performance SF Weekly called “infused with razor blades that have been soaked in honey.” The show was also named by KQED Arts’ John Wilkins as one of six “singular and brilliant theater pieces” of 2016. “Deal with the Dragon gave me more after-the-fact pleasure than any other play this year,” he declared. “This show burrowed into my mind.”

Kevin Rolston is a San Francisco-based actor and playwright. His first play, Crystal Christian—about the hypocrisy of loud-mouthed homophobes who get caught doing crystal meth with gay hookers—enjoyed a workshop production at Magic Theatre in 2008. His second play, This Many People, covered the lives of Bay Area LGBTQ senior citizens and premiered at Counterpulse as part of the 2010 Queer Arts Festival. As an ensemble actor, Rolston has performed in venues across the Bay Area including A.C.T., CalShakes, Marin Theatre Company, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

M. Graham Smith is a San Francisco-based director, educator, and producer. A recipient of the O’Neill/NNPN National Directing Fellowship and a proud Resident Artist at Crowded Fire, Smith has directed productions across the country including the world premiere of Obie-winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion and the Bay Area premiere of White by James Ijames. His recent projects include a hip-hop musical film adaptation of As You Like It and the musical The Mortification of Fovea Munson at The Kennedy Center.

“TigerBear Productions started on its journey long before 2019,” Gentes recalls. “Our fore’bears’ include the first artists who inspired us as wee cubs, and those who shaped and shared them with us. As we grew, we wondered again and again: who could we gather to tell a story with, and who could we gather to tell it to? Print and stage and screen evolved, and so did we, yet we kept renewing our love of making stories and making them happen. Here, now, we keep telling and making them, with more inspirations in our hearts and imaginations than we can count.”

WHAT: 
Kevin Rolston’s critically acclaimed Deal with the Dragon, a three-character, one-man performance hailed as “truly bravura” (Edinburgh Guide) and “meticulously written and exquisitely performed” (Huffington Post), comes to Palm Springs for a limited run. Developed with and directed by M. Graham Smith, written by/starring Rolston, and produced by TigerBear Productions in association with Desert Ensemble Theatre, the show is a grown-up fairy tale with teeth. Called “infused with razor blades that have been soaked in honey” (SF Weekly), this shape-shifting solo performance was named one of KQED’s “six singular and brilliant theater pieces” of 2016.

WHEN:
May 29 – June 8, 2025
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:00pm

WHERE:
Palm Springs Cultural Center
2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA

250 Years Ago: “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death”

Patrick Henry
March 23, 1775
St. John’s Church
Richmond, Virginia

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. 

The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. 

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? 

Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. 

And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. 

Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. 

There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free– if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending–if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained–we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? 

Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. 

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Normal This

— By David Eugene Perry

When I was a boy growing up in Richmond, Virginia, steps away from the Confederate White House, the main shopping thoroughfare downtown was Broad Street. Well, the “right side” of Broad Street meaning where Miller & Rhoades & Thalhimers were: the WHITE side. The other side was where “Colored Folks” shopped — generally. 

Officially segregation was over, but in reality not so much.  Occasionally a Black patron — usually a well dressed middle aged woman — would venture across. No one would say anything but I knew what people were thinking: 

“She’s one of the good ones.” — a Nice Negro: clean, respectful, NORMAL.

Our late friend, Joseph J. O’Donohue IV was a wealthy “queer” in the 1920s and ‘30s.

“That’s what we called ourselves then,” he would opine in his wickedly upper-crust Manhattanese. “Queer.”

This queer child of privilege partied stateside in Harlem and in Berlin Germany to which he sailed for the 1936 Olympics: the so-called Nazi Games. Evidently he had a ball: several. When queried as to if he had ever slept with a Nazi, his reply:

“God yes. LOTS of them.”

According to Josie (who became a dear friend) all the previously shuttered gay and Jewish clubs (for which Berlin was famous) were wide open for the Olympiad. You know: your kinder, gentler Fascism. Some of the clubs featured Jewish singers who had been dubbed “Honorary Aryans” because of their talent. Look it up.

Within two years, Joe had repudiated Hitler’s regime publicly in the press and was working to help Jewish and gay friends escape Hitler’s new “Normal”German Reich. One of his lovers died in the camps.

I was reminded of both these stories today reading about the planned “Normal Gay” event originally planned to take place at Tropicale by the Log Cabin Republicans for April 4.

Good One.
Honorary Aryan. 
Normal Gay. 
Despicable.

Donald Trump and his twisted troglodyte minions are worse than the schoolyard bullies that called me “fairy Perry” on the playground or burned my wrists with cigarettes during military school hazing. I’ve spoken with some of those boys in years hence, and they have grown, grown out of it, learned and evolved.

The owners of Tropicale and the Log Cabin (sorry, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) Republicans are all (and I think they’d approve of this descriptor) free, white and 21. They know what they’re doing and they should know better. They’ve drunk the MAGA Koolaid. They make me nauseated. They are nauseous.

My husband and I have transgender friends, family and clients. We certainly didn’t know until the Trumpian Rapture that drag queens were a threat to our nation’s youth or to the cultural calendar at the Kennedy Center. 

This attempt to divide the LGBTQ alphabet between “us” and “them” has nothing to do with pronouns and everything to do with power.

I’ve never been a big fan of “cancel culture.” During COVID when the owners of Tropicale played fast and loose with pandemic restrictions I chalked it up to the crazy, frightening time that it was. We’ve been back several times since. 

This, is different. The fact that Tropicale has backed down from hosting is beside the point and too little too late. They have shown their faces: both of them.

As my Grandma used to say “the best way to kill a plant isn’t to cut it down. It’s to stop watering it.”

Sadly, for the foreseeable future, Tropicale will not be on our list of watering holes. Too bad, they make a mean martini. Now they have shown the capacity to just be mean. I will not judge nor shun you if you choose to imbibe there. However, I won’t be joining you. We will take Dionne Warwick’s advice and walk on by.

Bye Felicia. 

BAY AREA HEALTH OFFICIALS URGE MEASLES VACCINATION AND AWARENESS AS CASES RISE NATIONALLY 

Risk of exposure to measles in the Bay Area is currently low. However, with rising cases in the United States, getting the safe and highly effective vaccine is strongly encouraged for those not fully vaccinated.  

SAN FRANCISCO – With the recent rise of measles cases nationally, San Francisco joins Bay Area health officials in urging everyone to get the measles vaccination if they are not sure if they got it or if they did not have measles as a child, and to be aware of the signs and symptoms of measles after travel or exposure.    

Measles is a highly contagious virus that can cause serious illness and death, and the safe and highly effective measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine offers the best protection against the virus. Protect yourself by making sure each member of your family who is 12 months to 3 years old is vaccinated with one dose of MMR vaccine, and each person who is age 4 or older has gotten two doses of MMR vaccine. 

Over 300 measles cases have been reported in the United States as of March 14, 2025. This includes a large outbreak among primarily unvaccinated children in Texas and nearby states. At this time, there have been two deaths. These were the first measles deaths in the United States since 2015. 

There are five reported measles cases in California as of March 11, 2025.  All five cases were separately reported after international travel, and there is no evidence they are connected to the outbreak in Texas. 

“Measles is one of the most contagious viruses in the world, but it is preventable with the MMR vaccine, said San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip. “If children in your family are not fully vaccinated, or if you did not have measles as a child, please get the vaccine for the best protection.” 

How Measles Spreads and Symptoms  

Measles spreads easily through the air when an infected person breathes, talks, coughs, or sneezes. If an infected person coughs or sneezes, the virus can linger in indoor air for several hours. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis (pink eye), followed 2-4 days later by a rash.   

About one in five unvaccinated people in the United States who get measles are hospitalized, and nearly one to three of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications, according to CDC. Measles presents the greatest risk to children under five years of age, adults over 20 years of age, those who are pregnant, and people with compromised immune systems.  

MMR Vaccine  

The safe and highly effective MMR vaccine is recommended for children aged 12-15 months, with a second dose administered between ages 4 and 6 years. Children can receive the second dose of MMR vaccine earlier than 4 through 6 years, as long as it is at least 28 days after the first dose. Infants 6-12 months of age can start vaccination early prior to international travel or travel to an outbreak area. Teenagers and adults with no evidence of immunity should be vaccinated right away. Your medical provider can order a simple blood test to check whether or not you are immune. 

One dose of the MMR vaccine is 93 percent effective against measles, and two doses are 97 percent effective. Individuals born between 1957 and 1969 are likely to have received only one dose and should consider getting a second dose. The MMR vaccine protects you for life and is widely available at provider offices, clinics, health systems and pharmacies.  

Measles and Travel 

Home to three major airports, the Bay Area is a hub for international travel and tourism, increasing the potential for exposure to this highly contagious virus. For individuals or families that plan to travel, anyone who is not vaccinated against measles is at increased risk of getting infected.  

Plan early before international travel and check your destination and the CDC Global Measles Travel Health Notice for more travel health advice, including where measles outbreaks have been reported. Parents should consult with their child’s health care provider prior to travel. The CDC offers accelerated vaccination guidelines for children and adults who plan to travel internationally. 

For questions about the MMR vaccine and immunization records, check with your health care provider and access your digital vaccine record. 

Health Officers from the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma, and the City of Berkeley encourage the public to take the above easy steps to protect themselves and others. 

Media  Desk

Department of Public Health Communications
City and County of San Francisco
Twitter: @SF_DPH
Facebook: @sfpublichealth