SLO Rep celebrates 20 years of the Ubu's Other Shoe staged-reading series 

Two decades ago, Ubu's Other Shoe began as a way to bring more plays to more audiences in the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre (SLO REP) space. Now, nearly 120 productions later, the staged-reading series is still going strong.

SLO REP's Artistic Director Michael Siebrass first directed a staged reading of Gore Vidal's thought-provoking political satire, The Best Man, in 2004, and the audience loved it so much that the Ubu's Other Shoe tradition just had to continue.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Patty Thayer
• TEAM REHEARSAL SLO REP actors read lines for the August 2019 staged-reading performance of The Humans written by Stephen Karam and directed by John Battalino. It tells the story of breaking family traditions.

"We were still SLO Little Theatre, we were producing six or seven shows a year, and Michael just understood that we had this great space downtown, but we couldn't produce these wonderful, wonderful plays as it just wasn't financially responsible for us to produce them when we weren't sure if the audience were there," Managing Artistic Director Kevin Harris said. "Michael had this idea of a very minimal, low-financial risk way to actually get these words and these incredible plays in front of audience members who wanted to see them."

After graduating from the University of Portland in the mid-1960s, Siebrass trained his eyes on becoming an actor and director. And, in a turn of events, he co-founded an after-hours theater in the basement of a coffeehouse that became a venue for experimental work.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Patty Thayer
• GIRL POWER Four SLO REP actors prepared to take the stage in the January 2024 production of The Revolutionists, a staged reading set during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.

He then continued his education at San Francisco State and took off to Europe to work as a schoolteacher before returning to the states. He worked a few different jobs before landing at SLO REP, where he directed several shows, including Ubu's Other Shoe, which he continues to direct today.

Harris said SLO REP produces about five or six of the staged readings a year and they last anywhere from around 90 minutes to two and a half hours.

"It's just been an incredible outlet, not only to just get people to hear these plays and get to know these playwrights and tell these stories, but it's been a great opportunity for SLO REP to cultivate new artists and new directors and really introduce some new ideas to our audiences," he said. "Hopefully it expands their theatrical palette so that we can start introducing these plays onto our main stage and get people to take a little bit more risks with their theatrical entertainment dollar."

Currently, the playhouse holds 97 seats and produces big-stage productions 42 weeks a year to accommodate the 20,000 residents who visit SLO REP. Since the team is always on the move, Harris said Ubu's Other Shoe is performed the week after a main-stage production wraps up.

"Our scenic crew comes in and technical director and they strike the set by completely dismantling the set on that Sunday night," he said. "Then Ubu moves in on Tuesday and they perform the following Friday and Saturday, then 11 days later our next main stage opens."

To kick off celebrating its 20th anniversary, Siebrass picked out five plays that he feels exemplify everything that Ubu's Other Shoe stands for, Harris said.

Fortinbras by playwright Lee Blessing and directed by Jill Turnbow will lead the celebration at SLO REP on Sept. 20 and 21. The comical reading picks up where Shakespeare's Hamlet leaves off—after everyone dies—and is filled with literary criticism and present-day wit, according to SLO REP's website.

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• Photo Courtesy Of Patty Thayer
• STANDING TOGETHER Girls joined forces in SLO REP's April 2019 staged reading of Girls Like That, which focuses on adolescent female friendship and its fragility in the face of societal and cultural pressures.

"What do you do when a country is so decimated and in disarray? How does one ambitious person sort of put the pieces back together for his own power and his own benefit using the grief and tragedy of Hamlet?" Harris said. "It's a very, very funny play. All of these characters are buffoons to some extent."

It will be one of the biggest Ubu's Other Shoe readings to date. Twelve actors will play 20 different characters, and to help make this play extra special, Siebrass reached out to the hundreds of actors who have been part of the series' 119 plays to come back for at least one play during the season.

The other plays Siebrass picked for this year will be Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel and directed by Kerry DiMaggio, 17 Raccoons or It's a Really Long Story written and performed by Jill Turnbow, Seminar by Theresa Rebeck, and Ada and the Engine by Lauren Gunderson.

Harris said SLO REP has never repeated a reading for Ubu's Other Shoe, so each experience is unique for both the actors and the audience.

"The whole point of Ubu is to get these words out there and to get these ideas out here. You know, out of these 119 plays, I would say three-quarters of them have never been produced outside of Los Angeles or San Francisco," he said. "These plays don't make it in theaters often, and it's not because they're not good. It's because they're challenging, and there's a real audience for these types of plays—for challenging plays—and we like to provide that avenue to cater to them." Δ

Reach Staff Writer Samantha Herrera at [email protected].