Last October, the North Bay Bohemian profiled and presented excerpts from the recent anthology book ‘Eternal Frankenstein,’ a collection of 16 stories published by Petaluma’s Word Horde Books. One of those stories was the novella-length ‘Mary Shelley’s Body,’ written by playwright and Bohemian contributor David Templeton. With Templeton’s history of writing and performing one-man plays and other theatrical efforts,…

Whatever else one thinks about awards for artistic efforts, it’s always fun to read the nominations whenever they’re announced, if for no other reason than to cheer when you see a friend’s name – and maybe your own (whether you “believe” in Awards or not). Last Friday, the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle…

The “ghost light,” an enduring theatrical tradition, is about to be reclaimed, now as a powerful political statement. This Thursday, thousands of theater companies around the country—including a handful in the North Bay evening—plan to gather together in solidarity, just after sunset, all across the United States. “It’s important that we make it known to…

“It’s never final,” the saying goes, “until it’s vinyl.” Sonoma songwriter and instrumentalist Cliff Goldmacher is certainly not the first working musician to utter those words, though his long career as a successful crafter of songs has definitely convinced him of its truth. Goldmacher estimates that, to date, he has written over 1,000 songs, some…

One year ago, on the eve of his annual tour to Northern California, singer-songwriter John McCutcheon was diagnosed with lung cancer. Fortunately, that diagnosis turned out to be wrong. What McCutcheon actually had was a severe lung infection. Still, his condition was serious enough to keep him off the road, and he was forced to…

“This is so sad! I feel like I should take a picture—my very last time standing inside the Cinema theater!” So remarks Ben Burtt, standing near the massive screen at Corte Madera’s legendary Century Cinema theater (the “Cinema”), just moments before a Mill Valley Film Festival screening of Star Wars: A New Hope. As he looks…

This weekend was supposed to mark the Sonoma Music Festival’s 30th year and second at its new location at the Field of Dreams. But after slow ticket sales forced cancellation of the three-day event last month, the future of the local festival favorite is very much in doubt, according to its founder and producer Bruce…

Three years ago, when a report was published claiming that more than 800 Santa Rosa Junior College students were essentially homeless, theater instructors Laura Downing-Lee and Leslie McCauley began envisioning a future theater project formed around exploring the issue. This weekend, Leaving Home, opens a two weekend run in the Newman Auditorium. A “devised theatre…

“Relationships matter,” the Rev. Jane Spahr once preached. “Relationships matter because relationships are what really change the world.” In the early 1980s, Spahr helped form a pair of San Rafael-based organizations dedicated to changing the world through building relationships between people in need and the wider community. Whether or not Spahr and the people she…