QUESTION: When is a play not a play? ANSWER: When it’s a concert. Plays, generally speaking, have plots. And concerts, generally speaking, um . . . don’t. That’s the argument some have made against the rise (and strange popularity) of so-called “jukebox musicals,” the cutely coined nickname for stage shows consisting primarily of a catalog of songs…
For one full year, director Bennett Lasseter has been touring the world, visiting film festivals from Hollywood to Cannes in support of his award-winning short family drama “Stealth” – as it has racked up a pile of rave reviews and audience accolades. To Lasseter, a Burbank resident, it has been quite a ride. But through…
“The Loner Stoop.” That, laughs singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop, now of Manchester, England, was her name for the space just outside the theater department at Santa Rosa High School. It was in the early 1990s, when Hoop, who describes herself as a less-than-overachieving student, found an unexpected place of acceptance at SRHS. “That spot outside of…
On April 23, William Shakespeare will have been dead for exactly four full centuries. “This is so exciting,” says Leslie McCauley, director of Santa Rosa Junior College’s upcoming presentation of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night.’ McCauley’s enthusiasm has less to do with 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death than the fact that her new Shakespearean production will be…
(This review originally appeared in the North Bay Bohemian) Two commanding dramas—one a classic, one destined to be—are now playing in the North Bay. Each is worth discovering. In 1948, Arthur Miller’s All My Sons became his first critical hit. Not an easy show to pull off, Miller’s ingeniously unfolding post-WWII drama gets a solid, emotionally truthful…
I’m always wiped out after watching a Zack Snyder movie,” says Andrew Farago, raising his voice slightly to be heard above the booming end-credit music of Zack Snyder’s 150-minute comic-book extravaganza Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As roughly 10,000 names scroll up the screen, we duck out early, having confirmed that there is no post-film…
It’s been a while since Jesca Hoop played a concert on her home turf. She wasn’t famous then; just one of those people everyone said was destined for fame. Those people were right. When the Santa Rosa-born singer-songwriter returns next weekend for an intimate performance at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West theater, those locals who remember…
Three people are trapped in a bunker underground after what may, or may not, be a massive nuclear or chemical attack on America. Unless, of course, it’s an alien invasion. Or an attack by giant monster like the one in ‘Cloverfield,’ the genetically related predecessor to ’10 Cloverfield Lane,’ which was filmed in relative secret…
War is not just about bombs and bullets and blood. It’s also about politics and position and power. Playwright Donald Margulies is not particularly interested in either the politics of war or the gory details of modern warfare. From his Pulitzer nominated play ‘Collected Stories’ to his Pulitzer-winning play ‘The Dinner Party,’ Margulies has always…
“The movie ‘Calendar Girls’ is about women who stepped out of their comfort zone,” says Jaime Love, executive artistic director of Sonoma Arts Live, “so we’re offering the women of Sonoma an opportunity to follow that example, by stepping out of their own comfort zones.” This, of course, means stepping out of their clothes. According…
North Bay Stage and Screen 