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…
“Am I supposed to be retelling my creature’s story or confessing my own?” asks Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein and the protagonist in Petaluma playwright David Templeton’s latest theatrical piece “Mary Shelley’s Body,” now in its premiere engagement at Sebastopol’s Main Stage West. Templeton, the Argus-Courier features editor, whose previous plays are autobiographical, ventures…
In the average 24-hour-day, we make thousands of decisions, never knowing when a seemingly innocuous choice – grabbing coffee at Starbucks (where the future love of our life is standing in line) or Peets (where a runaway car is about to kill 12 patrons) – could have life-changing repercussions. Speaking of choices. Right now, at…
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…
The late, great Ann Richards, former governor of Texas and certified political icon, had a colorful style and a commanding presence that inspired a generation of women, and a fair number of men, to enter the world of politics themselves. After Richard’s death of cancer in 2006, Emmy-winning actor Holland Taylor (‘Two-and-a-Half Men,’ ‘The L-Word,’ ‘Legally…
There are works of art that are exciting and captivating to experience, but which quickly lose their initial spark of pleasure, diminishing in brightness the more you think of them. Guards at the Taj, by Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), does the exact opposite. It leaves one a bit stunned and baffled, then…
“The film has a very poetic heartbeat, perhaps because it’s based on a book written by a poet,” observes Prartho Sereno, sipping a cup of coffee this rainy Saturday, while discussing The Zookeeper’s Wife, a new film based on the bestselling book of the same name. “It’s funny, I know, but different poems kept coming to…
Last weekend, two Neil Simon plays opened in the North Bay, each a demonstration of the legendary playwright’s mastery of rat-a-tat dialogue, skillful one-liners and flawed but relatable characters. At San Rafael’s Belrose Theater, Marin Onstage presents The Sunshine Boys, Simon’s 1972 hit about a long-feuding former vaudeville duo lured into reuniting for a television special.…
‘Hold still and sip the pain.” It’s a brief, swift line, uttered kindly but fiercely by the wise, wary slave Azucar (Cathleen Riddley), combing the hair of the impulsive, 13-year-old Zuri (Dezi Soley). Azucar’s simple sentence is a strong early example of how playwright Star Finch will be weaving words together in the stunning world…
“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…
