I have been serving as a weekly theater critic for over 16 years, beginning with my review of Poona the Fuckdog at Actors Theatre in June 2001. Reviewing (certain complications aside) has been a constant joy and challenge, an awesome responsibility and a truly life-changing privilege, one I’ve taken very seriously. I’ve loved every minute…
Earlier this week, the Marquee Theater Journalist Association held a party at Confluence Taproom in Santa Rosa, announcing the winners of the second annual MTJA awards. I was one of the presenters, along with fellow MTJA members Harry Duke, Alexa Chipman and Barry Willis. A total of 15 recipients were named. Santa Rosa Junior College’s…
Actor and writer Brittany Law—a “life-long Star Wars fan”—was thinking about Episode VII: The Force Awakens when a bizarre idea occurred to her at roughly the speed of light. “I was watching the movie,” Law recalls, “and I suddenly realized, ‘This would make a great musical!’” She was as serious as a Mynock chewing on a power cable. “It just seemed…
“I have to tell you, I used to have a pretty snobby opinion of Neil Simon,” confesses director Jennifer King. She’s just called for a break, roughly halfway through a busy rehearsal day at Cinnabar Theater. The company is readying a new production of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” and as the play’s two lead…
“These, over here,” points Caitlynn Adlard, smiling modestly as she gestures to a nearby array of shelves, “are our heads.” Well, yes they are. Those are heads. To be specific, mannequin heads. Lightbulb-shaped and largely featureless, the disembodied crania are mostly bald at the moment, though several of them do boast wildly elaborate and very…
Every summer, since 2012, the Transcendence Theatre Company takes over the gorgeous, open-air winery ruins at Glen Ellen’s Jack London State Historic Park, for a months-long series of shows succinctly and appropriately called ‘Broadway Under the Stars.’ Generally, the show features Broadway tunes (and others), performed by an energetic troupe of Broadway performers, staging effervescently…
It is generally accepted that William Shakespeare—aka the Immortal Bard, aka the Upstart Crow, aka the Sweet Swan of Avon, aka the greatest playwright the world has ever known—wrote 37 plays during his lifetime, which ended exactly 400 years ago last April 23. He possibly wrote more. Possibly a lot more. Possibly even a play…
“William Butler Yeats was an astonishingly complex individual,” says harpist and storyteller Patrick Ball, describing the legendary Irish poet and playwright — and sometime politician and mystic philosopher — whose mysterious, atmospheric poetry has solidly placed its creator within the ranks of the greatest literary figures of the 20th Century. “He was brilliant of course,…
“I just turned 70,” says actor/producer George Maguire. “But in many ways, as an artist particularly, I feel like I’m just starting out.” After a lifetime appearing in other people’s plays and films, and teaching others how to do the same, Maguire is finally venturing into the field of developing and producing his own projects.…
“Before we called it PTSD, people with post-traumatic stress syndrome were just considered weirdos, people who couldn’t or wouldn’t shake off their bad experiences,” says Sonoma director-actor-teacher Jim Jarrett. He’s the director of the acclaimed wartime drama “Home Front,” which will be running five consecutive days next week at Andrews Hall, presented by Sonoma Arts…
