Staged Readings

You Miss Me, You Really Miss Me!

2006-12-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

A little publicist told me that someone on the blogosphere misses me.
Ah, Peter, you're sweet.
I'll consider it.

Ghost Posting

2006-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

I am still on hiatus, but our friend over at Radio Free Mike sent me a link to a piece he wrote for Spiegel Online about the Rachel Corrie controversy. Check it out.

Also, even though I'm on hiatus, if you have something you'd like me to post, send it over. You can comment or email (if you're one of the lucky ones that have my email addresses).

Back in -- Minutes

2006-04-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Guess I should probably officially call this a hiatus.
Simply: oversaturation.

I don't have the guts to delete over a year's worth of blog posts, so I may return in ??(??) minutes.

Free Hint for Actors

2006-04-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all you enthusiastic actors, here's a free little hint for you:
If the audition listing says to call for an appointment only on specific days, call on only those specific days. Don't call on any other day.
Why would you want your first impression to be that you don't know how to follow directions?

Last Night at the Magic

2006-04-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

If anyone attended:
"Searching for a Soul: American Theatre in Times of Fear"
at the Magic Theatre last night, I would love to hear about it.
Post those comments!

The Playgoer Uncovered

2006-04-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Nation outed the Playgoer in a cover story on the My Name Is Rachel Corrie controversy. Well, I still won't uncover the Playgoer here, but check out that blog for the whole debate.

What Do Prince and Sandra Oh Have in Common?

2006-04-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, besides the obvious?
They're both getting Visionary Awards at East West Players 40th anniversary gala in, uh, Universal City. (Sandra Oh's photo is not on the linked page; but it was in the e-mail Prince just sent out this weekend.)
By the way, let's welcome Prince back to San Francisco, where he's now living (most) of the time.

Communal Art

2006-04-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

We came across this art installation on the beach. Outside art?

What's next? Theatre?
(Most photos taken by my "theatre date.")

Beckett Revised

2006-03-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

My "theatre date" created this portrait, which he calls "South Park Does: Waiting for Godot."
Create your own South Park characters here.

Annual Critics Circle Complaints

2006-03-29T21:47:00.000-08:00

This week a comment came in to an older post regarding the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle:

"Once again the bay area critics circle has proved itself a sham. Do these people spend any time in marin or the north bay at all. It's enough to make you want to get out of this little pond and become sashimi in a real theater community"

Well, I'd be lying if I said this was the first time, or even the 50th time, I heard such a comment. And I'm certainly no apologist for the Circle. I suspect, though, that the deal is most of these critics write for smaller papers, and their editors don't want them to review anything outside that beat. So after attending up to three shows a week in their beat, the last thing they want to do is haul ass across the Bay Area to see a show that they aren't going to review, meaning, that they won't get paid for. If this is really the deal, it's the main problem with the Circle. For better or worse, the theatre community sees the Critics Circle Award as perhaps the best in the area. The Circle members, if they want to maintain that reputation (or gain it back, depending on how you feel), should step up and see shows all over the Bay Area, otherwise their awards have no authority.

But for all the companies' and theatre workers' complaining, they still proudly announce what awards they've won in marketing materials, in bios, on websites, and so on. So the community must think that the Circle still does have authority.

(If you're lost, here's the list of this year's Critics Circle nominees and winners.)

Musical Chairs

2006-03-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

Lots of comings and goings in the Bay Area and nationally.

The biggest news came through my email this week: Ben Cameron is leaving TCG this summer for the Doris Duke Foundation. This was not a surprise, as Cameron apparently intended from the beginning to stay with TCG for about 10 years, and it's been about 10 years.

Most knew that David Gluck left his position as managing director of Magic Theatre. The new managing director? David Jobin, who leaves his post at San Jose Rep to join Magic Theatre. John McCluggage is also leaving San Jose Rep.

And, Randy Adams is leaving his post as managing director of TheatreWorks to pursue other interests.

Oh, and Marc Vogl, one of the Killing My Lobster cofounders, leaves the company this summer.

Something in the water? Or maybe just too much rain?

Star Film Critic

2006-03-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Prince Gomolvilas's 75-year-old neighbor has the most brilliant review of Curious George. Move over, Anthony Lane.

Our Lady of 121st Street

2006-03-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

SF Playhouse productions just get better and better. I'm amazed at what they've been able to do in just a few years. They've offered Equity contracts with time towards the health plan, and so have snagged some of the best talent in the area, certainly evidenced in the steller ensemble cast of Our Lady of 121st Street.

Deftly directed by artistic director Bill English, the West Coast premiere of Our Lady--well, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The script rivaled South Park in its humor (that's a compliment), and the cast displayed great comic timing on opening night. Hansford Prince (great to have him back in town for this production) rocked in his portrayal of Rooftop, especially during his confessional scenes. In the second one he had the audience roaring, then had them completely silent as his character turned to more serious matters. Keith Burkland was nicely conflicted and exasperated as Father Lux in these scenes. Gabe Marin also stood out as the detective Balthazar, who carries a tragic emotional burden. Well, I could go down the cast list--Ian Walker as the denial-ridden Flip, Ashkon Davaron turning in a sweetly sympathetic performance as Pinky, Stephanie Prentice as the embattled Norca. And on.

The one or two nitpicky things I could point out is that Guirgis's scenes, which start out strong, kind of peeter out, and because there are so many episodes, this becomes more and more apparent. But because it's so consistent, I suspect it's intentional. Also, the cast--probably riding on the adrenalin of a very appreciative and willing to laugh often opening night audience--skimmed over the more dramatic portions of the script. Hansford and Gabe were not as guilty of this, but Gabe's last scene as Balthazar talking about his son was so moving that I realized later that the script was so much more complex than I first thought. Luckily, the cast is so well-tuned so early that they will be able to find and live in these tragic moments more fully, then switch to the comedic moments.

But, like with all nitpicky things, they don't really take away from the enjoyment of the play. People often ask me, when they find out what I do, what are the best shows playing right now. Our Lady of 121st Street is on the top of my list.

And, by the way, you daily newspapers, where were you on press night?! This is a West Coast premiere and a steller cast. OK, world premieres are great too, but hopefully if you were at one of them, it was a world premiere by a local playwright.

4 Adverbs

2006-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Word for Word's production of Daniel Handler's (Lemony Snicket, for those who live on Mars) 4 Adverbs was quite the event, especially press night last Friday, which packed Project Artaud Theater.

One of the things I like about Word for Word is that their audiences, save for press night, are almost complete strangers to me. Usually, at most theatres, I see a couple of civilians amongst the geeks, but at Word for Word I hardly see any geeks. Except the literary ones. I especially saw the literary geeks at 4 Adverbs, where they could get a sneak peek at Handler's forthcoming novel, Adverbs, which isn't coming out until like May. I heard that the cast had to sign papers saying they wouldn't show the scripts to anyone.

It was a perfectly lovely evening: smart, witty, fun. The evening was rather oddly structured, though, with three adverbs, intermission, one adverb. But the adverb before intermission, featuring the wonderfully genuine Beth Wilmurt, was appropriate before an intermission, for no other reason than it struck a nice tone. I'm afraid I didn't connect at all with the last adverb, and so the evening, which started strong, kinda peetered out for me.

But there was a lovely reception afterward, where I chatted with a local dancer/artist and another fairly well-known local fiction writer, who was quite taken with what Word for Word does with text, so much so that he actually expressed the notion of handing them some of his stuff and saying, Can you do this with my work? One of my old creative writing professors asked me if playwrights had more fun (than say novelists or poets). Perhaps they do.

In Case of Emergency

2006-03-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

OK, so does anyone else think this new state (or whatever) law that requires theatres to make a pre-show curtain announcement explicitly pointing out the exits is just plain stupid? And annoying?

Before a performance of Master Builder, Aurora announced "A new state law requires us to point out the exits...." And the audience laughed incredulously. Some have got more fun, like ACT's announcement before Gem of the Ocean, which features Gregory Wallace in character, sarcasm and all.

OK, yeah, in the unlikely event that terrorists decide the way to bring down the country's economy is to attack a local theatre, I'm sure the audience in question would love to know in advance which way they should start running.

But in the meantime, after the cell phones and the no photos and the Equity and the candy wrappers and now the exits, jeez, it's all turning into a Shakespearean prologue.

Gem

2006-02-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

Ahh, you don't really want to hear what I thought of Gem of the Ocean, do you?

I mean, if a theatre writer doesn't write about the show until like two weeks after it opens, she usually thinks, What's the point? The Chronicle already made the bold statement that the play was"striving to fulfill its place in American theater history, at the expense of its dramatic integrity." Well, like the Chron, I can forgive it that.

So, two weeks later what stays with me is Wilson's intense poetry, his sharp dialogue where every word works doubletime (I'm especially thinking of the aching scenes between Citizen and Black Mary). Really, those are my reasons for seeing the play.

Getting It Wrong

2006-02-25T17:46:00.000-08:00

As much as I'm all for new work and for the Bay Area being a player on the national new play scene, I have to point out Ben Brantley's negative review of Grodin's The Right Kind of People, which had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre, directed by Chris Smith, who helmed the NY production as well.

Really, the big issue I have is that Brantley states the play was "a popular success at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco." Uh, excuse me? I wonder where Mr. Brantley is getting his facts. I don't suppose he bothered to look up the Chronicle's review? Because that was far from glowing. If the SF production was at all popular, it was because the play had the best actors in the area--then the script promptly wasted their talent. I don't know one person who thought the production was successful or that the script didn't need work. So, there's Mr. Brantley telling the nation that San Francisco thought this was a good play as if we were dumb enough not to know a good play if it bit us in the ass.

What I do appreciate about the Magic's production and Smith's philosophy of developing new work is that it's not about the end product. If more artistic directors truly believed this, then the new work resurgance in the Bay Area would be stronger. The only quibble I have with the Magic premiering People is that a lot of local playwrights could have written better--but then, they wouldn't have already had an "in" to the NY scene.

SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle

2006-02-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

A little login to my StatCounter reveals that many people have recently visited by way of Googling "Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominations 2005."

Fear not, intrepid drama geeks! Those nominations should post to the Theatre Bay Area site within the next week or so.

Olympic-itis

2006-02-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

I'm addicted to the Olympics, which is where I've been the past couple of weeks. No, I don't mean I was in Torino; I was making quite a big dent in my year-old sofa, and somehow this will-sucking sofa prevented me from even posting my whereabouts.

One week of Olympics is fine. By the second week, you're an addict. You sit in front of the TV almost every night till midnight waiting for some major climax that never comes, yet you can't tear yourself away. Also by the second week, a bit of self-loathing creeps in. Hour after hour of ripped bodies pushed to the limit of human endurance, and I've spent two weeks on my ass eating Godiva chocolates. My favorite parts are when the announcers say, "At 27, she would be the oldest woman to ever win a gold medal in figure skating." God, and I was feeling good about the early 30s.

Yesterday, after watching Sasha Cohen yet again fail to put two programs together, I announced the end of my figure skating affair. It won't last. I can't shake ever shake it for long. Even so, who would have ever thought that the most exciting figure skating event would be ice dancing? Yes, they were always divas, but the falls, the fights! You gotta love the Italians, who one minute before their program wouldn't even look at each other and glared at each other before their program started. (This is where we started playing MST3K with the TV: "'You better not fall this time,' she says. 'Or I get my mafia uncle to whack your kneecaps.' And, 'I get a dead horse's head and shove it up your ass.'") And then after the program, cry and hug.

I still did manage to get to some theatre. ACT was good enough to schedule press night of Gem of the Ocean on the only night figure skating wasn't on, and I did see two or three other shows, which I will post about shortly.

Dinner Theatre: Sort Of

2006-02-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

My friend The Playgoer has been in town this weekend, and after spending a week or so perusing the listings at Theatre Bay Area and soliciting my recommendations, he settled on The Mystery Plays at SF Playhouse on Friday night, and the very first preview of the world premiere, Nero (Another Golden Rome) at Magic Theatre on Saturday.

I also hope he can manage to catch Master Builder at Aurora this evening.

Friday night we met The Playgoer at his Union Square hotel's top floor lounge and restaurant, which offered stunning views of the city and stunning prices to match. Ironically, for so many reasons, I had been stricken that day with losing my voice, so I was considering an Irish coffee or something similarly hot and coating. All coffee drinks were $12. So, I checked out the wine by the glass list, which averaged $12 for a $7 bottle. Well, if I was going to pay $12 for anything, it would be a top shelf drink, so I settled on a margarita on the rocks, which hurt my throat more than my wallet. We also shared and cheese plate and a smoked salmon pizza.

The Playgoer offers a SF Dispatch of the play, and from our conversation that evening, which was rather obviously one-sided, I gathered that spaces like SF Playhouse, Actors Theatre of SF and such were rather rare creatures back in New York. In any case, I had recommended SF Playhouse one, because of the playwright and two, because of the caliber of actors the company has attracted after only several seasons in business. Rod Gnapp and T. Edward Webster were very good, as was Christina Anselmo, in this noir-like play with a very sparse set. In the audience that night was Mark Jackson of Death of Meyerhold fame and Nick Sholley, who appeared in Trev's Tenders in the Fog, both of whom I was happy to introduce The Playgoer to.

Saturday night we braved the Chinese New Year Parade and settled at Hana Zen off Union Square before heading up to the Magic. The Playgoer had actually been in town last year, and liked Hana Zen enough to return. Of course, the sushi and yakitori restaurant is one of my regular restaurants, a bit pricey for dinner but always good.

Magic Theatre artistic director Chris Smith was a bit surprised to see me at a preview, especially the first preview, so I assured him that I was there totally unofficially, which means I won't comment on the play except to say it's a new play so you should go see it because we like to support new plays. Interestingly, Nero playwright Steve Sater and musician Duncan Sheik are also collaborating on a musical in New York--but Nero is "a play with music."

So, I suppose what's next is a Staged Readings dispatch from New York, which could happen if I could ever manage to get out there. If I did, I'd catch the new Richard Foreman (what, as opposed to the old Richard Foreman? jeez), the new Wallace Shawn, Spamalot....

But maybe The Playgoer will have to stick around until the blizzard clears up in New York and SFO stops cancelling flights.

Dinner Theatre: Lori's Diner and Cutting Ball at the Exit

2006-02-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

Do you sense the hamburger theme?

The lower-price Exit tickets just scream for lower-price food. And because the Exit sits on the edge of the Tenderloin and Union Square, we took advantage of the many tourist-trap/fake diners, Lori's on Powell between Ellis and O'Farrell in particular. Our justification was the pinball machines.

Lori's makes a perfectly respectable burger. Basically, a good burger is any burger that you don't have complaints about. It's got the lettuce, onion and tomatoes on the side, along with an orange slice and a pickle. It came medium like I ordered it. See? No high maintenance stuff. Fries of perfect thickness. Trev went for a cherry Coke--he offered me a sip, and I took one, not realizing that the straw was entrenched in the syrupy goo at the bottom. After I uncrossed my eyes, I was ready to eat. He also had a salad and chili, which he had no opinion about, or none that he verbalized. See? Good diner food. I also got a chocolate milkshake, with whipped cream and a cherry, all very perfectly satisfying.

Then I got my ass kicked on nostalgia arcade games like Galaxian (the poor man's Galaga) and Centipede.

The Cutting Ball is always one to give us edgy plays and thoughtful productions. Martin Crimp's translation of The Maids makes its West Coast premiere, thanks to CB, one which apparently incorporates the ending Genet intended. The play is an extremely difficult piece for American actors, especially privileged ones, to perform, and an extremely difficult piece for American audiences, especially privileged ones, to view. An outsider from a very young age, Genet revelled in being a freak, even consciously choosing the life of a thief, and wrote from the point of view of the oppressed. And he was French. All the more reason for his lines to sail right over everyone's heads and land firmly on the back wall.

Director Adriana Baer stages this play wonderfully, with the audience on both sides of the playing space, something I haven't seen done in Exit Stage Left before. Like the conflict of maid versus mistress, and especially the maid playing mistress, the audience is forced to face itself--a sort of accusation and implication at the same time.

Uneven acting paired with the feeling that some of the actors don't quite understand the nuances of the play, much less that they're able to inhabit an oppressed character, drag the production down a bit. And again, much of the nuance is quite foreign to American audiences anyway that you need exceptional actors with vast emotional range to tease those nuances out, to coax the irony. But thank god Cutting Ball never shies from the tough plays, never talks down to its audience, never gives us weak vanilla when we want strong chocolate. They challenge themselves, and they challenge us. It's not diner food, so who cares if it's not perfect?

Dinner Theatre: Beckett's and Aurora Theatre

2006-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

Ibsen's Master Builder at Aurora and Beckett's pub aren't an obvious dinner theatre pairing, but I've been going through Irish pub withdrawels (however nonauthentic the pubs be) since Foleys closed a few weeks ago for retrofitting, which caught me entirely by surprise. Once you have your heart set on some Boddingtons at the end of the work week and before a show, everything else pales. So, Beckett's it was, even though it wasn't quite the end of the work week--but hey, Thursday is close enough.

I had a theory that Foleys and Beckett's were owned by the same people, a theory only based on the menus, which were quite similar. But really, its no huge coincidence that two Irish pubs should both have bangers and mash and fish and chips. My theory is now shot, due to the fact that a couple of months before it closed, Foleys expanded their menu (even if they did take the hamburger off, curses!), while last week's trip to Beckett's revealed a truncated menu. They didn't even have pies! (Did they have them before? I can't remember. But I remember the menu being more than one page.)

I settled on Harps, some battered prawns and a salad, while Trevor had Guinness and fish and chips. All around the seafood was a bit greasy, which may be a plus, after all, it's an Irish pub.

Too bad we weren't seeing Waiting for Godot at Aurora. It would have been too perfect, maybe even cliche. Paul Walsh's new adaptation of Ibsen's Master Builder was modern, fresh and very much geared to our acquired attention span of 45 minutes for act one, and something like an hour fifteen for act two.

Aurora, as well all know, is an actors' haven. And James Carpenter in the title role is a stunning sight. This is, quite frankly, some of the most kick-ass acting I've seen to date. And that was only opening night! What will he look like toward the end of the run, with even that much more time to polish the near-impossible emotional transitions demanded by the part? It's too bad that Julian Lopez-Morillas had but one scene, but it was opposite James, and these two legendary Bay Area actors bandied lines back and forth like, well, to be cliche, tennis players. Julian's Knut breaks down, and James' Halvard pulls away from such emotion, unable to deal with it. Anne Darragh turned in such precise work as Aline that she merely needed to grunt and raise an eyebrow to get the audience to laugh, and Richard Rossi as the Doctor balanced--or at least guided us through the layers of emotional terrain husband and wife built up over the years--not a house or home, but a dreary bog weighing everything down.

Of course, what's best about seeing Carpenter's master acting class is the intimacy of Aurora's space, where you are so close you feel as though you were right in the living room. The thrust, though, requires constant movement by the actors, who often sit with their back to you. This bugged me more with this play, because I didn't want to miss a moment of Carpenter's lines. I do wonder if over time Aurora's space will become too restricting to the directors and actors who work there, as the space demands that plays be blocked a certain way to accomodate such a severe thrust. The most radically different staging I've seen there was Ron Campbell's solo show, which was as about as proscenium as you're ever going to get in that space, but it was still restricting. Ah, I guess that's one for the Aurora folks to answer with future productions. But in the meantime, enjoy the phenomenal acting.

What Ails Arts Journalism? The Same Ol' Complaints

2006-02-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Muiscal Theater took place a few weeks ago down in LA, and already national critics are writing about the sorry state of arts coverage.

Here are some shocking, just shocking points: there's less space in newspapers for arts coverage; more people attend live arts events than professional sports; critics have retired or taken buyouts, etc etc etc ad naseum.

Gosh, this is all news to me. It's not like I haven't heard this when I attended the O'Neill Critics Institute a few years ago, and it's not like we haven't heard this from other critics who write down these stats in their columns like it was breaking news.

Don't get me wrong: Of course I'm for arts coverage. But there's something wrong when journalists have been printing the same ol' stats and regurgitating the same old complaints for at least two years.

I'm an arts writer. (Well, I'd really label myself an arts editor, but for purposes of this blog, I'll say I'm a writer.) And I agree with these writers in theory. But I'm fatigued with hearing this story. It's as if these critics/writers think if they keep throwing the live arts v. sports stats at their editors and at their readers, that their column inches will magically reappear.

Look, I don't know what the answer is. Now, there is less coverage for arts in the newspapers. But newspapers are, let's just face it, dying. Some critics bemoan that more arts stories are going online. As if that were a bad thing. Two years ago we saw stats that most readers between the ages of 18 and about 35 are getting the majority of their news online. And we also know that regional theatres want younger audiences. But regional theatres throw all their energy into newspapers: ads, reviews, Little Men. No wonder their audiences are older. Maybe I'm simplifying, but the disconnect seems obvious.

See, I'd rather spend less time beating my head against the wall about arts coverage in newspapers and spend more time figuring where the arts coverage should be: blogs, podcasts, websites, etc. Newspaper writers who wave around 2-3-year-old stats in their paper columns only reinforce the fact that they're behind the technology times. Face it, they're on a sinking ship. Who cares how many inches they have for theatre if in five years' time (or less), the paper is out of business? Who's reading? What's the real benefit for theatre companies?

I overheard someone say that she never reads blogs because she has enough unedited thoughts of her own. Here are my unedited thoughts, meant to provoke. If I edited them, my various allegiances would have removed all the sentences' teeth. I doubt they're that sharp anyway. But I'm really thinking we need to start looking at this problem from another angle.

Wendy Wasserstein Dies at Age 55

2006-01-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

After weeks of no news on Wendy Wasserstein's illness, word came out today about her untimely death. Here's Playbill.com's report.

Nothing much more to say....

Dinner Theatre: Filippos and Shotgun Players

2006-01-29T18:33:00.000-08:00

I love the Ashby Stage, home of Shotgun Players. It's right next to the Ashby BART, which means you can not only pay lots of money to BART from the city to the theatre, but also park right across the street form the theatre as well.

What I don't like about the Ashby Stage so much is the lack of restaurants in the immediate vicinity. Sure, there's the Berkeley Bowl, but I wasn't quite up for that. Now, I don't go to the Ashby Stage very often, so this first Dinner Theatre column already exposes my lack of restaurant knowledge. Deal, or suggest.

So, the other thing I dislike about, well, Berkeley, is the traffic. I know, I'm not supposed to drive. But sorry, I want food. So we (me and my thetare date) drove, uh, crawled up to College, where we parked (I have good parking karma) and walked into the first acceptable restaurant closest to the car: Filippos.

Cute but social atmosphere plus great and super-fast service make Filippos a great pre-theatre restaurant--as long as you don't mind getting back in the car and careening back down Ashby. I had butternut squash ravioli in a sage and butter sauce, which was pretty nice, though the pasta was a bit too firm. My date had something with chicken and penne and red sauce, equally nice. And at about $10 or less a plate, pretty economical.

By the time you read this, the Shotgun Players show Cabaret would have closed, so treat this as a mere historical piece. Hey, the show didn't need another review anyway--it already got great reviews and sold out its month-long extension. Director Russell Blackwood outdid himself with the show's concept and design, from the Kit Kat Klub girls flirting with the audience before the show--Divina Cohen made an especially nice lap partner--to the sleight of hand to implicating the audience in the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" number and especially the end where the whole Klub comes down. Blackwood's kinkiness is evidenced, yet he mixes it wonderfully with this intelligent interpretation. Kimberly Dooley was absolutely fetching as Sally Bowles, and Cassidy Brown framed her nicely as Clifford Bradshaw. I only wish that Clive Worsley was still playing the EmCee. I did feel bad for Kieran Chavez, who did just fine in the role, because anyone who knows Worsley's acting would be looking forward to his edgy performance.

My guess is that Blackwood was also behind the lobby decorations, the kinky photos and especially the peep shows in the walls, which revealed drawing and dioramas--the really kinky stuff, of course, was closer to the floor. So shorter people like kids could see? Actually, a couple brought in some kids, who looked no older than 12. I watched as one of the pre-show actors pulled them aside and started talking intently. I guess they were mature enough to handle nudity and all the sexual innuendo--and overtness.

In all, a good and cheap meal plus an entertaining musical (and parking at BART) made for a good Friday evening of Dinner Theatre.

Regarding Disney/Pixar

2006-01-26T17:22:00.000-08:00

The editor over at Waterbones--a friend of Staged Readings--has the most amusing anecdote to come out of the Disney takeover of Pixar.

Children's Theatre

2006-01-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Though hardly anything can beat David Sedaris's Holidays on Ice, where a theatre critic writes about children's holiday pageants, this dispatch in The Onion comes close.
Thanks, "theatre date."

Overheard

2006-01-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

Overheard by EM at Lestat:
"Do you know about the play at ACT by David Mamet [pronounced as rhyming with "play"]?"

As Eddie Izzard would say, "We pronounce it Mamet because it's got a fucking T in it."

Sad Story

2006-01-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

Disney just bought Pixar. How depressing.

In On It

2006-01-24T10:15:00.000-08:00

Daniel MacIvor's In On It, playing at Encore Theatre Company, is one of those self-reflexive plays-within-a-play about two lovers who act out a play, interrupting the scenes to comment on them. Yeah, when you hear that, you almost want to groan. But this is one of the smartest and most elegant plays I've seen in a long time, with equally elegant direction (by MacIvor; yes, sometimes playwrights are excellent at directing their work) and lighting and sound design.

Some of the beauty of this script lies in the structure, naturally multi-layered, with the two actors alternating parts. But just when you think a scene is going to go in a cliched direction, it shifts and ends on a surprisingly funny, absurd or heart-breaking note. You think you've heard this story before, or know where the scene's going, but you don't really. MacIvor repeatedly strikes perfect notes and earns every line (and especially the end).

Actors Glenn Peters and local Ian Scott McGregor turn in outstanding and precise performances. The script allows for a perfect synthesis between playwright and actor: the actors are able to bring so much to the play, but not at the expense of the script. If you see a lot of plays, or work in the community, you think you see plays where you think the script allows the actors to play or you think you see the actors respecting the script, but I don't think that really happens that much. In this play, you really get a sense that something's clicking, which is ironic, given that the actors (in the play within a play) question the playwright often.

I know a play is good when my "theatre date" can't stop marveling at it, when he raves about it, then is quiet for a few minutes, and then starts: "And in this scene...that was just perfect." I especially know it's good when he talks about how good the script is.

In On It is one of those perfectly enjoyable plays that makes you think, that's funny, and most importantly, believes in the intelligence of its audience.

Serenade

2006-01-15T10:06:00.000-08:00

Just got a call at home from Trev, who's MC'ing the second day of TBA's General Auditions at Berkeley Rep, on my birthday, no less. Well, he got the accompanist to play and all the casting directors (about 90) to sing happy birthday to me from the stage over his cell phone.

So, thank you to all over at Berkeley Rep this morning for making me smile!

What's Up

2006-01-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a weekend off again. TBA is holding its general auditions at Berkeley Rep, and my "theatre date" is MC'ing the three-day event, and besides, I'm turning 30 again. (I hated the 20s.) Anyway, what I usally do on my birthday is present an award for best costume designer or best supporting male in a drama over at Contra Costa County's Shellie Awards, which is a total trip.

However, what I would recommend is The Mystery Plays over at SF Playhouse, which opens tonight. I met playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa while attending the critics institute at the O'Neill Playwrights Center a few years back, and his work is really fun. Read more about it on SFist.

Fire, Opera?

2006-01-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, the Crucible's fire opera doesn't live up to the hype. Not enough good opera for the opera people, and not enough fire for the fire people. Though, as a friend pointed out, "I've never been to opera that required me to wear safety glasses in the first row."

Not that they didn't do some cool things: mini motorcycles, a flame thrower, flaming nipples, you know, the usual. I was just expecting way more spectacle.

Did Lestat Suck?

2006-01-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

You know, it's usually a bad sign when a theatre writer, when talking about (because I won't admit to reviewing) a show, starts off with the scenic design. Especially when they rave about the scenic design. It usually means the rest of the show sucked, and/or the scenic design isn't really that great, but by comparison, it rocks. Well, neither is the case. Lestat didn't suck as much as it could have, and the scenic design really was great. And because the one review I read didn't spend even enough time on it, I'll do it here.

First, any theatre artist who's been wanting to integrate multimedia into theatre--and you know who you are, because I know who's reading, and that means that I know you know who you are--should go see this musical. Really, I'm not kidding. And, even better, you may be able to get half-price tickets because the Chron gave the show a Sleeping Man.

Now, my big disclaimer is I loooove Dave McKean's art. The one comic I religiously collected was Sandman (and thanks to eBay I have a full set), which lead me to buy anything that McKean worked on. So, when I heard he was the visual consultant on Lestat, well, I thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

Now, this musical integrated the multimedia perfectly. I'm used to seeing wavering rear projections degenerating into a blue screen of death, or, worse, actors sitting at computers while their chat room conversations are written out on a huge screen above their heads. That is to say, most haven't figured out a way for multimedia and story to coexist without at least one element being compromised. In Lestat, it worked very well. For example, in Anne Rice's books, we learn that when a vampire (or at least her vampire) bites its victim, he or she sees all the victim's memories. How do you do this onstage? Obviously, with film. But memories are fragmented, overlapping things, and that's why McKean's collaged images work so well. So, the vampire bites (centerstage of course, with dramatic lighting), and the filmic memories are projected on the screen above the actors. You don't miss any action while watching the screen. Also, how do you show a vampire burning onstage, without hurting the actor? Well, go check that one out. McKean's images also helped fill in the set design by complementing actual set pieces with background images that evoked the numerous settings the story inhabited. Now, the risk here is that multimedia will start taking away from our idea of traditional musical theatre. I heard that one audience member complained it was like seeing a show at Paramount's Great America. But, come on people: musical theatre is about spectacle! If some witch in training can defy gravity, then vampires can burn. I may even go so far as to say that the genre of musical theatre should learn to incorporate multimedia the way Lestat has, and more, if it wants to survive as a viable form of entertainment. We live in Silicon Valley, after all.

Now, that said, here's the part where I defend my assertion that Lestat didn't suck as much as it could have. Hmm, well.... OK, look, the book needs work, but it's not a total loss. They have the story, they just need to edit. They didn't make a hokey vampire musical; it's really about a man's (or vampire's) personal journey. However, I will complain that they turned the child vampire Claudia into Veruca Salt (witness "I Want More"). The main problem is that the music and songs were all the same. I thought having some pop song writers on the job would make the musical less smaltzy, but it just made it dull. What John and Taupin could learn from the masters is that the songs should not only sound different, but contribute to the plot and character development and so on in different ways. I mean, when the best song in the show belongs to Lestat's mother, who virtually disappears after act one, you've got a problem. Also, speaking of act one, I found all the projected time markers amusing: "6 weeks later," "30 years later." Considering that vampires live forever, 30 years is like mere seconds, and, really, unnecessary to note. A lot of that can be deduced from the text, and the projections just makes the audience groan. I mean, you might as well put a huge stopwatch onstage.

You know, I was really unimpressed by Wicked at its world premiere, and I didn't think was all that bad by comparison. It wasn't as bad as LestatMambo Kings. (I heard enough about the Lennon previews to stay away, so I can't compare that.) I think it probably does have an audience, and, if cleaned up and if Elton John decides to devote at least 11 more days to the show, it could probably do OK.

Honestly, that's the first show I've been to in quite a while. The next couple of week sees the beginning of "theatre season, round two." But, frankly, I'm psyched that I got tickets to The Crucible's fire opera Thursday night. Hopefully, I won't see actors--vampires or otherwise--on fire there.

Yea Kittens

2006-01-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

One of the top 5 referring links to this blog is a Web search for the VH-1 kittens, which is linked to an "Encore" post.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

But for all you fans, here's another funny cat video that's been a hit at JibJab. It's not the VH-1 kittens, but still funny.

I'm on Vacation, Dammit

2005-12-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

Youu-whoo, I'm over here. Really.

The big nonprofit was kind enough to give us this week off, so I'm off. And most shows are closing this week, so I haven't been to anything in like two weeks. Mostly because I didn't have time, mostly because I needed to shop and mostly because I've been sick. Now that's a great Christmas present. Stuck at Kaiser two days before Christmas. Fun.

So, due to lack of posts and reviews in general, I'm giving you one Karen on the Web fix: A little interview at SFist. Good thing it posted before I turned 32. Great photo, huh? Trev took it.

Anyway, before I head down to a cozy inn in the Monterey area for New Year's, let me wonder out loud about Lestat, the musical. I had a whole bunch of fun writing this one up for the day job because really, I was a little goth girl in high school and loved Anne Rice. Of course. How cliche. It wasn't until last week I realized that Dave McKean is the visual design consultant! Dave McKean, the one I loved most of all next to Anne Rice. And who I still love. I mean, Gaiman/McKean Sandman was the only comic I religiously collected, and I have a full set. And the Vertigo Tarot. So now I'm all set to see it.

But wait, what's this I hear about Bernie Taupin on KFOG mentioning that they're trying to trim 30 minutes off the piece? Because, if they saw they need to trim 30, they probably need to trim 45. And, over a week into previews the actor playing Armand leaves. Something about the creators wanting to take the character in a different direction. You know what that's code for. I mean, the understudy is taking over, so really. Ugh! I do hope January 8 press night will be good. I don't think I could take another Mambo Kings or Lennon. (OK, I admit, I actually didn't see Lennon because all my colleagues, who got free tickets to previews, trashed the thing so much I couldn't bear to give up precious hours for press night.)

Yeah, so that means don't expect any reviews here until after January 8, dammit.

Pick of the Weekend

2005-12-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't been posting because all of the theatre I've been seeing I've had to review for the Guardian. They pay me. I don't pay me. So they get first dibs.

But, my pick of the weekend goes to Lunatique Fantastique's Nutcracker Nutz & Boltz. Hands down, no contest. In fact, each year I have my special holiday show, one where I make sure I go to a matinee with all the kids (clarification: someone else's kids). Several years ago Lun Fan's Wrapping Paper Caper was my holiday show, at il Teatro 450 (ah, remember il Teatro 450?), where they served cookies and milk to everyone who took a break from Union Square shopping, kids in tow, to see the show. I loved it! Well, now Lun Fan is at The Marsh, but I'm still fully expecting a good ratio of grown-ups to kids.

So, the talk about Nutz & Boltz is, apparently, Lun Fan is experimenting with losing the table! Really, this is a big step. The table was the objects' world. If the object was off the table, it was like it didn't exist, or it was backstage. The manipulators stood behind the table. Now it's all up in the air, literally. So, I can't wait to see it. I will, however, expect that they didn't do away with milk and cookies.

And no, I won't be reviewing it for the Guardian, though I expect someone else will. I want to really enjoy the show, dammit!

What's a Backyard?

2005-12-09T15:37:00.000-08:00

So, a bunch of us at my day job got an e-mail from someone at HGTV who's new to the Bay Area and who's working on a show--I guess like their Curb Appeal--that re-landscapes people's backyards, and she's looking for some backyards to be featured on the show. She says they especially want actors, because actors are obviously better on camera.
And I'm like, Honey, actors can't afford backyards in the Bay Area!

Weird Shows

2005-12-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, a press release appears in my inbox or I otherwise hear about shows so strange they boggle my brain.

One of them is Emperor Norton: The Musical over at Dark Room Theatre (not the cool Vallejo people, the ones in SF). Of course, this is just perfect. I mean, you gotta figure the guy must have created a musical for himself back in the Gold Rush days. He certainly had enough of his own money to back it, ha ha. At the very least, he was a one-man show.

Also at Dark Room, tonight and tomorrow only, is Confessions of a Sitcom Nerd, starring Dan Frischman, who played Arvid on Head of the Class. I wasn't cool enough to watch such uncool shows back in the 1980s. So you'll have to tell me how it was.

But the one production, the one that made me shake my head from the moment the audition listing came to my day job months ago to now is, The Foreskin of Christ. Yes, that's the title. The company? Pullover Productions. Why does this make sense? The show is about a president running for re-election, so he clones Christ using, well, you can figure it out. Don't know how he gets his hands on it. But wait! I go to the site to grab the link, and the show's been postponed! Oh, surprise surprise! So, they're shooting for an Easter opening. Ahem.

Former Bay Area Fav on TV

2005-12-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll. Robert Wu, former SF actor who starred in Prince Gomolvilas's Bee at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre a few years back and has since moved to LA, is apparently making a guest appearance on the George Lopez Show tonight at 8PM.

More Sad News

2005-12-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

Too soon on the heels of August Wilson's death, Playbill reports that Wendy Wasserstein is in a grave battle with leukemia.

I've Killed It

2005-11-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks Urban Outfitters.
Blue blanket not included.

Ooooooh Yeeeaaahhh

2005-11-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

As promised, photos of the repainted 1969 GTO:

Cheap Chic(k)

2005-11-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

I love it when someone looks at my $50 Nine West purse and says, "Is that a Coach?"

Score

2005-11-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

And now a subplot.

Ha! Yesterday I cashed in on a bet with Trev. At stake was $5 on whether my parents, who are restoring their 1969 GTO (they are original owners), would change the color from Midnight Green to red. My mother wouldn't tell me what they had decided. We found out yesterday when we got to their house, where she made us stand in the driveway facing the street while she opened the garage door and let us turn around.

Photos forthcoming. I left the camera cable at home.

You've Been Served

2005-11-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

San Francisco companies, take notice: The most ballsy and edgy theatre I've seen all year hasn't been in the Tenderloin or in the Mission, it was last night in Vallejo.

I know, I was shocked, too.

Under artistic director Jon Tracy, Darkroom Productions presented a loose adaptation of Trainspotting, which probably would have been a Northern California premiere had a group not produced it years ago at SF's Edinburgh Castle pub. It closed last night. If you didn't see it, you fuckin' missed out.

Trainspotting was a pure, in-your-face production, yet stripped of any artsy pretensions and certainly stripped of any amateurish, just-out-of-theatre-school tricks. On a set littered with crates, a few pieces of furniture and a TV, director Tracy created gritty, kinetic scenes: rad, slow-motion Jean-Claude Van Damme fight scenes or creepy heroin-induced fantasias, to mention a couple. His minimal yet precise lighting design and John Epperson's brilliant sound design (with Warren Sandoval's original music) served the play perfectly, neither one overpowering the other.

Travis Mullins kicked ass as Mark Renton, as did Victor Ballesteros as his mate Tommy Begbie. While Ballesteros's wide-ranging credits include San Jose Rep, Teatro Vision, Willows and the Mountain Play, Mullins is based in Sacramento with only a few credits. We should be seeing a lot more of him; his performance was completely present and devoid of any obvious false notes. Rob Dario and Jena Rose turned in equally committed and strong performances.

Jon Tracy and Darkroom Productions is the real deal, a much-welcome alternative to fringe theatre that has turned safe over the years. This production showed a passion, with talent to back it up, of a company with really nothing to prove and nothing to lose. Well, maybe they feel a little differently. But they filled the house with a bunch of 20-30-somethings that could have been mistaken for a SF audience.

And the Fetterly Playhouse, located in a unlikely strip mall, is quite a marvelous little space, judging from the house (I don't know the technical specs). A small black-box space with fixed seating and a great, deep playing space versatile enough for warehouse-feel productions like Trainspotting and more traditional musicals like those that Vallejo Music Theatre produces. And because it's in the back, there's no street noise!

Some of Tracy's upcoming directing jobs include Aurora Theatre (the Global Age Project) and Richard III at Artaud, but Darkroom seems committed to Vallejo, which, as weird as it may sound, I think is great. For years, if SF magazine was to be believed, Vallejo has had potential. The main problem is that the city has never been able to figure out the best use of Mare Island, and there are really no jobs in the area. But, only about an hour from San Francisco, it has some pretty affordable real estate. It just needed a burgeoning artistic fringe, and that finally seems to be happening.

I'm Only Half Serious

2005-11-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

You know, I sorta wanted to stand up in the middle of Brundibar and say, "Don't worry children, he's just an organ grinder." Well, no, not really. Because that would be just rude, and would get me kicked off all the press lists and probably get me a not-so-complimentary mention in local theatre columns: "When Theatre Editors Go Bad."
But, really, he's just an organ grinder. A street artist! Oh, the irony! That a play at Berkeley Rep demonizes a street artist. I mean, how did Berkeley Rep start out after all? Who were the people who started it? I mean, the people who came to be in Berkeley Rep's extended family? And now, today, after completing a beautiful second space and collecting money from all sorts of funders (ahem), they tear down a character that represents the root of theatre, tearing off his clothes and stealing his prosthetics, exposing him as a little sniveling coward, a fake. Not to mention the fact that he's supposed to represent Hitler anyway. A street artist? Hitler?

Pick of the Weekend

2005-11-18T10:39:00.000-08:00

This week, I've got two shows that are flying under the collective radar and are also closing on Saturday.
I'm also going to both of them.

Tonight I'm hitting Luna Park, a workshop production of a play by Caridad Svich, commissioned by the International High School. I've long been a fan of Caridad, who is always getting honorable mentions with the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and even Cutting Ball's Risk Is This festival, but never seems to get a full production in the Bay Area. Really, a production, even a world premiere of hers is long overdue. So, I'm skipping opening weekend at the Magic, where yet another out-of-town playwright is getting a premiere, and going to this instead. Becuase Caridad is one out-of-town playwright I support!

Saturday I'm going on a little Sherlock Holmes type adventure. For in Vallejo, Vallejo of all places, where only community theatres live, there's an uppity company called Darkroom Productions (not to be confused with the Dark Room in SF) who's presenting Yes, Trainspotting.Trainspotting. They also did some improv around Halloween called something like Dead Men Don't Get Any Booty. So, the big question is, who's their audience? And, of course, are these productions good? Because I've been visiting Vallejo most of my life (relatives), and have had some extended family involved with some of the companies up there--the last thing I saw was a dinner theatre production of The Sunshine Boys. I know. So, if Darkroom Productions rocks, well, then Vallejo is finally becoming the next hot spot. I'm veeeerrrry curious!

Crab Season in the News

2005-11-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Trevor's Tenders in the Fog has closed, but the subject of the play, local crab fisherman, made the front page of the SF Chronicle today. It's the first day of crab season, but the Chron reports that fisherman are refusing to take the boats out. Why? Because Pacific Choice (if you really paid attention to the play, you would have noticed the name change) is trying to drop the prices they pay to fisherman, and the fisherman, who have been hurt by high fuel prices, are having none of it. Last season they fisherman were paid $1.70 per pound, but this season PC is suggesting $1.50, according to the Chron. Read the article for all the details.
Although the core of Tenders in the Fog wasn't about the conflict between fisherman and Pacific Choice, Trevor still included a lot of research about local crab fisherman and the industry in general in his play. Tenders is clearly a play that focuses on a rather unsung local population--local fisherman are not celebrated the way that people in Alaska or Maine celebrate theirs.

Norway Gets It

2005-11-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

Norway's culture minister declared that many of the problems among the poor are also found in artistic communities, according to Aftenposten. The country is commissioning a study on "the state of the Norwegian artist."
Finally, someone had to draw the connection.
Thanks to ArtsJournal for the clip.

The New AT

2005-11-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

Anyone seen the new American Theatre? Ahhh, color, ohhhh. I'm so jealous.

Where I've Been

2005-11-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

So, the reason I haven't yet seen There Be Monsters (see below) is because I've been almost everywhere else. And a overzealous theatregoer even needs a night off. I never knew housecleaning could be so exciting. But not as much fun as the shows I've seen...and considering I always seem to see Serious Theatre, what a treat to see Ray of Light's production of Bat Boy on Halloween weekend, perfectly located in the Victoria. Man, that show should still be running!

And then the same weekend it was The Ballad of Pancho and Lucy over at Intersection. It's great fun seeing the Campo Santo regulars tackle a musical. If you like the company already and the show isn't sold out yet, I'd take a look.

And last weekend it was Killing My Lobster Nothing Is Original. It had actually been quite a while since I've seen a Lobster show, and this was a fun night, too. (I'm saying "fun" a lot; I don't think I've been able to say that a lot until now.) Well, I reviewed that for the Guardian this week, so you'll have to check over there.

We broke down and finally joined Netflix. We finally got fed up with Blockbuster when their DVD jammed during a really good scene in Kinsey. Just kidding. No I'm not. Anyway, we started right off with The Life & Death of Peter Sellers. Trippy and absurd stuff. Brilliant. Next up is Closer. I'll fit that in this weekend between...

Corteo at Cirque du Soleil. As a civilian, I'd long since given up on Cirque, mostly because I didn't want to pay upwards of $60 to sit behind a post. But then the press invite landed in my box, and I jumped around the office. Yes, I'm lame, and I shouldn't have admitted that out loud. But now I'm actually reviewing press, so I'm legit. Was it only last year that Cirque's opening night was cancelled due to a storm? It had to have been the year before that! Anyway, all I remember was being jammed into the lobby tents, and then wouldn't open the doors, and the tops of the tents were snapping every which way. I thought, No way are they going to do the trapeze numbers. I knew they were going to cancel, and at about 8:15, they did. And then everyone tried to get their $15 back from the parking lot attendants.

But I know that won't happen this year!

And then, my guilty pleasure holiday treat just may be White Christmas on Sunday. But I don't know; I mean, it's not the same seeing a Christmas show before Thanksgiving. In fact, it feels completely unnatural. I'll have to find something else in December. Last year I had great fun at ODC's Velveteen Rabbit. See, if you're going to do these guilty pleasure holiday shows, be sure to a matinee with all the kids. The year before that it was SF Ballet's Nutcracker, and all I remember was the people in front of us feeding their kids a box of See's candy through the whole show!

Pick of the Weekend

2005-11-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

And the winner this week is There Be Monsters at Exit Cafe. Why? Because it's Dan Carbone! I've already pushed this show over at SFist a couple of weeks ago (actually, almost a month ago!), but it's still playing, so go see it already! You've got until November 19. OK, I actually haven't seen it myself, yet. But Carbone is a trip, a genius freaky trip.

RIP Blogging Stats

2005-11-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome StatCounter.com. Now I can track all ya's again.

Stats Anyone?

2005-11-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

I wonder if Blogging Stats knows they've got a major site problem. Or else they like kicked all their users out. All I know is that their button disappeared from this blog, and I can't login to their site. And of course there's no way to really reach someone. So, if anyone out there has some enlightenment to share, do share!

As Long As There's Theatre Coverage

2005-11-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Anyone else out there as tired as I am of the war between the city's two alternative weeklies? And last week, spurned by the New Times takeover of Village Voice, Neva Chonin chimed in. OK, so she got her start at the Guardian, OK, fine. Maybe I'm crazy, but I actually read both papers, I don't know why, let's just say, to read the theatre reviews, maybe? I've written for both papers, too. Look, I can appreciate the cries for a an independent press, especially when it comes to politics, but what's really annoying me is that Ms. Chonin and the like pay no attention to arts coverage when they soapbox. Because here's the thing: both papers local theatre relatively well. Not as well as we would like, but hey. Even when New Times homogenized the local papers, thy expanded arts coverage with the "Performance" section. And when Chloe Veltman went to the Weekly from the Guardian (not everyone is a loyaltist), she started pushing for more space, and seems to be getting a few more inches. Besides, she writes extremely incisive reviews, some of the best reviews around. And the East Bay Express writers get a fair amount of space, too. And the Guardian thankfully hasn't relegated its listings to its site only and runs several "mini-reviews" in them, which I contribute to from time to time.
I'm sure Chonin doesn't have enough space to look at the papers holistically, from section to section, but judging from her rant, it doesn't seem like local theatre matters to her at all: "I do remember [the Village Voice] was one of the few publications writing about things that mattered to me in the three decades that followed -- cutting-edge music, progressive politics, indie film." Previously she mentions "New Times' unmistakably bland template of syndicated reviews and articles." Hmm, I don't quite remember reading syndicated theatre reviews.
So, OK, from a political standpoint, let the war rage on. But don't let the arts, especially theatre, become a casualty.

Rent's Due This Month

2005-11-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

Rent is opening this month in theatres, and the TV commercial campaign is out full force.
Here's what one session of cable TV surfing yielded:
"Five hundred"
[Click]
"twenty-five thousand"
[Click]
"measure a year"
[Click]
"they call"
[Click]
"twenty-five thousand"
Just stay away from the channels between A&E and Animal Planet.

Think Karma

2005-11-02T17:12:00.000-08:00

Who knew being a magazine editor could be so hard? Today I was accused of Bush administration-like tactics. Wow, and we don't even publish reviews. Most all the content we put out is positive. So suddenly I'm compared to a near-Fascist regime. That'll knock your inner balance way off center!

Auditions

2005-10-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, Paramount's Great America is auditioning! The bright brochure arrived in my mailbox, complete with photos detailing my potential future career frollicking in 100 degree weather in either a caveperson costume or as a dancer with white feathers attached to my ass. Apparently, judging from the photos, blondes have a better chance of being hired, darn. Anyway, here are a few opportuntities: singers, dancers, actors, variety artists, show characters, escorts. Escorts?? We thought this was supposed to be family entertainment.
Regarding variety artists, the brochure details, "If you are an experienced performance artist with an awesome approach to children's entertainment...." Wait, slow down, let me read that again. "Awesome performance artist...children's entertainment." Those phrases shouldn't occupy the same sentence.
Regarding the aforementioned escorts, "We are looking for Escorts [capital theirs] to act as the eyes and ears while accompanying costumed characters [what, the poor kid in the costume can't see or hear?] on a Park walk....An interview and movement audition will be conducted." Movement audition?? "OK, kid [jaded auditor takes a drag on a cigarette], let's see ya walk. Impress me. OK, let's see ya walk and talk at the same time. OK, OK, now here's a stick of gum."
I can see the hallway outside the audition room littered with the tear-stained remains of poor 15-year-olds, their dreams of show business dashed in a mere two minutes.

Buffy Update

2005-10-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Following up on the report of the cease and desist Fox slapped on the Buffy musical that was supposed to play at CounterPulse, today CounterPulse put out a release saying that they had no knowledge that the renter/producer of the show had a "lack of copyright permission."
They go on to say:
"CounterPULSE is not in any way connected with the San Francisco Halloween Show. In keeping with the mission of the organization, CounterPULSE did wish to support The San Francisco Halloween Show's grassroots efforts to share its take on pop culture with the public and regrets any show having to be cancelled."
(Note: Staged Readings follows, by habit, my day job's house style, which doesn't use all caps unless it's an acronym. Mostly, this is to keep our sanity. We compromise and give them an internal cap instead. However, tonight I'm too lazy to fix my cut and paste job.)
On December 1, they will hold a free forum to "discuss copyright issues, the public domain, and the relationship of creativity to a shared but privately owned cultural environment."
Now, the Buffy writer is all for having the musical done. So, what I'm going to bring up is a little moot. "The relationship to a shared but privately owned cultural environment." OK, I'm married to a playwright, and I'm a writer too, so I'm a little biased. And I'm going to take this Buffy thing as a jumping off point. Theatre is a collaborative environment, and some companies are more collaborative than others. Some companies are truly ensemble driven, where it's clear that everyone wrote/created the work. But, is it OK to create work so obviously based on "privately owned" material? Does the writer/playwright truly own their work? Is it OK to change a writer's work in rehearsal/performance under the collaboration philosophy that everyone else's opinion/input is just as valid as the writer's? (Don't worry, I won't hold you comments against you.)

My Friday Night

2005-10-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

I suppose only a theatre person like me, that is, a theatre person that is no stranger to Tuesday, Wednesday and even Sunday press nights, finds the prospect of a Friday night at home the most exciting thing since, well, since a Sam Shepard world premiere with Sean Penn? Since a Baz Luhrman production of La Boheme with Nicole Kidman in the audience?
Ah, well. Last night I went to a show. Saturday night I'm going to a show, after going to Open Studios, and Sunday night I'm going to a show, and Sunday day I'm writing about theatre. So, tonight. I got home before six, and there was a light rain and the beginnings of the pungent scent of the first fireplace fires of the season, and there was a slight chill under the mugginess. I opened a window, put on the Dead Can Dance CDs and fixed hot chocolate with that cheap whipped cream. Exciting, huh? Then I dusted and vacuumed, and now I'm sitting at my computer with a hardening face mask, which thankfully you can't see. At least I'm not creating spreadsheets, hear that Moose? My god, this is what happens when you've had a full-time job for eight years, when you've been married for seven and when you spend all your time in theatres.
For those keeping score, Saturday night is Bat Boy and Sunday night is The Ballad of Pancho & Lucy. Ya'll go to my pick of the weekend, Shocktoberfest, and let me know how ya like it.

Theatre Bay Area in the Datebook

2005-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

A grand photo of my boss graces the front page of today's Datebook, with a great article by Robert Hurwitt.

Pick of the Weekend

2005-10-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

Halloween seems a good time to inaugurate Staged Readings' Pick of the Weekend, and what better show for Halloween than Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest at The Hypnodrome. For the sixth year those sick bastards have insisted "Sissies Stay Home!" Well, under those circumstances, how could you miss it? Such blood-curdling Grand Guignol-inspired plays include Doug (I Am My Own Wife) Wright's "Wildwood Park" (something about a real estate agent and a house with secrets); "Arthur's Flogging," an ode to schoolroom punishment; "A Wedding of the Member" (something about a well-hung husband, which is usually a good thing, well, depending); and the return of the gorefest finale "A Slight Tingling." And, this weekend, Jill Tracy performs. But you can read about that in a grand interview at SFist. If you haven't experienced The Hypnodrome, you really must: it's fabulously kitschy and filled with surprises. You'll regret it if you don't go. Really. Unless you faint at the sight of stage blood. But then, you'll just add to the ambiance.

Overheard at Doctor Atomic

2005-10-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Standing in line at the bar, preshow.
Woman to husband: "I like these shoes. Oh, I know they're so middle-class." [At this point I felt really lame ordering a Pepsi.] "They're not my Manolo Blahniks, but I feel really sexy in them. I'm just telling you I feel really sexy."

In front of the opera house, after the show.
Woman to date: "I liked the lighting, and the posts."

In front of Jardiniere, after the show.
Man to friends, in a snotty tone: "The staging was very highbrow and inaccessible."

At It Again

2005-10-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

The Republican Study Committee is recommending that the NEA's and the CPB's budgets be completely eliminated. ArtsJournal points to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Vanity Fair's Misstep

2005-10-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

So, am I the only one who thinks, in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, that the juxtaposition of the photo spreads of hip-hop artists and their bling against the photo spreads of Hurricane Katrina victims is just a tad bit offensive? I mean, who thought it was a good idea to photograph the citizens of New Orleans in the same style (lighting, poses and caption text) as the the other spreads of superficial stars dripping in diamonds?

Brown Underground

2005-10-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

I've been contemplating what to say about Finn in the Underworld for over a week now and have deferred, mostly because what I write wouldn't sound anything like a review, and considering that I've written reviews and even dragged my butt to the O'Neill Critics Institute in Connecticut one year to be harrassed by the likes of Michael Feingold, I should be able to crank reviews out. But, this isn't an audience blog. I daresay it's a publicists blog, judging by my Blogging Stats visitor details. But I digress.
I love that Berkeley Rep will put difficult work on its stage. I love that they'll produce work that at least half their subscribers, donors and even staff will, uh, dislike. They're doing something right. (I try, and fail a lot, to firmly hold onto the belief that if people are sending you hate e-mail, that you're doing something right. Not that, as far as I know, Berkeley Rep is getting hate e-mail.) And the cast really rocks, especially Clifton Guterman (who I was especially interested in studying after seeing him in Cal Shakes' Nicholas Nickleby) and Lorri Holt. And Les did a superb job with the play.
What stymies me, though, is how a young playwright gets the stamp of approval and suddenly becomes the darling of the regional theatre circuit. Lately, it seems that the Brown graduates are the national darlings, and playwright Jordan Harrison falls in that category. The thing is, his writing isn't that much better than what I've seen from playwrights who didn't graduate from Brown, or Yale, or NYU. I've heard people enthuse about Finn's lack of a linear narrative, the difficult subject matter and so on. People, this isn't groundbreaking. (Please, feel free to point out my conflict of interest here, my being married to a local playwright who also writes nonlinear work, I don't care.) So, frankly, Finn didn't make any sort of lasting impression on me as I left the theatre (which is probably why it took me so long to write about it). Yet, I've already heard of another artistic director who is totally enthused about Harrison's work. And why not? He's from Brown, invokes the likes of Paula Vogel in his program interview and has the regional theatre stamp of approval. Oh, and he's "difficult." Great, at least I don't have to suffer through the next generation of Neil Simons.

Buffy Goes Down

2005-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, I have lunch with Joel of Limelight Books at Tartine yesterday, on my day off, and all hell breaks loose! And I miss it. So, it's old news now that Fox shut down the Buffy musical at CounterPulse, so old that I know all you people who read my blog read SFist, so you got it there first. So, I'm just posting so ya'll know that I know. And speaking of knowing, yeah, I do know that Pinter won the Nobel Prize, too.
I heard about the Buffy musical back in August or so, and the only reason I didn't jump all over it is because, unlike my sister, I'm not a Buffy fanatic. I've never even seen one episode.
But I have to say, that's the best publicity anyone can get. I still can't believe that Disney never tried to shut down Mouse, even after the fact of it hit a national magazine. We sweated it for a while, then realized how awesome it would be if they tried. So, CounterPulse, here's hoping that your site hits skyrocket!

All Theatre Is Political, Or All Politics Is Theatre?

2005-10-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Looks like our friend at Radio Free Mike just posted a feature to Slate. Really, just now, this minute. (See, I'm keeping up with Bloglines now.) What does it have to do with theatre? Nothing. But it's a long way from the SF Weekly to writing about politics in Berlin (not to mention living there).

A-Z, Good Enough for Me

2005-10-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

So, how about the Chronicle's A-Z guide to theatre? Pretty cool. Yeah, not everyone's in there, but landing the cover should get the attention of readers--potential audience members.
Well, I hope the Chron gets a lot of positive letters, and not just e-mails from companies wanting to know why they were left out. Well, having done lists before for publication, and really, they kinda suck. Because no matter how hard you try, no matter if the list was better than last year's list, you'll only hear from people who were left out. See, I'm a pessimist. I admit it. I've been beaten into it. So I'll be the first to look beyond omissions (not like Black Box was in there, nor should it have been, honestly) and say instead, Cool. Great job. Love the layout design, too.

This Weekend

2005-10-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Holy shit, that last Stage Fog on SFist nearly did me in. I wrote on twice as many shows as I usually do, but don't think I'm actually going to see all those shows. That's silly. I mean, I'm only going to three shows this weekend. Heading off to New Conservatory Theatre Center for Dark Horse, Indiana. But what I'm really stoked about is Doctor Atomic on Saturday night. Yes, we're seeing the final performance. And I have not read reviews, but I ate up preview pieces like the ones in Wired and the New Yorker (sorry, no link available). Then, Sunday night, off to Project Artaud to see what Capacitor comes up with this time.

As You Wish

2005-10-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

My poor Bloglines. So full of posts each feed takes forever to load. This is by way of saying, Yeah, this is probably old news, but so what? I work on a monthly.
A musical of The Princess Bride! I suppose this was the next logical step after Spamalot. So, friends, give me your predictions on the next film to be turned into Broadway gold.
Personally, I can't wait to see the ROUS number. Should be a showstopper.
Thanks to Boing Boing, which pointed to Playbill online.

Verified Dork

2005-10-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I couldn't figure out the letters on Best of Broadway's (now SHN) word verification on their online box office. This is really sad. It actually had to give me another word.

Tips for Procrastination

2005-10-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

1. Walk on the beach.
2. Eat ice cream.
3. Stare at press releases.
4. Wonder if it's entirely possible that you used up your vocabulary of active verbs.
5. Cut your fingernails. Because there's no way you wouldn't have bitten them off before Friday's manicure.
6. Check and even answer work e-mail at 9PM.
7. Wonder why you got yourself into writing about local theatre for at least four different outlets.
8. Try to remember why you're dissatisfied with the universe.
9. Look inside the refrigerator. Close door quickly.
10. Try to decide what number 10 should be.

Mom's One-Woman Show

2005-10-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Because the only show I saw this weekend (twice) was Tenders in the Fog, I'll regale you with reviews of my mother's one-woman show. After her popular Staged Readings debut, mom has been cast in a recurring role. Like most solo performances, this is based on actual events. Unlike most solo performances, hers needs no exaggeration.

Mom's Garage
(Not to be confused with Dad's Garage)
Like all good Silicon Valley women, mom has been making home improvements. The latest project is the garage. Mom's was the last house on the block to have the kind of automatic garage doors that open just like manual ones. She wanted ones that rolled up. Not only that, her doors had to have those little decorative windows. To me, those windows seem a feeble attempt to disguise the fact that the garage is actually a garage and not some beautiful extension of the house. The weekend after her new doors were installed, I visited. I walked in the front door:
"Hey, I like your new garage doors."
Mom looks skeptical:
"Hmm, I don't think I like those windows. In fact, I don't think they're the right windows. I'm going to replace them."
"What's wrong with the windows?" I ask.
"You can see in them."
[Pause]
[Longer pause. I look at her. I try not to snort. I fail. Mom tries employing logic to validate the comment.]
"Well, in the morning the sun hits them just right and you can see in the garage. The garage is a mess, I don't want people seeing that."
Mom's garage is probably the cleanest in the neighborhood.
"You can see all the tools hanging on the wall," she continues, logic failing.
"God forbid the neighbors see tools hanging on the walls of your garage, Mom!"
Mom knows this is a ridiculous exchange, but somewhere in her mind she's convinced that her argument is sound. She'll try to defend it a bit. Look, I bet you she'll even comment. But usually this is the point where she tells me, good naturedly, to shut up.

This weekend, Mom's garage is clean. You can even eat off the floor. I'm not kidding. She had the floor epoxied. I had not heard of this before. Yes, there is epoxy all over the floor. This involved everything from moving trunks of Christmas ornaments into the living room to spending two days without hot water because the fumes in the garage would have launched the water heater into the stratosphere. But now, everything's back in place. Except for her car, which has been sitting in the driveway.
"Well, you could probably put your car back in the garage, Mom."
"No, not yet."
"Why?"
"The car's too dirty."
I'm happy to report that by the time we headed back to San Francisco, the car was returned to its rightful spot.

1,2,3...10!

2005-10-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

Tenders in the Fog closed this weekend. What, you mean you didn't leave San Francisco fog to enjoy the respiratory benefits of Rosco fog and dry ice? Just kidding: the fog used in the production is harmless. We checked out the Saturday night performance, which was being filmed by Flying Moose. (AEA: We swear, the only copy will be sitting at SFPALM.) Flying Moose rocks--anytime a major film studio comes knocking on your door, better hope you have a FM DVD to send them. So, Moosehead Jonathan Luskin says, "Hey, I like your blog."
Ah, so someone does read my blog.
Just five minutes later, another hot new SF playwright, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, shows up. "Hey, I like your blog," he says.
And here I've been writing away, figuring I'm safe in this cloak of unpopularity and a 0 comment count.
So now I'm counting ya'll. Don't think your silence will save you. Send people. The more ya'll show up the more I'll actually write.

I Confess

2005-10-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, I really do create spreadsheets on weeknights.

Just Guest-Starring

2005-10-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

While I did check out Finn in the Underworld last night at Berkeley Rep, I've been making more changes to my links than posting. That's because I've been writing this week not only for the usual Stage Fog at SFist, but also for the Bay Guardian. Check it out. ----->

Buy Books

2005-10-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

I must be crazy. I spend at least, if I'm lucky, 40 hours a week doing theatre-related work, and then what do I do on the weekends? More theatre writing! And what's my blog about (mostly)? Theatre! No wonder I've been making more changes to my links sidebar and profile than posting. But this weekend it's leftover weekday work, a couple of little reviews and another Stage Fog post for Tuesday morning. Well, Trevor took the car again to San Jose to see Tenders.
But tomorrow, my family wants to see Rain at the Curran, which I'm all for because it's simply delightful. Yes, it's one of the few shows I'm seeing twice. OK, because the first time was a press ticket and this time my mom paid for it because she wants me to go, if only to be the one who drives in downtown SF traffic, which should be just lovely tomorrow with that golf tournament and Fleet Week and god knows what else.
Anyway, buy books. OK, what I mean is that Limelight Books, which has been on Market for 30--count 'em--30 years come January, put out a notice that the landlord raised the rent once again. Now, when Joel took the store over two years ago, he totally saved it. He remodeled it, and turned it all around in a remarkably short time. The landlord raised the rent when he moved in, and she raised it again to the tune of over 100 percent. Now, you all know indie bookstores are having a hard time, so imagine what it's like to be an indie theatre bookstore. Now, when one person at a theatre company heard about this, she said that Theatre Bay Area should get involved and do something. Do something? It's real simple: buy their books! I love how artists love to protest and petition and do all that hard stuff, but really, what they have to do here is patronize the place. Put your money where your mouth is, to lay a cliche. I know we all work for peanuts, or for free, but that doesn't mean for-profit businesses can survive because we really like the idea of them. Look, Limelight isn't getting grant money because of any service they provide the community. And, I'm sorry people, but they can't survive by handing out books for free, or letting you borrow scripts so you can go down the street and photocopy them. You like Limelight and want it around? Buy their books.

Two Mysteries

2005-10-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

Shouldn't taking the first couple of steps up a stopped escalator be as easy as taking the first couple of steps up a flight of regular stairs?
Why do people talk on cell phones while using the restroom, especially in public restrooms?

Little Man Strikes Again

2005-10-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

Ouch! Family Butchers didn't deserve a sleeping man. Oh, that's harsh. It prompted another prominent theatre director to say to me that the Little Man must be killed. Oh, here comes that debate again.
Well, let me create a little stir: You notice that there's no Little Man on the review of SF Opera's Doctor Atomic. In fact, there hasn't been a Little Man on SF Opera reviews in years. There's a story in the closet.

August Wilson

2005-10-03T22:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to try to say anything too profound about the death of August Wilson, because there are certainly other people better qualified than me to do so.
But, I'm recalling the time when I met him. It was in Valdez, Alaska, of all places, at an annual theatre conference that Edward Albee was involved in. Albee has since taken his name off the event and it's slipped into obscurity, to put it nicely. Anyway, each year Albee would bring out some of his colleagues, and I was there because Trevor had a play accepted for a staged reading.
Valdez is a small town, like, really small. There was one bar everyone went to, when we weren't at the conference center, and that was the Pipeline. So there was no place for the famous people to hide.
All I remember of August Wilson was at an evening reception. He was sitting outside at a large round table, smoking a pipe or cigar, holding court as about 15 people sat and stood around him. Actually, it was hard to tell if people were hanging around him to listen for some bit of theatre wisdom or if they were trying to take advantage of the secondhand smoke, which kept the incessent Alaskan mosquitoes away. He was kind, happy and gracious--incredibly unpretentious.

Family Butchers

2005-10-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last night the critics might have wanted to buy into the concept of parallel universes, or cloning. Baby Taj opened at TheatreWorks; The Tempest opened at California Shakespeare Theater; Family Butchers opened at Magic Theatre; and, on top of it all, the world premiere of Doctor Atomic opened at San Francisco Opera. Now, Family Butchers writer Edna O'Brien is a big draw, and she's the bigger draw of all the theatre openings, but I'm afraid she couldn't top the biggest opening of the opera world. No matter, my Doctor Atomic tickets are for later this month. Still, the theatres are usually a bit more careful about scheduling press nights. The Chronicle's Rob Hurwitt suggested my day job should post a list of press nights on our site. OK, add that project to my list. (I should stop being so cloy about my day job, like you all don't know where I work.)
Family Butchers, an American premiere at Magic Theatre, is about an Irish family in the 1970s trying to hold onto their farm, not to mention trying to keep cohesion in their family, admist social turmoil. In other words, it's the typical Irish drama with lots of booze, lots of fighting and the brandishing of a gun. It's like Long Day's Journey into Death of a Salesman. Except, and this is a big except, O'Brien's play looks like a contemporary one, but it undercuts the form in many ways. I'm not going to spoil it by explaining this too much. Let's just say that well-made plays with everything tied up so neatly at the end so we can go home without the unsettling feeling that the universe is somehow off-kilter annoys the heck out of me, yet when confronted with a play that doesn't tie up things so neatly, that suggests dark family secrets yet doesn't confirm them, that ends with the door open and things unresolved, I, well, feel unsettled. It's probably because I've seen way too many plays and have become cynical, have become adept at figuring out what's going to happen in act three based on what's been set up in act one. So, in retrospect, I actually want to go back to the script (so nicely provided in our press kits) and study what she's done, instead of go home, have a cup of tea and go to sleep content.
That said, the play, which is expertly directed by Shakespeare Santa Cruz's artistic director (and excellent actor himself) Paul Whitworth, does have its little quirks. The scenes at times don't transition well. It's like watching boxers stop at the bell and go back to their corners and then come out again, except you don't hear the bell and the boxers don't move. They just start fighting as if no time has passed. With seven actors on the stage, at times, with a full family room set or dining room, some have to fade into the background--or simply get out of the way--until it's their turn to get back into the action. In ways, this is absolutely realistic. But in some ways, I can see that the actors are still finding the transition points, still finding when to access the character's past to go from a tender moment to a crushing one in an instant (I'm thinking of the mother's reaction to Emer's writing, which prompts Emer to leave, or try to leave, the reunion). The cast is quite fantastic, especially Anne Francisco Worden as Emer and Robertson Dean as the father.
Well, the opening night was quite the event, with enough flowing sequined shirts and beaded baubles to...well, flowing sequined shirts, you get the idea. I just tried to stay out of the way of the money. It's quite a dance the Magic must choreograph--to try to stay gritty enough to honor its roots and try to bring in those new-work audiences of the Mission District yet to make enough money to support new work. Of course, Family Butchers is new. But it's also a known quantity with a celeb playwright. I saw more Pac Heights people than Mission District hipsters. Still, it's a good safe way to open the season and make way for the future surprises.
I must add that a contemporary Irish play that didn't include the nearly cliche elements of the drunk patriarch, the slightly crazy mother and the complete breakdown of family would be a welcome surprise indeed. Certainly, with the reinvigoration of Dublin's economy, to name just one example, it's time to end the backlash against plays that romanticize the good ol' country.

Caucasian Chalk Circle

2005-10-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Now that Tenders in the Fog is open, I have my regular theatre date, my "+1," back by my side. Because I've still not completed my project of finding better, nontouristy restaurants in the Union Square area and because we're partial to pubs anyway, we headed to our usual, Foley's. They recently changed their menu, and, philistine that I can be, all I really noticed is that they dropped the hamburger. A pub without a hamburger? Now, I usually go for the fish and chips, but a girl needs her alternatives. Besides, it was the cheapest thing on the menu. Had I not received a ton of "user suggestions" at my day job in response to our new site design, one of which declared that day, "You're new site sucks!," I might have left a suggestion to put the burger back on the menu. But I refrained, hoping that the karma would come around.
Our good friend and incredible theatre artist Mark Jackson is back in town after a year in Berlin to, of course, direct Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a production by American Conservatory Theater's MFA students. Anyone expecting something like Jackson's breakaway Death of Meyerhold would be left wanting: he delivered a nearly textbook production but added a few flourishes, which is perfectly acceptable, of course. In fact, I expect that ACT wanted their students to "do Brecht" in that over-the-top alienating way.
Jackson told me in a short interview that Brecht has a lot of heart, but frankly, the only heart I see in the Chalk Circle is that Grusha gets the child and Simon forgives her, which I suppose is enough. When Grusha and Simon reunite at the river, a reunion that quickly goes sour when Simon learns that Grusha has a child and is married, there is no initial glimmer of joy after the hardship of war. This is justified, considering their "courtship" was conducted in the third person. Still, as an audience member, I want to grasp something, and the least Brecht could give me was a bit of a love story. While I understand why Brecht wanted to alienate his audiences, I assume he also wanted them to learn something, and we aren't really doing to learn anything if we are completely disengaged. Not that I was completely disengaged; as a nontypical audience member, I'm not allowed to be.
Well, enough of the pseudo-academia. I'm not really interested in anything other than dragging him off the pedestal a bit.
Mark's direction was excellent, infused with additonal humorous touches (the spear-carrying guards, for one) and, if you were looking for it, a bit of movement referencing Biomechanics. the scene with Grusha crossing the treacherous bridge with child in tow was surprisingly thrilling. A few benches placed askew across the stage on top of cloth signifying water. She crossed tentatively, seeming to lose her balance but regaining it. It really shouldn't have worked because we see the artifice so clearly. But, as Jackson also told me, Brecht loved the theatre of theatre, and here Jackson (and actor Claire Brownell) conveys that, creating a scene that, against the odds, we completely buy into. It may have been because the center bench wobbled a little, introducing an almost real danger. What if the actor really did lose her balance and step onto the cloth? It's an absurd thought, really. But there it was, I wasn't alienated, I was engaged.
Much-deserved kudos to the live musical accompaniment by--the program is unclear, I assume it's composer and musical director David Babich, who beautifully underscored the scenes.
Jackson is spending most of the rest of October back in Berlin, but I'm looking forward to his return and his new work here. A year is much too long without his voice in the conversation.

Changes

2005-10-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I figured you'd all appreciate the larger font.
And, you may have noticed that I change my links categories.
Drop me a line if you'd like me to consider adding your blog.

Tenders in the Fog Opened

2005-10-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tenders in the Fog is about a banshee that curses the men of the Bailey family, the latest three generations of which are now lost on the fishing boat Trinity, of course.
After the first week or so of rehearsals, the curse wasn't restricted to the men in the script.
The first curse, we'll just call it Burning Man and leave it at that.
The second curse was a death in one of the cast/crew's family, though not entirely unexpected.
At this point, one of the actors started running around the cutaway boat onstage with burning sage.
On the day of the first preview came the third curse, the lightboard crashed. They canceled the preview to rebuild the cues.
So, things come in threes, and there are three men and they're on the Trinity, so I figured the curses were finished. I was right. (So much for building tension.)
My first sight of the show since the reading in January was on the last preview, which went extremely well.
Opening night was exciting and nerve-wracking. The great thing about Trevor's family is that there's so many of them, and by the time you add the significant others, you've filled the first two rows of the house. Basically, they surround the critics. It works out nice that way.
I love this play. Trevor has taken the fugue structures he's been experimenting with for years now and has put them upon a narrative (but not linear) story. It is very difficult for the actors to memorize, but when they do and find the music, it just sings. The banshee/storyteller provides the story, and when she's the banshee, they've reverbed her voice (everyone is miked), so haunting. She also provides some comic relief, and Jessa rocks in the part.
The only slip of the evening was the stage fog, which was strange because the night before it was just fine. When they started using it in rehearsal, it worked as well as a lit cigarette. "It's Tenders in the Fog," Trev emphasized. In one rehearsal, the fog was so thick you couldn't see the actors, which, frankly, is an accurate account of San Francisco fog. But by previews, it all worked fine.
It wasn't really that bad on opening, but at the very end the SF Chronicle critic started fanning himself, and Trevor and I, sitting a couple of rows back, nearly fell out of our seats groaning.
But, the reviews came out, and they're pretty good. I made another cameo in Rob Hurwitt's review (the Chron), this time as the "wife." Really, it makes me laugh.
Also, here's the Metro review. I'd also post the SJ Mercury News, but you have to register and all to read anything on its site.
Support the theatres who produce local playwrights! Especially those who put those plays on the mainstage, and open their season with them. Info and tickets at San Jose Stage.

Dead Can Dance

2005-10-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Let's pretend it's last week, this way my posts can be timely.
Z, a die-hard Dead Can Dance fan, bought tickets for The Paramount Theatre shows the second they went on sale. What better way for her to spend her last night in the country before another jaunt to Europe, and what better way for me to get my mind off Tenders' opening night?
Ah, Dead Can Dance. In my intense ultra-serious grad student days getting, as my sister would say, a master's of fuck-all, in poetry no less, I would lie on the floor and crank them up. These were not human voices, I thought.
After a quick tour of the art deco wonder that's the Paramount, we headed to our seats. "These are great seats," Z said. "Only like 10 rows back." Row Y.
The usher told us to walk down to the stage. I don't think Z really heard that. We passed another usher on the aisle. "Keep going to the stage."
In front of the "regular" front row, they added two rows of movable chairs. The first was row X. The second was row Y. We were in the center, right under the angelic Lisa.
Z started hyperventilating.
Now that I look at this, it all makes some sort of sense. The universe likes logic and order. Of course Z bought tickets for row Y.
The place was sold out. The band came out to thunder, and then you could, as the cliche goes, hear a pin drop. Lisa started singing, and halfway through the first song everyone around me was in tears. The band didn't talk between songs, except to say that one song "went to the top of the charts in 1461" or some such year. And Lisa said "You're fabulous" after the last encore. But other than that, they didn't break the trance. It was surreal to see her, I couldn't believe that voice was coming from that body. It was all beautiful and fabulous, and I never want to see them again, that concert was so perfect.

Tenders in the Fog Opens

2005-09-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've been around, really. I caught four SF Fringe shows in two days, and, I must say, I lucked out, as three of them were quite good. I also caught The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Part 1 at Cal Shakes--on a Tuesday night, no less. (It's a three-hour play, for those who don't know.) It was fabulous; I was particularly struck by the actor playing Smike. Who's that guy? I wondered. A look in the program...a nonlocal, of course. Clifton Guterman, out from Atlanta. He's also appearing in the upcoming world premiere at Berkeley Rep, Finn in the Underworld. Seems he had been in an earlier reading, and it just so happened that Berkeley Rep was doing the play right when he was already in town.

While I was at the Fringe, Liebe Wetzel of the fab Lunatique Fantastique caught up with me: "Theatre widow," she said. It was true. Trevor has been rehearsing in San Jose for most of September, leaving me to my own devices six days or nights a week. Not that I could get away with much--he had the car! I was getting the hang of the one-car family until now.

Anyway, after much drama (it is theatre after all), Tenders in the Fog opens this week at San Jose Stage. Kent Nicholson, the best new play director in town (at least), helms the production, and there's a fabulous cast. Also, San Jose Rep built the set--apparently they build quite a few sets for neighboring companies. Well, that rocks because SJ Rep has one of the best shops in the Bay Area. Trev's been telling me great tidbits about dry ice, microphones set to reverb and a specially composed soundscore. You'll just have to take my word that this is going to be cool--even more so because I haven't even been to one rehearsal! I was going to try to catch one to see the famed Kent Nicholson in action, but scheduling just didn't work out. The only time I went down to San Jose with Trev was to drop him off at rehearsals one weekend so I could take the car to do laundry and some grocery shopping. All the way to San Jose to do laundry!

And how much have we spent on gas this month so far? Drum roll: $140. It's gonna be a great show!

Local Theatre Helps Hurricane Victims

2005-09-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today's Chronicle includes an article about local arts companies who are holding benefits of one kind or another throughout the month for hurricane victims. Pink Pages editor Joe Brown also posted about it on Culture Blog.
Joe was kind enough to give me a callout, basically for sending out word to the local theatre community that the Chron was looking for info. But, like I commented on his post, the real callouts go to the Chron for helping get the word out about hurricane relief and to the local theatre community for having these benefits to begin with. In many cases, these companies stepped up right away, donating money this weekend or arranging benefits in the next couple of weeks. Many of these companies struggle under funding cuts and other challenges in this downturned economy, yet they always step up to help those in need. They truly are an asset to the Bay Area and beyond.

A Stranger Response

2005-09-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

OK, I promised ya'll a response to The Stranger column that JB brought to our attention. Well, this probably won't be a response as much as more musings or free associations.
First, let's review some key points from David Schmader's column (apologies in advance for copyright infringement, but this is for educational purposes, ha):

"Thus commenced the conception of theater attendance as an inherently valuable and rewarding endeavor (whether the audience realized it or not) and the transformation of the theatrical experience from a viable popular entertainment into a chore."
"If theater is inherently good, any failure to appreciate examples of that form is foisted onto the audience. After experiencing a theatrical event whose preordained value doesn't translate into anything resembling pleasure, audience members may be tempted to blame themselves for the lack."

The writer is coming at this from the audience point of view, but some of his language echoes what I encounter during my daytime hours. To battle state funding cuts at the California Arts Council, we ("we" in general) gathered data that indicated that the arts pumped money into the economy. After a couple of years, and because that obviously didn't work anyway, RAND suggested we talk about the intrinsic value of the arts. That is, "theatre is good." "You have unique experiences at the theatre." And one of my favorites, "When you watch theatre, you realize that your seeing something unique. There will never be a performance exactly like the one you saw." That sounds so great until you think, "When I stood on the corner of Eddy and Taylor and saw a guy pissing in the street, I knew I was never going to see a sight exactly like that. I may see a guy piss in the street on another day, but it won't be the same guy in the exact same spot at the same time of day. And, he certainly wouldn't have drunk that much beer."

Now, let's get one thing straight: I'm not comparing theatre to a guy pissing in the street. I'm saying that the statement that a performance is unique doesn't mean it's a good unique experience. So, when we talk about intrinsic value, we have to be careful of exactly what we're saying. In fact, how much value is a "unique" experience anyway? I don’t have to go to the theatre to have unique experiences. And, like the above quote suggests, it puts the weight of the experience on the audience member: Oh god, this is supposed to be a unique experience. I'm supposed to be moved because there are actors right in front of me, sweating, and it looks really emotional, but I'm just not into it. What's wrong with me?

This is where I pause, because I'm not an ordinary audience member. I see a lot of theatre. It's my job to see a lot of theatre, so yeah, it's a chore sometimes. OK, moretimes. But, last night I saw The Overcoat. Before the show, as I was walking to Foley's (as usual), I thought: "I'm actually looking forward to this. It sounds like an interesting show. We haven't seen a show quite like this in a while, a play without dialogue that's based on a short story, with movement set to Shostakovich. And (here's the important part), I don’t have to review it. It's a touring company, so I'm not going because I have to see someone in it that I'm going to write about, or because I know the director, or because…." I can't remember the last time I went to a play with that light feeling, that feeling of a little anticipation. Instead of the feeling that I had to be able to write intelligently about the show afterward, or that I had to come up with some really funny remarks at intermission for my fellow critics/writers, oh the stress. Now, The Overcoat didn't blow me out of the water. (The show that blew me out of the water was SITI Company's Bob. Nothing has topped it since for me.) But it was one of the best shows I've seen in a long while.

But the thing is, we don’t just ask our audiences to enjoy the show, or think it was one the best shows they've seen in a while. We ask them to translate that feeling to the notion that they had a truly unique experience. An experience that profoundly changed their world view, or an experience so thrilling that they'll remember it forever. And that's why they should lobby their legislators, and be really, really angry that California is dead last on state funding for the arts. (OK, they should also lobby because we need arts in the schools, and I'm not going to argue that side of it.) But really, under the best of circumstances, people go to the theatre because it's fun. I mean, would CanStage rather I went to The Overcoat because I had to (for any number of reasons), or because I thought it would be fun? Frankly, I was in a good mood about going because I wanted to go. And I had a more positive experience because of it. Too bad I wasn't writing a review after all. It would have been a really positive one. But then, I couldn't have known I was going to write a review until after the fact. Then again, when was the last time you saw a reviewer blame themselves for the fact that they didn't enjoy the show?

Stage Fog Posted

2005-08-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

You know, I hope people actually read the Stage Fog posts. Not because I spend so much time writing them (don't get me wrong, I actually do, a little time anyway), but because I spend more time linking random words to random sites. This week my fav is "Goth boy." Not only that, but running Google searches for "Nicky Hilton" and any of a number of kinky things ("horror" and "bondage") for the Thrillpeddlers review makes for a lot of spyware and other nasty things on my computer. I practically have to disinfect it every week. Especially when I click through and look at photos.
OK, it looks like this week at least one person read it, judging from the comment. But maybe he only read the headline. I spend all this time linking "Goth boy," and he comments on Burning Man? Argh, that's too easy, I say!
And I still have to post a review, and then next week it's Fringe, Fringe, Fringe!

Hiding the Proof

2005-08-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just saw a commercial for the film version of Proof, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. It's advertised, "Based on a Pulitzer Prize winner." A Pulitzer Prize-winning...what? That marketing department has created a very sad day indeed.

On Vacation

2005-08-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

One of the few remaining remnants--OK, the only remnant--of my Catholic upbringing is guilt for not sticking to (mostly self-imposed) obligations, like this one. I confess, I took two days off from work--comp days, that is. And I just couldn't manage to post here--I even took a week break from Stage Fog. What pain the season preview issue brings! After Z and I finished it at her studio and watched as the files uploaded to the printer, we headed over to the DeYoung, which had a preview day for the public. So we previewed the cafe and store, the only things open. Frankly, I was impressed with the store, only because of the lower-level book collection. OK, because of the Andy Goldsworthy books. And the building...being no architecture critic, what can I offer? The lines, the angles, quirky and playful. The outdoors with the indoors. The cafe may need some help--it has the feel of a cafeteria, and wonderful as the windows are for bringing in the maximun amount of light, the view of all that fog makes you feel cold, especially in such a modern building.
I attended Crowded Fire's Slow Falling Bird and Last Planet's Sore Throats, both during closing weekend. Heidi Wolff (Last Planet) may be one of the best-kept secrets. Cassie Beck continues to be one of CF's best assets--apparently she also landed a role in San Jose Rep's The Haunting of Winchester.
Jonathon Keats's article in Wired reminded me to purchase really expensive tickets to SF Opera's Doctor Atomic. At least they weren't as expensive as U2, really.
In the meantime, so many things simmering. A said, "Do you need to borrow my copy of A Room of One's Own?" I spent most of my two days off in conundrum. I spent a few hours of one in North Beach, which has, among other things, sun. After living in the Outer Sunset for 10 years, I've become a bit of an expert on fog. You know how there can be hundreds of words for "snow"? It's been foggy for most of the past three months. Today is "lifting light." I just made that up right now. Oh wait, it's actually sunny now. There is hope.
I slept in a lot. Trevor took the car to rehearsal again. I'm avoiding the work I brought home. I'm listening to some Dark Sparkle promo CDs S gave me. I'm reading my Bloglines and wondering why I'm subscribed to Gawker, which I blame for influencing me to write this drivel, this, right now. Just without the celebs. I would rather write my reply to The Stranger article JB pointed us to, the reply I promised a while ago. I'm contemplating Ron Jones's When God Winked, which opened the Marsh Berkeley last night. Interesting new space, about 100 seats, in the Gaia Building. Too back there's a jazz club next to it. I mean for noise, not for after-show drinks.
I'm going to be back.

The Review

2005-08-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Posted a review for Blood Bucket Ballyhoo yesterday.

Latest SFist Post

2005-08-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

For Tuesday, August 16.
Tomorrow, a review.

700 Sundays=Big $

2005-08-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today Best of Broadway announced Billy Crystal's Tony Award-winning solo performance will be hitting its SF boards this fall. Too bad you need to subscribe to the whole Best of Broadway series to even be able to buy tickets to this one.

Local Playwright Lands WP With Tim Robbins

2005-08-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I usually wouldn't scoop my own magazine, but because most of the other papers will, if they haven't already, I'll make an exception.
I'd been hearing rumors, ever since the Ensemble Theater Festival in Blue Lake (well, actually even before then), that SF Mime Trouper Michael Gene Sullivan was talking with Tim Robbins and The Actors' Gang about a world premiere of his adaptation of Orwell's 1984--which Robbins would direct, of course. This past week it became official--first, Michael e-mailed me at the mag, and then today a press release came through from SoCal (Actors' Gang is at the Ivy Substation Theatre in Culver City).
1984 opens in February. Check out The Actors' Gang site.
Congratulations, Michael! You rock.

Etched in Stone

2005-08-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

Cheshire Dave continues his preoccupation with typefaces in his new animated short, Etched in Stone. Several Impact regulars have contributed voice-over talent.
Choose your fonts carefully; your life may depend on it.

Sha Sha Higby

2005-08-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

I probably should have mentioned Sha Sha Higby in the week's Stage Fog over at SFist. She's performing this weekend over at Fort Mason. I've never seen her work live, but the images are just so compelling. Perhaps I'll try to swing it Friday night.

Officially a 'Fister

2005-08-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Really, SFist has embraced the name, with SFisters on their softball shirts. I think that's SuperFisters. So, does that mean when I write about a company that I 'fist them?
Anyway, here's my first official post. Soon, I think, I'll have a little profile, too.