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Tri-Valley residents can make weekend plans this month to see the first production from Danville-based Sixth Line Studios, “The Totalitarians”, following its debut at San Ramon’s Front Row Theater.
Sixth Line’s founder and artistic director Katie Rubin said that the decision to produce the play during an election year – and debut it the weekend right before the primary election – was an intentional one, with the satirical messages of the 2016 play being all the more relevant in the present day.
While it’s the first production for Sixth Line, Rubin’s been familiar with the material since auditioning for one of its first productions at Sacramento’s Capital Stage in 2016, amid an extensive acting career with numerous roles at productions throughout the Bay Area.
Rubin did not get the part following her 2016 audition, with the role ultimately going to a close friend of hers instead. But despite that — and despite venturing away from her acting career in the more recent years since then — Rubin’s appreciation and familiarity with “The Totalitarians” and the message of San Francisco-based playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is coming full-circle with the ongoing production in San Ramon.
“Peter’s writing – he is so funny, and so smart, and so bitingly satirically insightful,” Rubin said. “There’s just nobody funnier or smarter.”
All of those were qualities Rubin has been seeking to bring to the theater scene in the Tri-Valley with the launch of Sixth Line Studios. In her efforts, the longtime Bay Area resident leaned on her sense of the theater scene in the area and what gaps could be filled.
“There’s nobody producing edgy, smart new plays that are challenging and of the quality that you’ll find in New York or San Francisco,” Rubin said. “That’s kind of where the idea started. When I was in Florida and I was starting to build this company, I thought Danville would be a great place to do this.”
Rubin had gone to Florida as part of an ongoing effort to reset from the stresses of more than 15 years as a professional actor, leading her to take time away from the profession and take the opportunity to explore the world outside of California.
“It had taken me so long to build a career that when I had it I realized it was exhausting me, and I needed to stop doing it,” Rubin said. “When COVID hit, it was kind of a weird blessing in disguise, and it gave me three years off. I just really wanted to not be acting.”
The time off combined with the opportunity for travel and self-reflection ultimately led Rubin to consider launching the studio in Florida prior to selecting Danville as a base of operations.
“You know that thing where the universe will kind of show you when a thing is a fit and a thing is not a fit? In Florida, no matter what I did it just wasn’t working,” Rubin said. “When I got back here immediately, quite quickly and quite easily, things fell into place.”
Rubin came across the studio space for the children’s theater group I Can Do That! Performing Arts Center in downtown Danville and was immediately drawn to the space. When she inquired about using it for her planned adult theater studio, organizers there responded by saying they had been looking to attract an adult theater group to share the studio.
While the Danville studio itself proved to be too small for the final production, Rubin was able to find another local venue that measured up to the needs for her and the cast in the form of San Ramon’s Front Row Theater.
“It’s beautiful, and it’s the perfect size for what we’re doing,” Rubin said.
In addition to entertaining adults, Rubin said she was eager for Sixth Line to become a destination for young actors in the area growing beyond venues such as I Can Do That! and the theater departments of local schools.
However, the former is the central goal for the current run of “The Totalitarians” – which, Rubin emphasized, is appropriate for adults only.
“It’s a dark comedy, emphasis on dark and emphasis on comedy,” Rubin said. “It is not for children. It’s edgy. If I were rating, I would definitely say it’s rated R.”
The play centers on Penny, an up-and-coming politician inspired by Sarah Palin when the play was first written, with Rubin describing the protagonist as “a bit of a maniac, who says all the wrong things and puts her foot in her mouth, and is sort of hyper characterized like that.” Francine, a skilled political operative, serves as Penny’s advisor.
Over the course of the show, Francine’s doctor husband, Jeffrey, becomes privy to a revolutionary plot aimed at taking down “the system” by one of his patients Ben, growing more and more involved in the plan as his wife seeks to bolster Penny’s political career.
“Her speech manager and campaign manager is trying to get her into power, the revolutionary younger character is trying to destroy her power, and chaos and hilarity and insanity ensue,” Rubin said.
“The Totalitarians” debuted March 2 and continues to run on weekends, with shows on Saturdays at 8 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. through March 24 at the Front Row Theater at 17011 Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon. Tickets and more information are available at tickets.sanramon.ca.gov.
