The show must go on—even if you’re broke and stuck in San Francisco. Chicago’s Silent Theater Company dealt with more than a minor traveling glitch while performing “Lulu” across the country. Leaving Chicago four months ago, their bus, appropriately dubbed Pandora’s Box, headed to New York and then San Francisco, where the fun began. “When we first got [to San Francisco] we parked and slept in the Mission District—in the morning we were greeted by people asking for money and cigarettes with their crack pipes in hand,” Tonika Todorova, the director, says. Probably not the best targets to ask for a handout, since the troupe was by now broke and basically performed to survive. Eventually, as they headed home, Pandora’s Box broke down, as did another bus and a Suburban. “Half of our stuff was left all over the country,” Todorova says. As for the Chicago opening last weekend, they couldn’t do a tech run or rehearse with the oil painter they met along the way who was joining them for the 100th performance. “[They] had to bank on the show.” Luckily, that went off without a hitch.
