Same Boat Theater Collective Launches at Innovators Showcase

Same Boat Theater Collective, the Bay Area’s first environmental justice theater and a participant in the inaugural PlayGround Innovator Incubator, will present a staged reading of their new play, THE EMERYVILLE HORROR, on August 11, 2pm, at Potrero Stage, as part of PlayGround’s 2019 Innovators Showcase. Directed by Ellen Koivisto, the play is written by Same Boat Theater Collective playwrights Lynn Aylward (Lead Writer), Linda Amayo-Hassan, Lisa Kang, Ellen Koivisto, and Bridgette Dutta Portman . Tickets can be reserved in advance or purchased at the door. For more information or for tickets, visit https://www.sameboattheater.org/.

Emeryville is disappearing, piece by piece, and thousands of people with it. No one knows what is happening, but Rahel Al-Noury, an Emeryville Police officer,  is determined to find out. As Emeryville continues to vanish, Officer Al-Noury encounters many of those in Emeryville affected by this horror: a female Mariachi singer, a pregnant homeless woman, a cancer patient, a genderqueer teen, a son of Vietnamese farmers, an Ohlone woman. Their lives have one thing in common: the suffering dealt to them by the monstrous abuse of the environment. Will they vanish along with the ground they stand on? Why is Emeryville disappearing and what can be done to stop the Emeryville Horror?

Launched as part of PlayGround’s inaugural Innovator Incubator, Same Boat Theater Collective is dedicated to telling stories of people in Bay Area communities affected by environmental injustice. The August 11 presentation will be of a script and production in progress. The audience will be given the opportunity to give valuable feedback to the playwrights to shape the play for future performances.