The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s annual free performances in the park skewering political figures with satirical musical theater have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the troupe will continue to perform on the radio.
In its first ever serialized radio play, “Tales of the Resistance,” the Mime Troupe will try out a new medium in nine parts across four genres: noir, sci-fi, horror and adventure. Plays will be released bi-weekly from July 4 through Oct. 24. They will air on KSFP, the low-power FM radio station managed by the San Francisco Public Press, and other local radio stations.
Mime Troupe members Marie Cartier and Ellen Callas shared a glimpse of their plans and process with podcast host George Koster on a Public Press live webinar. The full schedule for the release of the radio plays can be found here.
“While you’re cooking dinner while you’re Marie Kondo-ing your house, whatever, you just need your headphones, and we’ll be there with you.”
— Marie Cartier
“So much of what we do is physical comedy in such a broad visual [way]. So we’re doing this completely different form. I mean, we kind of figured that the world didn’t need another Zoom theater piece by us. So this is great because we get to do this and kind of stimulate our audience’s imagination as well.”
— Ellen Callas
A segment from our radio show, “Civic.” Listen daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 102.5 FM in San Francisco.
