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Against the Tide

By Zack Stentz The exodus of performing artists to Los Angeles might be enough to give the Bay Area a collective cultural inferiority complex. But wait: While their compatriots may be mostly southward bound, theater mavens Jill and Rocky Heck did the reverse migration, moving from L.A. to S.F. in search of a more hospitable climate for their acting, writing and directing. And as two of the prime movers behind South of Market's eclectic Bindlestiff Studio, they're finding the S.F. theatrical scene an infinitely more hospitable place than the one they left behind. "In L.A., we found ourselves working for so long on the politics and business of theater that we barely had the time or energy to actually do productions," recalls Jill. "I'm from Hollywood, but all I ever wanted to do was theater. But I can't really sing, so I couldn't go to New York and audition for musicals. And because Los Angeles is so film-oriented, the theater scene isn't well developed at all. San Francisco's been much better in that regard." Indeed, upon moving to San Francisco, the husband and wife team quickly hooked up with the Bindlestiff Studio theater group. Bindlestiff's recent production of Tales of Urban Horror, directed and co-written by Rocky with Jill appearing as "Sister Mercy Urbana," proved a rewarding experience for the pair, luring Jill back to the stage for the first time in several years. "I had stopped doing theater in L.A. and gotten a day job when we moved up here," says Jill. "But this [Tales] reminded me why I loved the stage to begin with." Asked to give advice to aspiring actors looking to move to Los Angeles, Rocky replies: "I can do that in two words: DON'T GO." I wait in vain for the laugh line to follow, but it never comes. Rocky is dead serious in his consideration of the L.A. theater scene as "masturbatory." It's all one-man shows by comics who are afraid they're not funny, or actors who are frustrated that they can't get parts. "No," he adds. "There's no way we'd go back. This"--Rocky motions to the off­Sixth Street storefront space in which he sits--"this is home now." [ SF Metropolitan | MetroActive Central | Archives ]