The Alcove Theater, San Francisco

Musical-theater works find a stage and an audience through Not Quite Opera's platform of community engagement. The not-for-profit production company gathers playwrights, lyricists, composers, and other San Francisco artists to create performances that reflect upon the lives of fictional neighbors and probe into life's greatest mysteries—such as who would emerge the victor in a wrestling match, Abraham Lincoln or his bionic twin. Artistic director Anne Nygren Doherty, an award-winning playwright and songwriter, works side by side with producer/handyman hubby John Doherty and an evolving collection of area artists to mold music-theatrical fusions, such as the theater's longest-running show, Absolutely San Francisco. The one-woman performance follows Sunshine the Homeless Lady during her journey of personal discovery on a railcar, and was hailed by the San Francisco Bay Times as "fun and funny" and by Statler and Waldorf as "much better than anything Fozzie Bear's done."