By Cari Lynn Pace & Barry Willis Where does embellishment belong in storytelling, if the goal is to create emotional truth? Theater veteran Libby Oberlin directs this extraordinary comedic drama filled with challenging questions on the Monroe Stage at 6th Street Playhouse. You won’t find better acting than this, with incisive dialog and a plot that took seven years to determine the outcome. The production…
Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss? The works of Theodor Geisel (under his medical nom-de-plume) have been entertaining children (and their parents) for decades be they books (The Cat in the Hat), television specials (The Grinch Who Stole Christmas), or film (The Lorax). Geisel, with a few notable exceptions, was reluctant to allow his books to…
My guests on the 05/07/26 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Emily Lynn Cornelius and Libby Oberlin from the 6th Street Playhouse production of The Lifespan of a Fact. 6th Street Executive Artistic Director Cornelius takes to the 6th Street stage for the first time under Oberlin’s direction in this fast-paced, blistering…
Where’s a playwright to go after exploring the bounds of outer space and the confines of a parrot cage? For award-winning playwright (and former Bohemian contributor) David Templeton, the answer is “back to school”. Templeton, whose most recent plays Galatea and Featherbaby were well received on both coasts, is premiering his latest work at Santa…
by Barry Willis * Sonoma Arts Live continues its ambitious and mostly successful run of boy-meets-girl favorite The Light in the Piazza through May 10. A tale about an American woman and her daughter on a tour of Italy, with book by Craig Lucas and music by Adam Guettel, the stage show, based on the…
by Harry Duke * Dramatic plays in the sci-fi/horror genre are few and far between. Whether it’s budgetary restraints or the difficulty in getting audiences to suspend their disbelief that much, folks interested in seeing that stripe of show usually have limited opportunities to do so. 6th Street Playhouse’s recent production of Marjorie Prime and…
My guests on the second of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM on 04/30/26 were director Kim Bromley and cast member Tina Traboulsi from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of Seussical. The family musical comedy runs through May 17 in the Codding Theater at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert…
My guests on the first of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM on 04/30/26 were Lizzy Bies and Jaden “Moose” Frank from the Santa Rosa Junior Colllege Theater Student Production Club’s presentation of Alastair McDowall’s X. The sci-fi drama plays in the SRJC’s Frank Chong Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa for…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Sonoma Arts Live invites the audience to join a mother and daughter as they sightsee in Florence, Italy in this musical with lyrics by Adam Guettel based on Craig Lucas’s book. The stage, designed Laurynn Malilay and Sandra Ish, overflows with statuary, fountains, lush plantings, and a live band directed…
My guests on the second of two 04/23/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Reilly Milton and Beulah Vega from the Mercury Theater production of Enfrascada. The dark comedy runs through May 10 in the former Cinnabar Schoolhouse in Petaluma. Click below to listen: ********** Click HERE for more information on…
My guests on the first of two 04/23/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Sandra Ish and Jaime Love from the Sonoma Arts Live production of The Light in the Piazza. The romantic musical runs on the Rotary Stage of the Sonoma Community Center through May 10. After a discussion about…
by Harry Duke * Community theaters love Ken Ludwig. Since he first hit it big with his Tony-winning farce Lend Me A Tenor, Ludwig’s farcical takes on the world of Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Baskerville, a Sherlock Holmes Mystery), and even George and Ira Gershwin (Crazy for You)…
by Harry Duke * There is no more quintessential Broadway musical than Jerry Herman’s Hello, Dolly! Theatre companies large and small have been producing it regularly since its debut more than 50 years ago including productions over the last decade by the Raven Players, Sonoma Arts Live, and the Mountain Play. Santa Rosa Junior College…
by Barry Willis * A corrupt businessman lands in Washington DC, intent on buying a Senator as part of an effort to get legislation passed to improve his fortune. Currying favor among the ruling class is one of humanity’s oldest tales, one that will never go away. The stage play of Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday…
My guests on the second of two 04/16/26 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Laura Downing-Lee and Matthew Quezada-Cortes from the SRJC Theatre Arts production of Hello, Dolly! The show has eight performances from April 17 through April 26 on the Burbank Auditorium Main Stage on the campus of Santa Rosa…
North Bay Stage and Screen 