No one is more suited to be the Artistic and Executive Director of Footloose than the dynamic, multi-talented Mary Alice Fry. She is the driving force behind the creation and success of Venue 9 as the premiere performance space in San Francisco's South of Market. Her 35 years in dance and theatre as performer, director and producer make her intimately familiar with production from conception to finale, while her 25 years' experience in the fields of law, education, marketing and regional sales management have made her a natural candidate for her prominent leadership role in nonprofit community service organizations.
History: Born and educated in South Florida where she began her own artistic work, Mary Alice Fry studied acting at Herbert Berghoff/Uta Hagen Studios in New York. She moved to the Bay Area in 1980 to study movement theater with her mentor and master teacher, Irini Nadel. In 1982, she and Kathy Zetes, currently an advisory board member, were appointed to be co-directors of Footloose. Pioneers in their field, they performed and taught movement theater and contact improvisation, bringing about a much wider acceptance and understanding of the two art forms. In 1990 Mary Alice Fry started Footloose programs at Shotwell Studios, which she continues to oversee. In 1996, Footloose took over the lease for Climate Theater at 252 9th St. and renamed it Venue 9. Primarily through Mary Alice Fry's efforts in booking original material, Venue 9 has become a successful intimate performance space which is highly regarded by artists, audiences, the press, and the local community.
Artistic accomplishments: Ms. Fry's recent directing credits include her own multi-media performances, Falling Back to Earth, Sound Advice, To Infinity and Beyond, as well as Talking With by Jane Martin. She was a collaborator and performer in the critically acclaimed A Thousand Grey Birds, and Mudwings, both directed by British director, Angus Balbernie, in residencies at Venue 9. She was associate choreographer and performed in the award-winning 1985 experimental opera Tokens, created by David Schein and directed by Bob Ernst of the Blake St. Hawkeyes, and performed at Theater Artaud. She was choreographer and assistant director of the Pacific Bell public affairs video, A Smile you can Hear, 1988 winner of the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award, an International Film and TV Festival award, and a JOEY.
Community Service: In the mid-1980's Mary Alice Fry was executive director of the Haight Ashbury Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization that operated cultural, after-school and job placement programs for youth. She was also active in the Inner Sunset-Haight Ashbury Community Organization in plannng the conversion of the abandoned Polytechnic High School's 2 gymnasiums into community-use spaces. Ms. Fry also initiated the use of Shotwell Studios as a community space in the Mission.
The centerpiece of Mary Alice Fry's programming at Venue 9 has been the Women's Work Tuesday night series, the Women's Work Jubilee, a three week festival held in January, 2000 and coming up again in January 2002, and the Women on the Way series. She has been responsible for coordinating these projects, including recruiting locating talent, developing marketing strategies, monitering press contact, and presenting the material in professional format. Other programming achievements include creating and producing the popular monthly spoken word and music series, Meet the Beat, as well as the Creative Music Series, Q Cabaret and the Sunday Comedy Series.
Says Fry: "We want a home for many kinds of performance, especially cross discipline. We draw upon new talent that doesn't get much exposure and invite the established artists to return to this venue. I want to get non-theatergoers excited about going to live shows here."
History: Born and educated in South Florida where she began her own artistic work, Mary Alice Fry studied acting at Herbert Berghoff/Uta Hagen Studios in New York. She moved to the Bay Area in 1980 to study movement theater with her mentor and master teacher, Irini Nadel. In 1982, she and Kathy Zetes, currently an advisory board member, were appointed to be co-directors of Footloose. Pioneers in their field, they performed and taught movement theater and contact improvisation, bringing about a much wider acceptance and understanding of the two art forms. In 1990 Mary Alice Fry started Footloose programs at Shotwell Studios, which she continues to oversee. In 1996, Footloose took over the lease for Climate Theater at 252 9th St. and renamed it Venue 9. Primarily through Mary Alice Fry's efforts in booking original material, Venue 9 has become a successful intimate performance space which is highly regarded by artists, audiences, the press, and the local community.
Artistic accomplishments: Ms. Fry's recent directing credits include her own multi-media performances, Falling Back to Earth, Sound Advice, To Infinity and Beyond, as well as Talking With by Jane Martin. She was a collaborator and performer in the critically acclaimed A Thousand Grey Birds, and Mudwings, both directed by British director, Angus Balbernie, in residencies at Venue 9. She was associate choreographer and performed in the award-winning 1985 experimental opera Tokens, created by David Schein and directed by Bob Ernst of the Blake St. Hawkeyes, and performed at Theater Artaud. She was choreographer and assistant director of the Pacific Bell public affairs video, A Smile you can Hear, 1988 winner of the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award, an International Film and TV Festival award, and a JOEY.
Community Service: In the mid-1980's Mary Alice Fry was executive director of the Haight Ashbury Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization that operated cultural, after-school and job placement programs for youth. She was also active in the Inner Sunset-Haight Ashbury Community Organization in plannng the conversion of the abandoned Polytechnic High School's 2 gymnasiums into community-use spaces. Ms. Fry also initiated the use of Shotwell Studios as a community space in the Mission.
The centerpiece of Mary Alice Fry's programming at Venue 9 has been the Women's Work Tuesday night series, the Women's Work Jubilee, a three week festival held in January, 2000 and coming up again in January 2002, and the Women on the Way series. She has been responsible for coordinating these projects, including recruiting locating talent, developing marketing strategies, monitering press contact, and presenting the material in professional format. Other programming achievements include creating and producing the popular monthly spoken word and music series, Meet the Beat, as well as the Creative Music Series, Q Cabaret and the Sunday Comedy Series.
Says Fry: "We want a home for many kinds of performance, especially cross discipline. We draw upon new talent that doesn't get much exposure and invite the established artists to return to this venue. I want to get non-theatergoers excited about going to live shows here."