For those seeking a career in the musical theater, life on the road can be a blessing and a curse. Being cast in a touring production of a Broadway musical means steady work — eight performances a week, a substantial paycheck and per diem that takes care of meals, lodging and other related expenses.

But traveling to a different city every week can take its toll on any performer, regardless of age. Being on the road also means living out of a suitcase for months at a time. Furthermore, an actor might be in San Francisco when an important audition is being held in New York.

For the two leads appearing in the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh tour of “Mary Poppins,” which opens in Oklahoma City on Election Day, this show is a major credit on their resumes and an opportunity they relish. The rigors of the road clearly haven’t dampened their spirits.

Con O’Shea-Creal, a 2008 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, plays the happy-go-lucky chimney sweep Bert. Madeline Trumble, a University of Michigan grad, portrays the title character in this musical that catapulted a young Julie Andrews to fame.

While both have contracts that run through January, the young actors approached their roles quite differently. As a student at Michigan, Trumble had limited opportunities to perform because the musical theater program was so competitive.

“I never thought this was anything I could do,” Trumble said recently. “In college, I did a couple of plays and some ensemble roles, but this role seemed so out of reach. I got the (“Mary Poppins”) audition because of my showcase and then had about three callbacks before I was hired as an understudy on the tour. I’m even more appreciative of getting this role because of that.”

In contrast, O’Shea-Creal worked steadily as a student at OU, landing roles in “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” “Anything Goes,” “Company” and “Urinetown.” He was also cast in Lyric Theatre productions of “Swing!” and “42nd Street” and appeared in four consecutive productions of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s “A Very Merry Pops.”

Following graduation, O’Shea-Creal headed to New York, where he quickly landed roles in the Broadway musical “White Christmas” (limited holiday runs in 2008 and 2009), “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Goodspeed Opera House and “Singin’ in the Rain” in Westchester, N.Y.

Resilience pays off

All the while, this versatile performer had his eyes on playing the chimney sweep in “Mary Poppins.”

“For a song and dance man, Bert was a role that was constantly on my radar,” O’Shea-Creal said recently. “I didn’t know if it would happen, but I was determined to do everything I could to try to get there.

“I first auditioned for ‘Mary Poppins’ in 2008 while I was in ‘White Christmas.’ I probably went in about 10 times every year from that point. I showed up so often they knew what song I was going to sing. I also got to the point where I didn’t think I could audition for the show any more.

“But I critiqued every aspect of my audition and kept at it. Last year, I think I was called back 14 times. A great gift from that experience is resilience. You audition no matter how many times they ask you to. It finally worked out for me. I had been understudying Bert for about five months and while I was on hiatus from the show, I got the call that I was going to take over the role.”

Based on the “Mary Poppins” novels by P.L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film, the stage musical opened in London in December 2004. Laura Michelle Kelly won an Olivier Award for her role as Mary Poppins; the production also won an award for choreography.

The Broadway production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York in November 2006 and won a Tony Award the following June for best scenic design. Still playing to packed houses, the production will celebrate its sixth anniversary on Nov. 16.

Nine of the film’s 17 musical numbers — written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman — were retained for the stage production, which was subsequently augmented with seven new songs by British songwriters George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.

O’Shea-Creal said that after hearing one of Stiles and Drewe’s new numbers, one of the Sherman brothers reportedly called it “the best song he never wrote.”

The opportunity to perform in a city where you were born or attended school is a high point for actors in any touring production. This will mark O’Shea-Creal’s first opportunity to return to Oklahoma City. He’s also scheduled to conduct master classes for OU musical theater students.

“My whole family is coming down from Nebraska, and OU’s musical theater school has bought up a block of tickets to see the show,” O’Shea-Creal said. “The Oklahoma performances will allow me to give something back and say thanks to all the people at OU, Lyric Theatre and the Philharmonic for giving me such great opportunities.”

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SAN FRANCISCO — The entire production for “Song of the North” was stolen in San Francisco when their U-Haul was taken early Monday morning, the crew said. 

Inside the moving truck were 500 puppets, masks, costumes, props, projectors and multiple scenic elements. 

San Francisco police said they received the report of the stolen truck around 10:20 a.m. and were told the theft happened on the 2700 block on Van Ness Ave.

Photo from “Song of the North” production

“Song of the North”

According to the crew, security cameras at the San Francisco Comfort Inn by the Bay showed the truck was stolen by two men at 2:30 a.m. 

The crew said they had sold-out shows scheduled and were about to head to Seattle when the truck was stolen. 

They are hoping to recover the contents of the truck and ask anyone who sees an abandoned U-Haul with AZ plates to contact police. 

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Yet, unlike nearly all other city builders, the negativity that permeates so many aspects of city life these days hasn’t stopped Sullivan from developing his signature brand of modern boutique condo buildings in historic neighborhoods around San Francisco. 

Since the pandemic began in 2020, Sullivan’s company, JS Sullivan Development, has completed seven projects throughout the city, all boutique condo buildings with between seven and 53 units. There are projects in the Mission, the Marina, Lower Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, the Tenderloin and SoMa.

The building at 1580 Pacific St. is among the housing developments completed by JS Sullivan during the pandemic.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Now, the company is opening one of only a handful of condo buildings to be completed in all of 2023: Maison Pacific, a 53-unit complex at the corner of Polk Street and Pacific Avenue.

For Sullivan, the project is especially significant because in the early 2000s he used to live across the street in one of the first buildings he constructed. This was back in his early 20s when he was starting out by putting up duplexes and small apartment buildings. From his bedroom, at the time, he looked across the street at the paint store and Blockbuster video shop, where Maison Pacific now stands. 

“I was a big fan of Blockbuster — except for the late fees,” he joked about the virtually extinct video rental chain. 

The new property at 1580 Pacific St. sits on a block that is unusual in that it feels untouched by the city’s post-pandemic decline. There are no vacancies on the block, which has a smoothie spot, a wine bar, a vintage clothing boutique, a nail spa, a florist, a residential hotel and on the corner sits the historic bar Shanghai Kelly’s. Longtime businesses like Cheese Plus, Bell Tower and Tai Chi have also survived nearby.

The Jug Shop, the legacy wine store which previously occupied the ground floor of the 1580 Pacific site, will be moving back into a 2,700-square-foot space in Maison Pacific next year.

The central space in a two-bedroom unit is at 1580 Pacific St., a new project by JS Sullivan in San Francisco.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

“Some of the small businesses have changed hands but the fabric of this neighborhood has not,” said Sullivan. “The vibrancy feels very much the same.”

Sullivan is reluctant to delve into the details of how he is able to keep building when so many others are not, but he said the vertical integration of his company requires that there always be projects lined up. Sullivan is a builder as well as developer, so all the trades work — concrete, electrical, plumbing, carpentry — are done by his crews. 

JS Sullivan has in-house marketing, its own sales team and staff interior designer Alan Tse. Even the stagers filling the model units with furniture ahead of the grand opening last week were Sullivan employees. 

“We are a local developer,” he said. “We are not an opportunistic investor. We are committed to building infill housing with our projects and that strategy continues.”

Having a self-sufficient operation saves money, but it also adds pressure to keep everyone busy. Sullivan’s goal is to complete two projects a year and break ground on two new ones. And while it doesn’t always work out, he tries to plan to have one concrete building and one wood-frame structure going simultaneously.

The clean and modern desings of JS Sullivan’s apartments and condos have become popular with young homeowners.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

In addition to Maison Pacific, since the pandemic began, Sullivan has completed the 55-unit Elevant at 555 Golden Gate, the 28-unit Maison a Soma at 230 Seventh St., the 43-unit Maison Au Pont at 2448 Lombard, the 29-unit 198 Valencia, the 40-unit 1433 Bush St. and the seven-unit Noir at 1525 Franklin. 

When the pandemic struck, Sullivan had just opened 42 condos at 719 Larkin.

Currently, he has two projects under construction: 90 units at 988 Harrison in SoMa and 35 units near Ghirardelli Square. Both will open next year. Sullivan also has about a dozen projects in the pipeline, including 120 units at 819 Ellis and 100 condos at 530 Turk.

Sullivan, still in his mid-40s, is as low-key and self-effacing a developer as you could find — he is uncomfortable posing for photos or talking about his accomplishments. He is of Korean descent, but learned the business from his stepfather, Irish-born builder John Sullivan, who built a business putting up flats and single-family homes around the city.

Sullivan caters to first time home-buyers. While the Russian Hill project features bigger units and higher price tags than most of Sullivan’s projects — one bedrooms will start around $850,000 and two bedrooms about $1.4 million — he said he tries to keep his prices as low as possible. 

The rooftop deck for residents at 1580 Pacific St. offers views of San Francisco’s skyline.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

His buildings tend not to have the full line of amenities that are common — no swimming pools or yoga rooms. That means lower homeowner association fees — at Maison Pacific the HOAs will be about $600 to $700 a month.

“Sean Sullivan is a beast,” said developer and broker Chris Foley, who has been in the development industry for three decades. “He gets up early and works and works late into the night. He is so focused on doing the right thing. I respect him so much.”

“Nobody else is building — even the RBA Irish guys aren’t building,” Foley added, referring to a group of immigrant builders from Ireland who are affiliated with the Residential Builders Association. “I think everyone else is trying to hold on through 2024 and build in 2025.”

Sotheby’s broker Alex Hachiya, who has represented clients who have bought in several Sullivan buildings, said the developer’s focus on clean, modern design appeals to younger buyers who currently dominate the market.

“It seems like with every project his finishes and designs get sharper and more attractive,” said Hachiya. “I think he is at the point where he has the formula down, he’s found a sweet spot, not super high end but modern and clean.”

The view from a large picture frame window in a penthouse three-bedroom unit at 1580 Pacific St. displays a typical San Francisco scene.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

While Sullivan is not a political person, he does feel the city is not in great shape and the open-air drug dealing and homeless encampments have adversely impacted his projects in SoMa, the Tenderloin, and lower Polk.

But he doesn’t plan to stop building.

“I’ve been a resident here in the city since elementary school and I’m here to stay,” he said “What else am I going to do? I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Reach J.K. Dineen: jdineen@sfchronicle.com

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Modular construction, long heralded as a more efficient and cost-conscious method of construction, has yet to produce the promised cost and time savings and gain purchase in the commercial real estate industry, according to speakers at the Bisnow Bay Area Prefab and Modular Construction Conference at the InterContinental San Francisco hotel on July 27.

“It’s been full of promise for the entirety of my 32-year career, and it has yet to be realized,” Panoramic Interests owner Patrick Kennedy said.

Bisnow/Matt Renda

Clark Pacific’s Geene Alhady, Panoramic Interests’ Patrick Kennedy, Seven Hills Properties’ Luis Belmonte, UrbanBloc’s Martha Trela and Arthroto’s Doug Hayden

Kennedy was joined by others on the panel who expressed skepticism about prefab modular construction’s capacity to supplant traditional methods. 

“We recently worked on a prefab project in Berkeley to create housing for the homeless, and we abandoned it last March because it just did not seem feasible,” Kennedy said. 

One of the major constraints for modular construction in commercial real estate is the logistical challenges of assembling modular components in high-density urban environments. 

Seven Hills Properties partner Luis Belmonte said he went to see a job after a modular construction company pitched him on its methods. 

“It was in the North Bay, and there’s components spread over 3 acres,” he said. “Well, we don’t have 3 acres of staging at Mission and Cesar Chavez [in San Francisco], and I got a view of shutting down Mission Street and thought, ‘Well, we’re going back to stick because I can’t take the risk.’” 

However, Lowney Architecture Design Director Mark Donahue said the modular method worked for the recently completed Moxy Hotel project in Downtown Oakland, partly because the logistics married well with the project schedule. 

“It was an on-time delivery because the port of Oakland is right there,” he said. “So the modules come to the port and we had the staging area.”

Bisnow/Matt Renda

Lendlease’s Lisa Podesto, Bigge Crane & Rigging Co.’s Joseph Nelms, oWow’s Danny Haber and DCI Engineers’ Ethan Martin

For other projects to realize the cost savings promised by constructing buildings off-site, precise planning for how to transport the modules to the site and deploy them almost immediately as they arrive is paramount. 

“Sourcing the right staging area and having it close enough so that you don’t have your crane sitting idle because you’re dealing with traffic and trains is vital,” said Suffolk Construction Vice President Nick Schweiger, who recommended enlisting a logistics company with experience specific to modular construction staging.

The cost savings of building modules in a factory can also erode in other places, specifically if developers are working with mechanical, electrical and plumbing professionals who lack experience in connecting modular projects. 

“MEP really does have a long way to grow in this industry,” Factory OS Vice President Andrew Meagher said.

Tidewater Capital Construction Director Kyle Winkler, who also worked on the Moxy project, said project directors must relentlessly focus on how to finish off the building if the efficiencies promised by factory build and a more streamlined permitting process are to be fully realized.

“Do not sleep on the back end of a modular project,” he said. “You have to finish vertical transportation, finish the corridors and you have to put your facade on, which takes about four to six months. If you don’t hit that, you won’t get the schedule savings.”

Many of the real estate professionals said that as more corners of the industry gain experience with modular construction, the promised time and cost savings will be realized. 

“We’ve had more repeat trades that are on projects now,” said AO principal Nick Gomez, who added project directors are bringing more contractors into the factory to show them where connections are. 

Even the skeptics on the panel said prefab modular still contains the promise that led many to predict it would take over the construction industry in short order.

“The times, they are changing, and I think the composition of this audience indicates that we are in a breakout time for a vast increase in the productivity of our industry,” Belmonte said. 

Kennedy said that even if buildings aren’t entirely prefab modular, there is room for prefabrication of certain components to find more efficiencies. 

“Stick by stick is not the way, but I don’t think box by box is the way either,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s somewhere in between.”

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Fourth-generation woodworker Ros Broughton began his career as a carpenter, completing high-quality projects for discerning clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. But it wasn’t long before he got tired of only working for the richest of the rich. As a bespoke carpenter, he says: “We got to make some incredible things, but at the end of the day few people would ever see it or enjoy it.” With the aim of making good design and quality craftsmanship accessible to more people, he co-founded in 2016 Co-founder David Charne Fyrn (pronounced ‘fear’), a furniture brand with a focus on craftsmanship.

Courtesy of FYRN

A fourth-generation woodworker

Broughton’s great-grandfather grew up on a farm in northeast Connecticut (affectionately referred to as the “quiet corner” of the state) and helped revitalize the Hitchcock Chair company, an early mass producer of fine furniture in the mid-19th century. Broughton credits this family connection with nurturing his own love of woodworking, craftsmanship and Yankee prowess.

While the Hitchcock company innovated in mass-producing interchangeable chair parts, Broughton’s company found its own fertile ground by combining the warmth of wood and the strength of metal. Broughton developed a system that uses CNC machined aluminum brackets to connect the wooden legs, seat and backrest. Inside the wooden frame there is another metal connection, hidden from view, which connects the wooden stretchers and legs and thus ensures stability. Broughton explains: “Because of the way chairs are used, placed on and moved about, they almost never stand on a perfectly flat surface, so they need to flex and flex and be durable.” The patented one developed by the Fyrn team Hardware allows for just the right amount of flexibility, allowing the user to easily swap out individual parts should they ever break.

Courtesy of ELIZABETH CARABABAS

A favorite of the restaurant industry

To prove their concept, the team tested early prototypes in one of the most challenging environments for a piece of furniture, a restaurant dining room. The Fyrn chairs were well received by customers and restaurateurs alike, and orders were soon pouring in from food service establishments across the Bay Area.

As Broughton walks through the workshop in San Francisco’s Mission District where Fyrn began producing chairs, he explains that the system’s machined components required extremely precise manufacturing (specific tolerances are 4/1000th of an inch, which is more appropriate for the aerospace than is typical for woodworking). To reliably achieve this level of precision, the team had to build a set of 30 fully custom machines to mill, drill and cut every element of the Fyrn chair. Product Development Manager, Derek McCall, demonstrated how one of the machines works by inserting a piece of milled hardwood into an automated, pneumatic milling and drilling jig that grips the stick and, with a whirr and hiss, opens the opening for one of the signature clamps von Fyrn before folding the stick back up for the worker to pick up.

Courtesy of FYRN

increase craft

Although the brand describes its products as artisanal, the reality is a bit more complicated. The precision engineering required by the Fyrn system means there is no room for the subtle imperfections of craftsmanship. But with their exposed pipes, wires, gauges and dials, the line of machines (custom-built by Broughton and McCall) feels a little more Burning Man than Henry Ford.

Today, in a building full of artists’ studios, this workshop is used to develop new products and refine new ideas. Fyrn recently opened a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility near Reno, Nevada to meet demand for the brand’s signature chairs. And while restaurants should really only be an experiment to test shelf life, hospitality is a key revenue stream for the growing company.

The company is also expanding its offering with a range of nesting tables, launched in 2022, and a café table, which debuted at ICFF this year. Broughton explains that the café table fills an unmet need of the brand’s first supporters – chefs and restaurant owners. “We’re excited to introduce beautiful, well-made tables for a function that’s often overlooked,” he says.

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• Courtesy of FYRN
• Courtesy of FYRN
• Courtesy of FYRN
• Courtesy of FYRN

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Housing production in San Francisco collapsed in 2022, falling 46% from a year earlier as the economic malaise caused by the pandemic and a sluggish recovery continued to hit the city’s construction industry, according to the Planning Department’s annual housing inventory released on March 1. was completed in April.

In 2022, developers completed construction of 2,257 units compared to 4,193 units in 2021, a 46% decrease from 2021. New construction in 2022 is 28% below the 10-year average of 3,119 new construction units per year.

While the trend isn’t surprising to those who walk the city streets and see the dearth of tower cranes that once dotted the skyline, it’s nonetheless troubling given that it comes at a time when San Francisco is undergoing a state-mandated rededication initiates, which should facilitate the production of 82,000 units over the next eight years.

“We’re seeing a trend that started before the pandemic with fewer units,” planning director Rich Hillis said. “Obviously that’s not what we want to see as we start implementing the case element. The question is what policy changes can be used to get projects off the ground.”

In the area of ​​subsidized affordable housing, the numbers are not so bleak. Last year, 1,205 affordable housing units were completed, down 20% from 2021. But that’s just 2.5% below the five-year average of 1,228 affordable units per year. The new affordable apartments also have a higher share of all new construction than in previous years: 42% of all units were affordable.

About 72% of new affordable units are affordable for ultra-low, very low, or low-income households; This means a family of four earning between $43,000 and $83,000 could qualify.

The urgent need to spur housing construction has become a hot topic at City Hall, where Mayor London Breed and several members of the board of directors have introduced legislation to cut costs and red tape that have long made San Francisco one of the slowest and fastest expensive markets in the US to build in. A special committee is currently looking at lowering affordable housing requirements to resolve deadlocked developments.

While the delay between building control approval and the start of actual construction can be well over a year, the inventory shows some signs that activity is beginning to pick up.

In 2022, DBI approved construction of 2,738 net units compared to 1,958 net units approved in 2021, a 40% increase. The planning department approved and fully approved 28 projects totaling 1,378 units in 2022.

The report comes as several mega-projects are on hold in the city, including the redevelopment of major industrial sites such as Pier 70 in Dogpatch, Schlage Lock in Visitacion Valley and the former shipyard and Candlestick Point in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.

But other multi-phase developments are still cooking. About 1,000 units on Treasure Island are in the construction process at some point, and Strada Investment Group is rapidly building the 844-unit Brady Block on Market Street. In 2022, Strada and its partner Homerise completed 260 standard-market units and 96 low-income apartments for formerly homeless residents.

Strada partner Michael Cohen said the Brady Block lease has been solid despite record rainfall this winter that has continued to decline.

“Overall we have been pleased with the leasing process and look forward to completing the final building and park so that we can deliver everything the project is intended to be,” he said.

Cohen’s group also broke ground last fall for one of the larger projects, due to begin in 2022: a 500-unit building at Fourth and Bryant Streets in the south of the market. He said the lack of other housing starts in the city has inspired confidence in the future, despite the city’s not exactly stellar economy.

“The fundamental public policy issues remain acute: we still do not have enough housing for the people who want to live here,” he said. “As we look forward to the completion of the building, we anticipate that little to no inventory will be delivered at that time.”

Hillis said he remains hopeful the city’s potentially powerful housing engine can be fired up to meet housing goals. “Obviously that’s going to be a challenge, but given the size of our pipeline and our ability to rezone a significant portion of the city, if we pull the right levers, we can get there.”

Reach JK Dineen: jdineen@sfchronicle.com

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Biotech giant Genentech said it plans to close its South San Francisco manufacturing facility, laying off 265 workers there, the company confirmed.

The drugmaker said the move was part of a long-term plan and was unrelated to the current economic downturn.

The announcement comes after the South San Francisco City Council approved the company’s 2020 plans to expand its headquarters there by up to 4.3 million square feet over the next 15 years, a long-term plan that is one of the largest in the Bay Area Area was real estate projects.

The company has previously cut 474 Bay Area-related jobs, including at its South San Francisco location in 2020.

The company said in an emailed statement it had planned for more than a decade to end production at the facility, where it has been making drugs and cancer therapies since the early 1980s.

“More than 15 years ago, we made the strategic decision to withdraw from commercial manufacturing in South San Francisco,” the statement said. “This decision was part of a thoughtful, long-term plan to focus clinical supplies manufacturing in South San Francisco, where it is co-located with our R&D organization, while commercial manufacturing moves to other locations in our global manufacturing network.”

Genentech plans to close its South San Francisco manufacturing facility and lay off about 265 employees.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2018

The company said employees leaving the company would receive severance and other financial benefits, extended health insurance and career transition services, adding: “Those wishing to remain with Genentech are eligible and encouraged to apply for other positions at our US locations, including our new commercial manufacturing facility in Oceanside, California.”

Genentech also has manufacturing facilities in Vacaville and in Hillsboro, Ore.

In 2019, the company employed about 900 people at the facility when it finalized its initial exit schedule, “most of whom have moved to other roles within the company, such as our new clinical care center in South San Francisco,” which opened last fall was opened, the company announced.

Genentech employs a total of more than 13,000 people as of 2021, with its South San Francisco headquarters including 40 buildings for research, manufacturing and other operations.

“We value and respect all of our employees and their contributions to the legacy – and future – of manufacturing here in South San Francisco. They are an integral part of our ability to get innovative medicines to those who need them, and we are committed to supporting those whose jobs have been impacted during this time,” the company said.

Reach Chase DiFeliciantonio: Chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice

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SAN FRANCISCO—In a notable move towards remote work and production, the Pac-12 Conference announced new flexible and remote work policies that will entail moving out of its current headquarters and production facility in San Francisco when its lease ends in June, 2023.

Pac-12 had been a pioneer in remote production at its current facility, which was a pioneer in IP infrastructures that allowed the Pac-12 Network to produce many of its games remotely.

The conference has not as yet released details about where its production facilities will be located after the move but said it will “forego permanent headquarters to best support employees and deliver savings to member universities” and that the “production facility location” is “to be determined for continued broadcast production activities.”

The current office is located in expensive real estate in San Francisco, with a lease that costs around $8.35 million a year, NewscastStudio has reported.

The move would enable both a “flexible and remote work environment to best support Pac-12 staff” and reduce expenses to “deliver more revenue back to member universities to support student-athletes,” the conference said.

The conference explained that new remote work policies were designed to “provide Pac-12 staff with the benefits of work flexibility while also envisioning regular opportunities for employees to come together in person within the Pac-12 geographic footprint, including at Pac-12 campuses to foster greater collaboration with member universities.”

“In addition to the remote work environment, the Pac-12 will continue to support and invest in its state-of-the-art broadcast and content production, including relocating to a new production facility after the end of the Conference’s current lease in June 2023,” the conference announced. “The location for the new production facility has not yet been determined.”

“The Pac-12 is committed to best supporting our employees by providing a work environment that accommodates today’s modern world and gives our employees maximum flexibility to live and work where they want, while still fostering collaboration among staff and our valued member institutions,” said Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff. “We are also committed to ongoing best-in-class production of Pac-12 events. We are excited for what this new remote and flexible work environment can do to support our employees, and for the new ways it will allow for us to reinvest in our member universities so that they can best support student-athletes.”

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TORONTO, June 29, 2021 / PRNewswire / – Magna Gold Corp. (TSXV: MGR), (OTCQB: MGLQF) (“Magna” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has achieved full and stable commercial production in its 100% -owned flagship San Francisco Mine, located in Sonora, Mexico. Commercial production started on schedule June 1, 2021, as stated in the company’s press release dated April 13, 2021. In addition, the company is on track to meet and repeat its previous 2021 forecast of 55,000 to 65,000 ounces of gold (“Au”) production for 2021.

During the first half of the year, the Company completed the required clearance and significantly reduced the mine extraction ratio from ~ 8: 1 to ~ 3: 1, which is further declining in the direction of the Mine Life (“LOM”). Average 2.5: 1. For the future, the company expects a further decrease in the spoil share and higher recovery rates, which will lead to cost improvements.

At the San Francisco, the company expects a production rate of ~ 6,000 ounces Au / month in the third quarter and intends to end the year with a production rate of ~ 7,500 ounces Au / month.

Highlights

• Completed all necessary pre-stripping to achieve a 2.9: 1 strip ratio in full commercial operation, which LOM is expected to trend downward.
• Complete the construction of new leach pads and start stacking fresh ore at a constant rate of 900 tons per hour.
• Optimized grind size and leaching kinetics improve recovery rates to ~ 70%, with further improvements over the LOM expected.
• Remains committed to health and safety, working over 3.5 million hours with no incidents of downtime.

Arturo Bonillas, President and CEO of Magna, stated, “We are all very proud of the Magna team for reaching this tremendous milestone on schedule. Reaching commercial volume production in such a short period of time is testament to the hard work and quality of ours Mexico-based operations team and as a company we have demonstrated our ability to deliver on all of our objectives. The production numbers are trending up from month to month and we expect to end the year with a production of approximately 7,500 ounces Au / month. We are continuing our systematic exploration efforts to develop the company into a medium-sized producer. “

About Magna Gold Corp
Magna is a Mexico focused gold / silver manufacturing company specializing in the acquisition, exploration, development and operation of high quality precious metal properties in Mexico. It is committed to maintaining its 100% owned flagship mine in San Francisco and other highly prospective mineral properties in Sonora and in Chihuahua. The company’s main strength is its team of highly experienced mining professionals with a proven track record in developing concession areas in Mexico from discovery to production. Magna employs community members and services in its operations.

From August 8, 2020 (NI 43-101 F1 Technical Report Pre-Feasibility Study for the San Francisco Gold Project), San Francisco has measured and indicated resources of 99,700,000 tonnes grading 0.446 g / t Au grading 1,430,000 ounces of gold and inferred resources of 11,374 .000 tons grading 0.446 g / t grading 171,000 ounces gold. The total proven and probable reserves are 47,629,000 tonnes grading 0.495 g / t Au grading 758,000 ounces of gold. Mineral resources are inclusive of mineral reserves. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not demonstrated economic viability.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Arturo Bonillas

President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Qualified person
James Baughman (P. Geo.), Consultant Geologist and Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has approved the scientific and technical information in this news release.

Warning notices

This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” that are not based on historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the company’s future plans, goals, or objectives, including words that indicate that the company or management expects a certain condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates,” “may,” “could,” “would,” “will,” or “plans”. Because forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and relate to future events and conditions, they by their nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the company, the company makes no representation that actual results will meet management’s expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors associated with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, the Company’s goals, objectives, or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, exploration and mine development plans, production guidelines and production estimates, extraction ratio trends, expected recovery and production rates, and processing and mining expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources into reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study to recommend a production decision , the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or not obtaining the required regulatory, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties about the availability and costs of future funding needed, changes in stock markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations commodity prices, project development delays, capital, operating and recovery costs that differ materially from estimates, and the other risks associated with mineral exploration n and development industries, risks related to the impact of COVID-19 on the business; and the risks set out in the company’s public filings on file with SEDAR. While the company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, undue reliance should be placed on such information, which speaks only as of the date of this press release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the specified time periods or at all. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or for any other reason, except as required by law.

SOURCE Magna Gold Corp.

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Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari (A24) made a major splash at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, winning both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the dramatic category. And the recognition continues–even when the film is on the receiving end of a controversial Golden Globes decision to limit it to the foreign language category. Minari wound up winning the Globe for best foreign language feature and it’s picked up several Screen Actors Guild nominations, often a harbinger of things to come at the Oscars.

Also boding well are assorted other honors including winning three New York film Critics Online Awards–taking the marquee best picture crown as well as best foreign language film and supporting actress for Yuh-Jung Youn. 

Furthermore Minari has earned six Film Independent Spirit Award nominations–Best Feature, Director, Screenplay, Male Lead (Steven Yeun), and two for Supporting Female Actor (Youn and Yeri Han).

An American production with dialogue mostly in Korean, Minari is deeply personal for Chung in that the story is inspired by memories of his childhood. We are introduced to a Korean-American family that moves to rural Arkansas in the 1980s, a father’s dream to start a small farm there, the struggle of immigrants in a new land strange to them, and a boy’s touching, tender and charmingly comic relationship with his loving, at times foul-mouthed grandmother who moves in to help. While not a factual representation of his own experiences, Chung’s story was crafted to reflect the spirit of those experiences, taking us on a unique empathetic journey of a family in search of its own American Dream.

It’s a story in which each family member is heroic and resilient in his or her own way, all contributing to help the family survive and endure, shedding light on what really makes a home–in this case the physical home being a nondescript trailer on isolated farmland. Bringing this family to life is a brilliant ensemble cast in which parents Jacob and Monica are played, respectively, by Yeun and Han, while their son David is portrayed by newcomer Alan S. Kim, daughter Anne by Noel Kate Cho, and grandma Soonja by South Korean acting legend Youn. Also integral to the story is a neighbor, handyman and farm helper Paul, a devout Pentecostal who speaks in tongues but also through the universal language of kindness. He is portrayed by Will Patton.

Named after a peppery Korean herb which is among the crops being cultivated on the fledgling farm, the film was produced by Plan B, the company in which Brad Pitt is a partner/EP. Chung credited Plan B producer Christina Oh with helping to assemble the production family behind Minari. “I had been doing more arthouse films and was looking to Christina to help navigate my pulling off this film,” shared Chung. Oh brought in artisans for Chung to consider and whom he wound up embracing, including cinematographer Lachlan Milne, ACS, NZCS, editor Harry Yoon, ACE, composer Emile Mosseri and production designer Yong Ok Lee. Mosseri, for instance, had worked with Oh on Plan B’s acclaimed The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

SHOOT connected with Milne, Mosseri and Lee to gain their perspectives on Minari and on working with Chung. SHOOT also reached Chung (interviewed in Part 3 of our Road To Oscar series, 1/15/21) who noted that a couple of challenges posed by the film stood out for him, starting with his writing the script on spec.  “I was writing it in the dark,” related Chung, “I wasn’t sure if it would land anywhere. I’m writing about my family in a way and it can be boring when you talk about your family way too long. Talking about my family for two hours stands out to me as being the hardest. Then there were the limited time and resources–and within that having Alan, our seven-year-old actor (who portrayed David) on set for just six hours a day. He’s almost in every scene. So there was no room for error during 25 days of shooting. For me and everyone, we couldn’t make a mistake. You didn’t always have time to think some things through. It felt like we worked a lot on intuition. Lachlan’s (DP Milne) great experience helped. He’s experienced in working on features that have had difficult schedules.” And Chung was quick to credit the cast in dealing with that schedule. “That family feels so real. They (the actors) had to be so real with each other when we had the cameras rolling.”

In that vein, Milne explained that he kept “coverage very simple. Isaac (Chung) and I made a clear decision not to necessarily shoot coverage just for the sake of it. Each actor had to earn a closeup. You needed to make a statement to make someone larger in frame. This was an ensemble cast so we wanted to bring as many of those people into the frame whenever we could, sometimes have people stepping on each other’s lines. It was more honest, real and integrated like the audience was just there observing.”

For Milne the tone of the script shaped the approach to lensing the story. “The script felt so honest. I wanted to do justice in a photographic sense to the honesty of the story. This was not about cranes, big dolly moves or multiple camera coverage. It was all about honesty and simplicity, to document in a photographic way. Isaac had the same attitude towards the approach. It was clear we had a very similar sense of what needed to be done.”

Milne credited his agent with turning him onto Minari. The DP was on the last day of shooting a Paramount film, Love and Monsters, in Queensland, Australia, when he got a call from his agent, Grant Illes of WME. Milne recollected his agent saying, “‘Go straight home. Don’t go to the wrap party, Read this script. It’s a gem.’” Milne noted, “In 24 hours from knowing nothing about the story to then reading it, I felt strongly that this was something I needed to do.”

The strength of the story–as well as the strength of character, the kind of person that Chung is–made the experience on Minari especially gratifying for Milne. “It was one of the best director-cinematographer collaborations I’ve had in my career,” assessed Milne who deployed the ARRI Alexa Mini coupled with Panavision PVintage lenses. Milne relied on practical lighting as much as he could inside the trailer. He generally went for natural illumination of scenes, the light coming from the environment whenever possible. 

Milne added that taking on distinctly different challenges from one project to the next is “one of the great joys of filmmaking.” An example of the wide-ranging work juxtaposes the eloquence of simplicity needed for Minari with the far more elaborate, special effects-heavy work he lensed in Stranger Things which marked Milne’s first foray into series television. The DP’s career is rooted largely in independent film.

As chronicled in SHOOT’s Road To Emmy coverage last year, brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, creators and EPs of Stranger Things, initially gravitated to Milne due to a recommendation from director/writer/producer Taika Waititi (an Oscar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit). Milne had shot writer/director Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which Ross Duffer described as “a movie that’s told at such a high level but has a sense of fun and heart to it. Lachlan really brings just that to the set besides his skill as a DP. He brings an energy to the set.” Milne’s lensing for Stranger Things included the final two episodes of season 3 that the Duffers directed.

Emile Mosseri
Chung recalled telling composer Emile Mosseri when they first met that he didn’t want a score calling attention to his Korean heritage. “I didn’t want it to be culturally specific,” related Chung. “He appreciated that and I otherwise gave him the freedom to come up with what he thought was best. He gave me five pieces before we went into production, telling me they were just sketches. The work blew me away from the start. To me they were fully realized pieces and they allowed me to have a better understanding visually of how I was going to film some of the scenes.”

While his music may have helped inform the way scenes were shot, Mosseri observed that Chung inspired him. “We were setting a mood before anything was shot. It all started from Isaac’s script–and that script inspired the music. The script informed the music which informed the edit and how some  of the film was shot–and all that came back to inform the  music in turn again. Lachlan informed the music with his incredible cinematography. It’s like we were all throwing the ball back and forth.”

Mosseri said the overriding influence for him was the idea that Minari had “a warm, glowing, beating heart at the center of its family. The nucleus of this family contained love and warmth. At the same time there was much tension, struggle and pain. I wanted the music to reflect both those worlds–not in the sense that love was in one scene and then cued to a scene with tension. Every piece of music had to contain both–warm and emotive with some tension underneath. We set out to achieve that orchestrally and instrumentally, experimenting with different tools, strings, piano, guitar, synthesizer. Love and tension were baked into the batter of the score.”

The process of developing that score has left a lasting impression on Mosseri. “I had never written music before the film was shot. I would like to do that from now on whenever possible.”

There was also a coordinated, collaborative effort thereafter. “Isaac is brilliant,” said Mosseri. “I worked most closely with Isaac and Harry (editor Yoon). I would like to have that relationship with directors and editors on future projects. It’s almost like co-writing a score. I feel like Isaac and Harry co-wrote the score with me. They put pieces of music in places I might not have ever thought to do.”

Mosseri added that while he was composing, Yoon was assembling scenes. “He (Harry) would piece together segments of film using my score. Harry and I were working at the same time that Isaac and Lachlan were shooting. That kind of approach offered more than traditional compartmentalizing. To have that kind of collaboration, to be completely in tune with your collaborators, was the biggest joy and biggest takeaway from this experience.”

Still, the first cut of the film surprised Mosseri. “The writing was all there but I had no idea of what was to come. They beautifully captured this portrait of a family. Lachlan captured the land. He captured Jacob’s (played by Yeun) spiritual connection to the land. The performances were wonderful. I had no idea that this boy Alan would give such a performance. You couldn’t have known this boy would have that much magnetism and depth. I wasn’t emotionally prepared for the first cut of the film.”

Mosseri’s feature filmography as a composer includes Minari, The Last Black Man In San Francisco, and Kajillionaire. Among his TV credits are HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness and Amazon’s Homecoming. Mosseri is also a member of the group Human Love, and a recording artist and touring musician.

Yong Ok Lee
Minari made its initial impact at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020. This marked the second straight year that a film that production designer Yong Ok Lee contributed to had opened eyes at Sundance. In 2019, it was Lulu Wang’s The Farewell.

Lee noted that Chung had specific ideas about location and tone yet afforded her latitude to do her job for Minari. “He didn’t give me a lot of references. He showed me his family photo in front of their trailer home but didn’t ask me to do the same and recreate that, of course. Mainly we discussed the characters, which really helps as I went for details that would reflect who these characters are.” Lee said her priority was “how much I could help make each character believable with visual language. That was my biggest consideration for this movie–how I can make each character come alive.”

Lee was drawn in on a personal level as well in that the story was about her culture. She had a first-hand sense of that culture and period of time. Lee also shared that it was special and personal to get to work with a majority Korean cast and crew–native Korean and Korean Americans–on an American film. 

She had to scramble to find resources, including local crew support in Tulsa but ultimately did so, procuring much of what she needed otherwise–such as period furniture and decorations– from yard sales and flea markets which Tulsa locals had turned her onto. Lee added that uncovering the right locations posed a challenge. Especially hard was finding a water stream that was integral to the story. She also had to obtain Minari plants, eventually sending a crew member to drive out one night to Kansas City to bring the plants back on location in Tulsa.

Chung marveled over Lee’s work on Minari. “She pulled this off with limited resources and time. She had four weeks to do essentially a period film–truly amazing. Her sense of visual detail was so strong for locations, environments, personal details. We knew a lot of this film would be about visual details. She allowed us to be able to make it work. The details for instance went down to the smallest things. Within the wallet of Jacob was a Price Club membership. He has just arrived (in Arkansas) from California. That wasn’t in the film but it contributed to the detailed portrait, her attention to detail. Every drawer that you opened in the house (trailer) contributed to the portrait of this family.”

This is the 10th installment of a 16-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies and on SHOOTonline.com, with select installments also in print issues. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, March 15, 2021. The 93rd Oscars will be held on Sunday, April 25, 2021.

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