Here we go. Again. Having viewed over a hundred plays in 2016, on stages all around the Bay Area and beyond, it’s now my yearly responsibility to name my 10 favorites. As 2016 turned out to be an especially strong year for theater—ironically marked by many theater companies struggling for audiences—my task was particularly difficult this time…

‘It started as a dream—literally,” says Sharon McNight, describing how her affection for the music of late vaudeville legend Sophie Tucker became the one-woman-show Red Hot Mama. A Tony-award nominee for her lead performance in the 1989 fantasy-musical Starmites, McNight will be bringing her acclaimed solo show to the Cinnabar Theater for a three-weekend run beginning Jan.…

Sonoma’s Abbey Lee has won the award for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Musical by the Sonoma County-based Marquee Theater Journalists Association. A 2007 graduate of Sonoma Valley High School, Lee was honored by the MTJA for her work in 6th Street Playhouse’s recent production of the Marx Brothers’ musical “Animal Crackers.” “I’m really thrilled,”…

It’s a strange conundrum. Theater audiences, when polled, frequently say they’ve grown weary of seeing the same shows trotted out every few years. What they want, they say firmly with convincing resolve, is something new. And yet time and time again, when companies do bring something fresh and original to the stage, audiences stay home. Just…

As Cinnabar Theater prepares to launch its new show on Oct. 14, all involved are aware that “The Quality of Life,” from award-winning playwright and screenwriter Jane Anderson, is not an easy play to describe in a single word or sentence. The play tells the story of a conservative Christian couple from the Midwest who…

“Imagine a cross between Waiting for Guffman and Night of the Living Dead,” says director Nick Sholley. “Well, that’s Zombietown.” Opening this weekend at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theater, Tim Bauer’s 2009 comedy is a clever blend of horror movie spoof and social-theatrical satire. If that sounds like a strange mix, it is, and that’s the point. While the…

Here’s a good “theater world” question.   What’s harder and more intimidating to have to accomplish on stage – the simple, basic acting of a scene? Or the wielding of a sword in a choreographed, highly physical sword-fight, designed so the participants are dodging furniture and other cumbersome set pieces, all while trying not to…

Wolf House, the doomed Glen Ellen dream-home of author Jack London, burned down over 103 years ago, just 13 years before London himself passed away. While London has seen his fair share of public adulation since then – especially during this, the centennial of this death – Wolf House is finally getting a bit of…

‘The most surprising thing about this whole process for me,” says actor Dameion Brown, who’s playing the lead in Marin Shakespeare Company’s new production of Othello, “is hearing all of these amazing actors I’m working with, these incredibly experienced professionals, look me in the eye and say, ‘You belong here. This is your place. This is…