a brief history...
In the beginning
Sugar Shack Performance Gallery & Cultural Center was founded by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe in 1991 at 430 Haight Street in San Francisco. In its short 3 year history, Sugar Shack presented more than 200 emerging artists including Dee Russell, Mary Midgett, Wayne Corbitt.
a theater company
BACCE was formed out of the Sugar Shack and a desire to produce experimental plays by living Black experimental playwrights. Our first production was Wayne Corbitt's seminal AIDS themed play, Crying Holy, presented in a co-production at Theatre Rhinoceros on 16th Street in San Francisco's Mission District.
intersection for the arts
BACCE finds a home at Intersection for the Arts, then on Valencia Street and under the direction of Debra Cullinan. At Intersection, BACCE produced two critically acclaimed plays by avant-garde playwright, Keith Josef Adkins - On the HIlls of Black America and Hollis Mugley's Only Wish.
brava theater center
BACCE is invited to be a resident company at Brava Theatre Center. The first show, produced by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe was a Bay Area premiere of In A Daughter's Eyes by native Oakland playwright, A. Zell Williams. In 2014, BACCE won Best Ensemble for Zakiyaah Alexander's Sweet Maladies.
the ensemble
In 2017, Edris produced, for BACCE, Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy with the six actors that form our core ensemble. Coming together around shared ideas of artistic equity and an interest in innovative theater processes, we have grown together and maintained a committment to creating an ensemble.