Review: “Oslo” in Mill Valley

At a time when the language of diplomacy has been reduced to a 140-character tweet transmitted at 3 am, it’s good to be reminded of the men and women for whom the quest for peace demanded actual thought and personal interaction. J. T. Rogers’ Oslo, now running in its West Coast premiere at the Marin…

Review: “Twelfth Night” in Ross

Around in one form or another since 1930, the Ross Valley Players have long been entertaining local audiences with a mixture of world-renown classics, Broadway hits, and contemporary plays. Notably missing from their decades-long season’s lists has been anything written by William Shakespeare. The opening production of their 89th season rectifies that. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night…

Feast of Film

To a vast number of local film fans, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival is like a 10-day-long Roman feast, a cinematic bacchanal in which roasted pigs and hand-peeled grapes have been metaphorically substituted with movies, movies and more movies. Running through mid-October, the 2018 MVFF—now in its 41st year—will screen more than 200 movies…

Review: “The River Bride” in Kentfield

Marisela Treviño Orta’s The River Bride returns to Marin County as the season opener for the College of Marin’s Drama Program. Last seen in a bare-bones production in a vacant San Rafael storefront courtesy of Alter Theater, Orta’s play is an interesting combination of a Brazilian folk tale with an M. Night Shyamalan film script…

North Bay Companies Snag 43 Noms for 2018 TBA Awards

Theatre Bay Area has announced the nominees for their 5th Annual TBA Awards and North Bay companies have snagged 43 nominations. The awards will be presented on Monday, November 5th at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. The TBA Awards are designed to honor excellence in professionally oriented theatre through a peer-based, Bay Area-wide adjudication process…

Review: “A Chorus Line” in Novato

A Chorus Line really isn’t done much by community theatres these days. The 1976 multi-award-winning musical requires about two dozen experienced dancer/singers to fill out the cast; a requirement that’s tough to fulfill.  If you’re gonna do it, best to start with a director with over four decades of experience in dance and choreography and…

2018 – 2019 North Bay Theatre Season Opens

September marks the opening of the new artistic season for many North Bay theatre companies. Here’s some of what they have in store for local audiences: Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater (cinnabartheater.org) transforms itself into Berlin’s Kit Kat Club and bids you willkommen, bienvenue, and welcome to the classic Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret. Broadway veteran Michael…

Review: “The Comedy of Errors” in Santa Rosa

Like an Elizabethan game of whack-a-mole, as soon as North Bay theatre companies knock out one outdoor summer Shakespeare production, another one seems to pop up. Marin Shakespeare brought us Pericles at Dominican University’s Forest Meadows amphitheater, the Raven did A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Healdsburg’s Seghesio Winery, and Shakespeare in the Cannery did Shakespeare…

Novato Theater Co. announces two-night appearance of Cash & King

On Friday and Saturday, July 13 and 14, Novato Theater Company will host the popular Sonoma County-based touring show Cash & King, featuring singer-actor Steven Kent and a band of local musicians putting a highly personal spin on the traditional tribute show. During the two-act production – which has been playing to sold-out houses in…