Review: “Cesar Died Today” in Cloverdale

Mounting a production of a little-known play in these pandemic and inflationary-influenced times is something of a risk for most theater companies. Audiences have yet to return in full-force to live theatre, so a significant leap of faith is required to produce material that has little to no track record. Healdsburg’s Raven Players and the…

KSRO interview – “Cesar Died Today”

My guests on a special January 18 “Theatre Wednesday” segment on the The Drive with Steve Jaxon & Harry Duke on KSRO were playwright Gabriel Fraire and cast member Sky Hernandez from the Raven Players/Cloverdale Performing Arts Center co-production of Cesar Died Today. Click below to listen: ********** Click the graphic below for more info:

Review: “Clybourne Park” in Healdsburg

The roots of racism run deep in the American housing market. Playwright Lorraine Hansberry addressed the issue in 1959 with A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by an African-American woman performed on Broadway and the first to have an African-American director. Playwright Bruce Norris took Hansberry’s story and in 2010 wrote a…

Bard Bud – Raven Players’ Steven David Martin on Shakespeare, outdoor theatre, and the twist he’s brought to “Twelfth Night”

After bringing live theatre to Healdsburg’s Downtown Plaza recently with a successful run of Woody Guthrie’s American Song, the Raven Players return to the West Plaza Park with some ol’, reliable Shakespeare al fresco. They’ve been producing Shakespeare (or Shakespeare-ish) plays there for a few years now and have a production of Twelfth Night running…

Preview: “Woody Guthrie’s American Song” in Healdsburg

The Raven Players bring live outdoor entertainment to Healdsburg’s Downtown Plaza with their production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song: A Truly American Musical. Peter Glazer’s adaptation of the writings and songs of “America’s premiere folk poet” runs weekends July 1 through July 10. The show, which premiered in 1988, has Northern California roots as playwright…

Review: “The Book of Will” in Healdsburg

William Shakespeare, who wrote a couple of plays, never had one actually published in his lifetime. They existed, often in pieces, in hand-scrawled scripts and in the memories of the actors who performed them. If not for Shakespeare’s friends and colleagues’ efforts to preserve his work for posterity, high school drama students would have a…