Campo Santo to Present Return Engagement of OTTO FRANK Beginning This Month

The Magic Theatre's first Home Resident Company- Campo Santo has announced a return encore engagement of the premiere run of Otto Frank, a new performance piece created and performed by star of film, television, and stage Roger Guenveur Smith. Otto Frank will perform for four performances only from September 28- October 01, 2022, Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, at the Magic Theatre's Fort Mason location (Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123). Each show will be followed by a post-show discussion with Roger. Single tickets range from $20-$70 and are on sale now at MagicTheatre.org.

Campo Santo presented Otto Frank in its Premiere Run earlier this year at the Magic Theatre and now we get a chance to witness it one last time before the show heads out into the world. Otto Frank played to full and stunned houses and to critical acclaim. Otto Frank will be presented for a final encore engagement for one week only, before heading to New York to be featured at The Public Theatre in the international festival Under The Radar.

From Artistic Director Sean San Jose: We hold these artists in the highest regard- and their premiere run of Otto Frank- was a soul blow. Too deep. This is an encore performance run and also a return to the Magic Theatre, where they had an historic run of "A Huey P Newton Story," that then went all over the world and later was turned into a film. And, as exciting as this new piece, Otto Frank, is- it is the beginning of more pieces from both Guenveur Smith and Thompson individually that will be created for Campo Santo at the Magic Theatre. Do not miss this last chance to experience this extraordinary work.

From writer/performer Roger Guenveur Smith, on the origins of his Otto Frank: I was invited to Amsterdam to perform my piece Rodney King and the first place that I went was the Anne Frank house. I was able to absorb there what I had only ever been able to imagine: this man returning from the war, to silence. To an empty room which had been full. That experience that Rodney King -of all people - took me to has continued to influence me and hopefully to inspire and to bless this particular project. And we know a lot of and about Anne Frank, his daughter. But we don't know a lot about him, Otto Frank, her father. The survivor. Who lost his wife and two daughters in the Nazi Death Camps. It was he who gave Anne that diary on her 13th birthday and it was he who impossibly received it again. It was him who struggled through months to read it. And it was he that decided to share it with the world. (from an interview with the Temple Israel of Hollywood)

I wanted a piece which was very still, very quiet, trying to invite the audience deep into the mind and soul of this man who lived a remarkable life.

ABOUT Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson

SMITH and THOMPSON have devised a prolific body of work for the international stage and screen, including the Obie and Peabody Award-winning A HUEY P. NEWTON STORY, and Bessie Award-winning RODNEY KING, currently streaming on Hulu and Netflix, respectively. A HUEY P. NEWTON STORY played at the Magic and Laney College, where Campo Santo later presented RODNEY KING and FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW. At Yerba Buena, Mr. Smith wrote and directed CASA DE SPIRITS for Campo Santo, with sound design by Mr. Thompson. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presented FREDERICK DOUGLASS NOW, as well as CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 1992, performed by both Smith and Thompson. Their historically driven work also includes staged travelogues of Iceland, Panama, and Philadelphia, and studies of iconoclast artists Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Simon Rodia, and Charles White, and baseball greats Juan Marichal and John Roseboro. They have also collaborated on acclaimed productions of Katori Hall's THE MOUNTAINTOP, and Steven Berkoff's AGAMEMNON.

ABOUT Roger Guenveur Smith

Roger Guenveur Smith was born in Berkeley and raised in Los Angeles. A prolific actor and performer for over 30 years, he has worked in projects across many mediums, including some of the most popular and influential television shows and films over the course of his career.

Beginning in 1988, his first film appearance was in Spike Lee's second film School Daze and it began a long abiding friendship and collaboration. Smith went on to appear in six other of Lee's films throughout the decades including Malcolm X, Get On the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, and what is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important American films of all time, Do the Right Thing. In 2017, he collaborated with Lee to film a live performance of his solo performance piece Rodney King, for which Roger was honored with a Bessie Award. Rodney King is currently available to stream on Netflix.

His film credits also include work with some of contemporary cinema's greatest filmmakers including Bill Duke (Deep Cover), the late John Singleton (Poetic Justice), Abel Ferrara (King of New York), Kasi Lemmons (Eve's Bayou), and Ridley Scott (American Gangster), to name just a few. Other films include Tales From the Hood, Final Destination, All About the Benjamins, Empire State, Water & Power, Dope, Chi-Raq, Birth of a Nation, Marshall, and many others. He will be featured in the upcoming film Till.

On television, Roger has appeared in many of the most popular television shows since the 1990's, beginning with the seminal comedy A Different World. Since then his credits include Murphy Brown, Oz, All My Children, Third Watch, New York Undercover, Black Jesus, and most recently as Booker T. Washington in Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, starring Octavia Spencer and now streaming on Netflix. His latest television project is as a series regular on the legal drama All Rise for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and Hulu. In 2001, his solo performance piece A Huey P. Newton Story was filmed by Spike Lee and released as a telefilm, winning Roger a Peabody award for his work.

As his body of work on film and television grew and diversified, Roger never did and never has left the stage behind. His solo performance pieces have been the cornerstone of a career deeply rooted in history, advocacy, and compassion. He has written pieces about and imaginatively embodied such varied figures as Christopher Columbus, Frederick Douglas, Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Marley, and Jean Michel Basquiat, and Rodney King, to name just a few.

In 1994, Roger presented the first material he had created for a solo performance piece about Huey P. Newton, the revolutionary co-founder of the Black Panthers. He further refined and expanded the piece, taking creative leaps right here in San Francisco as part of the Solo Mio Festival. In 1997, the piece was presented at The Public Theater in New York. From there,

A Huey P. Newton Story would go on to win Roger an Obie Award for his performance in addition to several NAACP Los Angeles awards including best actor, best playwright, and production of the year.

About Marc Anthony Thompson

Marc Anthony Thompson is a popular singer and songwriter who is well regarded for creating the musical collective Chocolate Genius Inc. His style is generally classified to be contemporary R&B, rock, and jazz; he is credited for bringing about a change in avant-garde music. He began his career with the albums 'Marc Anthony Thompson' in 1984 and 'Watts & Paris' in 1989. However, he didn't produce anything for a long time in the 1990s. It was then he conceived Chocolate Genius, a musical recording project. Under this, he released two albums: Black Music and Godmusic, both of which received critical acclaim. He then went on to work with several artists for Chocolate Genius Inc. and has since produced many albums that are critically acclaimed. Apart from working alongside his collective, Thompson has written commercial jingles, composed original scores for films, and designed the sound for a live theatrical production. His talents have been recognized by fellow artists and he is the recipient of many award, but more than that is well regarded as a true original creator, and his singing, songwriting, and guitar work alone keep him in collaborations over the years with everyone from Vernon Reid and Marc Ribot to Bruce Springsteen and with his daughters Tessa and Zsela, artists of high order in their own rights.

About Campo Santo

Founded in 1996, Campo Santo is an award-winning group dedicated to developing new performances & cultivating new audiences, centering on People of Color & others historically underrepresented in theatre. We were the long time resident company of Intersection for the Arts (1997-2014). We have created with many legends, heroes, poets and priestesses- great people and amazing artists: from Junot Diaz to Chinaka Hodge, Marcus Shelby to Ana Teresa Fernandez, literally hundreds, spanning the spectrum of art and activism, mediums and modalities: legends from Denis Johnson to Ntozake Shange; Jessica Hagedorn to Jimmy Baca. And we've always been fiercely committed to developing the "next"- future leaders of performance, most recently represented with Playwright-In-Residence Star Finch. They are the first Home Resident Company in the Magic Theatre's long history.

About Magic Theatre

Since the company's founding in 1967 by visionary John Lion, the Magic Theatre has identified and cultivated writers on the cutting edge of American theatre, serving as a vital center for the creation and performance of new American plays. Sam Shepard developed and premiered his Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, True West, and Fool for Love during his decade-long Magic residency (1974-84), forever altering the shape of American drama.

The Magic Theatre has now entered a new Golden Age with the appointment of Sean San José as the new Artistic Director in June, 2022. San José is the first Person of Color to fully lead the organization in its 50+ year history. With this new leadership Magic is dedicated to making Magic a home to more people by rightfully centering People of Color throughout the organization. Magic, while continuing to premiere bold and new plays as it has done for 54 years, has expanded its vision and programming with these new Programs: new Residency Program- which includes Home Resident Company Campo Santo and the historic Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (Artistic Director Margo Hall), along with Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience (Co-Artistic Directors Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and Rotimi Agbabiaka), Ellen Sebastian Chang/ Sunhui Chang and the newly announced Saint John Coltrane Church; new Performances Program, telling theatrical stories in dance, poetry, and music led by San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin; and Resident Artists, which is highlighted by Playwright In Residence Star Finch and Resident Curator Juan Amador, and artists Russell Champa, Tanya Orellana, Joan Osato, Christopher Sauceda, and Brittany White.

Magic Theatre is located in the Marina District of San Francisco, at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123). For more information, visit MagicTheatre.org or call the box office at (415) 441-8822. The performance schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm.