In sports, the term ‘ringer’ generally refers to the practice of using a clearly superior competitor in order to gain an unfair advantage. In theatrical terms, it can be used to describe the importation of outside talent in the hope of drawing a larger-than-normal audience. In both cases, the hope is that the player/performer will…
Effective immediately, the Spreckels Theatre Company in Rohnert Park has reduced ticket prices for young people 18 and under to $10 plus a $2 handling charge. This new pricing policy applies to all shows, including musicals, whether the ticket is purchased in advance or at the door. “We have made this change because Spreckels is…
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…
According to representatives of Marin Theatre Company, it is expected that the PG&E electricity shutdowns announced for portions of Mill Valley will NOT include the theater where Mary Katherine Nagle’s play “Sovereignty” opened last week. The same is not the case with the nearby Mill Valley Film Festival, which (after announcing earlier in the evening…
The SRJC Theatre Arts Department has announced the cancellation of both their scheduled Wednesday, October 9 and Thursday, October 10 performances of The Good Doctor due to the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff. All SRJC campuses will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday. A decision on the performances scheduled through the weekend will be made…
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…
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: **********
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…
My guests on the Thursday, September 26 theatre segment on KSRO’s The Drive with Steve Jaxon were Jaime Love, Stephen Cole, and David Evans from the Sonoma Arts Live world premiere production of Merman’s Apprentice. Click below to listen: **********
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?…
North Bay Stage and Screen 