World premiere of Ashley Smiley’s ‘Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad’

Theological PhD candidate Ashley Smiley sits in front of a tapestry from the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church backstage at the Magic Theater, which will premiere her play “Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad.” – Photo: Kia Shaun Walton by Kia Shaun Walton Dirty white Teslas do make Ashley Smiley sad. But her debut play, which premieres Saturday, March. 2, 2024, at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, intends to do much more. Running from Feb. 28 through March 17, a blend of San Francisco specific humor and rehumanizing social commentary on what Director Raelle Myrick-Hodges calls San Francisco’s “fever dream.” “Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad” (“DWTMMS”) offers a deeply human experience of gentrification and an intimate portrayal of a mother-daughter duo dealing with displacement.& Smiley, a playwright and San Francisco native with long standing personal ties to the Bayview Hunters Point, Mission, Fillmore and Sunnydale neighborhoods, shares, “The biggest thing that I want people to think about is the human component of gentrification.” A well-worn topic of conversation for many native San Franciscans and native Bay Area residents at large, Smiley’s play is intentionally “not [only] the political.” When the curtains close, Smiley “want[s] you to be...