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…
“I bet Jane Austen is spinning in her grave right now,” I overheard a matronly woman gleefully stating to a bored box office attendant, just seconds after purchasing a ticket for ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.’ The kid behind the counter, slightly startled to have been addressed in such a conversational tone (and by someone so OLD), merely shrugged,…
“The whole idea of storytelling has always been very appealing to me,” says full-time winemaker and part-time storyteller Bill Reading. Reading, founder of Sonoma Portworks, smiles as he adds, “I think I’ve been interested in the power of stories even longer than I’ve been making wine.” It’s been 22 years since Sonoma-resident Reading founded his…
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…
“Whenever I start telling someone I know about the play ‘Bad Dates,’ they almost always end up saying, ‘Wow! Did you write this yourself?’” director-actor Jennifer King said. “Because anyone who knows me, and my life, immediately thinks this story sound like something I would write.” “Bad Dates” — opening Feb. 5 at Cinnabar Theater…
Benefit concert announced to send Mary Gannon Graham’s ‘Mother Jones in Heaven’ to the Dublin Fringe Festival this Fall January 30, 2016 — In two sold-out Sonoma County productions of Si Kahn’s award-winning musical ‘Mother Jones in Heaven,’ actress-singer Mary Gannon Graham knocked out crowds with her stellar voice and heartbreaking performance. No she’s planning on taking…
The shaky state of America’s education system gets a less-than-passing grade in a new drama, now playing at the Sonoma Community Center, “Gidion’s Knot,” by playwright Johnna Adams, was named by the American Theatre Critics Association as one of the top three new plays of 2012. Charged with urgent, ripped-from-the-headlines immediacy, the twisty two-actress drama…
“Happy New Year,” says Daedalus Howell, author and journalist, toasting with a glass of his favorite, delicious red wine. “I’ve really been looking forward to talking about Spotlight, ever since I first saw it in November.” Howell, a Petaluma native, has spent years in Hollywood (his IMDB profile is crammed with short films bearing unusual names), followed…
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.…
North Bay Stage and Screen 