“Sometimes, you just need someone to tell you that you’re still beautiful,” says Mia Vanoni, a senior at Sonoma Valley High School. “Because sometimes you can’t believe it any other way, especially when you are fighting a disease that’s changed the way you look.” Along with her twin sister Bridget, Mia is one of the…
The writings of San Francisco playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb have always been a balance of the weird, the wondrous, the sensitive, and the cynical. Nachtrieb likes to test artistic and cultural boundaries, daring his audience to surrender its expectations. He likes happy endings, but he also likes to subvert them and stand them on their heads. In…
Visually inventive and sensitive to a surprising degree, writer-director Mary Zimmerman’s surprisingly rich ‘Treasure Island’ — adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel — literally rocks the boat, employing a stunningly well-engineered stage that swings back and forth like a ship rolling on the ocean. That’s just one of many surprises awaiting audiences, young and old,…
“The specific vibe and character of Film Fest Petaluma has always been inextricably linked to the character of the downtown Petaluma area,” explained Michael Traina, Santa Rosa Junior College film and media instructor, and director of the annual short-film showcase Film Fest Petaluma. “Spending a day in a place like this, that’s certainly…
‘Sometimes,” muses actor Mark Bradbury, “you play a character you just don’t like very much.” Over the last 12 years, he says, after appearing in more than 30 shows, Bradbury has portrayed his share of unlikable people. “With those guys,” he notes, “you have to work extra hard to find something you connect with. Then…
Colorful costumed fish appear to swim across the stage (with the help of clever roller-skate shoes). Seagulls fly and mermaids swim (thanks to ‘Peter Pan’ style rigging). Huge waves splash and crash, octopus women grow to six times their normal size (using massive screened projections) and six-foot strands of seaweed bob and wiggle in time to the music (dancers dressed…
For several years, the lack of strong roles for women has been the talk of the theater world, lighting up blogs and theater-related websites. The issue has inspired debate, discussion and outcries of gender inequity. It has even provoked a spate of incendiary protest art like Courtney Meaker’s ‘That’swhatshesaid,’ in which the author compiled into one outrageous solo piece all of the…
It is pointless to argue whether or not Disney’s “Live Action” version of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book‘ is a good movie or not. It is. It engages its audience from the first images of young Mowgli swinging through the jungle, pursued by some unseen danger. The combination of nostalgic connection to the beloved 1969…
The Bible, as anyone knows who’s ever opened it, is fairly bursting with sex. From Old Testament stories of kings and concubines, to New Testament tales of reformed prostitutes and virgin mothers, sex is pretty much everywhere. But who knew how big a role sex played in the creation of the longest lasting and best-loved…
“A man can die but once,” wrote William Shakespeare in “King Henry IV, Part II.” That’s true enough, but few among us can hope to have our one-and-only death remembered – or our lives and accomplishments celebrated – a full 400 years after the fact. One can’t say the same about Shakespeare. This weekend, to…
North Bay Stage and Screen 