Cocktails and Culture

As a Brit, the concept of the "pub crawl" has always been dear to my heart. What better way to spend a day than wandering about a city, stopping in at bars, sampling interesting drinks and having wonderful and increasingly drunken conversations with strangers?

Actually, I can think of one slightly better way to spend a day: And that's when you take the pub crawl formula and inject into it a bit of live theatre.

That's exactly what a bunch of innovative theatre companies in the South of Market (SOMA) district of San Francisco Under are doing tomorrow. Under the banner of the "SOMA Cultural Coalition" -- a consortium created by SOMA arts organizations to pool resources and "put SOMA on the map" as Climate Theater artistic director Jessica Heidt puts it -- the theatre companies are banding together to offer what sounds like a terrific afternoon of art and booze.

Involving just three of SOMA's 11-or-so arts venues for this inaugural "SOMA Theatre Crawl" (the organizers hope to expand the concept to include more local companies in the future) the event kicks off with excerpts from the political fairy tale Animal Kingdom at Boxcar Theatre (1pm). Crawlers will then walk a few blocks to The Garage to sample new work by Denia Dance and Enrico Labayen, theatre by Performers Under Stress and Gregory Bartning's photography (2pm), and finally stagger towards The Climate Theater for a reception involving improv, comedy and yet more libations (3pm).

By the time the evening shows roll around at 8pm, people will be in fine spirits, especially since the entire crawl is free of charge. If you're putting on a play somewhere around town that evening, don't be surprised if some hecklers show up.

For more information about the Crawl click here or call 415 776 1747.