Review: “The Plot Against America”, the complete series

It would be ideal if prior to viewing HBO’s six part adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2004 alternate history The Plot Against America, viewers had read the best selling novel. However, given our current political reality, some may say that the possibility of a hypothetical take over of the American presidency by a menacing anti democratic…

Review: “Reunion” & “Dark Pony”

With the shelter-in-place order estimated to be in effect for quite some time, many theatre companies have turned to streaming archival footage of shows previously produced to maintain a connection with their audiences. Bay Area director Patrick Nims has come up with a new entity that’s diving headfirst into the pandemic-necessitated world of on-line theatre.…

Review: “The Cripple of Inishmaan” in Santa Rosa

The renovation and remodeling of Santa Rosa Junior College’s 80-year old Burbank Auditorium is now complete. The venerable 600-seat theatre has been reconfigured into two performance venues; a 400-seat proscenium arch space and a 200-seat 3/4 thrust studio theatre. The JC’s Theatre Arts Department, which has had to take their shows “on the road” for…

Review: “The Glass Menagerie” in Ross

In the pantheon of great American plays, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is surely in the upper tier. Perhaps the most personal of Williams’ works, its name recognition, small cast, simple setting, and straight-forward storytelling have made it a staple of community theatres. Its ease of staging, however, belies its complexity and the quality of…

OSF’s ‘Bring Down the House,’ parts 1 and 2

  Bring Down the House By Rosa Joshi and Kate Wisniewski Adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy   The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland is drawing close to wrapping up its ten-year-long commitment to staging all of Shakespeare’s plays within a single decade. That’s 36 shows in ten seasons, with crowd-pleasers like “A Midsummer…

Review: “The Last Ship” in San Francisco

The plight of British laborers dealing with the changing economic world in the 1980’s has been a major plot element in a number of successful musicals. From the redundant steel workers of The Full Monty to the striking coal miners of Billy Elliot, the issue of (mostly) men dealing with job elimination often took a…

Heroines, Harpies and Harlots take over North Bay stage

Sonoma County’s contribution to the inaugural Bay Area Women’s Theatre Festival is a two-weekend mini-festival being presented by 6th Street Playhouse under the umbrella title Heroines, Harpies, and Harlots – A Woman Speaks. With performances from February 28 through March 8, this celebration of women’s place in history has been written, produced, and directed by…