Model and Strategy
The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) engages artists and audiences through live theatre productions, creative development, and community service initiatives that resonate with Bay Area perspectives and the lived experience of its residents. Led by artists from Black, Latine, and Asian backgrounds, SFBATCO produces theater that celebrates and represents communities of color and LGBTQIA+ individuals in a non-stereotyped way, and fosters cross-cultural dialogue, while strengthening and diversifying the local arts workforce. SFBATCO’s co-founders were both born and raised in San Francisco, and believe that the arts are a crucial part of the city’s revitalization efforts.
Over the next two years, SFBATCO will produce three world premiere productions created by and featuring local artists of color.. Cuckoo Edible Magic, by local CHamoru playwright Reed Flores, will have 21 public performances in San Francisco in Spring 2025, reaching over 2,500 audience members—including 300 free or heavily subsidized tickets—and employing over 30 artists and production staff. Every Saturday Night (workshopped in June 2025, full production in 2026), with script and music by Bay Area artist Danny Duncan, a social justice musical set in the Fillmore in the 50s and 60s – when the city’s Urban Redevelopment program displaced thousands of Black tenants, homeowners, and business owners – that honors the ‘Harlem of the West’ that once was. In Fall 2025, SFBATCO will present The Day the Sky Turned Orange, a pop/R&B/electronic musical—inspired by September 9, 2020, when the sky in San Francisco turned a troubling shade of amber due to wildfires across the stat. The production is a testament to living through the trials of 2020 as well as a compassionate reminder of the importance of caring for our planet, our communities, and ourselves. Co-produced with Z Space, The Day the Sky Turned Orange will have 27 public performances and reach roughly 4,000 audience members.
SFBATCO also will use 2025 to reimagine and lay the groundwork for its 2026 New Roots Theatre Festival, a new works festival uplifting BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ local artists. The Festival, started in 2021 at Brava Theater in the Mission District, is celebrated for strengthening alliances between local arts organizations and providing a space for playwrights, composers, and directors to experiment with new work. Since 2021, the festival has supported the development of 30 new works produced by 19 different organizations and engaged nearly 300 local artists. SFBATCO seeks to expand it to run over multiple weekends and at additional venues.
Beyond productions, SFBATCO will continue to invest in new theatre artists, professionals, and audiences, both adult and youth. Through the Creators Lab, now in its third year, the company incubates the development of original theatrical works by emerging creatives. Since 2019 SFBATCO has administered the performing arts wing of the Mission Academy of the Performing Arts (MAPA) at Brava Theater Center. The company will continue to provide a “Theatre Arts as a Tool for Social Change” class at Ida B. Wells Continuation High School, and continue serving as co-administrators of the theater program at Mo’ Magic, an afterschool program at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center that serves Black students in the Western Addition. SFBATCO will also continue providing free or heavily subsidized classes, workshops, and special performances for young people across the Bay Area.
Impact
Since its inception in 2014, SFBATCO has produced 17 full productions and engaged roughly 1,200 artists while entertaining over 30,000 audience members. In audience surveys taken over the past year, 25% of respondents were new or infrequent theater attendees; 30% were under the age of 30, and 30% were between the ages of 30-46. Seventy percent (70%) identified as BIPOC or mixed-race and 40% as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. SFBATCO’s youth programs have served 430+ kids as students, and almost 2,500 kids through special initiatives as audience members.
SFBATCO’s major breakthrough occurred in 2018 when they originated and staged I, Too, Sing America, a musical theater piece comprised of 20+ vignettes celebrating the pride, ambition, romance, and humor of BIPOC American poets. After an initial run at the African American Art and Culture Complex, the show transferred to the Brava Theater in the Mission in 2019, and Theater Bay Area named the production the region’s best musical of 2019. It has since been remounted three times. I Too, Sing America enjoyed a four performance run at Grace Cathedral in June 2024, as well as appearing in the city’s Juneteenth celebrations.
In the spring of 2024, the company’s world premiere production of Sign My Name to Freedom shattered its previous attendance and box office records, selling at 90% over three weekends, attracting over 3,600 in-person audience members and 350 virtual attendees for the online stream, and grossing over $110,000. The average ticket price was just $28, and over 650 free and discounted tickets were given to public school students, senior centers, local artists, and community-based organizations.
SFBATCO’s impact is deepened by its rich history of partnering with other organizations and venues in every corner of the city. Aside from the organizations already listed, SFBATCO’s partners have included SFUSD, African-American Shakespeare Company, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art, the Queer Cultural Center, Bayview Opera House, SF Arts Education Project, SF Juvenile Probation Department, MegaBlack SF, and many others. By meeting people where they are, and creating meaningful relationships across the city, SFBATCO has been able to reach a wide range of artists, audiences, and students.
“Reverend and Senator Raphael Warnock says, ‘A vote is a prayer about the kind of world we want to live in. And our prayers are stronger when we pray together.' At SFBATCO, we believe the same can be said about art. Our programming – and our community – reflects the world that we want to live in … By centering the historically ‘untold stories’ of BIPOC individuals and communities, and uplifting stories that reflect the experiences of San Franciscans, SFBATCO is contributing to new understandings about the diverse groups and histories that make up our beautiful city, which will help us co-create the next chapter in the incredible story of San Francisco. This will always be our home, and nobody cares about its future more than we do. ” — Rodney E Jackson Jr, Co-Founder and Artistic Director
Leadership
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Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr.
Co-Founder & Artistic Director
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Adam Maggio
Managing Director
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Christine Chung
Director of Operations and Design
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Laura Domingo
Director of Development and Marketing