Uncomfortable. Amused. Depressed. Angry. Confused. Challenged. Hopeful. Those are all states of mind and emotions I experienced while sitting in the audience of Pass Over, the Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu play that’s in the middle of its West Coast Premiere run at the Marin Theatre Company. The show that reopened a pandemic-shuttered Broadway runs in Mill Valley…
There may be no more venerable fictional character than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. From his first appearance in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet through a series of Hollywood adaptations and innumerable British television series, the deerstalker cap-clad detective and his associate Dr. Watson have entertained audiences for well over a century. The character…
The Marin Shakespeare Company announced today the appointment of Raphael Massie as the company’s new Artistic Director. After 33 years at the company helm, co-founder Robert Currier will transition to Artistic Director Emeritus and continue to play a large part in the development of the Company’s indoor venue – The Center for Performing Arts, Education…
Omicron and a Health Order put North Bay theatre on pause (again) North Bay theatre came back with a vengeance in mid-2021 when restrictions were lifted and theaters could once more welcome audiences inside. Almost every theatre company in the region returned to live production with solo shows, comedies, and the occasional musical. The New…
2021 was supposed to be the year that live theatre came roaring back, and it did… for a while. By the end of the year, that roar had been replaced by a hacking cough symptomatic of exposure to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Theatres once again began to cancel or postpone performances as casts…
Directors will often change the setting or time period of an older, well-known play in the hopes of making it more accessible to contemporary audiences. Modernized Shakespeare plays are usually the best examples of this practice. Similarly, the Novato Theater Company has taken Oscar Wilde’s community-theatre staple The Importance of Being Earnest and plopped it…
The circle of life takes center stage in the North Bay with two plays featuring females dealing with challenges ranging from child rearing to senior living. Petaluma’s Cinnabar Theater invites you to Cry It Out while the Ross Valley Players would love for you to come and pull a Ripcord. Proof of COVID vaccination and…
Fall is the time when a theatre company’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of a new season. Announcements are made, rehearsals are scheduled, and the sound of buzzing returns to auditoriums as audiences enter and take their seats in support of live performance. After being dark for a year-and-a-half, California’s June “reopening” gave theatre artists…
For theatre lovers who prefer their Shakespeare ‘al fresco’ – or for those who are still hesitant about venturing inside – two North Bay companies are presenting free outdoor productions of Bard-centric plays. They are adhering to all city, county, and state COVID protocols and the casts and crews have been fully vaccinated. Mill Valley’s…
Theaters throughout the North Bay have finally started to receive disbursements from the Federal Government’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program. The program, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, was signed into law in December 2020. It offers substantial grants to producing organizations and entertainment venues to replace lost revenue as a result of COVID-19…
North Bay Stage and Screen 