‘There is never an easy time to do something that has never been done before.” True enough. In author-playwright Mary Spletter’s world premiere, Arches, Balance and Light, those words are more than just encouraging advice offered to a determined young pioneer; they form a kind of philosophical spine to a play that, in its own right,…

Last year, Spreckels Theater Company staged an unconventional revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel,’ a play many have heard of but few have ever actually seen. Eschewing complex sets, shoreline scenery—and, you know, an actual carousel—director Gene Abravaya inverted the whole concept, hauling the orchestra up from the pit, and letting the show unfold in…

Mirrors are both set dressing and metaphor in a pair of recently opened plays in which the characters take a hard look at their world, their choices and their naked souls. Set in a tiny South African community in 1974, Athol Fugard’s three-actor The Road to Mecca, running at Main Stage West, was inspired by the…

Short plays are tricky to pull off, but when done well, they can deliver a lot in a small package. With Valentine’s Day looming, two local companies are offering separate showcases of short, comedic plays, all written in the language of love. In the intimate Studio Theater at 6th Street Playhouse, From Russia with Love is a high-spirited…

The late August Wilson’s penultimate play, the supremely lyrical and gorgeously written 2003 drama Gem of the Ocean, may be set in 1904, but its themes stretch purposefully back in time to the beginning of New World slavery and reach forward to the present, when African Americans are still fighting many of the same struggles. This…

Good cop. Bad cop. It’s a formula so mainstream that it was the basis of a character in the ‘The LEGO Movie,’ where Liam Neeson voiced the dual-personalities of a tiny plastic policeman, named Good Cop-Bad Cop, who was literally two-faced, depending on the situation. Even when kind of disturbing, he was kind of adorable.…

It’s been just over four years since Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors made its mad, merry pratfall onto the stage of public awareness—first in London, then New York. In that short length of time, Bean’s preposterous 1960s-set update of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century farce A Servant of Two Masters has already become a modern comedy classic, scooping up awards…

Rating: ★★★½ (Out of five) — (Theater-at-Large) A strong ensemble of North Bay performers, bolstered by uniformly fine singing voices, is the primary magic ingredient in Theater-at-Large’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Resurrected for a reprise run at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, this is an encore staging of the delightfully dark fairy-tale mashup that…

Rating: ★★★★ (Out of five) — Cinnabar Theater “Sometimes,” exhorts actress Sharon E. Scott, stirringly embodying the rich voice and sassy-sweet attitude of the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. “Sometimes, God turns your life upside down—so you can help turn things right side up.” In the sensational, heartbreaking and soul-lifting biographical theater piece Mahalia Jackson: Just…