Review: “Little Shop of Horrors” in Kentfield

When Little Shop of Horrors opened in New York in 1982, it was in a small 98-seat Off-Off-Broadway theatre. Its success led to its move Off-Broadway to Manhattan’s 299-seat Orpheum Theatre where it ran for five years. It had a chance to move to the Great White Way, but playwright/lyricist Howard Ashman felt the show…

Marin’s AlterTheater Announces New Position and New Hire

San  Rafael-based AlterTheater has named its first-ever Producing Artistic Director, to help position and lead the company in its next 15 years of success and community involvement. Following a national search, San Francisco State graduate and experienced Bay Area theater professional Alicia Coombes has been chosen  to fill the position. “I’m so excited to be…

KSRO Interview: “The Good Doctor”

My guests on the Thursday, October 3 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Leslie McCauley, Haley Hollis, and Riley Craig from the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Department production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor. Click below to listen: **********

Review: “Merman’s Apprentice” in Sonoma

It’s a virtual Merman-palooza in the North Bay as two theatre companies present ‘musical fables’ with Ethel Merman connections. Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse has Gypsy running through Oct. 20 while Sonoma Arts Live has Merman’s Apprentice, an original musical with a fictional Merman character, running through Oct. 13. Merman’s Apprentice is a throw-back to…

Opinion: Examining why a play is a play

Several years ago, at the informal first reading of a new play in the living room of a friend, actor-educator Danielle Caine, one of the dozen-or-so folks there to give feedback, said something to the playwright that I’ll never forget. “Why is this a play?” she asked. “You have a story you want to tell?…

Reviews: “The Haunting of Hill House” in Monte Rio & “Arsenic and Old Lace” in Healdsburg

Halloween comes early to North Bay stages with two productions more commonly seen around that particular holiday. Monte Rio’s Curtain Call Theatre recreates The Haunting of Hill House through Sep. 28 while Healdsburg’s Raven Players present the serial-killing comedy Arsenic and Old Lace through Sep. 29. Shirley Jackson’s 1958 novel The Haunting of Hill House…