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JUNE 2006
IT’S ALL HISTORY ... here are a million stories in the Naked City. Oops. Wrong lead-in. San Francisco is filled with curiosities — crooked streets, hidden stairways, and surprising alleys. What do you know about the tunnel underneath upper Fort Mason’s Great Meadow? It was used to transport supplies by train to lower Fort Mason during the two world wars and the Korean Conflict. It may very well be reopened, this time to extend the celebrated and historic trolley line from the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf and then through an almost forgotten tunnel to Fort Mason Center. More on this later.
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO ... San Francisco’s Free Folk Music Festival was held at Fort Mason Center in June, 25 years ago. Magic Theatre presented Memory Hotel by Wolfgang Bauer. Klezmorim, an old world Yiddish cabaret (“music and shticks”) was performed here. In June two decades ago, the Center hosted the Master Poets Series, a major sculptors show, an All Dylan Thomas Evening, a Socialist Educational Conference, and the Magical Realm of Gemstones.
AND NOW A WORD FROM THE FUTURE ... Among the many wonderful programs coming soon are Photo San Francisco, the grand international exhibition, in July; International Indoor Gardening Festival in August; and the grand German beer and dancing celebration, Oktoberfest By The Bay, in, well, October.
ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD ... A story in the July Fort Mason Center Monthly’s fleshes this out further, but the highly esteemed Long Now Foundation opens in June in the space formerly occupied by the Museum of Craft & Folk Art. Let’s just say this isn’t a place for short-term thinking.
BACK TO THE FUTURE AGAIN ... In 2003 Phoenix Dance was filmed at the Center’s Cowell Theater. In May Phoenix Dance won a San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) Golden Gate Award. The awards ceremony took place at the Cowell. The film was shown at the SFIFF.
KEEP CITY THEATER ALIVE ... It’s not often we promote other venues. But next month Yerba Buena Gardens hosts the San Francisco Theater Festival, boasting 235 actors, 61 shows, 60 theater groups, and nine stages. Among the participants are Fort Mason Center’s legendary Magic Theatre and the city’s most recognized improvisation group, BATS Improv. We’d like to boost the Asian American Theater Company too. It’s a great group that also performs at Fort Mason Center.
– Ron Tierney
Image: "Fort Mason Center" by Michael Schwab
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