Wild SF costume designer Beaver Bauer showcased in SF Public Library retrospective  

Longtime costume designer Debra “Beaver” Bauer, a true San Francisco original, is being celebrated in a terrific, five-month free retrospective in San Francisco’s Main Library. 

Decked in a fanciful hat and glittery gown, the beloved artist was on hand last week at a party to open “Beaver Bauer: From Street to Stage,” an exhibition of renderings, illustrations, photography, film, video and costumes she created in a 50-year career that took her from city streets to some of the Bay Area’s most esteemed stages.   

“Dress up, be a weirdo, it’s an act of revolution,” she admonished her friends, admirers and colleagues after a lobby performance featuring her over-the-top designs during the Nov. 5 reception. Many guests were dressed in appropriately flashy costume attire.   

Later, speaking outside the exhibition entrance downstairs, she said, “This is not a word I use often, but I’m satisfied. The library did it right.” 

Running through April 11, the show is co-curated by Mark Dean Johnson, Trisha Lagaso Goldberg and Theodore B. Lau in collaboration with the library exhibition team of Christine Darnell, Megan Merritt, Ben Vilmain and Allison Wyckoff. It covers Bauer’s beginnings as an actor-designer with Angels of Light Free Theatre, a guerrilla troupe staging free street performances from 1970-1984, through her association into the 21^st century with well-established groups such as American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Teatro ZinZanni. 

In a video interview, Bauer describes how she came from Ohio to San Francisco, where she hit the streets and lived in a commune with fellow free spirits in the Angels of Light, a counterculture troupe that “channeled old Hollywood, camp, the divine and social reform” into one-of-a-kind, one-time only performances. There’s a brief snippet of 1972’s “Peking on Acid” and a glimpse of Bauer on all fours wearing a bright green frog costume.  

“The Arboretum of Dreams,” a large mural of a lush tree outside of the main exhibit area, commemorates friends and colleagues from the theater community she lost to HIV/AIDS.  

There are pieces of costumes and images of outfits used by performers in Teatro ZinZanni, a wacky, evolving, interactive dinner theater show performed under an antique tent on San Francisco’s Pier 29 for over a decade. Joan Baez, who was among the regular ZinZanni troupers, was in attendance at the opening, as was skating champ Brian Boitano, another of her notable clients.  

An eye-catching costume highlight is a seahorse made from boba straws worn in “MU,” a 2012 performance art piece by First Voice, an AsianAmerican troupe featuring Brenda Wong Aoki and Mark Izu, working with dancemaker Kimi Okada; it’s accompanied by a clip from the show.  

Also on view is “The Bus Queen’s Gazette: Muni Portraits Series,” a collection of quick ballpoint pen drawings of strangers she drew during routine rides on the #22-Fillmore line, about which she says, “Muni offers a rich soup of characters to dazzle, puzzle and observe.” 

Bauer, who doesn’t professionally sew, thanked the people who literally construct her costumes, which she calls “mere pieces of fabric sewn into a shape” that come alive only when worn by actors, when the “magic of script, technicians and design all enter the same divine space of collaboration.” 

In accordance with Bauer’s philosophy to promote freedom and accessibility, the library is offering numerous programs to complement the exhibit. They include displays about Angels of Light Free Theatre on the third and sixth floors, an “Art of Costume” presentation on the fourth floor; a tour with Bauer for blind and low-vision patrons on Dec. 3; a conversation with Bauer, Wong Aoki and Okada on Jan. 20; and parade featuring Bauer’s costumes on April 3. 

“Beaver Bauer: From Street to Stage” continues through April 11, 2027 in the San Francisco Public Library, lower level, 100 Larkin St., San Francisco. Visit sfpl.org/exhibits/.