3rd & Palou
7pm @ Bayview Opera House, 4705 3rd st. San Francisco(wheelchair accessible)
3rd and Palou is about a young woman and her friends coming of age in Hunters Point in the 1960’s amidst patriarchal constraints and political turmoil. Revolutionary stories permeated my San Francisco childhood. My Godmother is Ida McCray. Her story as a scholar, prison industrial complex survivor, educator and overall bad ass, has long been an obsession of mine. Some of my favorite stories are set during the 3rd Street riots in Hunter’s Point. Receiving the Black on Both Sides grant from the Bayview Opera House, a central landmark during the 1966 riots, was a kismet beginning to writing Ida McCray’s story for the stage. KQED Article
-Biko
Ije Success
Ida
Ije Success (born Success Ufondu) is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recent on-stage works include Jasmine in Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau and Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (African American Shakespeare Company); Bell in sAiNt jOaN (burn/burn/burn) by Lisa Ramirez (Oakland Theater Project, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award Nomination); The Museum Annex by Milred Lewis (Central Works); Abigail Williams in The Crucible (Oakland Theater Project); and Boys Go To Jupiter (Word for Word). She goes by Success or Ije (ee-jey). www.ijesuccess.com
Donte Clark
Martin
Donté Clark is a poet, author, and playwright from Richmond Ca, who uses spoken word and performance as a healing space to shift culture and bridge community. Donte has written 3 stage productions, Te’s Harmony which is also featured in award winning documentary Romeo Is Bleeding, executively produced by Russell Simmons, followed up by Po’Boys Kitchen, and This is Home. He has released 3 collections of poetry. KNOWFREEDOM 2018, CLOSE CASKETS 2021, with his most recent collection,
PSALMS 2023.
Gyzelle Garcia
Lucille
Gyzelle Garcia is a global, multi-hyphenate artist and storyteller from Maryland. In addition to her passions for writing, music, and poetry, she has shared her talents on screen in both feature and short length films, commercials and campaigns. She is excited to experience and extend her talents to the stage in a new way and new place; the Bay Area is where she will make her theatrical debut with roles in Pac & Biggie Are Dead and 3rd & Palou.
Kenzell Love
Wardell
Cat Brooks
Betty
Cat Brooks has been confidently moving across stage and screens for 30 years. A passionate speaker, Brooks has also made a name for herself as an activist and community leader, able to reach and inspire people with her powerful voice and grounded presence. Cat received her BA in theater from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and trained at the Royal National Theater Studio in London. Notable roles include Lady Macbeth at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Aunt Esther in Lower Bottom Playaz Gem of the Ocean and Yolanda in 3 Girl Theater’s Low Hanging Fruit for which she was nominated Best Featured Actress by the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics. She has spent the last nine years starring in her one-woman show ‘Tasha - loosely based on the 2015 in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax County Jail. ‘Tasha won the Best of the SF Fringe Festival in 2017, 3 Girls Theater Salon Series Playwright Festival in 2018 and was featured in the 2019 BAMBD Festival in Oakland.Cat is also a director and playwright with several of her works, including her full-length play Driving The GIrls, having made world premieres. Cat is a resident artist with the Lower Bottom Playaz in Oakland and a resident playwright, actor, dramaturg and program director with 3 Girls Theater in San Francisco. Cat is also a member of the 2024-2026 resident playwright cohort with The Playwrights Foundation. She lives in Oakland.
Atlantis Clay
Peanut
Atlantis Clay is a young actor born in Oakland, California. During his time in the Bay Area he found the value of acting and the potential this art has to reflect the issues of the world we live in. He is an Alumni of Dillard University and currently Pursuing his MFA in Screen Acting at Academy of Art University. He’s done various performances ranging from professional theatre at the national WWII Museum in New Orleans to performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Atlantis believes that acting is a reflection of life that relies on truthful storytelling.
Najee Joyner
Robinson
Najee Joyner is an actor and a writer hailing from Saint Stephen, South Carolina. He
currently resides in San Francisco, California where he has recently received his MFA in
lm acting at Academy of Art University. He previously received his Bachelor of Arts at the
University of South Carolina-Upstate with a major concentration in theatre performance
and a minor in lm studies. Najee has a deep desire for acting and believe that theatre and
lm is for everyone, it only requires a curious imagination. He last appeared on stage for the
African American Shakespeare Company as Vincentio in Taming of the Shrew
Ashley Raggs
Narrator
Ashley Raggs graduated from San Francisco Ruth Asawa School of the Arts. There she studied movement and ethnic dance, playwriting, Voice and Speech, Shakespeare, Directing, Periods and Styles, Script Analysis, Theatrical Literature, Commedia dell'arte, and Noh Theatre. She won 2nd place in the SF Ruth Asawa School of The Arts Shakespeare competition in 2007 and 2008. Some of her theatre credits include; Murder in The First on TNT, Chance on Hulu, Helen’s Last Love, and she performed in an indie film called “X” on Amazon Prime.