by Harry Duke * When I see a show late in its run, or the run itself is short, I’ll take some time and provide a short take on the production… It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play – Spreckels Theatre Company, Rohnert Park Pluses: source material, performances, live sound effects Minuses: not really…
My guests on the second of two 12/04/25 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Michael Arbitter and Drew Bolander from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. This unique show runs in the Codding Theatre at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park…
My guest on the first of two 12/04/25 “Theatre Thursday” segments on The Drive on 95.5 was Britta Rae from the Transcendence Theatre Company’s upcoming production of Broadway Holiday 2025. The show will have multiple performances in Santa Rosa at the Sonoma Country Day School on Dec. 13 & 14, and then in Sonoma at…
When I see a show late in its run, or the run itself is short, I’ll take some time and provide a short take on the production… Bootycandy – Left Edge Theatre, Santa Rosa Pluses: script, performances Minuses: a bit disjointed, a bit long Playwright Robert O’Hara claims that every character in Bootycandy crossed his…
My guests on the 11/20/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were director Jenny Hollingworth and actor Matt Farrell from the Spreckels Theatre Company production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. This show runs in the Condiotti Theatre at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park through December…
by Harry Duke * Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 parable play/farce about the dangers of complacency and appeasement is, as is said much too frequently today, as timely as ever. It’s a shame eight U.S. Senators haven’t had a chance to see it. It’s the second show in the first full season for Petaluma’s Mercury Theater, the…
My guests on the 11/13/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Laura Downing-Lee, Waylon Hessler, and Nora Summers from the 6th Street Playhouse production of A Christmas Story: The Musical. This show runs in 6th Street’s GK Hardt Theatre from November 21 through December 21. Click below to listen: ********** Click…
by Harry Duke * Much has been said and written about the (then) Marin Theatre Company’s 2017 production of Thomas Bradshaw’s Thomas and Sally. Bradshaw’s historical fiction used a conversation between college students as the framing device to explore the possible relationship between Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. To say the…
If there’s one word to describe North Bay theatre companies’ choices for their 2025 holiday productions, it’s “familiar”. One company is repeating their selections from last year while two others bring back chestnuts whose memories still linger from their successful mounting on other local stages. Rohnert Park’s Spreckels Theatre Company is the company with two…
My guests on the 11/06/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 FM were Sarah Wintermeyer and Chase Thompson from the Santa Rosa Junior College Theater Arts production of Ride the Cyclone: The Musical. This rollercoaster of a show runs in the Burbank Auditorium on the SRJC campus from November 14 through November 23.…
