Public Events

Friday and Saturday June 13 & 14 8:00 pm
New College Theater 777 Valencia Street,
San Francisco
$10.00 Admission No One Turned Away

Since 1971, New College of California has been a San Francisco beacon for political activists, misunderstood artists, hippie freaks and students wanting to design individual educations away from theconstraints of conventional institutions. After over thirty years of promoting the ideals of a just, sacred and sustainable world, New College will be closing its doors due to a catastrophic year-long implosion and will be graduating its final class. To celebrate the legacy of this unique school that tried to save the world, to eulogizeits passing and to give the theater a final thrill, a group of faculty and alumni artists will hold a two final performances at New College's Valencia Street campus.

Featuring new work by Zaza Dance Theater, MamaCoAtl and Tony Bravo, 'Last Rites For The Lost Republic'will showcase the kind of performances New College was famous for:alive, original and dangerous.

Zaza Dance Theater was founded on the New College campus in 1999 by Humanities professor Theresa Dickinson (National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council Award winner) and features New College alumni Samir Batar, Maica Folchand Chris Sia with accompaniment by Saint John Coltrane Church musician Roberto Haven. ZaZa is an enduring project of improvisers who share acommitment to making real-time dances sourcing real-time situations, perceptions and 'accidents.' Zaza's mission is to create dance work that reflects the existing chaos and harmony of everyday life. Zaza's most recent production was Theresa Dickinson's 'The Former World' in 2008, a rope dance that explored aerial and terrestrial movement set in a web of rope, live music and dancing minerals. Zaza is based in San Francisco.

MamaCoAtl holds a master's degree from New College's Women's Spirituality Program. She has worked the stage from San Francisco to Cusco, from performance art and installation to butoh,ritual and spoken song. As a multidisciplinary 'artivist' she has curated ceremonies to heal the Amazonic River Mother of God, concerts for peace in places desecrated by femicide on Mexico's highways and has organized blessing days in city corners and public plazas. She has broken performance boundaries in her unique way of exploringmixed-language usage (Spanish and English) and blurs the line between spoken word, song and prayer. From seductress to revolutionary to EarthMother, MamaCoAtl's music is a prism of a woman whose voice is so needed in these turbulent times.

Tony Bravo is a graduate of New College's humanities program with a degree in theater, and is theartistic director of the Creative Writing Program at School of the Arts High School in San Francisco, of which he is also an alumnus. He is a Music Teachers' Association of California Award winner for classical voice, a San Francisco Youth Arts Award winner for humor writing and a National Scholastic Arts Award winner for his autobiographical essay 'My Life in Puce.' Mr. Bravo combines elements of traditional cabaret performance, autobiographical narrative and performance art in his work and is the author of the fashion and lifestyles blog 'Fop It Up' with illustrator and animator Eliza Frye. His one man show, 'The Art Fag'premiered at New College in 2006. He will be accompanied by his longtime pianist, Mrs. Bohnye Bice.

For Reservations Call (415) 282-7746 or email lastritesforthelostrepublic@gmail.com