Making Mattress: A new Players performance process

A new exhibition in SFArtsED’s Minnesota Street Project gallery explores the development and designs behind the company’s first lockdown show, which became its first movie musical.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary season, the SFArtsED Players, a troupe of 39 young performers ages 10 to 14, were all set to revive the classic Broadway musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress, which their predecessors had performed two decades before when the company was still new.

When the pandemic threatened to change everything, the performers, guided by a team of visionary artist mentors, adjusted their process. Rehearsals would be exclusively via Zoom, and the stage musical would now be a movie musical to be filmed via Zoom and with key solos captured one a time against a green screen. Vocals would be recorded individually, and the designers would work in bold new ways. Tiersa Nureyev’s costumes would have to be made without any in-person measurements or fittings, and set designer Stacey Ransom would create a virtual world through PhotoShop. Director of photography and editor Pete Belkin would also be required to master and implement a whole lot of new technology to get the film ready for its March 18 premiere at the Flix at Fort Mason drive-in.

To continue the celebration of the Players’ 20th anniversary season and to extend the applause for all the artists involved in the project, SFArtsED is pleased to present Making Mattress: a new Players performance process. This exhibition highlights the work of the designers through the display of their colorful sets, props, and costumes and sheds light on the creative process with a new behind-the-scenes documentary created by SFArtsED Artistic Director Emily Keeler and Pete Belkin.

Says Keeler: “This is an in-person celebration of a work of art made with the peculiar restrictions of the pandemic and with the indomitable spirit of human creativity.”