Review: “Two Gentlemen of Verona” in Mill Valley

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…

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…

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…

Review: “The Beard of Avon” in Cloverdale

The centuries-old debate on just who did write the plays attributed to William Shakespeare takes center stage at the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center with their presentation of Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon.  Freed comes down squarely on the side of those who think Edward De Vere deserves the lion’s share of the credit and…

Reviews: “Twelfth Night” in Mill Valley & “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” in Healdsburg

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…

The Independent Eye Closes

One of the most unique theatre entities in the North Bay has closed shop. After 46 years traveling and entertaining the world with their unique style of performance art and puppetry, Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller have decided The Independent Eye will no longer be an operating concern. They’ve released the following statement: “As 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…