“The Fillmore Eclipse” SF’s New Immersive Theater Experience (April 26 – May 12)

Created by our graphic designer. Images are: Sarah Vaughan, photo Credit: William Gottlieb

The Fillmore Eclipse is brand new limited-run immersive theater project set in the Fillmore Jazz scene of the 1950s.

Step into the Fillmore Eclipse for a family friendly evening of live music and drinks. Follow characters throughout the club as regulars of the Eclipse and look for hidden artifacts to discover a San Francisco in which African Americans and Japanese Americans converged to fight impending displacement from Redevelopment. Part local SF history, part a fun night out.

This will be an intimate experience for a small audience in a crafted 1950’s, late night jazz club environment.

The Fillmore Eclipse
April 26 – May 12, 2024
Honey Art Studio, 1981 Sutter St. @ Fillmore, SF
Get Tickets – $30 for Students and Artists, $50 GA, $80 VIP w/ Reserved Table + 1 Drink

• Venue is in the heart of SF’s historic Fillmore District
• Limited run of 11 performances running from April 26 to May 12
  
  Weekend One
  Friday, April 26 @ 7:30 pm
  Saturday, April 27 @ 7:30 pm
  Sunday, April 28 @ 2:30 pm
  Weekend Two
  Friday, May 3 @ 7:30 pm
  Saturday, May 4 @ 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm
  Sunday, May 5 @ 2:30 pm
  Weekend Three
  Friday, May 10 @ 7:30 pm

  Saturday, May 11 @ 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm

  Sunday, May 5 @ 2:30 pm

The show explores the uncertain fate of a club and a community in a time when Bebop was the rage and Urban Renewal was sold by city governments as a “cure-all” for America’s slums. The Eclipse is a Fillmore club modeled after Bop City, an after-hours jazz joint where Bebop would roar from the house band and special session guests like John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and Charlie Parker would show up unannounced. It was a confluence point for San Francisco’s thriving African American community and Japanese Americans rebuilding their lives after internment.

In addition, the production’s local community partnerships in the Fillmore, and actors and crew with personal connections to the neighborhood, both serve to ground this story firmly in the neighborhood in which it’s set, nearly 70 years later, in today’s San Francisco which faces many of the same dilemmas between development and displacement.

The show is appropriate for audiences 9 years and older and buy-outs are available for schools and organizations.

The Fillmore Eclipse is directed by Michael French (dir. The Speakeasy,) written by Cleavon Smith, and production managed by Jax Blaska.

Walking Cinema is an innovative storytelling studio working on experimental audio and theatrical projects. We focus on immersive stories related to urban history, social justice, and the humanities. Michael Epstein is the Artistic Director, and Walking Cinema is fiscally sponsored by Z-Space.

This production is underwritten by grants from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, The Creative Work Fund, and the California Arts Council.