Tiburon native brings original plays to San Francisco

At a 2024 performance of “Telos” in New York City, Tiburon actor Mitchell Pope was so overtaken by his character’s emotion that he nearly passed out.

“It was a very intense show,” he says. “And I was playing a pretty troubled character.”

Pope barely got offstage before he collapsed in the green room. He didn’t let it stop him.

“Then I came back out on stage,” he says. “And it was funny because no one in the audience had a clue that I had passed out. They thought it was actually part of the show.”

Pope, 28, says the intensity of that moment reflects his drive as an actor. Over the past 10 years, he has grown from the small stage of Redwood High School’s drama department to the William Esper Studio in New York to launching his own troupe, Telos Ensemble, in 2023.

Now Pope is returning to the Bay Area. He and Telos Ensemble will perform “Purgatory,” a reading of single acts from three plays, at 7:30 p.m. July 9 at Little Boxes Theater in San Francisco. The pieces, written by Pope’s collaborator Dan Blick, explore the characters’ inner lives, what the ensemble calls “the things we think but won’t say.”

Read the complete story in our e-edition, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.

Comment on this article on Nextdoor.