by Harry Duke * Much has been said and written about the (then) Marin Theatre Company’s 2017 production of Thomas Bradshaw’s Thomas and Sally. Bradshaw’s historical fiction used a conversation between college students as the framing device to explore the possible relationship between Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings. To say the…
by Cari Lynn Pace * Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks weaves historical facts with imagined emotions in this play-within-a-play about Thomas Jefferson and his slave mistress Sally Hemmings. It’s a powerhouse story that digs deep into the consciousness of today’s sense of propriety. A present-day small theatre troupe rehearses and wrestles with their unfinished period…
by Cari Lynn Pace * In Eureka Day, a multiculturally sensitive school set in Berkeley, enlightenment is virtuous and facts are probably suspicious. A mirror could reveal other hamlets where this theme reigns supreme. Whether you put your trust in the CDC, where RFK Jr. is the chief mountebank selling snake oil, or the medical…
Marin Theatre announced earlier today the cancellation of a total of five performances of their season-ending production of Do You Feel Anger? The show, after several previews, was supposed to officially open this evening. All shows through Saturday, June 14 have been canceled. Performances are scheduled to resume with the Sunday, June 15 matinee. Marin…
Marin theatre companies have their collective fingers crossed that audiences will continue to come out and support them in 2025. The New Year in theatre begins with a classic comedy, a musical adaptation of a Sundance Film Festival favorite, and a political drama that was banned for decades in its native England. The Novato Theatre…
It’s been more than forty years since Harvey Fierstein exploded into our cultural consciousness with Torch Song Trilogy. At a time when being gay could get you thrown out of the military and the concept of marriage equality was considered a fantasy, the story of a gay man (and a drag queen at that) searching…
In describing how he came up with the idea for his new film Day of the Fight, actor-turned-director Jack Huston (Ben Hur, Kill Your Darlings, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) told the opening night crowd at the Mill Valley Film Festival that it was the film’s star, Michael Pitt — with whom he worked on…
I have loved the idea of film festivals ever since I moved to Northern California in autumn of 1981 and ‒ while applying for a job in downtown Mill Valley ‒ saw a stack of programs for the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival. What is now a world-renowned, 10-day-long cinematic showcase was then celebrating its…
Watch it, Mill Valley! Your quiet little burg is currently under siege from what may be (according to some pundits and politicians) the greatest threat our nation faces in these troubled times. Lock your windows and bolt your doors because attendees of the latest show at the Throckmorton Theatre have reported multiple sightings of… drag…
Marin County’s venerable Curtain Theatre returns to the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre in Mill Valley for their more-or-less annual offering of Shakespeare al fresco. This year it’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, what many consider the Bard’s first (but still lesser-known) play. If you find Shakespeare difficult to follow, fear not! The plot is fairly simple…
