To visitors, the Tenderloin can seem like pain on parade. Homelessness, mental illness, addiction 
and poverty contained in a densely populated area frequently combine for a grand slam of unpleasantness. Case in point—on our way to the play, my friend and I were pursued by a man screaming orders to go home and be with our dildos. Nice.
This is the view both locals and visitors get as they skirt the edges on the way to somewhere else. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you’ll find some powerful stories.
The Cutting Ball has given the city a unique gift. The gift of illuminating history and exposing stories in its own backyard. The genius of what writer/director Annie Elias and the documentarian cast has done is to shape the piece like the impromptu street portraits Mark Ellinger took while recovering from his own demons as a Tenderloin resident. Some of these portraits hang as part of the set, brought to life by a phenomenal cast.
Rebecca Frank has appeared in recent Cutting Ball productions and continues to stand out in this one. She switches seamlessly from a perky OMG teenage girl to a street tough boy by flipping a hoodie. See it and be amazed. (Some bittersweet news for Bay Area fans--she’ll be attending NYU’s Tisch graduate acting program in the fall.)
Other cast members pull similar transformative feats. I’m still thinking about Tristan Cunningham’s cardigan and be-pearled motivational counselor who admonishes everyone to employ a variety of acronym-driven strategies including TIA (time management, initiative, attitude). A few minutes later, she morphs into a street sweeper who’s had enough of what he feels is well-intentioned coddling gone wrong. He’s ready to avail himself of a real program, Homeward Bound, supplying one-way bus tickets out of town.
About 20 of the 40 stories captured by Elias et al. are represented in the play itself. Those that aren’t are still present, providing context, texture and a common thread woven throughout—the power and pride of community, warts and all.
Now through May 27, tickets here.
top: Filipino Health and Wellness Director Ester Aure (actress Tristan Cunningham) gives a motivational talk in Cutting Ball Theater’s World Premiere of "Tenderloin"
bottom: Kathy and Leroy Looper (Rebecca Frank and David Sinaiko), owners of the Cadillac Hotel and Tenderloin community activists, describe the Tenderloin as a “containment zone”
photos: Rob Melrose
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