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SPECIAL FORCES

and

JOY

Both available from Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.

The Essential Services Project (ESP) and Theatre Rhinoceros
present a live, in-person presentation!

FRANK!

Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 7:00 pm
One Live Performance Only

Frank banner

ESP- An Essential Services Project
Live, in-person, in San Francisco at Theatre Rhinoceros
4229 18th Street
San Francisco, CA

FREE! Open to all!
Or, watch on Zoom (but it's much more fun in person!).

Barney Frank battled for gay rights but delayed gay marriage. He stood up for liberals but supported Trump on bank oversight limitations. Where did he stand? Where does he stand?

Press Release

The Essential Services Project reboots with new shows live in San Francisco!

Essential Services Project

See John in the San Francisco Chronicle!

John Fisher working on Essential Services
Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

See the amazing article about Theatre Rhinoceros and other local theaters adapting to digital. Read it in The Chronicle.

ESSENTIAL SERVICES PROJECT

Solo Performances Conceived and Performed by John Fisher

John Fisher - Nominated Best Performer by Broadway World 2021
for CLYBOURNE PARK

2021 Bay Area Critics' Circle Award Winner for
"Best Solo-Performance" for the Essential Services Project

Earlier Performances Recorded live: March 2020 – December 2021

(Not all videos start at the beginning. Many have long leaders. Please cue up to the start of each video.)

You might want to watch ESPs on Facebook – some of the recordings are cleaner.

(Download a PDF of the Facebook links.)

List of Videos of Previous Performances

A History of World War II, The D-DAY invaction to the Fall of Berlin.John Fisher named Best Actor in 2017!

Congratulations!

John was named Best Actor at New York's United Solo Festival for his October 25, 2017 performance of A History of World War II, The D-DAY invastion to the Fall of Berlin.

Thanks of Leah Garchik of the San Francisco Chronicle for the mention of the award in her column!

Earlier Adventures

2014: Submitting my play Hackett Straight (about PT-Boats in the South Pacific) to the Yale Drama Series. Recently submitted my play Pirates! (gays hijacked by Somalis) and a new play about growing up to Playwrights Horizons and The Rattlestick Theatre. Writing a play about the AIDS crisis and adapting a Shakespeare into a camp musical.

John Fisher has written and directed the following plays:

John Fisher, Playwrite
  • To Sleep and Dream (Z Below)
  • Slugs and Kicks (Thick House)
  • Romanoffs (24-Hour Play Festival)
  • Fighting Mac! (Thick House)
  • SexRev (Mama Calizo's Voice Factory; CounterPULSE)
  • Schoenberg (NYFF: Bleecker Street Theatre, NYC) 
  • Ishi: The Last of the Yahi (Theatre Rhino; UC Berkeley)
  • Richard Burton's Voice (Yale School of Drama)
  • The Christmas Panto (Theatre Rhino)
  • Joy (Actors Playhouse, NYC)
  • Medea: The Musical (HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, Aspen)
  • Combat! (Victoria Theatre; UC Berkeley)
  • Partisans (UC Berkeley)
  • Barebacking: A Sex Panic Comedy (Theatre Rhino)
  • Amnesia (Theatre Rhino)
  • Queer Theory (Soho Playhouse, NYC; Impact Theatre)
  • Titus!(Center for the Arts, SF)
  • Napoleon: The Camp-Drag-Disco-Musical Extravaganza (UC Berkeley)
  • Special Forces (Theatre Rhino)
  • There's Something About Marriage (New York Fringe)

among others

  Plays by John Fisher

now in print

Special Forces

Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.

http://www.broadwayplaypubl.com/

The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2008 (Joy, Jane's monologue)

www.SmithandKraus.com

Joy

Broadway Play Publishing, Inc.

http://www.broadwayplaypubl.com/

on stage

 

 

 

Special Forces

(Theatre Rhinoceros)

John Fisher's plays have been produced in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Haven (Yale) and on HBO as a part of the annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

John is the recipient of the NEA Grant, the GLAAD Media Award for Best Theatre, the L.A. Weekly Award for Best Musical and Best Script, two Will Glickman Playwright Awards for Joy and Medea: The Musical, the BackStage West Garland Award, two Cable Car Awards, a San Francisco Guardian Goldie Award, an S.F. Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grant, a Zellerbach Grant and ten Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Awards.

He received his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 2001 and has taught at U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Santa Cruz.

Combat John taught, in a two year appintment (2006-2008) in the Play Writing program at the Yale School of Drama. He currenlty teaches (2008-Present) at the American Conservatory Theatre.

He is currently working on a script about the Mahdi and the Sudan that is funded by a San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grant.

Directing projects include Red Scare on Sunset for the American Conservatory Theatre’s MFA program and What the Butler Saw for Theatre Rhinoceros.

Play writing projects include Richard Burton's Voice at Yale, Special Forces in San Francisco, There's Something About Marriage at the New York Fringe Festival, and SexRev Fighting Mac!, Slugs and Kicks and To Sleep and Dream, all in San Francisco. Special Forces has been adapted as a screenplay.

See more information about John's work on the production page!