When the third New Roots Theatre Festival kicks off on Nov. 10, it’ll be a family affair in more ways than one. The festival itself is a family reunion-style celebration of works coming out of local, BIPOC-led theater companies, which this year include Zaccho Dance Theatre, Campo Santo, Magic Theatre, AfroSolo and SF Recovery Theatre.
“We connect, we unite them, we put them in the same space, make them breathe the same air, and have to think about the perspectives of the characters and situations that everyone’s going through,” says Rodney Earl Jackson, Jr. Jackson is the festival’s founder, and also the co-founder and artistic director of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company. He adds that the festival seeks “to unearth those unique queer, BIPOC, intergenerational voices all under one roof.”
Two of the intergenerational voices featured in this year’s festival are mother and son duo Tania Santiago and Tosh Harris Santiago, who co-direct and co-choreograph De Mangangá: An Afro-Brazilian Musical. The cast includes Tosh’s siblings, Nasha and Orion. Fusing moves from the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, contemporary Afro-Brazilian dance and hip-hop, they tell the story of Besouro Mangangá, an early 20th century capoeira master who fought against oppression in Santo Amaro, Brazil — where Tania, a dance instructor at ODC, was born and raised.
“Expect a lot of fun, and a lot of new aspects to folklore movements and dance,” says Tosh, a.k.a. SeQuoiia, who graduated from Oakland School for the Arts and most recently performed as part of Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical at A.C.T. this summer.
Shidaiqu: A Partly-Historical Musical, meanwhile, was inspired by Shanghai in the 1920s, when a huge wealth gap, a new Communist Party and American jazz defined much of the city’s culture. Written by San Francisco playwright Jord Liu, Shidaiqu takes elements from that Shanghai history, as well as modern-day San Francisco to create a fictional world where characters explore themes of art and activism.
