‘There is never an easy time to do something that has never been done before.” True enough.

In author-playwright Mary Spletter’s world premiere, Arches, Balance and Light, those words are more than just encouraging advice offered to a determined young pioneer; they form a kind of philosophical spine to a play that, in its own right, is attempting something impossible: telling the life story of the legendary Julia Morgan, California’s first licensed female architect.

Little is actually known of Morgan’s personal life, and that’s where the impossible comes in. She stands among history’s most secretive and private people. A playwright might stick to what few facts we do know, and end up writing a very short play, or she could allow herself to simply make up a lot of stuff instead. In her somewhat convoluted play-within-a-play-within-a-play, now running at Ross Valley Players, Spletter has done a bit of both, blending solid, historical reality with some juicy, fanciful “fan fiction,” resulting in an entertaining if shaggy-doggish fantasy romance.

Click ‘Here‘ to read the full review in the North Bay Bohemian