One cannot grow up in Sonoma County without gaining at least some awareness of who Jack London was, that he wrote books about wolves and dogs, and that his home is now a state park a mere 30-minute drive from Santa Rosa. This year, the county marks the centennial of London’s 1916 death with numerous…
It’s been 12 years since Stephen Walsh last played Tony the grape grower, in the classic Frank Loesser musical ‘The Most Happy Fella,’ at Cinnabar Theater. And to employ an over-picked cliché, in his second run of the show at Cinnabar, Walsh has only gotten better, deeper and rich—like a really, really good, well, you…
“I could see how that would be a little unnerving,” author John Langan says with a laugh, upon hearing that I had just watched the film Lights Out—about a creature who lives in darkness—at a theater where I was the one and only person, sitting in the dark. “This was probably not the best film to…
When the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in 1973—making most abortions legal in the United States for the first time—the decision marked the end of a very long road. But in Lisa Loomer’s remarkable new play Roe, running through Oct. 29 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, the playwright shows that the landmark Supreme Court decision is…
“A lot of adults haven’t figured out that storytelling isn’t just for kids anymore – that it’s something all ages can enjoy, and maybe be a little scandalized by,” says Bil Lepp, an acclaimed storyteller and “champion liar” who will be appearing at The Mystic Theater this weekend in a benefit for the upcoming Wine…
“I tried really hard to hate it.” So admits magician Christian Cagigal about Now You See Me 2, the rambunctious sequel to 2013’s sneaker-punch hit Now You See Me. The story of four bank-robbing Las Vegas magicians called the Four Horsemen (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher), the movie was embraced by audiences but criticized…
“When I know a film has a good message, whether it’s a science message or an environmental message,” says Kristi Draluck, kindergarten teacher at Prestwood Elementary School, “I can use that movie as a teaching tool. Movies like the Pixar films do get through to kids. When the movie shows animals or fish, or talks…
Hard work is an essential part of any artistic or financial success. Actor-singer-producer Brad Surosky, of Transcendence Theater Company, has learned that from personal experience – but he’s also learned that hard work is often not enough. Success also requires an additional little thing called luck. “So many things have had to line up perfectly…
“I’ve seen every one of the Universal Frankenstein movies,” declares lifelong horror fan Ross Lockhart, publisher and editor-in-chief of the North Bay’s award-winning book publishing company, Word Horde. “And I’ve seen most of the Hammer Pictures Frankenstein movies. But I’ve deliberately skipped things like that recent one, the thing with Harry Potter as Igor.” “That would be Victor Frankenstein, with…
Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther,” released to an unsuspecting public in 1963, is best remembered as the film that gave the world Inspector Clouseau. Unstoppably clumsy, relentlessly persistent, the infuriatingly funny crime-stopper is arguably Peter Sellers most enduring and beloved character. But he was never intended to be a leading man. Initially, Clouseau was merely…
