KSRO Interview – “Illyria” Cast Members

Guests on my Thursday, June 14 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon included director Craig Miller and cast members Carmen Mitchell and Tracy Hinman from the 6th Street Playhouse production of Illyria. Click below to hear that interview. *** For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com  

Review: “Honky” in Santa Rosa

“Everyone’s a little bit racist” sing the puppets in the musical Avenue Q. Playwright Greg Kalleres takes that thought and runs with it in Honky, running now at Left Edge Theatre. It opens up with a commercial for Skymax 16’s, the latest craze in athletic footwear. It ends with the tag line “S’up now?” which…

Main Stage West Announces 2018 – 2019 Season

Main Stage West revealed its 2018 – 2019 season at a season announcement party held Sunday night at its Sebastopol theatre. Artistic Director Elizabeth Craven announced the following productions: Savage Wealth – a world premiere comedy by Bob Duxbury running August 31 through September 16 and directed by John Shillington The Night Alive – Conor McPherson’s…

Reviews: “Lost in Yonkers” in Healdsburg and “The Time of Your Life” in Cloverdale

Two Pulitzer Prize–winning dramas have hit North Bay stages. The first is the Raven Players’ production of Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers. Simon, whose best-known works are comedies tinged with a little melancholy (The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys), won the 1991 Pulitzer for Yonkers, a melancholy family drama tinged with comedy. With their mother deceased and their…

Review: “The Realistic Joneses” in Santa Rosa

One of the oddest plays I’ve seen in a while, Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses isn’t particularly real in its examination of two suburban couples who share the same surname. It does, however, often ring true. Set in an unnamed town, Bob and Jennifer Jones (Chris Schloemp and Melissa Claire) are spending a quiet evening…

Reviews: “Buried Child” in Sebastopol; “Good People” in Petaluma

The choices in life that haunt you take center stage in two terrific productions running now in North Bay theatres. Sebastopol’s Main Stage West is presenting Sam Shepard’s Buried Child while Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater has David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People. Shepard’s forty-year-old, Pulitzer-Prize-winning look at the implosion of the American nuclear family seems as fresh as…

Top Ten Torn Tickets

Another year of theater has passed, and I’ve got a cigar box filled with torn ticket stubs. It’s time to reflect on the shows that moved me most to laugh, cry and change my view of the world. I present, once again, my 10 favorite theatrical experiences of the last 12 months. ‘Bondage’ (AlterTheater) Gorgeously written by…