Two North Bay Theater Companies announce details of next season
March 10, 2016 —It’s a little like Christmas, this time of year, when one-by-one the majority of theater companies release details about their upcoming. And like Christmas, when lists of gifts become a focus of attention (whether it’s a child’s list of toys hoped for from Santa or a gift-giver’s list of sweaters, ties, gourmet food boxes and other items to pick up for friends and relatives). Lists are just as exciting when theaters send out their season announcement press releases, the main attraction of which are the lists of shows they plan to produce in the coming twelve months, after the current season of shows has come to an end, of course. With more than three dozen fully-active theater companies in the North Bay, there will be lots to report over the next few months.
Here’s a start.
For brevity’s sake, I shall make no commentary and add no description, just list the shows (which, after all, is plenty enough to get a theater-lover’s heart rate going).

At Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, a six show season.

• ‘August: Osage County’ by Tracy Letts (September, 2016)

• ‘Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley,’ a West Coast premiere by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon (November, 2016)

• ‘Native Son,’ a West Coast premiere by Nambi E. Kelley (January, 2017)

• ‘Peerless,’ a West Coast premiere by Jiehae Park (March, 2017)

• ‘Guards at the Taj,’ a Bay Area premiere by Rajiv Joseph (April, 2017)

• TBA: A new American play (June, 2017)

At Lucky Penny Community Arts Center
in Napa, a nine show season. 

• ‘Big River’ by Roger Miller and William Haupton (September, 2016)

• ‘I Wanna Be Bad: An Original Speakeasy Musical,’ a world premiere by Shannon Rider and Barry Martin (October, 2016)

• ‘The Miracle Worker,’ by William Gibson (November, 2016)

• ‘The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical,’ by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso (December, 2016)

• ”Twas the Night Before Christmas,’ by Ken Ludwig (December, 2016)

• ‘A Little Night Music,’ by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler (January, 2017)

• ‘Kids Rule the 8×10: short play festival,’ (February, 2017)

• ‘Maple and Vine,’ by Jordan Harrison (April, 2017)

• ‘Clue: The Musical,’ by Peter DiPietro, Galen Blum, Wayne Barker, Vinnie Martucci, and Tom Chiodo (May, 2017)