Exit Theatre Creates Exit Press and Presents TEN PLAYS

San Francisco's EXIT Theatre has announced the inauguration of its publishing arm, EXIT Press, with the publication of the book TEN PLAYS by Mark Jackson.  EXIT Artistic Director Christina Augello explains that "since our beginning in 1983 we have been dedicated to collaborating with playwrights in support of new work.  For decades, talented theatre artists have been contributing to the new American theatre on the EXIT stages. It is our hope that EXIT Press will help this important work find a home on many other stages in the future. Through art we can change the world."
 
The publishing subsidiary emerged with EXIT Theatre's 2009 Strategic Plan, which identified the theatre's mission "to develop artists by providing opportunities to perform and to develop and audience for that performance."  One of the activities listed in the
strategic plan was the establishment of a publishing house "in an attempt to preserve the art that has been produced at EXIT Theatre, and to create opportunities for future productions of that work."  The stated goal of EXIT Press is to publish multiple plays by two or more playwrights per year.

TEN PLAYS is the first published collection of plays by playwright, director and performer Mark Jackson, and the inaugural publication of EXIT Press. Jackson's highly theatrical plays defy easy categorization, ranging in form and subject matter from grotesque comedies about contemporary pop culture to epic melodramas about ancient themes of love and waR. Jackson's work has been seen on both US coasts, in the UK and Germany. This collection of ten of his plays includes American $uicide, BANG!, Brave, The Death of Meyerhold, Faust Pt1, The Forest War, I Am Hamlet, little extremes, Messenger #1 and R&J, with notes by the author and a Foreword by critic Rob Avila.  Cover design is by Kevin Clarke.  The book was printed in Lexington, KY. 
 
Mark Jackson is an award-winning playwright, director and performer. He was Artistic Director of Art Street Theatre, San Francisco, from 1995 to 2004, during which time he wrote, directed and performed in numerous productions for the company. Mark's work has also been seen at Aurora Theatre Company, Encore Theatre Company, EXIT Theatre, Potrzebie Dance Project, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Shotgun Players, and The Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), among others; as well as internationally at Arts International Festival IV (Japan), Edinburgh Festival Fringe (UK), and Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany). His plays have been developed at American Conservatory Theater, Capital Stage, EXIT Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Magic Theatre, and Z Space Studio. Mark was a 2003 resident playwright of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, where he was awarded the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Honorary Fellowship, and a 2005 German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a proud graduate of the San Francisco State University Theatre Arts Department. Readers can learn more about his work at: www.artstreettheatre.org
 
EXIT Theatre's first venue was founded on Eddy Street in downtown San Francisco in 1983. EXIT Theatre now operates a five-venue 270-seat theatreplex, ranging in size from 35 to 80 seats hosting up to75 indie theater companies annually.  Over the years hundreds of new plays have been commissioned, premiered and presented on the EXIT Theatreplex stages.  The local alternative press has named EXIT Theatre "Best Local Venue", "Best (3,000 miles) Off-Broadway Theater", "Best Off-Beat Theatre" and the founding artistic director, Christina Augello, has been named "Best Producer" and "Working Woman of the Year."

EXIT Theatre's commitment is to collaborate with a wide range of theatre artists and provide them with opportunities to work, experiment and develop an audience.  In support of this mission, the EXIT commissions, develops and produces new plays, provides production support and low cost theater rentals to producing companies, hosts theaters, playwrights and performing artists-in-residence, produces the non-curated San Francisco Fringe Festival, the largest grass roots theater festival in the Bay Area, and DIVAfest, dedicated to work by women writers.  Proudly the EXIT Press provides writers an opportunity to publish their work allowing them international exposure. Visit the EXIT Theatre web site at www.theexit.org.

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