White Guy on the Bus

by Bruce Graham

directed by Max Minton

produced by Michael French for aluminous

Ray, a wealthy, white businessman, rides the bus through an impoverished black neighborhood and past the state penitentiary every Saturday. On his weekly ride he befriends Shatique, a young African-American woman putting herself through college and struggling to raise a son on her own. For a while the friendship offers more than either of them expected, but when Ray finally reveals why he’s riding the bus the threads that bind them gradually unravel in a complex web of race, privilege, heartache, and revenge.   

March 2nd - 11th, 2017
Flight Deck, Oakland

Going to St. Ives

by Lee Blessing

directed by Regina V. Fields

produced by Michael French for aluminous

May N'Kame, the mother of an African dictator, travels to England to see Dr. Cora Gage about medical treatment for her failing eyesight. Dr. Gage uses the consultation as an opportunity to raise the issue of the imprisonment of some of her colleagues. Meanwhile, May N'Kame's true motive in visiting the doctor is to obtain a poison with which to kill her murderous son. GOING TO ST. IVES is the story of two impressive women brought together by that which is personal and divided by that which is political as both seek to accomplish the greatest good.

March 3rd - 19th, 2016
Flight Deck, Oakland

The Zoo Story

By Edward Albee

Directed by Lijesh Krishnan

with Michael French & Francisco Rodriguez

A man sits reading a book on a park bench. It's his bench, his coveted, sunny, Sunday afternoon spot. His name is Peter. He has a wife, two cats, two parakeets, two daughters, and more than enough money to live on. How do we know all this? Because Jerry, a stranger, penniless and lonely, and full of fantastical stories that may or may not be true, approaches him and starts a conversation: "Mister, I've been to the zoo today," he says. And so begins the wild and shocking saga of "The Zoo Story." A tale of murder and morality, Edward Albee’s masterwork brings us face to face with those thrown aside by a society obsessed with material success.

Nov 12th - 22nd, 2015
Flight Deck, Oakland

"Is there a place for me in this world?"

H2O

by Jane Martin

Directed by Michael French

What would you do if you’d become a huge movie star in Hollywood even though you had never acted before, if you’d been paid $30,000,000 for two movies where you don’t say a word, and drugs and alcohol have brought you to your knees? Well, if your Jake you agree to play Hamlet on Broadway. Given full casting approval and a limitless budget, Jake embarks to New York City to seek out his Ophelia and meets not just his muse, but his match in the form of an evangelical Christian actress determined to get the role, and save what’s left of his life.

April 23rd - May 17th, 2015
Flight Deck, Oakland

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

by Stephen Anthony Guirgis

Directed by Michael French

Set in a time bending, seriocomic netherworld between Heaven and Hell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a philosophical meditation on the conflict between divine mercy and human free will, as it re-examines the plight and fate of the New Testament’s most infamous and unexplained sinner.

August 28th - Sept 21st, 2014
The Flight Deck, Oakland

First

By Evelyn Jean Pine

Directed by Michael French

The date is March 26th, 1976. The very first personal computer conference attracts visionaries, hackers, hobbyists, salesmen, and entrepreneurs. Nobody takes 20 year old Bill Gates seriously. He looks like he’s 16, demands that everyone stop sharing his software, and he thinks he knows everything. A lot of people want him to take a hike, but he wants to take over the world.

Oct 12th - Nov 3rd, 2013
Stage Werx, San Franscisco

Dusk Rings A Bell

by Stephen Belber

Directed by Michael French

The setting is Bethany Beach, Delaware. Molly is a divorced, seemingly content public relations executive who returns to the beachfront home where her family spent summers in search of a memento she hid for her future self to find. Before long she encounters something else from her youth, Ray, a shy, lonesome landscape gardener with whom she once had an idyllic adolescent fling. The reunion seems destined for a second chance at love, until Ray reveals the sordid details of a crime that left him incarcerated for ten years.

MAY 18TH - 27TH, 2012
DANCE MISSION THEATRE, SF

BlackBIRD

by David Harrower

Directed by Michael French

Fifteen years after their passionate affair, Ray and Una meet again. At the time of their affair Ray was forty and Una was twelve. Without any moral judgments, BlackBIRD is a fearless story of two people and the love that inevitably brought them together, and then inevitably broke them apart.

OCT 28TH - NOV 6TH, 2011
DANCE MISSION THEATRE, SF