Flora Lynn Isaacson Reviews

A Case of Libel--An Intense Courtroom Drama at NTC

2012-02-26T16:48:00.000-08:00

Ron Dailey, Alma Deleon and Michael Walraven in A Case of Libel

This lively courtroom battle inspired by the real trial between journalists Quentin Reynolds and Westbrook Pegler is now brought to the stage by the Novato Theater Company as it presents its winter production of A Case of Libel.

Written by Henry Denker, this 1963 Broadway play tells the story of Dennis Corcoran (Bill McClave), a liberal news correspondent who returns from World War II after performing heroically only to be characterized as a drunkard and Communist sympathizer by an ultra-conservative columnist, Boyd Bendix (MIchael Walraven).

With the help of a brilliant attorney Robert Sloan (Paul Abbot), based on the actual case's Louis Nizer in My Life In Court, Corcoran brings a libel suit against Boyd Bendix. The climax in which Bendix is tripped up by his own contradictory writings was in reality based on a small portion of the Reynolds/Pegler litigation but it provides a satisfactory "sauce for the goose" third Act.

The show gets off to a slow start in Act One which takes place in the mid 1950's in New York City in the office of attorney, Robert Sloan. Director Ron Nash builds from a quiet start when Dennis Corcoran and his wife Anita (Renee Mandel-Sher) come into Sloan's office while he is going over his vacation itinerary. When Sloan agrees to take Corcoran's case, Nash builds through various twists and turns, as Sloan prepares Dennis for trial.

Then the play really takes off in Acts Two and Three which take place in the courtroom. Here Nash skillfully directs his cast to display the mounting emotions of Corcoran's day-after-day in court.

The principal players are all outstanding, particularly Paul Abbot as Robert Sloan with his beautiful voice and fine stage presence. Bill McClave sympathetically portrays Dennis Corcoran. In contrast, Michael Walraven effectively personifies his adversary, Boyd Bendix with overbearing arrogance. Kris Neely gives a strong portrayal as Bendix's lawyer Paul Cleary. Ron Dailey skillfully brings three characters to life--a Scottish military man (with a perfect Scottish dialect), one of the firm's partners and a drunken editor. Renee Mandel-Sher as Anita Corcoran gives a fine performance as Dennis' supportive wife. Even though the roles of the Judge (Alma Deleon) and the Court Reporter (Elizabeth Rohtla) have few lines, they contribute a great deal to the courtroom drama by their facial expressions which reflect close attention to detail.

Director Ron Nash helped both to set the mood from time to time by having some of the actors read aloud headlines from the mid-1950's. He also designed the set and the action so the audience finds itself in the jury box. Finally, Nash deserves high praise in directing his very large ensemble who bring this intense courtroom drama to life onstage.

A Case of Libel runs through March 11 at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and Sunday at 3 p.m. Performances are held at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato. For tickets, call 415-883-4498 or go online at www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Coming up next at Novato Theater Company is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, April 6-29, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Steady Rain--A Tale of Two Chicago Cops at MTC

2012-02-16T19:32:00.000-08:00

Joey (Kevin Rolston) and Denny (Khris Lewin) in A Steady Rain at Marin Theatre Company

A Steady Rain by Keith Huff and directed by Meredith McDonough is a little gem which is having its West Coast Premiere at Marin Theatre Company. This play premiered in Huff's native Chicago in 2007 and is best known as the play Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig starred in on Broadway in 2009.

A Steady Rain is a crime drama told through the confessions of Denny and Joey, two less than reputable Chicago beat cops which takes the form of team monologues to the audience, telling us what happened to them. There is not a wasted moment in the dialogue. Everything is essential.

Denny (Khris Lewin) and Joey (Kevin Rolston) are two of Chicago's less than finest beat cops who confess to the audience the misdeeds and mistakes that have turned their lives into violent chaos with their in-your-face storytelling. These two Chicago police officers are longtime partners and best friends. Joey is single and lonely, and Denny is married with children; but both men have flaws and serious problems. Introverted Joey struggles with a drinking problem and secretly loves Denny's wife, Connie; angry tough-guy Denny can barely disguise his racism and cheats on Connie with a prostitute on his beat.

These two cops offer contrasting descriptions of their harrowing experiences. They relate how Walter Lorenz, a pimp that Denny has harassed over the years, shoots a bullet through Denny's front window causing flying glass to sever an artery in Denny's son's neck. Denny pursues Lorenz relentlessly drawing Denny into a series of dangerous and incriminating activities. During a domestic disturbance, the two return a frightened Vietnamese boy to a man who says he is the boy's uncle. The uncle turns out to be a cannibalistic serial killer.

These two actors have mastered the Chicago street-speak, with their accents mostly in place and they both tell their characters' stories with a centeredness that confidently holds the stage. Kevin Rolston creates a complete portrait as Joey who emerges as a constant worrier born with a sense of guilt and a fear of offending. Khris Lewin does a great job of bringing Denny to life as a blustery family guy with skewed notions of domestic and professional honor.

Meredith McDonough's tight staging on a sparse set by Andrew Boyce-just a couple of green upholstered metal chairs on a platform under a slanted, grated ceiling is enormously effective. Go see A Steady Rain. According to MTC's Artistic Director, Jasson Minadakis says, "It's a roller coaster ride of suspense and surprises that takes the good cop-bad cop genre to a level all its own."

Performances run through February 26, 2012, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. There are matinees on Sunday at 2 p.m. and a special Saturday matinee February 25 at 2 p.m. Performances are held at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA. For tickets, call 415-388-5208 or go to www.marintheatre.org.

Coming up next at Marin Theatre Company will be Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare directed by Jasson Minadakis, March 29 through April 22, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

The Trip to Bountiful-A Memory Play at California Conservatory Theatre

2012-02-13T17:49:00.001-08:00

The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote is set in the 1950's and tells the story of an elderly woman, Carrie Watts (Phoebe Moyer) who wants to return home to the small town where she grew up, but is frequently stopped from leaving Houston, Texas by her daughter in-law, Jessie Mae (Sylvia Burboeck) and her overprotective son, Ludie (Steve Rhyne).

Mrs. Watts is determined to outwit her son and bossy daughter in-law and set out to catch a train only to find the trains don't go to Bountiful anymore. She eventually boards a bus to a town near her childhood home. On the journey, she befriends Thelma (Siobhan Marie Doherty) who is traveling alone and reminisces about her younger years and grieves for her lost relatives. Her son and daughter in-law eventually track Mrs. Watts down with the help of the local police force. However, Mrs. Watts is determined. The local sheriff (Michael Fay) is moved by her yearning to visit her girlhood home and offers to drive her out to what remains of Bountiful. The village is deserted and the few remaining houses are derelict. Mrs. Watts is moved to tears as she surveys her father's land and the remain of the family home. Her son eventually turns up and drives her back to Houston.

Phoebe Moyer gives a moving performance as Carrie Watts, both heart-wrenchingly frail, yet cunningly willful. Sylvia Burboeck as Jessie Mae has excellent playing energy and displays her complete self-absorption. Steve Rhyne strikes the perfect note as the husband and son caught between two women. Siobhan Marie Doherty is charmingly sympathetic as Thelma and Michael Fay does double duty as both the Sheriff and Ticket Man. He is ably supported by WM. Hunter as both Roy and another Ticket Man. The speech of these characters reflects the southern Texas locale and is consistent.

Kimberly Richards is a wonderful director who establishes real connection in all of her cast. Equally impressive is the set design by Flash Bazbeaux. The opening scene is a multi-faceted set of both a living room and a bedroom. All through the play there are wonderful projections on the back wall showing us detailed scenes of where we are and where we are going.

Phoebe Moyer's remarkable performance is worth the price of admission. She portrays Carrie Watts as not some daffy forgetful old lady hankering for an unrecoverable past, but a canny survivor who is able to accept the compromise involved in fulfilling her wish to return to her past of past losses and happy memories.

At any rate, you'll find this trip worth taking!

The Trip to Bountiful continues Friday at 8 p.m., February 17 and 24; Saturday at 2 p.m., February 25; Saturday at 8 p.m. February 18 and 25 and Sunday at 2 p.m., February 19 and 26. Performances are held at the California Conservatory Theatre of San Leandro, 999 East 14th St., San Leandro, CA. Call for tickets at 510-632-8850 Tuesday-Friday, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Valentine's Day Treat

2012-02-12T19:08:00.000-08:00

David Rouda as Aaron and Lonnie Haley in On the Nose by Rod McFadden

The Treat Street Theatre opened its inaugural performance last Friday night, February 10, 2012. Their mission is to keep new theatre alive and growing and to support local artists. This inaugural performance is in partnership with The Playwright's Center of San Francisco.

This first program honors two prolific local playwrights, Rod McFadden and Don Samson and is entitled, Counting On Love--In the Age of Mappo...and other stories of the heart. The six one act plays presented provide a diverse assortment of romantic and love-themed stories just in time for Valentine's Day weekend.

In program order, the first offering, Counting On Love by Rod McFadden and directed by Carol Eggers, is a playful study of an eager young suitor, Vincent, refreshingly played by Patrick Bibeau, who skillfully navigates his way through the labyrinth of his newfound object of affection's dating logic. Sophia has a Ph.D. in mathematics and is played smartly and sexily by Erika Perez.

The next play, Sunday at Buckley's by Don Samson and directed by Anna Budd, explores the consequences of retreating from unfinished business. This is a phone conversation between Jim (played with nonchalance by Michael Belitsos) while at his favorite Sunday spot and his daughter, Lisa (played by Elena Marella in an intense performance). This play has a surprise ending!

Act one ends with Love Birds, a charming romance by Rod McFadden and expertly directed by Carol Eggers. Love Birds appeared at the 2011 Fringe of Marin Festival to appreciative audiences. A young man, George (Rick Roitinger) and a young woman Marcia (Claudia Rosa) meet on a park bench. George is feeding the pigeons and Marcia is reading a Jane Austen novel. Both Rick Roitinger and Claudia Rosa are a dynamic duo as their romance develops. It is a clever idea to have the lights go on and off to designate that 3 weeks have passed. Two lonely people find each other when reading and feeding.

Act two opens with On the Nose by Rod McFadden and skillfully directed by Crystal Nezgoda. This is a hilarious last straw comedy about the heights of tolerance and patience one love can have for another. Paul, played to the hilt by Lonnie Haley, is the patient house-husband and Aaron, naively played by David Rouda, is his oblivious bread winning partner. This delightful comedy is a real crowd pleaser!

Next, Sally by Don Samson and sensitively directed by Suzanne Birrell, is a tense domestic comedy in which two married lesbians, Lisa (Desiree Rogers) and Jean (Claudia Rosa) stretch both of their abilities to maintain family harmony while the kids are in the next room watching t.v.

The grand finale is the World Premiere of Rod McFadden's A Sudden Past, set in 1929 at the dilapidated Temple Theatre in upstate New York. Director Greg Young very cleverly begins the program with a silent movie set in the same period. Here we find Le Roi the Magnificent, as Vaudeville magician (played with style by Rick Roitinger) who is still grieving the death of his Talma (the beautiful Robin Meyerowitz) three years after her passing. He looks for guidance while braving the fading Vaudeville circuit with his new assistant, Adelaide (delightfully played by Elena Marella), who has big plans of her own. The fabulous costumes are designed by Mary Dollar.

Playwrights Rod McFadden and Don Samson are unique voices whose work blends deliciously for a great night of theatrical storytelling. Performances are at 8 p.m. February 13, 14, 17 and 18 at the Exit Studio Theatre, 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco. Tickets are available online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/220963 or at www.theexit.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Becky Shaw--X Generation Angst at SF Playhouse

2012-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

Max tries to break it off with Becky. (Brian Robert Burns & Lauren English).

Gina Gionfriddo's 2009 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Becky Shaw is receiving its regional premiere at the San Francisco Playhouse. Playwright Gina Gionfriddo says "The play is a journey of moral discovery, and the characters are people who are wrestling with their best and worst selves."

When Suzanna (Liz Sklar) sets up the unknown Becky Shaw (Lauren English) with her closest friend, Max (Brian Robert Burns), little can she forecast the seismic effect it will have on their lives. Suzanna's charitable matchmaking leads to a catastrophic first date that ultimately causes each character in the play to re-assess their relationship with one another, and forced to clarify the future lives they envision for themselves. This play asks to what extent Becky's desperation and neediness affects others around her. Gionfriddo asks the following questions: "What do you owe a desperate stranger?" "What do you owe her when you invited her in?" Social obligation and morality are heady points of contention. At the heart of the play is a shrewd explanation of how difficult it can be to act charitably especially to people you don't particularly like.

For this regional premiere, San Francisco Playhouse Associate Artistic Director, Amy Glazer does a bang up job directing her talented cast. Liz Sklar gives a standout performance as Suzanna. Her acting was superb. She was ably assisted by Brian Robert Burns who plays a cocky Max, Lori Holt as Suzanna's mother Susan, who really knows how to take the stage and delivers some of the best lines in the play, Lee Dolson as Suzanna's husband Andrew who is both supportive and sympathetic, and finally the beautiful Lauren English as Becky who plays her with a blend of surface fragility along with a heart of steel.

Bill English is an amazing set designer. The multi-location plot of Becky Shaw placed huge demands which he ably met, keeping the scene changes fluid and the action of one room unfolding as another closes. The play skips between various cities in the U.S. (New York, Boston, Providence and Richmond). Becky Shaw is reminiscent of the plays of Henrik Ibsen, the Father of Modern Drama. Here in this play, as in Ibsen's, more and more is revealed about each character as it goes along, like peeling layers of an onion.

Do come to the San Francisco Playhouse to see Becky Shaw. This play entertains, challenges and inspires you to experience the power of live theatre.

Becky Shaw continues through March 10, 2012. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m. The SF Playhouse is located at 533 Sutter Street (one block off Union Square b/n Powell and Mason). For tickets, contact SF Playhouse box office at 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be The Aliens by Annie Baker directed by Lila Neugebauer opening Saturday, March 24, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Broadway Bound by Neil Simon--A Precious Gem at Masquer's

2012-01-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

Kate (Marilyn Hughes, left) dances with her son Eugene (Zac Schuman) in The Masquer's Playhouse production of Neil Simon's Broadway Bound.

Phoebe Moyer has directed a beautiful and sensitive production of Broadway Bound which opened last weekend at the Masquer's Playhouse which runs through February 25.

The origins of Neil Simon's comic sensibilities are revealed in his semi-autobiographical trilogy; Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985) and Broadway Bound (1987).

The setting of Broadway Bound is the Jerome household, Brighton Beach, 1949. Eugene (Zac Schuman), the protagonist and Simon's alter-ego, and his brother Stanley (Chris Dewey) have begun writing comedy sketches for the Catskill's resorts hoping this activity will be the first step on the fame and fortune. As they seek out funny material, the boy's home life rapidly disintegrates. The crisis at hand includes their parent's constant quarreling (brought about by their father's philandering) and a seemingly insurmountable dilemma involving their aged grandfather.

Director Phoebe Moyer skillfully guides her talented cast in this fine, Masquer's production. Her ensemble works well off each other and each one offers a carefully etched characterization.

Eugene acts as narrator, speaking directly to the audience and filling us in on the details. Zac Schum an is engaging as the glib Eugene who has a clear comeback for any situation. As Stan, Chris Dewey becomes his character completely. The two actors play well off each other in their lively, brotherly exchanges.

Marilyn Hughes has the challenging role of Kate Jerome, who is about 50 years old and graying. She is the mother of Eugene and Stanley Jerome and the wife of Jack Jerome (Timothy Beagley). After 33 years of marriage, she confronts Jack with his extra-marital affair; they do not speak to each other afterward. Shortly after the radio broadcast of a show written by her sons, Kate shows her son Eugene how she once danced with George Raft which is a dramatic highlight of the play. Kate is a survivor and Marilyn Hughes convincingly conveys her character's inner strength. Timothy Beagley gives a low-key portrayal of Jack, as a man who has been beaten down by the demands of his restrictive life.

Avi Jacobson is amusing as Ben, the crusty grandfather, a rabid Socialist who disapproves of his daughter, Blanche's Park Avenue lifestyle. Georgie Craig as Blanche shares a poignant scene with her father Ben who refuses to accept her financial help.

The realistic two level set by Phoebe Moyer and the lighting by Jon Gourdine enhance the production as does the sound effects by Billie Cox which makes this a rich listening experience especially for those fond of old-time radio drama. The period costumes by Marjorie Moore are both realistic and authentic.

Brother Stan points out that characters wanting something with an obstacle preventing them from getting it equals comedy. Broadway Bound shows that the comedy can often be bittersweet.

This warm comedy plays weekends January 20-February 25 at the Masquer's Playhouse in Point Richmond. Performances are Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on January 29 and February 5. Tickets can be purchased online at www.masquers.org or by calling 510-232-4031. The Playhouse is located off Highway 580 (Richmond Parkway) at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond across from the Hotel Mac.

Coming up next in the Masquer's 2012 season will be The Real Inspector Hound and The 15 Minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard and directed by Steve Hill from March 23-April 28.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia Lights Up Actor's Ensemble of Berkeley

2012-01-24T20:04:00.000-08:00

Paul Stout as Septimus Hodge and Jerome Solberg as Captain Brice in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia directed by Robert Estes played to a packed audience, Saturday, January 21, 2012. Written in 1993, Arcadia brilliantly intermixes sex, mathematics, romance and landscape architecture in a contemporary cosmic drama that deftly travels from today's England back to the time of the wild poet, Lord Byron, all in the pursuit of desire--desire for love, desire for fame, and a desire for simply knowing how it all turns out. This play concerns the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge.

The setting is an English country manor in 1809 and the present day. The activities of two modern scholars and the house's current residents are juxtaposed with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

In 1809, Tomasina Coverly (Alona Bach) the daughter of the house is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Paul Stout), a friend of Lord Byron, who is an unseen guest in the house. In the present, a writer and academic converge on the house: Hannah Jarvis (Jody Christian), a writer, is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds; Bernard Nightingale (Christopher Kelly) a Professor of Literature is investigating a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by Valentine Coverly (Aaron Lindstrom), a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, the truth about what happened in Tomasina's lifetime is gradually revealed. The play's set by Jerome Solberg and Gunnar Ellam features a large table which is used by the characters in both past and present. Props are not removed when the play switches time periods, so the baby tortoise, coffee mugs, quill pens, portfolios and lap-top computers appear along side each other in a blurring of past and present.

This production at Actor's Ensemble of Berkeley is, for the most part, a fine production. The play's direction is superb. Several of the performances are truly outstanding-both Paul Stout as Septimus and Christopher Kelly as Bernard Nightingale deserve to be singled out for their remarkable performances. Also, Jody Christian, as Hannah Jarvis is a particular delight, alive in both intellect and body, while teasing the humor of Stoppard's dialogue. Shifra Pride Raffel lights up the stage with her sure command and perfect comic timing as Lady Croom. Alona Bach is a little hard to understand at first, but grows beautifully in the part, especially as she begins to feel the power of her social standing and intellect. Al Badger as Landscape Architect Noakes, Barry Eitel as would-be poet, Chater, Jerome Solberg as Captain Brice and Matthew Surrence as Jellaby turn in polished gems in their cameo roles. Aaron Lindstrom makes the most of his part of Valentine Coverly a "chaos" mathematician and Rachel Ferensowicz does a nice turn as Chloe Coverly, Nightingale's acolyte.

Good as this production is, it is not perfect. For one thing, the 1st act gets underway too slowly and should be shortened and tightened up. But for the most part, Robert Estes' Arcadia plays to the script's intellectual and farcical strengths, and in this case, keeps us fully entertained.

Performances are held at the Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley through February 18, 2012 with Friday-Saturday performances at 8 p.m. and one Sunday matinee, February 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at www.aeofberkeley.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

She Stoops to Conquer--An 18th Century Comedy of Manners at RVP

2012-01-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sean Mirkovich as Marlow and Jocelyn Roddie as Kate in She Stoops to Conquer

Written by Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer was first performed in London in 1773 and is one of the few plays from the 18th century still regularly performed today. In the story, Mr. Hardcastle (Alex Ross) wants his daughter, Kate (Jocelyn Roddie) to meet and marry the wealthy Charles Marlow (Sean Mirkovich), but Marlow gets nervous around upper-class women so Kate needs to pretend to be "common" and "stoops to conquer" by pretending to be a bar-maid.

The play is set in an English village in 1765. When the play begins, Marlow sets out for the Hardcastle's manor with a friend, George Hastings (Adam Roy), an admirer of Miss Constance Neville (Kushi Beauchamp), another young lady who lives at the Hardcastle's. During the journey, the two men become lost and run into Tony Lumpkin (Josh Garcia-Cotter), Kate's stepbrother and cousin to Constance. Tony plays a practical joke by telling the two men that they are a long way from their destination and will have to stay overnight at an inn. The "inn" he directs them to is in fact the home of the Hardcastle's. When they arrive, the Hardcastles who have been expecting them, go out of their way to feel welcome. However, Marlow and Hastings, believing themselves at an inn, behave disdainfully towards their hosts. But Mr. Hardcastle bears their unwitting insults with forbearance because of his friendship with Marlow's father.

Kate learns of her suitor's shyness from Constance, and a servant tells her about Tony's trick. She decides to masquerade as a bar-maid changing her accent and costume in order to get to know him. Marlow falls in love with her because she appears of a lower class and acts somewhat bawdy. All misunderstandings are resolved by the end thanks to an appearance by Sir Charles Marlow (John Anthony Nolan).

In the sub-plot, Mr. Hardcastle's second wife (Maureen O'Donoghue) is quite determined that her spoiled and not too brilliant son, Tony Lumpkin shall marry her niece, Constance Neville. Constance, however, has other plans, being secretly pledged to Hastings.

British-born Director Judy Holmes, breaks the fourth wall and makes the most of the asides the characters have with the audience.

Alex Ross as Mr. Hardcastle gives a great performance and is the glue holding the play together. Jocelyn Roddie as Kate has a wonderful sense of timing and is excellent in her alter-ego, the bar-maid. Sean Mirkovich as Marlow is able to switch confidently from stammering shyness of women of his social class to lascivious lothario with the bar-maid. Maureen O'Donoghue is delightful as the fashion seeker who easily succumbs to flattery. Kushi Beauchamp as Constance and Adam Roy as Hastings make a sincere eloping couple. As Tony Lumpkin, Josh Garcia-Cotter has captured the oafishness of his character.

Set Designer Ken Rowland has created the perfect English country manor and Michael A. Berg's costumes are authentic and elegant.

She Stoops to Conquer is a wonderful play and excellently directed by Judy Holmes in the perfect style of an 18th century Comedy of Manners.

She Stoops to Conquer plays through February 19, 2012. Thursday performances are held at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. All performances are at Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. For reservations, call 415-456-9555, extension 1 or go to: www.rossvalleyplayers.com

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be 20th Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Billie Cox from March 23-April 22, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Period of Adjustment-A Christmas Eve Marital Comedy

2012-01-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

The Cast of Period of Adjustment

To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of one of our greatest playwrights, the San Francisco Playhouse presents a rarity, a Christmas comedy by Tennessee Williams.

Set on Christmas eve, Period of Adjustment tells the gentle, lighthearted story of two couples, one newly wed and the other married five years, both experiencing pains and difficulties in their relationships. The two male characters are veterans of the Korean War. The younger of the two experiences post-traumatic stress (shell-shock, battle fatigue, combat stress reaction), while the older man suffers from feelings of inadequacy toward his wife, the daughter of his boss. However, the observance of each other's troubles brings both couples to realize what they have and to reconcile their own relationships.

It is 1958 and a young couple, George (Patrick Aparone) and Isabel Haverstick (MacKenzie Meehan) have just gotten married the day before. After the ceremony, the newlyweds drive cross-country in George's '52 hearse and he discloses to his bride that he has quit his job. George impulsively decides to visit his older, Korean War buddy, Ralph Bates (Johnny Moreno), in High Point, Tennessee. Unbeknown to George, Ralph has also resigned his position and as a consequence, his wife of five years, Dorothea (Maggie Mason) has just left him and taken their young son along with her to stay at her parents (Jean Forsman and Joe Madero). As befits a comedy, all ends well with both couples headed for a happily ever after. This is a pitch perfect ensemble who hit all the right notes!

Period of Adjustment runs through January 14 at San Francisco Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org.

Their next production will be Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw, directed by Amy Glazer opening January 28, 2012.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Reinventing the Glass Menagerie at Marin Theatre Company

2011-12-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

Craig Marker as Jim and Anna Bullard as Laura in the Glass Menagerie at MTC

To celebrate Tennessee Williams' centennial, Director Jason Minedakis has re-imagined the Glass Menagerie. He feels that it is Tom's play. In Minedakis' staging, Tom is always present. When he is not in a scene, he's watching it unfold from a fire escape above, together with expressive Trumpeter Andrew Wilke, as the portrait of the long-departed father and interpreter of Chris Houston's melancholy score. Tom, of course, is Tennessee Williams himself in this semi-autobiographical play. Nicholas Pelczar who plays Tom, is almost a dead ringer for Williams. He is the narrator, and it is his memory that drives the play.

Aspiring poet Tom Wingfield reluctantly works in a warehouse to support his overbearing mother Amanda (Sherman Fracher) and debilitatingly shy sister Laura (Anna Bullard). Pushed by his mother, Tom finds his sister a gentleman caller (Craig Marker as Jim) to try to coax her from her fragile private world. In this stifling atmosphere of family melodrama, Craig Marker is a breath of fresh air as the gentleman caller. Minedakis has a fine cast. In addition to the wonderful Craig Marker as Jim, the gentleman caller, Nicholas Pelczar gives a well-rounded performance as Tom. Sherman Frocker's Amanda plays well in both her martyr-like guilt traps and her southern charm, and Anna Bullard's Laura is both fragile and painfully shy.

According to Director Jason Minedakis, on his concept for the play, he says, "It is a very strong exploration of a family fighting to maintain itself." This gives the play a harshness not seen before in other productions. A thick web of skeletal fire escapes enclosed the combative Wingfield family on Kat Conley's set design. There are no solid walls and everything can be seen through, like glass. The set features only the pieces of furniture which are essential to the action--a bare wood-slat table, four chairs, a couch and a phonograph moodily lit by Ben Wilhelm's lighting design. The only props, the only things the audience sees in the play are the pieces that stand out in Tom's memory and most of the props are mimed, except for a solitary glass unicorn.

There was too much arguing and shouting in Act One. This was redeemed in Act Two when covers soften the iron settee and colorful lanterns warmly light the scene between Tom's sister Laura and the gentleman caller in a long conversation which was beautifully acted and sensitively portrayed by Anna Bullard and Craig Marker.

The Glass Menagerie plays through December 18 with performances at Marin Theatre Company, 597 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Matinees are every Sunday at 2 p.m. plus a matinee Saturday, December 17 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 415-388-5208 or go to www.marintheatre.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

NTC's Musical Take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol

2011-12-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

David Bauer as Scrooge and Johnny DeBernard as the Ghost of Christmas Present in

A Christmas Carol-A Musical at NTC

The Novato Theater Company's creative rendition of A Christmas Carol, a Musical, which premiered in 2010, opened November 25, 2011. Theatre Artistic Director Blanca Florido wrote the adaptation, with music by Andrew Klein, and lyrics by Florido. This year's production includes four new songs. Florido's adaptation parallels the original text closely with its message of social justice so relevant to today's economy.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was a novella first published in 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical and emotional transformation as a result of the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

The Prologue begins on Christmas Eve in the 1840's exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge (David Bauer) is established in his counting house as a greedy and stingy businessman, who has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. The next scene shifts to Scrooge's house/bedroom where he is warned by Marley's ghost (a strong performance by Johnny DeBernard) to change his ways so Scrooge might avoid a miserable afterlife like Marley. Scrooge is visited by three other ghosts; each in its turn and each visit is detailed in a separate scene on a remarkable revolving stage which accompanies him to various scenes with the hope of achieving his transformation.

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past (the lovely Monica Norcia) takes Scrooge to the scenes of his boyhood and youth which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Johnny DeBernard in another remarkable performance) takes Scrooge to several radically different scenes--a joy filled gathering of people on a London street, the family feast of Scrooge's near-impoverished clerk, Bob Cratchit (a sympathetic portrayal by Jarrett Battenberg) and a wonderful portrayal of Bob's wife by Kathryn Daskal. A visit to the home of Scrooge's nephew Fred (a joyful performance by Phillip Swanson) is meant to evince from the miser, a sense of responsibility for his fellow man. The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Future (with a silent performance by Ian Lamers), harrows Scrooge with dire visions of the future if he doesn't learn and act upon what he has witnessed.

In the Epilogue, Scrooge awakens Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart then spends the day with his nephew and family after anonymously sending a prized turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. Scrooge has become a different man overnight and now treats his fellow man with kindness, generosity and compassion, gaining a reputation of a man who embodies the Spirit of Christmas. Bravo to David Bauer as Scrooge who is completely believable in all of these changes.

Bravo, also to Director Blanca Florido for her wonderful direction of a cast of 25 actors as well as her adaptation and her wonderful lyrics.

The revolving stage was amazing as were the sets by Gary Gonser and the period costumes by John Clancy.

Composer Andrew Klein's songs were fabulous as was the piano accompaniment of Barbara Bacon-Shaw and cello by Monica Norcia.

This is a great show for the whole family this holiday season.

Performances are held at Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato; December 1-3, 8, 10, 15-17 at 8 p.m.; with matinees December 4 and 11 at 3 p.m. For tickets, call 415-883-4498 or go online at www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

The Finger Wins 1st Place Honors at 28th Fringe of Marin Award Ceremony

2011-11-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

With grateful thanks to Dr. Annette Lust, Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator, the Dominican University Community Players and the Fringe of Marin just celebrated their 28th anniversary season.

Bay Area Theatre Critic's Awards for Best Play, Director and Actors were announced Sunday, November 20 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.

The first awards presented were for Best Play. The pride of 1st Place went to The Finger by Kenneth J. Nugent. There was a 2nd Place tie between Who Is Who? by Bill Chessman and Lovebirds by Rod McFadden. 3rd Place honors went to The Psychic by Joseph J. O'Loughlin. There was a 4th Place tie between Stay with Me by Justine Kaltenbach and A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs by Steve North.

Next up were the awards for Best Director. Bill Chessman won 1st Place for Who is Who? There was a 2nd Place tie between Tim Giugni for The Finger and Carol Eggers for Lovebirds. Tracy Ward won 3rd Place for Stay with Me and Suzanne Birrell won 4th Place for Saturday In the Park with Vic. Nominations for Best Director went to Crystal Nezgoda for Louisville and Michael Belitsos for Why We Travel; A Magical Mystery Tour.

Rick Roitinger won 1st Place as Best Actor for Louisville, The Psychic, Lovebirds and The Finger. 2nd Place honors went to C. Conrad Cady for Who Is Who?, Louisville and Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? Lonnie Haley won 3rd Place for Stay with Me and Burt Lampert won 4th Place honors for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life! Special nominations went to Tyler Costin for Stay with Me and Keshuv Prasad for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life!

The last of the Critic's Awards were for Best Actress. Claudia Rosa won 1st Place for Lovebirds and The Finger. Diane Rodigues won 2nd Place for It Don't Have to Hurt. 3rd Place honors went to Maureen Coyne for Waiting to Go and there was a tie for 4th Place between Patricia Inabnet for Who Is Who and Crystal Nezgoda for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? For the 9th consecutive time, the Audience Awards took place. Here are the results. Stay with Me by Justine Kaltenbach won Best Play. No Kidding, the Meaning of Life! by George Dykstra won 2nd Place and Lovebirds by Rod McFadden came in 3rd Place. 4th Place honors went to It Don't Have to Hurt by Susan Little. 5th Place for Best Play went to The Finger by Kenneth J. Nugent. 6th Place went to Saturday In the Park with Vic by Suzanne Birrell, 7th Place to The Psychic by Joseph J. O'Loughlin. There was a tie for 8th Place between Louisville by Joe Amato and Waiting to Go by Michael Ferguson. There was also a 9th Place tie between Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour by Michael Belitsos and Who Is Who? by Bill Chessman. There was another tie for 10th Place between A [Tail] Tale for of Two Dogs by Steve North and The Perfect Step by Melinda E. Lopez, David Moltzen and G. Randy Kasten. 11th Place went to Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag?by Benoit Vitse.

Tracy Ward won 1st Place as Best Director for Stay with Me. Susan Little won 2nd Place honors for It Don't Have to Hurt. Suzanne Birrell, for Saturday In the Park with Vic and George Dykstra for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life tied for 3rd Place as Best Director. Carol Eggers won 4th Place as Best Director for Lovebirds. There was a 5th Place tie between Crystal Nezgoda for Louisville and Tim Giugni for The Finger. There was also a 6th Place tie between Michael Ferguson for Waiting to Go and Steve North for A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs. There was a 3-way tie for 7th Place for Best Director between Bill Chessman for Who Is Who?, Jim Colgan for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? and Melinda Lopez, David Moltzen and G. Randy Kasten for The Perfect Step. Michael Belitsos won 8th Place as Best Director for Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour.

Rick Roitinger again won the Audience Award for Best Actor for Louisville, The Psychic, Lovebirds and The Finger. C. Conrad Cady won 2nd Place as Best Actor for Who Is Who?, Louisville and Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? There was a 3rd Place tie for Best Actor between Lonnie Haley for Stay with Me and Burl Lampert for No Kidding: the Meaning of Life! Tyler Costin won 4th Place as Best Actor for Stay with Me. 5th Place went to Tyler Hewitt for Saturday In the Park with Vic. There was 3-way tie for 6th Place for Best Actor between Gifford Teeple for The Perfect Step, David Moltzen for The Perfect Step and Jeffrey Orth for The Psychic. There was another 3-way tie for 7th Place between Michael Belitsos for Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour; Alan Badger for Waiting to Go and Steve North for A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs.

Diane Rodrigues won 1st Place as Best Actress for It Don't Have to Hurt. Claudia Rosa won 2nd Place for Lovebirds and the Finger; and Flora Lynn Isaacson came in 3rd Place as Best Actress for Saturday In the Park with Vic. Maureen Coyne won 4th Place for Saturday In the Park with Vic and Waiting to Go. There was a 5th Place tie for Best Actress between Crystal Nezgoda for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? and Paula Suyehiro for The Perfect Step. There was also a 6th Place tie for Best Actress between Suzan Lorraine for Who Is Who and Judi Rich for The Perfect Step.

Bravo to Dr. Annette Lust for maintaining the Fringe of Marin for 28 seasons.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Ross Valley Players' Heartfelt "Mockingbird"

2011-11-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

Brigid O'Brien, Steve Price and Katrina Horsey in

To Kill a Mockingbird at Ross Valley Players

The powerful and yet sensitive stage version of the great American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird opened Friday, November 11, 2011 at Ross Valley Players. This is an outstanding production from the marvelous casting, to the brilliant staging by James Dunn, the wonderful set and the time perfect costumes.

To Kill a Mockingbird was born as a book by Harper Lee which won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1960. Horton Foote wrote a screenplay based on the book and used the same title for the 1962 film adaptation. It is important to note, particularly for the fans of the movie, the stage adaptation by Christopher Sergel (1970) more closely follows the book.

Veteran Actress and Director Mary Ann Rodgers plays Jean Louise Finch (or Scout) who is the narrator of the story and we witness all of the events through her eyes. She is onstage all the time either speaking to the audience, listening or observing. She looks back on her life as Scout during the summer of 1935 in Maycomb, Alabama.

On Saturday night, November 12 when this play was reviewed, the young Scout was played by Katrina Horsey who is alternating with Brigid O'Brien who played Scout on opening night. Katrina Horsey's Scout was both focused and chipper. Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem (sensitively portrayed by Gerrit deBlaauw) and their widowed father, Atticus (portrayed by Steve Price in an amazing performance). Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off as compared to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill (played by Layne Ulrich in an excellent performance).

Atticus is a lawyer who has been assigned by Judge Taylor (played with appropriate authority by Alex Ross) to defend a young black man, Tom Robinson (in a moving performance by Wendell H. Wilson), who has been accused of beating and raping a white woman (a hysterical Melissa Bailey). This is the pre-integration South, a time when black people had few rights. In Tom's trial, for instance, the Sheriff, Heck Tate (played by Ray Martin) constantly calls Tom "boy" even though he's a married man with three children and a steady job. Atticus, on the other hand, treats Tom with respect. In his impassioned final speech to the jury, Atticus stresses that an unbiased court system is the very foundation of American society and that every person is entitled to a fair trial. Outstanding performances are given by Frederick Lein as the scurrilous Bob Ewell, father of the girl who accuses Tom, Anne Ripley as Mrs. Dubose, the crabby neighbor, Wood Lockhart as the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Gilmer, Sumi Narendran who plays Calpurnia, the Finch's housekeeper with care and apprehension, and Jeffrey Taylor as Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor.

Director James Dunn has put together an excellent show. The first act is mostly exposition and introduction of characters. The performance moves quickly leading up to the famous court room scene in the second act. In Mr. Dunn's capable hands, the play, at all times, lives up to its potential with good pacing and tense delivery.

The real star of the show is Atticus Finch, the father and lawyer whose high morals set him apart from the rest. Steve Price's Atticus was so natural, he did not seem to be acting.

David Apple has created a wonderful set and Michael A. Berg's costumes fit perfectly in the Depression era. To Kill a Mockingbird continues at Ross Valley Players through December 11, 2011. Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. (no performance on Thanksgiving).

Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre is located at Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA.

For reservations, call 415-456-9555 or go online for further information at www.rossvalleyplayers.com

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Mystery, Murder and Mischief in Fall 2011 Fringe of Marin Program One

2011-11-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

Dr. Annette Lust

Thanks to the inspiration and leadership of Dr. Annette Lust, the Fringe of Marin Festival is now in its 28th season. Program One opened Friday, November 4 with seven new plays.

The opening play was "Who Is Who," an exhilarating mystery comedy written and directed by Bill Chessman. This play is about wealthy British people pretending to be someone else. Outstanding performances are given by Jim Colgan as a perfect butler, and C. Conrad Cady as Inspector Nigel Cork from Scotland Yard. The theme of this play is that things are seldom what they seem. This play was followed by "Louisville," by Joe Amata and directed by Crystal Nezgoda and stars C. Conrad Cady as Ralph and Rick Roitinger as Louis. The direction builds in suspense in this dramatic encounter between these two men. In this play a burglar is set up to be a killer and is discovered by a "supposed" home-owner. There is a surprise ending. Michael Belitsos, a retired advertising executive turned magician presented "Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour," next. His definition of travel is a lot like magic and includes both discovery and revelation. We want to find ourselves and lose ourselves. Mr. Belitsos contrasts the attitude of travelers with the attitude of tourists. His highlight was his trip to the Amazon jungle teaming with exotic wildlife and splendor and being a magician, he makes magic before our very eyes.

The first half of the program before intermission concluded with Joseph O'Loughlin's "The Psychic," directed by Keshuv Prasad. In this play, the psychic played by Rick Roitinger is a t.v. personality who seeks counseling from a priest played by Jeffrey Orth. The play starts off timely and builds into an unexpected climax of tragedy, horror and controversy.

The second half of the program opened with "Stay with Me," by Justine Kaltenbach with music by Sanna Salmenkalio and directed by Tracy Ward. This is a drama about a "possible" gay young man, Ernst (sensitively played by Tyler Costin), who seeks suicide counseling from Lucious, understandingly played by Lonnie Haley. Both actors give fine performances but need more projection.

The next play was an amazing solo performance, "It Don't Have to Hurt," written and directed by Susan Little. Diane Rodrigues plays Iris with excellent comic timing. The grand finale of the evening was "Can One Make Love Wrapped Up in the French Flag?" James Colgan directs this sexy French farce written by Benoit Vitse, a Romanian living in Paris which is translated into English. This charming play involves an amorous couple delightfully played by C. Conrad Cady and Crystal Nezgoda who wonder if they will be punished by French law for wrapping themselves in the "drapeau tricolore."

A memorable outcome of the Fringe of Marin is to discover fresh voices and to bring in the community to participate either as an artist or spectator. Program One continues Saturday, November 12 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 13 at 2 p.m.

All performances take place at Meadowlands Assembly Hall, Dominican University, 50 Acacia Avenue (at Grand Ave.), San Rafael, CA. For reservations and information, call 415-673-3131.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Life Is Like a Train "On the Twentieth Century" at NTC

2011-10-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Johnny DeBernard, Daniela Innocenti-Beem and John Conway in On the 20th Century

"On the Twentieth Century" which just opened at the Novato Theater Company takes place on a 16 hour train ride from Chicago to New York on the Twentieth Century Train in 1932. According to Artistic Director Blanca Florido, this famous train was considered, at the time, the epitome of luxury and elegance in continental travel.

"On the Twentieth Century" is a musical with book and lyric by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Cy Coleman. Part operetta, part farce and part screwball comedy, the story involves the behind-the-scenes relationship of a temperamental actress and a director.

Oscar Jaffee (David Bauer), an egotistical and perpetually broke theatrical producer plots to talk his estranged paramour, Lilly Garland (the wonderful Linda Gaudiani), into appearing in one of his plays. He contrives to have a drawing room on the Twentieth Century at the same time she does. However, she is a successful and equally egotistical movie actress and wants nothing more to do with him despite the pleas of Oscar's hapless assistant, Owen (John Conway) and Oliver (Johnny DeBernard) who both give stand out performances. Complicating matters are Lilly's current lover, Bruce Granit (Sean O'Brien) who doesn't want to see his meal ticket evaporate and Letitia Primrose (a delightfully comic Daniela Innocenti-Beem), a rich old religious fanatic who gives Oscar $200,000 to produce the play, "Mary Magdalene"--and chaos results when Ms. Primrose proves to be a fraud.

Very impressive is the amazing direction of Blanca Florido who keeps the cast of 19 actors on their toes. Equally impressive are the fabulous 100 costumes by Christine Andrews and the set design by Gary Gonser. The Musical Director Michael Moran on the piano with Debra Chambliss on the keyboard and Mike Evans on percussion carried off Coleman's score of 21 musical numbers beautifully often evoking the movement of a train in its orchestration and rhythms.

Joyous, lively, original, hilarious and loaded with great performances, "On the Twentieth Century," is one of the 1970's lost musical gems. The Novato Theater Company's highly ambitious production deserves a lot of credit.

Shows run at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato, October 21-November 13. Showtime is 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. For reservations, call 415-883-4498 or go to www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Five Stars for "Master Harold"...and the boys at Off Broadway West

2011-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

LaMont Ridgell as Sam & Adam Simpson as Hallie in "Master Harold"...and the boys

Off Broadway West Theatre Company has just opened their 5th season with a superb production of "Master Harold"...and the boys. It has been 8 years since this classic has been performed in San Francisco. Racial prejudice and difficult family relations remain a present concern. This play addresses both.

Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"...and the boys is based on the playwright's early life in South Africa. But the play itself is not a simple retelling of an incident from his past. Rather, Fugard presents a personal experience that extends to universal humanity. If the play were simply a controversial attack against the policy of apartheid, it would already be outdated now that sweeping change has transformed South Africa. Instead, Fugard wrote a play about human relationships that are put to the test by societal and personal forces.

"Master Harold"...and the boys is a one act that takes place inside St. George's Park Tea Room on a wet and windy Port Elizabeth (South Africa) afternoon in 1950. No customers populate the restaurant due to the bad weather. Two black waiters, Willie (Anthony Rollins-Mullens) and Sam (LaMont Ridgell) are onstage as the play begins. Willie is scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees and Sam is reading comic books at a table which has been set for a meal. Willie wants to improve his dancing skills but appears to have been deserted by his partner after he won the dance competition. Sam offers Willie advice about improving both his dancing technique and his domestic relations. The son of the tea room's owner, Hallie (Adam Simpson) enters direct from school. He eats a bowl of soup and talks to the two men with whom he appears to have a close relationship. Hallie, while displaying obvious affection for the men--especially Sam--takes a pedantic tone, assuming the role of teacher, yet the nature of their interaction clearly shows Sam as the teacher and Hallie as the eager pupil. During the course of the play, the two waiters and Hallie exchange kidding remarks not meant to offend anyone. But, after Hallie receives some bad news about his father, he takes out his anger on the workers. Efforts to smooth out the situation erupt into an all-out racial conflict. Fugard himself served as a model for Hallie.

This Off Broadway West production deserves high praise for both its fine acting and brilliant direction by Richard Harder. The audience gave the play a well-deserved standing ovation. Bert van Aalsburg's set of St. George's Park Tea Room is also truly amazing.

The trio of actors are wonderful! Each is perfect for his part. LaMont Ridgell plays a dignified, wise and understanding Sam. Anthony Rollins-Mullens plays a boyish and naive Willie and Adam Simpson's Master Harold is intellectually curious but not challenged enough by his classes. His lack of enthusiasm for his monotonous school routine contrasts with the enthusiasm he takes in teaching and debating with Sam. When faced with the return of his tyrannical father, Harold transfers his anger and pain to what he considers his servants, transforming their relationship for the first time from childhood friends and companions into subservient help. Director Richard Harder makes each moment specific and come alive before our very eyes. "Master Harold"...and the boys is a tribute to him and his talented cast. Run, don't walk to see this fine production!

"Master Harold"...and the boys plays at Off Broadway West Theatre Company through November 19, 2011. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. at the Phoenix Theatre, Suite 601, 414 Mason Street (between Geary and Post), San Francisco. For tickets, go to: www.offbroadwaywest.org or call 800-838-3006. For more information, call 530-864-4438 or 415-407-3214.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

"Shrew" at Cal Shakes--a Production with Pizazz

2011-09-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Erica Sullivan is Katherine and Slate Holmgren is Petruchio in Shana Cooper ’s

production of The Taming of the Shrewphoto by Kevin Berne.

The opening of the Taming of the Shrew at Cal Shakes is very much like being in Las Vegas. The opening music and set design by Scott Dougan are just fabulous. We see a Las Vegas-type billboard and a minimal set with a second story platform with a spiral staircase leading below. The show opens with a wonderful song and dance number with all of the men in the cast wearing tuxedos and introducing Bianca (Alexandra Henrikson) as a high-fashion stripper dressed in gold and her sister Katherine (Erica Sullivan) in a gold bathing suit as a reluctant sex symbol. In so doing, Director Shana Cooper replaces Christopher Sly, the drunken tinker, with her disco beauty pageant that sets up Erica Sullivan's Katherine resentment of her statuesque sister, Bianca. This is a plastic universe in which shallowness is worshipped and substance devalued.

All throughout the production, Shana Cooper's direction shines through for its cleverness and comic timing. The whole cast is wonderful. Slate Holmgren is very charismatic as Petruchio, Katherine's suitor and as Katherine, the shrew, Erica Sullivan's transformation from impossible shrew to obedient wife is very believable. Shana Cooper has selected some of the Bay Area's best actors for her supporting cast. Rod Gnapp is Baptista, father of both Katherine and Bianca, who has promised not to let the younger daughter, Bianca, wed until Kate has found a husband. Dan Clegg is Tranio, Lucentio's servant who accompanies him from Pisa, wry and comical, he plays an important part in his master's charade. He assumes Lucentio's identity and bargains with Baptista for Bianca's hand. Lucentio is played by Nicholas Pelczar. He disguises himself as a tutor to get close to Bianca who eventually falls for him. Dan Hiatt plays two roles, both Grumio, Petruchio's servant and the fool of the play, a source of much comic relief. He also plays Vincentio who is on his way to Padua to see his son Lucentio. Joan Mankin is wonderful in multiple roles of Curtis Pedant and a widow making each character come alive with much physical comedy. Danny Scheie steals the show again as Gremio, Bianca's elderly suitor. Liam Vincent plays Hortensio, an older rival to Gremio for the hand of Bianca with both style and grace. Last but not least is Theo Black as Biondello, Lucentio's second servant who assists his master and Tranio in carrying out their plot.

Director Shana Cooper deserves a lot of credit for entertaining us with extravagant physical comedy, lots of slapstick, high spirits and sheer gaiety with a fantastic musical background throughout. To add to the pizazz were Katherine O'Neill's costume design and Erika Chong Shuch's choreography. Director, cast and crew take us on a joyful ride!

The Taming of the Shrew runs September 21-October 16, 2011. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.

Performances are held at Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theatre Way, Orinda, CA (just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theatre Way/Wilder Road exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel). Tickets are available at the Cal Shakes Box Office, 701 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley, CA, tel. 510-548-9666 or online at www.calshakes.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Profusion of Confusion in Don't Dress for Dinner at RVP

2011-09-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Tavis Kammet as Robert, David Kester as Bernard and
Sondra Putnam as Jacqueline in Don't Dress for Dinner

Ross Valley Players just opened their 82nd season with a French farce, Don't Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti and adapted by Robin Hawdon.

The action takes place inside a lovely renovated barn, beautifully designed by Jay Lasnik which is owned by a fabulously snobbish, big city married couple. When the play opens, Bernard pulls the ear of an antler by the center door and a whole bar opens up downstage right to the tune of the French national anthem. Bernard played by David Kester, is eagerly looking forward to his weekend liaison with his mistress Suzanne, played with a sexy French accent by Marianne Shine. He figures that he's hatched the perfect plan when he invites his friend, Robert played by Tavis Kammet, to complete his alibi. Much to Bernard's dismay, his wife Jacqueline played by Sondra Putnam, who was going away to visit her mother for the weekend, decides to stay home because she has a plan of her own when she discovers that Robert will be there. Mix in a cook named Suzette played by Melissa Claire and add one jealous husband played by Casey Bair and you end up with a delicious comedy of false identities and misunderstandings.

The pace of this play is frenetic and fun. The skillful hand of experienced Director, Richard Ryan, is evident in the clever ways he bounces the characters off each other and around Jay Lasnik's beautiful set. All of the actors do an admirable job of keeping tabs on all the convolutions of the plot. Sondra Putnam makes an amusingly jaded Jacqueline playing the role of the adulteress housewife with a smirk and a touch of sass. David Kester as Bernard is delightfully convincing as her bumbling and bewildered husband. Melissa Claire as Suzette, the spitfire of a cook, is hilariously manipulative as she realizes the advantages of pretending to be a high-class mistress and begins to demand expensive alcohol and mock her upper class employers at every opportunity. Tavis Kammet as Robert stammers and kvetches through the awkwardness of his situation but somehow still manages to come across as debonair. His performance was truly impressive in that it seemed completely natural despite the complexity of what he has to act out. Marianne Shine makes a wonderfully sexy and beautiful addition to the mix as Suzanne, snapping like a humiliated diva which her character is. Finally, Casey Bair, in his surprise appearance as Suzette's husband, who is comically jealous.

Technically, the set decorations, costumes and lighting design were very good. Special recognition should be given to Michael A. Berg for an especially inspired costume design. Suzette's off beat character is revealed instantly by her opening outfit, a succession of shirts worn by the oft-stained Bernard becomes increasingly less suitable, and the eventual nightwear of all the characters, especially the luscious Suzanne, are nicely revealing of character. Don't Dress for Dinner is a play with broad audience appeal and a lot of laughs.

Don't Dress for Dinner plays September 16-October 16 at Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA. Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. For reservations, call 415-456-9555 or go online at rossvalleyplayers.com for more information.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's enduring story translated to the stage by Christopher Sergel and directed by James Dunn, November 11-December 11, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Ayres-Frederick's "Afield" Reminiscent of Beckett

2011-09-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Bruno Kanter as Samuel, Carolyn Doyle as Miriam and Heidi Wolff as Pig in Afield

San Francisco's 20th Fringe Festival is currently presenting "Afield," a World Premiere by last year's Best of Fringe winner Linda Ayres-Frederick which features an all star cast; Carolyn Doyle as Miriam, Bruno Kanter as Samuel and Heidi Wolff as Pig and directed by Joe Weatherby (also "Best of Fringe.")

With Miriam's arrival in a desolate field of land mines, farmhand Samuel becomes hungry enough to barbecue the Pig who could save his life. At issue here is who will survive their battle and the flood that comes to end their world.

The mood of this play is tense as Miriam, Samuel and Pig vie for survival in a no-man's land ravaged by floods and war. This absurdist tragicomedy by Linda Ayres-Frederick calls to mind plays by Samuel Beckett.

All three actors are outstanding in their roles. Nervous and fretful, Miriam returns to her home, a wasteland littered with land mines. She encounters Samuel, a simple minded farm hand tending a small patch of land. He is resigned to the precarious nature of their survival. They might be the last humans on earth, but are not the only creatures. Into their lives stumbles Pig, a wild boar who could prove to be a valuable ally or a great meal. Pig is cleverly costumed by Wes Crain. This play asks what it means to be human and to find hope in a world overrun with cataclysm and despair.

Brilliantly directed by Joe Weatherby, we find a strong bonding between Miriam and Pig. Samuel appears most of the time to be a villain. Linda Ayres-Frederick is a talented playwright as well as a fine actress, producer, director and critic.

The production team includes Reid McCann (Sound Design), Wes Crain (Costume Design), Anna Dal Pino (Stage Design and Props) and Sarah Selig (Stage Manager).

The final performance of the play is Sunday, September 18 at 1 p.m. at the Exit Theatre (Main Stage), 156 Eddy Street, San Francisco. Tickets are available at the door or at www.brownpapertickets.com.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Tender Mercies Southern Style In 4 Mercy: Friendly Fires

2011-09-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

Pictured (l-r): Diana Brown as Rhonda, Susan Jackson as Beth and Adrienne Krug as Sylviein Adopt a Highway from 4 MERCY: Friendly Fires by Susan Jackson. Photo by Eric Nelson

After their sold out run of 4 Giveness In A Family Way, the Southern Railroad Theatre Company returns to the Royce Gallery to present Award-Winning Playwright Susan Jackson's latest edition to her southern universe, four new plays united under the theme of Mercy. This collection of plays includes the continuing adventures of Nandy, Peaches, Salacious and Crazy Lacy and the other citizens of small town Beaver Dam and elsewhere to examine the bonds of love, friendship and marriage.

This program opened with country-western music which introduced Rockets Red Glare Part 2.5 directed by Stephen Drewes. We are in Crazy Lacy's backyard in Severinsville County, South Carolina. Crazy Lacy (Adrienne Krug), Nandy Hollister (Diana Brown), Peaches Nasterson (Susan Jackson) and Salacious (Eric Nelson) come together in a "come to Jesus mercy meeting" to determine just who ends up with whom. A fight breaks out between Lacy and Nandy for the hand of Salacious and Peaches comes to the rescue. All is performed in the spirit of fun.

The next play Rockets Red Glare Part 2.75 was directed by Diana Brown. This play takes place in Salacious's car the next day. Salacious is wearing a red, white and blue tie. In this play, Eric Nelson gives a strong performance as Salacious, who is the son of a judge.

In the third play of the program, Adopt a Highway, directed by Ann Thomas, three friends are traveling three hours in a car driven by Rhonda (Diana Brown). To pass the time, Beth (Susan Jackson) suggest they play a game called "Let's Tell Three Secrets." The other passenger is Sylvie (Adrienne Krug). All are dressed in black to go to a funeral. Each woman gets a chance to shine in a special monologue. This play has a surprise ending. An intermission follows these three plays.

The second half of the program opens with "In Situ," described as a "tumor that is confined to its site of origin." Directed by Ann Thomas, the play takes place in Beth's backyard in North Carolina. Beth is played by Susan Jackson. Her best friend and college roommate is Henri (Diana Brown). Both women give excellent performances in this touching drama of two friends who each have a different perspective on terminal illness. Even though this is a serious play, it has a lot of humor in the first half.

This is followed by For I Am Not Breaking, Part 2, directed by Stephen Drewes and starring Susan Jackson as Marion Peallin. The play takes place in Marion's home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here, socialite Marion Peallin, against her lawyer's advice, writes a letter to her soon-to-be bigamist husband asking him to let her keep the family residence. Susan Jackson gives a very moving performance as Marion.

The final play, Rockets Red Glare Part 3.0 takes place in a forest in Severinsville County one week later. This play was directed by Susan Jackson. Here Nandy (Diana Brown) and Salacious (Eric Nelson), former lovers, face off, arguing over which opponent, Peaches or Salacious, deserves to be Mayor of Beaver Dam. This play was a lot of fun. These plays all add up to a wonderful evening's entertainment.

4 Mercy: Friendly Fires is presented by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company at the Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa (at Harrison) in San Francisco. The plays are performed Thursday-Saturday, September 15-17 at 8 p.m. For tickets and information, go to www.brownpapertickets.com or call 415-505-2151.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Tender Mercies Southern Style In 4 Mercy: Friendly Fires

2011-09-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Pictured (l-r): Diana Brown as Rhonda, Susan Jackson as Beth and

Adrienne Krug as Sylvie in Adopt a Highway from

4 MERCY: Friendly Fires by Susan Jackson

Photo by Eric Nelson

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Little Lie Is A Dangerous Thing In How the Other Half Loves at N.T.C.

2011-09-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Karen Leland as Teresa Phillips and Chuck Isen as Bob Phillips in How the Other Half Loves

Director Billie Cox discovered an American version of Alan Ayckbourn's British farce, How the Other Half Loves. This version takes place in Everycity, USA in 1970. This comedy shows the lives and loves of three married couples--an upper class couple, a middle class couple and a lower class couple in American society. It is also about the precise interactions of gender and class.

How the Other Half Loves is a timeless analysis of the state of marriage as well as a study of the foibles of each of its couples' individual characters. We witness what happens when two people attempt to cover up an affair by lying to their spouses about where they were on a particular evening. Unfortunately, the lies involve an innocent couple who are then invited to dinner by the lied-to spouses.

The innocent couple attends two different dinner parties on two different nights to work through issues with hilarious results. In order to do this, the show uses one single set designed by Gary Gonser which represents two living and dining rooms at once as this play takes place in two different places at the same time and sometimes, not even the same time, as it juggles both time and space which allows events in different homes, and on two different evenings to happen simultaneously. This duality reflects the duplicity of the cheating spouses and also serves as a comedic device when the third couple is brought in. All the characters are onstage in the highly entertaining depiction of two separate dinner parties and watching the innocent couple bounce between one dinner and the next is hysterical.

Frank and Fiona Foster are an older couple with a cool, distant, yet polite marriage in an American upper crust sort of way. Played by Louis Schilling, Frank is a stereotypical, bumbling, dunderheaded, forgetful, yet endeared partner to Fiona who is played with exasperated impatience by Pennell Chapin. Fiona is having an affair with one of Frank's employees, Bob Phillips. Chuck Isen portrays Bob with a somewhat loutish and almost menacing air, especially when dealing with his complaining wife, Teresa. Teresa, as played by Karen Leland, is a stressed and neglected new mother who suspects Bob of cheating on her and is somewhat shrewish in her manner of pointing out to Bob her views of their unbalanced relationship.

Rounding out the trio of maladjusted marriages are William and Mary Detweiler. When questioned about their whereabouts on the night of one of their evening trysts, Bob and Fiona both tell their spouses they were with William and Mary respectively to lend a supportive ear to their tales of of the breakup of their marriage because of infidelity. This is the lie that sets the dinner parties in motion to the confusion of the young Detweilers who are excellently portrayed by Jeffrey Orth and Eileen Fisher.

Billie Cox has established a great sense of timing with her cast in directing this delightful farce. I highly recommend the show for a night filled with laughter.

How the Other Half Loves runs through September 25, 2011 at the Novato Theater Company, Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. The Novato Theater Company Playhouse is located at 484 Ignacio Blvd., in Pacheco Plaza, Novato. For tickets, call 415-883-4498 or go online at www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Tracy's Turbulent Take on The Tempest at Marin Shakespeare

2011-08-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Robert Parsons as Prospero and Sarah Gold as Miranda, Prospero's daughter in The Tempest

With their final production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Marin Shakespeare Company welcomes Director Jon Tracy, who brings his own brand of magic to this enchanting romance. Recalling the turn of the 19th century in 1901 and touching on the current "steampunk" movement, Tracy is twisting The Tempest taking inspiration from inventor Nikola Tesla in this production which takes a look at what magic is to the modern audience. Jon Tracy is a creative and innovative director who is true to his vision throughout the entire production.

The play opens with blue walls which are turned around into a scientific laboratory amid wonderful special effects of both lighting and sound. This laboratory belongs to the deposed and exiled Duke Prospero (Robert Parsons) who is a brilliant scientist. Caliban (Michael Torres) is an indigenous scientist who works for Prospero. Ariel has become the Ariel coil, Prospero's great invention. The Coil controls the Qualities, six robotic figures who speak Ariel's lines in unison and do amazing backwards somersaults and disappear through trap doors. Miranda, Prospero's daughter (Sarah Gold) is in a rage against her father because of a shipwreck which Prospero caused. After the shipwreck, Ferdinand (Alex Hersler) appears on the scene and meets Miranda and the two are immediately drawn to one another.

Wonderful comic relief is provided before the end of Act I by Trincula (Lynne Soffer) as a simple minded servant who is looking for a place to wait out the coming storm. Stephano (Cassidy Brown), a drunken butler enters and the two friends are overjoyed to have found each other. At the end of Act I the whole audience was cheering.

However, things seem to fall apart in Act II. Prospero's enemies are in his power. They are Alonso, King of Naples (Robert Currier), Gonzalo, Elder of Milan (Christopher Hammond), Sebastian, Alonso's younger brother (Scott Coopwood), and Antonio, Prospero's younger brother (James Hizer). Prospero forgives his enemies and the play concludes with the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand who is Alonso's son. Prospero's epilogue is completely eliminated.

The real magic of this production lies in Abra Berman's wonderful Victorian costumes, Ellen Brooks' amazing lighting design and Nina Ball's innovative set design. Jon Tracy takes many liberties with Shakespeare's script--some which work but some fall flat, but the production is recommended for its uniqueness and inventiveness.

The Tempest plays in repertory with Macbeth and The Complete History of America (abridged) through September 25, 2011. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at Forest Meadows Amphitheater, 1475 Grand Avenue, Dominican University, San Rafael, California. For tickets, call the box office at 415-499-4488 or go online at www.marinshakespeare.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Trio In the RAW

2011-08-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

Kate Savage and Alma DeLeon star In a Pickle as part of the RAW Summer Festival.

Ross Alternative Works opened their new summer festival with three new short plays in full production, Thursday, August 18, 2011. RAW is under the umbrella of Ross Valley Players which has a long history of supporting original theatrical work. In 2004, RAW was formed and this is their sixth season.

A Trio In the RAW

Janice, Shelley and Jo opened this year's festival. This play was written and directed by well known Bay Area Pacific Sun Drama Critic Lee Brady and Director Andrea Gordon. This was a particularly difficult play to direct because of the combination of past and present occurrences. Two sisters, Janice, 24 (Amber Crane) and Shelley, 18 (Saige Hilton) meet for the first time. They both share memories of their mother, Jo, brilliantly played by Ellen Brooks. We have three generations of women when Granny Berger (delightfully played by Anne Ripley) enters the scene. Other well known actors James Colgan plays Keenan, the father of the girls and Kate Savage plays Abby, a mysterious woman. This is a memory play which succeeds on many levels.

After the first intermission, Come Again, Another Day was performed by Cary Pepper and directed by well known Director Hal Gelb. This dark comedy takes place in the New York City apartment of Ivan Foley (Burl Lampert) who returns home from a frustrating day of job hunting to find Martin (Ron Dritz), a hired killer waiting in his living room. The playwright's style is reminiscent of Harold Pinter. Both actors give excellent performances.

After a second intermission, the final play of the evening, In a Pickle by Karen Harline was presented. This play was directed by another well known director, Alex Kuskulis. In a Pickle features Joy (in a standout performance by Kate Savage) who is tired of her life and ready to end it all but lacking the guts to follow through. A masked thug, Cliff (played by Alma DeLeon with expert comic timing) threatens to do it for her when his identity is revealed as coming from a well known gangster family. Both concoct a plan to make them famous and give them recognition.

This RAW Festival premiered Thursday, August 18. Friday and Saturday shows, August 19-20 are at 8 p.m. with a special Sunday matinee, August 21 at 2 p.m. A special talk back session with the individual playwrights follows the Sunday matinee. Go to www.rossvalleyplayers.com/raw to find out more. These plays are being presented at the Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Ross, CA.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Don't Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti and directed by Richard Ryan, September 16-October 16, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Shaw's Candida Reigns at Cal Shakes

2011-08-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

Top to bottom: Anthony Fusco, Julie Eccles and Nick Gabriel in Candida; photo by Kevin Berne

California Shakespeare Theatre presents Candida (1895)--George Bernard Shaw's brilliant and witty comedy about a morally superior clergyman (Anthony Fusco) in turn of the 20th century London, his enigmatically charismatic wife (Julie Eccles) and the wildly romantic young poet (Nick Gabriel) who puts the very foundation of their marriage to the ultimate test. Who will housewife Candida choose--her middle aged clergyman husband or the young poet, hoping to whisk her away from the life he deems beneath her? As always with Shaw, neither the answers nor the questions are clearly cut.

Shaw's plot positions each of these main characters at one corner of a marital triangle. At the two sided base of the triangle, we find the Reverend James Morell, a pastor with an increasingly high profile as a dynamic man of letters who is so much in demand as a public speaker that it leaves little time to spend with his wife, even though he adores her. In the opposite corner is Morell's lovely and clearly intelligent wife, Candida. At the tip of the triangle is the catalyst for digging beneath the seemingly blissful marriage--a shy and awkward young poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who Morell has taken under his wing.

Whatever her real age, Julie Eccles looks just right for the age (33 years) Shaw envisioned her to be. Yet the character Shaw created is ageless and her appeal is essentially more maternal than sexual. Forcefully in charge of the household, yet feminine and flirtatious. The exceptionally pretty Julie Eccles proves herself a vibrant and solid actress.

Anthony Fusco is a fine actor and captures the subtlety of Morell who's been made overly self confident as the only boy in a household of an indulgent mother and sisters.

Nick Gabriel is most persuasive in playing the bashful Eugene Marchbanks, who's passion gives him the courage to speak his mind.

While Jarion Monroe has a subsidiary role as Mr. Burgess, Candida's pragmatic father, this actor with his impish grin and booming voice really steals the show! He adds a generous dose of humor as does the terrific and enjoyable Alexandra Henrikson as the Reverend's typist, Proserpine Garnett. Her "Prossy: is adorably uptight and with the help of two glasses of champagne, unhinged.

Liam Vincent plays the role of Reverend Lexy Mill, the young curate chosen by Morell as his assistant. Vincent's Lexy is a well intentioned, enthusiastic novice.

Director Jonathan Moscone supports his cast with an artful and attentive production that really takes the stage at Cal Shakes. Annie Smart's fantastic set also steals the show with her amazing backdrop and gives the Morell parlor and study the rich look of a Broadway production. Anna Oliver deserves a big hand also for the rich look of her costumes.

Much of the play's action is a set up for the poignant climax. Both a top notch cast and director of Candida see to it the entire evening makes for good theatre.

Candida opened Saturday, August 13 at the California Shakespeare Theatre (Bruns Amphitheatre, off Highway 24, Orinda) and plays through Sunday, September 4. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 4 p.m. There will be a special Saturday matinee, September 3 at 2 p.m. All tickets are available through California Shakespeare Theatre's Box Office, 510-548-9666 or online at www.calshakes.org.

Coming up next at Cal Shakes will be The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and directed by Shana Cooper, September 21-October 16, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A.R. Gurney Tops Novato Theater's One Act Festival

2011-08-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Clockwise from upper left: Karen Clancy, Bruce Coughran,

Carole Landes, Hope Carillo, Kate Savage, Phillip Swanson,

Emily Surface, Ron Dailey, Rose Stuart, Malcolm Cohen

Novato Theater Company opened its One Act Play Festival 2011 with three original plays followed by a play by Master Playwright, A.R. Gurney. The festival opened with "Hickory Miles" by Paul Heller and directed by Bruce Coughran. This play explores the inner world of a woman by the name of Hickory Miles (Carole Landes) as she recalls highlights from her life with both her father and husband. She tells her story to a Pawn Shop Owner beautifully performed in pantomime by Steve North. Ms. Landes had fine facial expression as she tells her life story.

The second play was a farce called "Identity Crisis" by Kitty Burns and directed by Zanne Dailey. In this play, a woman journalist named Andrea Estridge (Dawn Hamilton) has lost her luggage and enters a baggage claim office to speak to the claims officer played with excellent comic timing by Nathan Ross. He sends for his assistant Cathy Healy played by Emily Surface in a sly performance. A mysterious bag shows up with the initials A.E. and the woman journalist who lost her bag thinks it must belong to Amelia Earhart. Later a couple played by Steve North and Ruth Rosen come to look for their lost luggage and are told off by Jack Alma Deleon in a fine cameo performance.

After a 15 minute intermission we see another farce, Car Wash by Louis Phillips and directed by Bruce Coughran. In Car Wash, Salten Pfeiffer (Rose Stuart) has lost her expensive Mercedes in the car wash. She tries to convince the car wash employees, Darlene (Karen Clancy) and Joe (Bruce Coughran) to look for her lost car and they all disappear in the car wash. Another woman played by Carole Landes shows up to have her car washed but nobody is around.

The grand finale of the evening was "The Love Course" by A.R. Gurney and brilliantly directed by Emily Surface. In this play, the whole cast gave outstanding performances. Here A.R. Gurney explores a university literature course on love taught by Professor Carraway (Kate Savage) and Professor Burgess (Ron Dailey) with different views on life and love. Their two students are delightfully played by Hope Carillo as Sally and Phillip Swanson as Mike. This play was the highlight of the evening.

The One Act Play Festival presented by the Novato Theater Company is being held at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato. Performances are held Thursday-Saturday, August 11-13 at 8 p.m. with a final Sunday matinee, August 14 at 3 p.m. For tickets, call 415-883-4498 or go online at www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Coming up next at the Novato Theater Company will be "How the Other Half Loves" by Alan Ayckbourn, September 1-25, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Hilarious Romp Through American History at Marin Shakespeare

2011-08-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Cassidy Brown, Mike Mize and Darren Bridgett in The Complete History of America (abridged)

With updated material recently written by Sonoma Playwright, Ed Martin, "The Complete History of America (abridged)" by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, opened July 30, 2011 at Marin Shakespeare Company's Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University.

It was a beautiful night. The audience entered the theatre to Billie Cox's patriotic music and were greeted by an ingenious set by Mark Robinson--a large poster-board covering the stage showing images highlighting events from 1492, 1776, 1861, 1942, 1952, 1969 and 2011.

Directed by Robert Currier and produced by Leslie Schisgall Currier and featuring just three actors, The Complete History of America (abridged) is a roller coaster ride taking us through the entire course of American history with brilliant comedic genius. As you can imagine, it is a wild ride with actors Darren Bridgett, Cassidy Brown and Mick Mize. The actors rely on accents, hats and wigs thrown on over patriotic clothes designed by Michael Berg, plastic vegetables, pasta and Super Soaker water guns (no matter where you sit you might get wet).

Beginning with a bouncing globe and Amerigo Vespucci in Act I, Mick Mize showed off his ability to change accents on a dime. He was also very funny in a Native American skit. Both Darren Bridgett and Cassidy Brown serve as alternate narrators.

One of the highlights of the show was showing rejected flags made by Betsy Ross and her sister. A big hit was a song and dance vaudeville style of Lewis and Clark as they told the latest jokes of 1805.

When the planned slide show about the World Wars can't be done due to one of the actors breaking the projector (which is all part of the act including receiving the projector from a member of the audience) an absolutely hilarious "real" slide show follows.

Act I ended with a large timeline banner carried by the three actors throughout the audience in the spirit of fun. Act II opened with World War I to the music of "Over There." This is when the audience really gets sprayed with water by the men in the trenches. This is followed by a fabulous bit as the trio do a takeoff on the Andrews Sisters. A highlight of Act II is the takeoff the three talented actors do to depict the Golden Age of Radio. Cassidy Brown then comes into the audience for a question and answer session relating to Queen for a Day. Next, Mick Mize appears in a strange Obama mask answering questions from the audience which show off his wonderful skill at improvisation.

Ending it all was an extended film noir segment featuring the talents of Bridgett as Detective Sam Diamond and Mick Mize in a wonderful impersonation of Lucy Ricardo. The Complete History of America (abridged) requires the impeccable timing shown to advantage by the three talented actors. Robert Currier shows much imagination and style in his inventive direction.

If you are looking for an evening of good fun, The Complete History of America (abridged) is worth your time. This show received a standing ovation! The Complete History of America (abridged) continues in repertory with Macbeth through September 25. Performances are held at 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday and 4 p.m. Sunday at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 1475 Grand Avenue, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA. For tickets, call 415-499-4488 or go to www.marinshakespeare.org.

Coming up next at Marin Shakespeare will be William Shakespeare's The Tempest directed by Jon Tracy August 27-September 25, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Table Manners-British Fun at RVP

2011-07-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Left to right, Monique Sims as Annie, Robyn Wiley as Ruth and Joseph Hoeber as Norman ham it up in the dining room. Photo courtesy of Robin Jackson.

Ross Valley Players ends its 81st season with Table Manners by Alan Ayckbourn. This tightly written comedy was originally on Broadway in 1975 and revived there by the Old Vic in 2008 when it won the Tony for Best Revival. Table Manners is the first play in Ayckbourn's trilogy, The Norman Conquests but each play stands on its own. The Norman of the title is a compulsive womanizer (Joseph Hoeber). He means no harm. He just wants to make women happy--be they married or unmarried, it makes no difference to him. He is married to the ostentatiously near-sighted Ruth (Robyn Wiley). Ruth is the sister of Reg (Robin Schild) and Annie (Monique Sims).

Three couples are involved on this particular July weekend in a Victorian house not far from London in 1973. They are all related either by blood or marriage except for Tom, the veterinarian (Christopher Hammond). Table Manners introduces us to the characters--the overworked Annie, the unmarried daughter of the family who cares for her ill, but never seen mother who lies bedridden upstairs. Annie has been involved for about ten years with Tom, a shy veterinarian. He cannot bring himself to pop the question and prefers the company of his four legged friends. Reg, Annie's brother is a real estate agent who is very involved with his work. He is married to the stern, moralistic Sarah (Pamela Ciochetti) who continually sets about preserving order and preventing much fun from taking place, like seeing that Annie does not go off on a clandestine weekend with Norman. Then there is Norman himself, an assistant librarian, somewhat silly, but possessing an irresistible charm.

Director Robert Wilson directs all of the proceedings with a great deal of humor. Associate Director Judy Holmes, being British-born, coached the cast with impeccable British accents. Both brought out wonderful performances from the talented cast. Monique Sims stands out as a frowsy and brusque Annie and blossoms into a real beauty. Pamela Ciochetti is a thin lipped controlling Sarah, Robin Schild is a passive and clownish Reg, Christopher Hammond is a slow thinking and stoical Tom, Robyn Wiley is a brittle and near-sighted Ruth but Joseph Hoeber steals the show in a clownish and magnetic performance as Norman.

Set Designer David Apple built the charming set, a replica of an aging British country house. Michael A. Berg designed the very appropriate costumes.

Cheers to Robert Wilson and Judy Holmes and their talented cast for making Table Manners so much fun for us to enjoy!

Table Manners continues through August 14 at Ross Valley Players, Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, CA. Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For reservations, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Marin Shakespeare Company Opens 2011 Season with the Scottish Play

2011-07-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

William Elsman as Macbeth and Alexandra Matthew as Lady Macbeth

For their 22nd season, Robert and Leslie Currier have rolled out the Scottish Play, one that some say carries a century's-old curse. The story goes that when William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around 1606, he used actual witch's incantations that were then uttered by the Bard's wonderful, weird sisters. This greatly distressed the sorceresses of the day who are said to have placed a curse on the play. A superstitious lot, actors and directors have gone to overt pains not to utter the name of the play as doing so would supposedly bring great misfortune to those who did. Leslie Schisgall Currier and a large cast managed to thwart any curse and successfully mounted this masterpiece of ambition, power, deception and treachery. Opening night's performance was under a full moon. There was also a little wind blowing across the Forest Meadows Amphitheater and no significant chill. All of the rage and storm to be had was on stage in this bloody tale of corruption, and ruthless search for power.

Three cackling hags who appear in the first scene set the tone for the night. Lynne Soffer, Sylvia Burboeck and Madeline Harris were superb as the three witches. These women, who also play other characters, were suitably costumed by Abra Berman to change at a moment's notice. Macbeth (William Elsman) hears from the witches that he will become King setting a murderous rampage in motion. With the help of Lady Macbeth (Alexandra Matthew), Macbeth murders King Duncan (Keith Stevenson) in Macbeth's castle, becomes ruler, then continues his orders to kill fearful that the witch's other prophesies will come true.

William Elsman gives a wonderful nuanced performance as Macbeth whether the triumphant young general or the mad King haunted by the blood on his hands. Alexandra Matthew, previously cast as the nice girl on stage, was a welcome surprise as Lady Macbeth. Macbeth and his wife are spiritually in tune; they love and understand each other without speaking everything out. The supporting cast is uniformly strong. Particularly strong is Scott Coopwood as Macduff, the man who eventually fells the play's title character in a final battle. Robert Currier does a clever bit as a sleepy Porter as comic relief to slack off the emotional tension between two strong scenes and drew much laughter from the audience. Darren Bridgett makes a brave and noble Banquo.

The design work is superb; Mark Robinson's remarkably flexible set; Abra Berman's imaginative costumes, Billie Cox's Gothic music and amazing sound design and Ellen Brooks' spooky lighting.

Macbeth is a thriller from start to finish, fortified by Elsman's robust Macbeth, Scott Coopwood's dashing Macduff and a closing image that suggests how cycles of political violence churn on.

Macbeth continues at Forest Meadows Amphitheater through August 14, 2011. Forest Meadows Amphitheater is located at 1475 Grand Avenue, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA. For tickets or schedule information, call the box office at 415-499-4488 or go online at www.marinshakespeare.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A Search for Meaning in 1934 America

2011-07-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Petrified Forest--pictured are (L to R) Ariana Hooper as waitress Gabby Marples and Ken Bacon as drifter Alan Squire in a scene from "The Petrified Forest," presented by Ken Bacon Productions and Marin Actors' Workshop. Photo by Eric Chazankin

A remote diner located in the Arizona desert is the setting for Robert E. Sherwood's The Petrified Forest currently being produced by Marin Actor's Workshop and directed by Bay Area Critic's Circle Award winner for Best Director, Terry McGovern.

The year is 1934, the heart of the Great Depression. A down on his luck idealistic writer, Alan Squire (Ken Bacon) apparently bent on self destruction hikes to the edge of the Arizona desert and comes upon the Black Mesa Diner. There he finds a kindred spirit in the young waitress, Gabby (Ariana Hooper) who seems to give his life clarity. When a fugitive killer, Duke Mantee (Daniel Flores) overruns the diner and holds its inhabitants hostage, what emerges is a tableau of our country in one of its most trying historical periods. The Petrified Forest is a look at an America not entirely unlike our own. In doing so, Director Terry McGovern tried to make the characters more accessible, more in touch with the fears and hopes of the Great Depression.

The Petrified Forest has shrewd director in Terry McGovern and a strong acting company in the Marin Actor's Workshop, who make each role a gem. The set design by Eugene De Christopher of a roadside cafe does a lot to establish both period and mood. The wonderful costumes by Chris Andrews are authentic to the period as well as the old tunes on the radio.

The environment is right, and the playing is splendid. It is a big cast with every face and accent right and everybody's story either stated or implied. The play begins with Jeremy Fay and Andrew Mendle as two telegraph linemen having a political argument. Montgomery Paulsen as the cafe owner (Jason Maple) takes affront at their unpatriotic assumptions which are both real and funny. Ariana Hooper plays his daughter Gabby as bright, sensible and unmannered, a girl who could survive anywhere but who needs someplace better than this. Jeff Taylor does wonders with the role of an ex-college football hero (Nevada Tech), Boze Hertzlinger. He makes him solid and authentic. Gabby's wild-eyed grandfather (Wood Lockhart) is a scene stealer and has some of the best lines in the play.

So, enter Duke Mantee (Daniel Flores) and his henchmen, Jackie (Craig Logan), Ruby (Dave Crone) and Slim (Greg Davis). Their reputation precedes them--six dead in Oklahoma City--and they've chosen Black Mesa to reunite with their women before moving on. Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm (Mark Shepard and Stacy Thunes) a wealthy couple and their driver Joseph (Andrew Bozeman) wind up hostages while Alan finds, in dialog brilliantly delivered by Ken Bacon, a kindred spirit in Mantee, subtly and excellently played by Daniel Flores. Another fine performance is by Bliss Leigh-Harshaw as Paula, the Mexican cook. These actors blazing depths are blessings to Director Terry McGovern.

The Petrified Forest continues through July 31, 2011 at the Novato Theatre Company Playhouse, Pacheco Plaza Shopping Center, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. To order tickets, call 415-883-4498 or go to novatotheatrecompany.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Keeping Tigers At Bay

2011-07-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

The cast: Jeremy Kahn, Melissa Quine, Rebecca Schweitzer*, and Remi Sandri

In Tigers Be Still, the West Coast Premiere currently at San Francisco Playhouse by Kim Rosenstock, we find a young woman Sherry (Melissa Quine) having difficulty coping with unemployment and life in general after she earns her Masters Degree in Art Therapy. Matters take a turn for the better once she gets hired as a substitute art teacher. Her sister Grace (Rebecca Schweitzer) has moved back home since her fiancee cheated on her. Her entire existence has come down to chugging Jack Daniels and watching t.v.

The principal of Sherry's school, Joseph (Remi Sandri) is in a perpetual state of forced optimism, and although his wife has recently died, he suppresses his emotions and pushes on. Joseph's 18 year old son, Zack (Jeremy Kahn) is perhaps the most tragic of them all. With his mom's recent death, his uninspired job at CVS and no desire to go to college, his future looks bleak. The 5th character in this story is unseen. Sherry and Grace's mother has been in her bedroom for months. She is also Joseph's ex-girlfriend which is the reason Sherry secured her job in the first place. Oh, and a tiger has escaped from the local zoo!

Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still treats depression with wry humor. Depression is repressed anger. The "Tiger" is anger. Her characters need to break out of where they are stuck and move on with their lives. Tigers Be Still is also about recovery. All of the characters represent various stages of grieving or loss. At the core of the play is hope about humanity and unexpected ways we help and heal each other. Since the play is basically a comedy, all of the characters are hilarious. They represent people stuck in situations we've all been in.

Sherry's determination to help others beat off threats from their mental "tigers" is at the heart of the play. We all root for them to get up their nerve to confront their various issues and defeat the tigers.

Amy Glazer's direction is sharp, clear and perfectly timed. Her pitch perfect cast are all marvelous in their roles. Bill English comes through again with a flexible set that works remarkably well. Tigers Be Still continues at the SF Playhouse through July 30. Performances are Tuesday-Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. plus Saturday at 3 p.m. SF Playhouse is located at 533 Sutter Street (1block off Union Square) b/n Powell and Mason. For tickets call 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be Honey Brown Eyes by Stefanie Zadravec and directed by Susi Damilano opening Saturday, September 24, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Two Spinsters In Search of Love

2011-06-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

Jocelyn Stringer as Florence and Kim Saunders as Viola

In "Indulgences In the Louisville" Harem by John Orlock, two Kentucky spinster sisters struggle against the suffocating loneliness inherent in their cloistered existence until swept into a thrilling, yet bizarre courtship by a world famous mesmerist and his assistant.

This play, which opened June 17 at Off Broadway West Theatre Company reminds one of Tennessee Williams. The plot is a bit Tennessee Williams-ish if only because it is impossible to see a southern spinster of a certain age onstage occupying a genteelly decaying household without thinking of Williams. There are two such women in Indulgences, sisters named Florence (Jocelyn Stringer) and Viola (Kim Saunders). Both are full of yearnings that find expression in flowery speeches and mutual reproach. Florence and Viola receive a catalog listing eligible gentlemen and argue about whether to use it.

Pretty soon, two top-hatted men from the International Institute of Science and Populism turn up. They are Amos Robbilet (Damien Cin Seperi) a mesmerist who is unable to speak and Winfield Davis (Paul Stout), who serves as Robbilet's voice, wooing for him, like Cyrano, though occasionally also speaking for himself. The two are obviously con men but they're more comic than menacing. In fact, the best moments of the Off Broadway West production belong to Winfield Davis. Perhaps this is because Davis' speeches are better written than the rest of the play or because Paul Stout brings a real sense of humanity to his role.

Both Jocelyn Stringer and Kim Saunders give moving performances as the two sisters with superb Kentucky accents. However, they should project more to be more audible. Damien Cin Seperi gives a fine comic mime performance as Robbilet. Under the meticulous direction of Richard Harder, a good balance was achieved between the extremes of comedy of the con men and the melancholy of the two sisters. The cozy living room set by Bert van Aalsburg was very much in period for the turn of the century. The costuming by Sylvia Kratins was all that it should be, both authentic and proper for both period and character. The lighting design by Colin Cross was remarkable. Richard Harder's direction was crisp, clean and concise. Indulgences In the Louisville Harem is a natural for the Off Broadway West Theatre Company where the direct addresses to the audience and the comic turns capitalize the theater's intimacy.

Indulgences In the Louisville Harem continues through July 30 at the Phoenix Theatre, Suite 601, 414 Mason Street (between Geary and Post) in San Francisco. Performances are held Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. For tickets go to www.offbroadwaywest.org or call 800-838-3006.

Coming up next at Off Broadway Theatre Company will be Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard from September 30, 2011-November 5, 2011 at Phoenix Theatre, San Francisco.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

4GIVENESS: In a Family Way-Four Plays About Strong Irrepressible Women

2011-06-19T19:23:00.001-07:00

Written by award winning playwright Susan Jackson, 4GIVENESS: In a Family Way is a collection of four short plays. Like an old fashioned southern soap opera, the characters in the plays are all related by blood or marriage and the main characters are strong, irrepressible women. The common theme is forgiveness with settings from the Civil War era to the present.

The program opened with Rockets Red Glare, Part I directed by Stephen Drewes and starring Diana Brown as Nandy and Susan Jackson as Peaches. We meet them on a summer night at the Sonic Drive-In in the smallest town in Severinsville County, South Carolina. Both ladies looked adorable in their wigs and had great playing energy as well as a flare for comedy. The theme here is self forgiveness being the first step in forgiving others.

The next play, Heathen takes place in 1864 in a South Carolina Plantation with background music of Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Eric Nelson gave a strong portrayal of Dr. John Camaan watching General Sherman burning down the South while his slave Posey (Margo Sims) offers to fight off the devil to help her master. What she doesn't know is that Lincoln freed the slaves and nobody told her. Then the play jumps to 1929 and a much stronger and wiser Posey confesses the truth just as Wall Street crumbles.

In the third play of the program, For I Am Not Breaking, Part I directed by Ann Thomas, we meet two southern matrons, Annie (Adrienne Kru) and Marion (Susan Jackson) at Annie Camaan's gazebo, North Carolina, 2007. Both women have opposing political views while sharing their weekly coffee. Annie confesses that her daughter, Sarah is a lesbian. Susan Jackson proved herself to be a wonderful comedic actress in her reaction to the news.

The last play in the first half of the program was Rockets Red Glare, Part 1.5, the same summer night, 20 minutes later than the first play. Diana Brown continues as Nandy and we meet Salacious Peer (Eric Nelson), her beau who is a car dealer. They have wonderful chemistry in this delightfully comic scene.

The second half of the evening opens with Eye Tooth, directed by Ann Thomas starring Diana Brown as an eager new camper, Jenny, Adrienne Krug as Tess, an experienced camper and Susan Jackson as the Waitress. This play takes place in a diner near Yosemite Park.

This is followed by For I Am Not Breaking, Part II directed by Stephen Drewes and starring Susan Jackson as Marion Peallin. This play takes place in Marion's home in North Carolina 3 weeks later. It is here that Marion receives a phone call where she can finally speak her mind and heart to her adulterous husband. Here Susan Jackson earned special applause.

The last play of the evening was Rockets Red Glare, Part II at the Sonic Drive-In one week later. Adrienne Krug stars as Crazy Lacy in a Lily Tomlin-like performance and Eric Nelson continues to play Salacious Peer, son of a judge. Crazy Lacy informs us that southern accents have their origins in British pronunciation as she puts the make on Salacious.

The plays all add up to a wonderful evening's entertainment. A single criticism would be the plays should be done in sequence rather than scattered throughout the program.

4GIVENESS: In a Family Way is being presented by the Southern Railroad Theatre Company at the Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa (at Harrison), San Francisco. The plays will be performed Thursday-Saturday, June 23-25 at 8 p.m. For tickets and information, go to www.brownpapertickets.com or call 415-505-2151.

2011-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Great Leaps of the Imagination in Art and Science in the 20th Century

2011-05-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

The Novato Theater Company is currently presenting Steve Martin's first full length play which he wrote in 1993, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. His play features the characters of Albert Einstein (Jason Dorie) and Pablo Picasso (Robert Nelson) who meet at a bar called the Lapin Agile in Montmartre, Paris. It is set on October 8, 1904 and both men are on the verge of an amazing idea (Einstein will publish his special theory of relativity in 1905 and Picasso will paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907). When they find themselves at the Lapin Agile, they have a lengthy debate about the value of genius and talent while interacting with a host of other characters. Each character in Lapin Agile performs a specific function, for example Schmendiman (Philip Ferrero) is an inventor who believes he is a genius but really knows very little, while Gaston (John Conway), an amicable old Frenchman with prostrate problems, is hesitant to listen or believe anything that does not revolve around sex or drinking.

There is much discussion of the shaping of the 20th century. Picasso obviously represents art, Einstein science and Schmendiman represents commercialism. Picasso and Einstein eventually realize their abilities are equally valuable.

Once the main characters have had their moments of insight, "The Visitor" (Phillip Swanson), a man from the future crashes the party. The Visitor is never named but his identity can be surmised as Elvis Presley. The Visitor adds a third dimension to Picasso and Einstein's debate representing the idea that genius is not always the product of academic or philosophical understanding.

According to playwright Steve Martin, "Focusing on Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and Picasso's master painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, my play attempts to explain in a light hearted way the similarity of the creative process involved in great leaps of imagination in art and science."

Director Jerrie Patterson has certainly directed her talented cast in the spirit of fun and lightheartedness. In order of appearance they are Freddie, the owner and bartender of the Lapin Agile played by Jeffrey Orth in a very amiable performance; Gaston, an older man, John Conway is very funny as an aging womanizer; Germaine, Monique Sims, waitress and Freddie's wife, gives a coquettish performance. In spite of the title, the character who commands the play is not Picasso, but Einstein. As played by Jason Dorie, Einstein is a little man neatly buttoned up who appears to be polite. He observes all, listens with care and would seem to be shy. Suzanne (Melissa Claire), a young woman searching for Picasso gives a sexy and sultry performance. Most outstanding of all is Joseph Hoeber as Sagot, Picasso's art dealer who is slick and powerful and steals the show.

Picasso (Robert Nelson), the person everyone's waiting for doesn't come on until the play is almost half over. Though decently played by Nelson, the character as written never realizes the strength, status and robust magntism assigned to him. Phillip Ferrero totally cuts loose as the successful and completely over the top Schmendiman--representative of people who invented commonplace things but lives forever in obscurity. One final performance is Sarah Nelson cast in two roles as both the Countess Einstein's patron, and a Female Visitor in contrasting performances. The set design by Gary Gonser and Jerrie Patterson features a realistic bar and delightful painting of sheep in the meadow. Jerrie Paterson's direction, like her costuming, is tip-top from the first moment to the grand finale.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile runs through June 19 at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 484 Ignacio Blvd., Novato. Shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. For reservations, call 415-883-4498 or go online at www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Performers Under Stress (PUS) Closes Season with World Premiere of "Cancer Cells"--An Evening of Short Plays and Poems by Harold Pinter.

2011-05-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

Performers Under Stress (PUS) closes its sixth season of critically acclaimed stage work in the Bay Area with the World Premiere of "Cancer Cells," a project uniting Harold Pinter's poetry and short theatrical work from his later, more politically focused era. These are all seldom performed works, never before assembled on the same evening.

PUS Artistic Director Scott Baker and Artistic Associate Geoff Bangs (who conceived the project) together helm this production which displays Pinter's insight into the whims of military power as they grow out of control and finally silence the life of the mind, like a cancer that destroys from within. "Cancer Cells" is a compilation of works by Mr. Pinter emphasizing topics about which he was passionate. Pinter's overtly political plays and sketches were written between 1980 and 2000. The program opens with a short poem, "Cancer Cells" performed by Valerie Fachman who shaved her head for this piece. She looked just like the actress from the play Wit. Her silent body language was wonderful but she was practically inaudible.

The following political plays by Pinter serve as a critique of oppression, torture and other abuses of human rights. The first of the plays presented was "The New World Order," a dramatic sketch which provides "ten nerve wracking minutes" of two men threatening to torture a third man who is blindfolded, gagged and bound to a table. This is followed by Pinter's look at "Democracy" beautifully rendered by Mindy Marie Vo.

A much longer play, "Mountain Language" is divided into four parts. One-a prison wall; two-visitors room; three-voice in the darkness and four--visitors room. Mountain Language concerns the Turkish suppression of the Kurdish language.

Geoff Bangs gave a moving rendition of "Death May Be Aging"-another short poem by Pinter. "Press Conference" followed with a dynamic performance by Valerie Fachman as the Minister of Culture. Here Pinter dramatizes the interplay and conflict of opposing poles of involvement and disengagement as the Minister is interviewed by three reporters. Nandini Minocha gives an energetic critical look at "American Football"-another of Pinter's poems.

The last play presented is "One for the Road"--Pinter's first overtly political play. Gene Gerard Thomas gives an outstanding performance as Nicolas. The entire program ends with a young man, Carter Hartsough reciting "Death" in which Pinter merges both the personal and the political.

Outstanding performances are given by Nandini Minocha in many roles--several different prison sergeants, a reporter, and "American football;" Mindy Marie Vo as Sarah Johnson in "Mountain Language," a reporter, as well as "Democracy" and Carlos Barrera in four different roles.

This production skillfully directed by Scott Baker and Geoff Bangs revolves around the unrelenting path power takes on innocence and existence as seen through the eyes of a cancer survivor and world humanitarian. These two parallels draw magnetically toward one another as the pieces progress from shockingly inhuman to brutally hilarious and chillingly truthful.

There is only one weekend left to catch "Cancer Cells" which is being performed at The Garage, 975 Howard Street, San Francisco. Performances are Friday, May 20 at 8 p.m., Saturday, May 21 at 8 p.m. and a closing performance on Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets for all performances are available at brownpapertickets.com and eventbrite.com.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Rabbit Hole: A Family Tries to Cope with the Pain of Loss

2011-05-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Beth Kellermann as Becca in Rabbit Hole at Ross Valley Players

Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, which just opened at Ross Valley Players, is a 2006 Broadway smash hit which won the Pulitzer Prize and was nominated the Best Play for the Theatre Guild's Tony Awards.

David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole depicts a family in crisis caused by a heartbreakingly random accident and how these five people deal with the aftermath of this very personal tragedy. Each character is enveloped in a private grieving process that little-by-little challenges the family bonds that tie them together. Lindsay-Abaire offers no easy answers, no profound discoveries which enable its characters to move triumphantly beyond their private mourning. But, in its honest candor and complete lack of sentimentality, Rabbit Hole gives us a glimpse into a family very much like our own, coping with loss as any family might with anger and hope, despair and humor, and ultimately profound humanity.

Eight months after the accidental death of their four year old son Danny, Becca (Beth Kellermann) and Howie (Gregg LeBlanc) are struggling to return to their daily lives when Becca's younger and perpetually troubled sister, Izzy (Floriana Alessandria) announces she is pregnant. The couple's differing styles of grieving are thrown into sharp contrast as Becca's desire to escape the constant reminders of her son clash with Howie's attempts to hang on to the details of their little boy's past.

Becca, as played by Beth Kellermann, at first, is difficult to like. She's distant from her husband, judgmental of her sister and rude to her mother. One trait that helps to balance her difficult side is her sense of humor. Though she occasionally employs it to biting effect, Becca manages to find both irony and humor in the circumstances of her lot. She is not mean. She is just isolated. She is tough and uncompromising, she cannot tolerate insincerity or impracticality.

Howie played by Gregg LeBlanc is Becca's husband--a patient man who specializes in pretending everything is fine. Izzy (Floriana Alessandria) is Becca's younger sister. Ms. Alessandria plays her as a perennial party girl who never grew up. Izzy is still trying to find herself. She and her mother are the only two characters who use a New York accent. Her mother Nat (Maureen O'Donoghue) is the opinionated alcoholic with a knack for sticking her foot in her mouth telling parables about the Kennedy curse. Liam Hughes gives a sensitive performance as Jason, the awkward seventeen year old boy who drove the car that accidentally killed Danny.

Maryann Rogers directs Rabbit Hole with a recognition that we are not so different from each other, as she allows us to live closely with Howie, Becca, Nat, Izzy and Jason to see how they deal with their feelings and the feelings of those around them. By doing so, we connect with a universal human experience as Maryanne Rogers creates a unified vision of the play. She is ably aided by Ken Rowland's set which realistically depicts three rooms in Becca's and Howie's house. The restricted quarters add an air of claustrophobia to the play. Both the set and Ellen Brook's lighting design are softly infused with an aura of fractured solidity. Billie Cox's mellow sound design enhances Rabbit Hole's shifting moods and Michael A. Berg's costumes are just right for each character. Alternately sad and funny, Rabbit Hole is a deeply human look at one family's attempt to come to terms with the impossible and emerge stronger than before.

Rabbit Hole plays through June 17 at Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Thursday performances are at 7:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. For reservations, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players is Table Manners by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Robert Wilson, July 15-August 14, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Patio Dreams Wins 1st Place Honors at 27th Anniversary of Fringe of Marin Ceremony

2011-05-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

With grateful thanks to Dr. Annette Lust, Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator, The Dominican University Community Players and Fringe of Marin just celebrated their 27th Anniversary Season. Bay Area Theatre Critic's Circle Awards for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actors were announced Sunday, May 8, 2011 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.

The first awards presented were for Best Play. The pride of 1st place went to "Patio Dreams" by Don Samson. There was a tie for 2nd place between "Jesus, She Said," by Charley Lerrigo and "Juice; Scenes from a Life" by Charselle. 3rd place honors were a three-way tie between "Convention of Spies" by Bill Chessman, "The Girl on BART" by Linda Ayres-Frederick and Claudia V. Rosa, and "Stanislavski" by Kevin Brookes. "Bindings" by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith won 4th place.

Next were the awards for Best Director. Kate Jopson won 1st place for "Jesus, She Said." 2nd place for Best Director went to Carol Eggers for "Patio Dreams." Buzz Halsing and Emily Surface won 3rd place for "Stanislavski." There was a four-way tie for 4th place between Linda Ayres-Frederick for "The Girl on BART," Steve North for "Candle Rose," Carol Sheldon for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" and Charselle for "Juice."

Claudia V. Rosa won 1st place honors for Best Actress for "Patio Dreams" and "The Girl on BART." Charselle won 2nd place for "Juice." There was a tie for 3rd place between Suzanne Birrell for "Daniel" and Andy Major for "It's Very Crowded." 4th place honors went to Sarita Ocon for "Jesus, She Said."

The last of the Critic's Circle Awards went to Best Actor which was won by Rick Roitinger for "Patio Dreams." There was a tie for 2nd place between Professor Henry Shreibman for "A Taste of the Silent Art" and Tyler Hewitt for "Bindings." Chris Morrell won 3rd place for Best Actor for "Jesus, She Said." There was a tie for 4th place between Johnny DeBernard and Ron Dailey, both for "Stanislavski."

The Critic's Circle also gave a Nomination Award to Byron Lambie for "Candle Rose."

For the 8th consecutive time, the People's Choice Awards took place which are the results of audience votes. Here are those results. The 1st place award for Best Play went to "Juice; Scenes from a Life" by Charselle. 2nd Place went to "Stanislavski" by Kevin Brookes and "Jesus, She Said" by Charley Lerrigo won 3rd place. "Patio Dreams" by Don Samson took 4th place for Best Play. "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" by Carol Sheldon won 5th place. "Jessica" by Joe Tomalin won 6th place and "Bindings" by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith took 7th place. "Candle Rose" by David Hirzell won 8th place for Best Play and there was a tie for 9th place between "Convention of Spies" by Bill Chessman and "It's Very Crowded" by Suzanne Birrell. "A Puppet Is Down" by Jeffrey Smith won 10th place and there was a tie for 11th place between "A Taste of the Silent Art" by Professor Henry Shreibman and "Daniel" by Bob Weiss.

The 1st place People's Choice Award for Best Director was a tie between Carol Eggers for "Patio Dreams" and Carol Sheldon for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare." Buzz Halsing won 2nd place as Best Director for "Stanislavski" and 3rd place honors went to Kate Jopson for "Jesus, She Said." 4th place went to Joe Tomalin for "Jessica" and 5th place tied between Bill Chessman for "Convention of Spies" and Gaetana Caldwell-Smith for "Bindings." 6th place for Best Director was won by Steve North for "Candle Rose" and 7th place went to Crystal Nezgoda for "It's Very Crowded." Suzan Lorraine won 8th place for "A Puppet is Down" and 9th place went to Emily Surface for "Stanislavski." 10th place was won by Linda Ayres-Frederick for "The Girl on BART" and 11th place went to Henry Shreibman for "A Taste of the Silent Art."

The People's Choice Award for Best Actress went to Charselle in "Juice; Scenes from a Life" Claudia V. Rosa won 2nd place for "It's Very Crowded," "Bindings," "The Girl on BART" and "Patio Dreams." 3rd place honors for Best Actress went to Sarita Ocon for "Jesus, She Said" and Crystal Nezgoda won 4th place for "Jessica." There was a tie for 5th place between Carolyn Grenier and Kathryn Daskal for "Jessica." There was a 3-way tie for 6th place between Patricia Inabnet for "Convention of Spies," Andy Major for "It's Very Crowded" and Suzanne Birrell for "Daniel." Victoria Williams won 7th place as Best Actress for "Stanislavski" and Stephanie Stratman took 8th place for "A Puppet Is Down." There was a tie for 9th place between Patcharee Boyd for "Stanislavski" and Sarah Doherty for "Jessica."

Last up for the People's Choice Awards was for Best Actor. There was a tie for 1st place between C. Conrad Cady for "A Taxpayer's Nightmare" and "Convention of Spies" and Rick Roitinger for "Patio Dreams." 2nd place for Best Actor went to Tyler Hewitt for "Bindings" and 3rd place was won by Chris Morrell for "Jesus, She Said." Ron Dailey won 4th place as Best Actor for "Stanislavski." Henry Shreibman won 5th place for "A Taste of the Silent Art" and Johnny DeBernard won 6th place for "Stanislavski." Charles Grant won 7th place for "Candle Rose." There was a tie for 8th place Best Actor between John Vincent Burke for "Convention of Spies" and Byron Lambie for "Candle Rose." 9th place tied between Tom Dembski for "Stanislavski" and Charlie Guitron for "A Puppet Is Down." There was a 4-way tie for 10th place between Javier Alarcon for "Stanislavski," Alan Jensen for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare," Steve North for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" and Jim Colgan for "Convention of Spies."

Bravo to Dr. Annette Lust for maintaining the Fringe of Marin for 27 seasons!

Flora Lynn Isaacson

A High Five for Program Two at Fringe of Marin

2011-04-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Claudia Rosa

Thanks to the inspiration and leadership of Dr. Annette Lust, we have a Fringe of Marin Festival which is now in its 27th season.

Dr. Lust opened Program Two on Saturday, April 16 with a tribute to Bob Weiss, who recently passed away. She dedicated this festival to his memory. For the past ten years, Bob Weiss has been Associate Director of the Festival and tonight's program included an opera libretto by Weiss entitled Daniel. This season's festival also included, in addition to one act plays and solo performances with family, social, satirical, biblical and psychological themes, a pantomime performed by "Teacher of the Year at Dominican University," Professor Henry Schreibman.

The opening play was "Convention of Spies," a comedy written and directed Bill Chessman. This was a fast paced farce about an imagined meeting between Walt Disney (John Vincent Burke), Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (C. Conrad Cady) and Marie Antoinette (Patricia Inabnet) at International Spy Convention. Jim Colgan played Brad Donaldson who got into the wrong convention. Lots of comic business ensued.

The second play was a solo performance by Charselle entitled "Juice: Scenes from a Life." Charselle drew upon her own life experiences for her material. She has extremely good stage presence and diction, even with an Oklahoma accent. She moves well onstage and is a great story teller.

The third presentation was a powerful drama, "Bindings" by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith. In this play, we have a meeting between a half-sister and a half-brother after the death of their father. Claudia Rosa plays Ginny who comes to call on Richard (sensitively portrayed by Tyler Hewitt). Richard had been the one to look after their ill father and Ginny comes to get back a copy of her book. Claudia Rosa's ability to listen and react to Richard's predicament was right on target.

The first half of the program concluded with "Daniel," a rap version of the biblical story written by Bob Weiss and performed by Suzanne Birrell in a tour-de-force performance. She moves gracefully, has a great sense of rhythm and does an amazing transformation of characters before our very eyes. Birrell was always dynamic and encouraged audience participation.

The second half of the program opened with my favorite play, "Stanislavski" written by Kevin Brookes and directed by Buzz Halsing with Emily Surface as Assistant Director. In this delightful play, an acting instructor, Conrad (Johnny DeBernard) inveigles his friend Damon (Ron Dailey), a food critic, to take over his acting class for one evening. The group of acting students played by Javier Alarcon, Patcharee Boyd, Bryana Tunder, Tom Dembski and Victoria Williams were all wonderful as hilarity ensued.

Next up was an amazing solo performance titled "The Girl on BART" written by Linda Ayres-Frederick and Claudia V. Rosa and beautifully directed by Linda Ayres-Frederick. In this solo performance, a girl studies the face of a woman she encounters and this triggers some emotional memories in her own life. Claudia V. Rosa is a superb actress in a very rich performance.

The final play of the evening was "Patio Dreams" a comedy written by Don Sampson and directed by Carol Eggers. In this play, Janice (Claudia Rosa in a 3rd performance) and Tom (Rick Roitinger) play a married couple on vacation in the islands who play imaginary games with one another to liven up their relationship. This play was both professionally acted and directed.

A remarkable outcome of the Fringe of Marin is to discover fresh voices and to bring in the community to participate either as an artist or spectator. Program Two continues Friday, April 29 and May 6 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 30 at 2 p.m and Sunday, May 8 at 2 p.m. Program One plays Saturday, April 30 and May 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m.

All performances are held at Meadowlands Assembly Hall, Dominican University, 50 Acacia (at Grand Avenue), San Rafael, CA. For reservations and more information, call 415-673-3131.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure at Pacifica Spindrift Players

2011-04-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

This adaptation by Steven Dietz of the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1899 is a marvelous look at the last case handled by the great Sherlock Holmes (or is it?). The story starts with a newspaper headline stating the great Sherlock Holmes, on his latest case, has died. We are then taken back in time with our narrator/storyteller, Doctor John Watson, in a likable and believable performance by Dennis Parks, which is also provides comic relief. We can then see just how and why this case was even taken by Holmes. Louis Schilling handles the role of Holmes with great style. It turns out the King of Bohemia (Storm Russell) is supposed to get married but there is a photo of the great opera singer Irene Adler (the lovely and talented Pamela Clochetti) together that may ruin his wedding plans and he is being blackmailed over the photo. Holmes is to get the photo back before the wedding in order to save the King's marriage and position. Holmes finds out Ms. Adler has already wed one James Larabee (John Szabo) who is pretending to be someone else and all of this is a scam designed by his arch enemy Professor Moriarty (Brian Johnson) who has a master plan of his own to destroy the great Sherlock Holmes.

The story takes us to many places as Holmes himself falls in love with the enchanting and clever Ms. Adler and along the way Moriarty commits many crimes. This is a show filled with strange twists and turns and is carried out to perfection by this fine cast of players including Mae Linh Fatum as Madge, Rob Hedges as Sid Prince and Collin Wenzell as a policeman.

Director Craig Cummins utilizes his stage area very well on an unusual set by Henry Sellenthin . In this space, there is a London street, Holmes' house, a church, a factory, a train and even Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The play ends with a surprise which is ambiguous.

The production is two hours of quality theatre. Live theatre is alive and well at the Pacifica Spindrift Players! The only problem with this play is you have only one more weekend to see it on Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 17 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 650-359-8002 or go online at www.pacficaspindriftplayers.org. The Spindrift Players are located at 1050 Crespi Drive in Pacifica.

Coming up next at Pacifica Spindrift Players is Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, June 3-June 26, 2011.

Quilters--Sixteen Blocks of Prairie Women's Lives

2011-03-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Back row: Monica Turner, Dawn Hamilton, Sheila Devitt, Carolyn Montellato

Middle row: Olivia Harrison, Kele Gasparini, Sandi Weldon, Rachel Watts

Front Center: Linda Dunn

Photo by Wendell H. Wilson

Ross Valley Player's production of Quilters is pieced together with love and stitched with pride. Here is a musical delight to capture the whole family. Quilters is a musical and a book by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek. The story is about the lives of American pioneer women based on the book, The Quilters--Women and Domestic Art, An Oral History written by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Hall.

Through a collection of different voices, Quilters is a patchwork of stories experienced by a family of pioneer women. These women share their life experiences, both the dramatic and everyday, as they create quilt blocks to record their tales. The dialogue of the play is interspersed with song to heighten the effect. "Coming from a long line of quilters, I was drawn to the play as a means to pay homage to the pioneer women of our country who told their stories through their art--quilts," says Director Linda Dunn.

In the American West, a pioneer woman Sarah (Sandi V. Weldon) and six women who are called her daughters, face frontier life. Rather than a straight forward story line, this musical is presented as a series of short tales mated with musical numbers, each presenting an aspect of frontier life or womanhood. The patches or blocks show girlhood, marriage, childbirth, spinsterhood, twisters, fires, illness and death. The patches are ultimately put together to form one dramatic tableaux.

Sandi V. Weldon leads the ensemble as Sarah, the matriarch of a family that includes seven daughters played by Sheila M. Devitt, Kele Gasparini, Dawn Marie Hamilton, Olivia Harrison, Carolyn Montellato, Monica Turner and Rachel Watts. Many of the cast of daughters fall easily into place in different roles as children, men of the prairie, wives, daughters or teachers.

This new production at Ross Valley Players is more elaborate than ever with Bruce Lackovic's woody, rough-hewn set, Les Lizama's spectacular lighting, Michael A. Berg's authentic costuming, Linda Dunn's deft direction and Gloria Woods' musical direction which includes some amazing choreography.

At times the prairie accent was a little hard to understand. However, with this production there is also love, warmly rich and lively humor and the moving spectacle of simple human dignity and steadfastness in the face of adversity.

Quilters runs through Sunday, April 17 at Ross Valley Players, the Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross (cross street Lagunitas). Performances are held Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Coming up next at Ross Valley Players will be Rabbit Hole, a drama by David Lindsay-Abaire and directed by Mary Ann Rodgers, May 13-June 12, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Detective Story--The Busy Workings of the Precinct

2011-03-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Detective Story by Sidney Kingsley and directed by James Dunn now playing at the College of Marin is a winner. The entire action of the play takes place in the detective squad room of a New York police precinct on a single day in August, 1949. It is a large production (26 actors in the cast) and is perfect for the College of Marin to give all of these players a chance to perform as every manner of petty criminal, tough cop, and eccentric street character is represented in this gritty show.

The issue of intolerance and its consequences is the focus of Kingsley's Detective Story. The leading character, Detective McLeod (Eric Burke) has a problem which is at the heart of the play. He is uncompromising and sees things in black and white. There is only evil and good, criminal and honest citizen. When his dearly beloved wife, Mary (Jennifer Reimer) is found to have a connection with a criminal, McLeod's reaction rocks the boat. Eric Burke is perfectly cast as McLeod. He has just the right amount of energy, conviction and self-righteousness.

As always, James Dunn brings together a tip top ensemble from top to bottom. Other standouts include Jeffrey Taylor as Detective Brody, McLeod's good natured friend who is more concerned with justice than punishment. As McLeod's wife, Jennifer Reimer offers one of the most touching scenes when having to confront her husband about her past. Putting a little comedy into this serious story are Kaya May as a nosy first-time shoplifter who enjoys her first day in the police department by doing some serious people watching and trying to pick up guys. Especially memorable performances are given by Robert Garcia, as reporter Joe Feinson, Rose Pearson as Susan Carmichael, Ian Swift, as Lt. Monoghan and elderly paranoiac Anne Ripley who tries to get her bothersome neighbors arrested for all means of illegal activities--activities she has seen them do by using her "electronic vision" that allows her to see through walls. Also wonderful are Alan Weber as Detective Dakis who books first time shoplifter Kaya May and Wood Lockhart as Endicott Sims, a persistent lawyer. All of the players did a great job with their New York accents and Ian Swift has a wonderful Irish brogue.

Patricia Polen's carefully chosen period costumes and Ronald E. Krempetz's well designed set down to the minutest detail of the many roomed police station add the finishing touches to another magnificent production at the College of Marin. Director James Dunn continues to impress as he did with his production of Hamlet last year at the College of Marin, past Mountain Play musicals and his many productions at Ross Valley Players.

Detective Story continues at College of Marin through March 20, 2011. Performances are held at 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, visit www.marin.edu/departments/performingarts/drama or call 415-485-9385.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Two Plays of Power and Games by Harold Pinter

2011-02-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

Off Broadway West is proud to present two one act plays from the acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter. Two of his most famous one acts: The Dumb Waiter and The Lover offer up a night of intellectual as well as sexual provocation.

The Dumb Waiter, written in 1957, is one of Pinter's more exemplary plays enticing audiences with the language (Lower Manchester) and inherent tensions built into human relationships. Ben (Shane Fahy) and Gus (Conor Hamill) are hit men who are holed up in a dingy basement kitchen, waiting to be sent out on their next job. From the start, we recognize that Gus is the more senior of the two.

When the play begins Gus and Ben are lying on their respective beds--Gus reading the newspaper and Ben seemingly asleep. When he gets up, Ben starts to put on his shoes tying the knots meticulously. While reading the newspaper aloud, Ben is repeatedly interrupted by Gus. We realize that Gus is not entirely comfortable with his line of work. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted when an envelope is mysteriously pushed under the door. Then the dumb waiter (a small elevator used to bring food up from the kitchen below) suddenly slams down. When the hit men explore the inside, they find an order for a meal. Bewildered yet anxious to act, they send up the few morsels of food that Gus brought with him. More orders strangely follow changing from typical English dishes to more exotic ones. As the orders come in, the tension between the two hit men mounts leading to physical conflict as Ben almost strangles Gus. Director Durand Garcia's production mixes off-beat comedy with something more menacing.

Because the dumb waiter is centered in the upstage back wall, most of the action is played upstage. It would be better to open up the action and find times to bring the actors downstage. The dialogue was difficult to understand because of the excellent lower-class Manchester accents.

The Lover, written in 1962, is Pinter's treatise on sexual desire breaking through the confines of middle-class convention. Outside London, a married couple, Sarah (Nicole Helfer) and Richard (Chad Stender) play out a scintillating game. This couple spices up their marriage by pretending to be adulterous lovers in the afternoon. The husband pretends to go off to work as a respectable businessman and returns as a lover while his wife puts on her sexy black dress and high heels and acts like a whore. The only problem is that role playing games can often get out of hand and here they lead to unexpected conflict. Nicole Helfer and Chad Stender handle this difficult material, both competently and confidently. Their performances are very entertaining. The Lover is sensitively directed by Cecilia Palmtag.

This double bill from Off Broadway West runs through March 26, 2011 at the Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason St. (between Geary and Post), Suite 601 in San Francisco. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. For reservations call 800-838-3006 or go on line at www.offbroadwaywest.org.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Diverse Quartet at 2011 RAW Winter Festival

2011-02-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Co-Producers of the RAW (Ross Alternative Works) Winter Festival are Tinka Ross and John Clevenger. The first play to be presented was Lo Mein and Tequila by Angelina Llongueras-Altimis and directed by Michael Paul Pulizzano. The setting is an apartment in Brooklyn, a summer evening in 2003. In this play, two people, Eduardo played by Jere Visilli and Beatriz in a moving performance by Susan Stein contrasts their prejudices, their rootlessness, their limitations and their lack becoming finally able to listen to each other. This play is dedicated to Griselda Tirado murdered in Huehuetia in August 2003.

Beatriz comes from Spain to Mexico as a social activist writing a book on migrant worker's rights. Griselda had been her best friend. Eduardo who fathered Griselda's child brings Beatriz to live with him in Brooklyn. Both of these people are facing their pain and emptiness and learn to open up to each other with respect and truth.

The second play of the evening was a delightful comedy titled Work In Progress by John Levine and directed by Kim Bromley. In this play, a lesbian couple delightfully played by Melissa Claire as May and Marianne Shine as June, debate the pros and cons of matrimony and then confront a mysterious stranger, Guy played by Johnny DeBernard who is the playwright who is puzzled as to how to end his play.

After a 15-minute intermission, the third play, Wallace Strikes Out for Heaven by Stanton Klose is next. The play opens with two angels dressed in white who are in heaven and Wallace entering to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Wallace, a Dodger's fan, runs a red light on the way to the ballpark and finds himself in heaven. The play is a bit of fluff but is expertly directed by Ray Morgan and performed with relish by Jeffrey Orth as Wallace, Robyn Wiley as Sister Gwendolyn and Glenda Vessey as Sister Roxanne.

Hell in a Handbasket by Robert F. Bradford was the final play of the evening. This play directed by Alex Kuskulis is set in a small gymnasium which provides physical therapy for disabled men. Monique Sims plays Amanda, the physical therapist. Joel Roth plays Jake, an older man, who has come to terms with his condition. Jeffrey Blaze plays Rick, a newly-disabled ex-con biker with a suicidal bent and a head full of Nietzsche quotes on a course of nihilism and Alma DeLeon steals the show with her performance of George, a paraplegic quadruped. This was a heated drama with an ambiguous ending.

Coming up next at RAW (Ross Alternative Works) will be Summer Festival, August 18-21, 2011. For information, call 415-456-9555 or go online at rossvalleyplayers.com

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Doubt--A Moral Dilemma

2011-02-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

John Patrick Shanley subtitles "Doubt"-"A Parable" and with his explorations of a series of moral dilemmas, it lives up to both title and subtitle. This 2004 Broadway hit earned both the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award.

Currently running at Ross Valley Players, Doubt is set at St. Nicholas, a Catholic church and school in the Bronx, New York in 1964. Doubt is so economical in Shanley's writing that it is pared down to perfection, presenting a problem and then offering potential solutions, every one of which creates its own difficulties.

The major clash is between Chris Macomber as Sister Aloysius, a dragon of an old school principal and Jamie Dawson as Father Flynn, a young modernizing priest. As such, they represent traditional Catholicism and a new brand of religion that seeks to assimilate ideas that some might regard as doctrinally unacceptable, such as Frosty the Snowman.

The play opens in front of a wonderful set designed by Ken Rowland that swiftly takes us between scenes. Father Flynn is delivering a sermon about life's uncertainties that in his way is packed with parables. He says, "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." This acts as a kind of prologue to the investigation of doubt that is to follow.

Sister Aloysius' unwilling partner in uncovering crime is the sweet, natural and innocent Sister James played by Shannon O'Neill Creighton. Having been bullied as a too good and generous teacher, she intimates knowledge of a misdeed. This might not have mattered had the victim not been the school's only black pupil. Immediately with religious fervor, Sister Aloysius' begins a campaign to unseat and defrock a man who quickly becomes her enemy. Her justification in doing so is no more than a gut feeling she has about him. Soon enough, that topical subject, child abuse by a Catholic priest is in sharp focus and a battle rages between these two representatives of religion.

Added depth is offered by the boy's mother, played convincingly by Clara Kamunde (who was given a special round of applause on opening night). This cowed lady's only concern is for her son's future and when he reveals his true nature, we learn his father beats him and her desire is to brush any problems under the carpet. This is not the Sister's way though. Sister Aloysius eventually proves to her own satisfaction that a mortal sin has taken place. However, the ending offers a surprise.

Chris Macomber is at the top of her form playing the unforgiving nun who runs her school like a totalitarian state. Jamie Dawson, with a wonderful Bronx accent, is perfectly cast as the affable priest struggling to save his reputation. His nuanced performance shows him as a priest determined not to be just a spiritual leader, but also friend and confidant. Shannon O'Neill Creighton as Sister James is easily the play's most likable character because of her appealing performance.

As directed by Cris Cassell, Doubt works well because she brings out the hidden depths of the play and offers us complete ambiguity in the ending.

Doubt runs through Sunday, February 13 at Ross Valley Players, the Barn, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. (at Lagunitas), Ross. Performances are held Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the Box Office at 415-456-9555 or go online at www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

Harper's Journey

2011-02-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

Early in Harper Regan, the exquisitely directed, gorgeously acted and profoundly moving new show at the SF Playhouse by British playwright Simon Stephens, the fortyish title character (Susi Damilano) has to ask her employer (Richard Frederick) for a simple leave of absence to visit her dying father. Playwright Simon Stephens penned a long monologue, beautifully delivered by Frederick in order for him to deny Harper's request. Harper comes home to find her obnoxious teen daughter, Sarah (Monique Hafen) and her hapless unemployed husband Seth (a sympathetic Michael Keys Hall) working on material for Sarah's university entrance exams. Harper receives cold treatment from them so she quietly walks away. Near her home on a bridge, Harper meets and flirts with a male teen, Tobias Rich (Daniel Redmond).

Harper journeys from Uxbridge to Manchester to see her father and his met at the hospital by an understanding nurse (Monique Hafen in a wonderful turnabout performance), who informs Harper that she is too late. Triggered by grief and guilt, Harper wanders to a pub where she meets an anti-Semitic jerk journalist (in a completely contrasting performance by Richard Frederick who previously played Harper's boss), who comes on so strong that Harper cuts him with a broken cocktail glass and steals his leather jacket. Following this encounter, Harper arranges a sexual encounter over the internet from a cyber-cafe with a senior citizen, James Fortune played wistfully by Michael Keys Hall who previously played Harper's husband). After this she visits her mother (Joy Carlin) to tell her she was a terrible mother. Upon her return home to her family, Sarah insults Harper and Seth stiffly tries to act like everything is fine.

Harper Regan is a play packed full of unforgettable conversations and exceptional acting. All of the characters except Harper and her mother are double cast in contrasting roles. As Harper, Susie Damilano's acting is powerful. She tackles the script with imagination and confidence, while still allowing her co-stars to take over in all the right places. Director Amy Glazer brings her customary flair and sensitivity to the production with her firm direction that pulls the play together. Most scenes feel like mini-plays in their own right.

The SF Playhouse West Coast Premiere of Harper Regan features fine ensemble acting with especially compelling performances by Susie Damilano as Harper and Joy Carlin as her estranged mother.

Bill English's set is a stroke of genius--a concrete shell imprinted with the reverse image of a household's walls, which was inspired by the British sculptor, Rachael Whiteread.

Harper Regan, this truly absorbing, fiery, and memorable production continues at SF Playhouse through March 5, 2011. Performances are held Tuesday-Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 3 p.m. SF Playhouse is located at 533 Sutter Street (1 block off Union Square). For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or go online at www.sfplayhouse.org.

Coming up next at SF Playhouse will be Wirehead by Matthew Benjamin and Logan Brown and directed by Susie Damilano, opening March 19, 2011.

Flora Lynn Isaacson

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

2011-02-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

The Human Price of Technology

Master storyteller, Mike Daisey, has just returned to Berkeley Rep in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. With his wry eye and eccentric intellect, Daisey examines how the Apple CEO and his obsessions profoundly shape our everyday lives; and he travels to China to investigate the factories where millions toil making i-phones and i-pods. His journey shines a brilliant light on how our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them.

All throughout, Daisey's scintillating two-hour nonstop monologue, he is seated behind his little table flanked by Seth Reiser's impressive lighting design on the back wall of the theatre. According to Berkeley Rep's Artistic Director Tony Taccone, Daisey "combines the hysteria of a comedian, the intelligence of an essayist, the intensity of an actor and the desperation of a raconteur."

In the Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Mike Daisey takes us on a tour of three cities in China where workers in the tech industry literally put their lives on the line for the privilege of having a job. This storyteller comes equipped with his tools of emphasis and tone with metaphor and irony, and with much embellishment and humor, to get us to see things in a new light. This newest monologue directed by his wife, Jean-Michele Gregory, has as its main focus, the rise and fall, and rise of Steve Jobs, Apple, industrial design and the human price we are willing to pay for our technology, woven together in a complex narrative. According to Daisey, this monologue is a perfect example of years of journalism, travel, research, investigation, sweat and tears. It examines our technology through a personal lens. Mike Daisey share his experiences in Hong Kong and Shen Zhen and Apple's labor practices. However, Apple is hardly alone--every major electronics manufacturer uses the same inhumane labor practices in the creation of their products. Daisey's main concern is to make people aware of labor conditions in China and the systems we have created to feed it.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs will alternate in repertory with his other monologue, The Last Cargo Cult. Performances will take place through February 27 at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley. Performances are held Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 p.m.; Wednesday and Sunday at 7 p.m.; and Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call 510-647-2949 or go online at www.berkeleyrep.org

Heartbreak House--Still Relevant Today

2011-02-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House (1919), directed by Robert Estes for the 5th season of Actor's Ensemble of Berkeley, transcends its time period.

Shaw's play is a notable work on many levels, but perhaps one of its most pronounced literary elements is in its profuse embodiment of modernism. It is seen in the characters, the dialogue, the psychology of the characters and through the events that play out. Many of the underlying statements in this play about politics, money, war and people's facades still resonate today.

The story follows a house party in the English countryside hosted by Hesione Hushabye (Michele Delattre) who lives with her father, an old salty sea captain, named Shotover (Jeff Trescott). Hushabye's protege, Ellie Dunn (Taylor Diffenderfer), comes with news that she is to be married to Boss Mangan (Keith Jefferds), a wealthy man who financially ruined her father, and Hesione tries to convince her to marry for love instead. After pushing Hesione learns that indeed Ellie is in love--from afar--with a man who turns out to be Hesione's husband Hector (Stanley Spenger). In a marriage that is clearly full of affection, but whose steam has run out, Hesione turns her affections toward Ellie's father Mazzini Dunn (Matthew Surrence), while Hector, a teller of tall tales, becomes infatuated with Hesione's visiting sister, Ariadne Utterword (Amaka Izuchi). Ariadne's brother in law Randall (Brian McManus) pops in, in love with Ariadne, of course and the plot turns into a tempestuous cat-and-mouse game between the sexes. As the patriarch, Captain Shotover watches amusingly over the entire circus, while forcing his fervent opinions down people's throats.

Shaw's characters represent various aspects of the political and social climate. Mangan is the villain, the money hungry capitalist while the quirky Shotover is the opposite, the anti-capitalist who reflects Shaw's own socialist views. Meanwhile Hesione, who is repulsed by Mangan, is the saucy feminist ahead of her time. And Ellie is the naive, romantic who has the most interesting character arc as she becomes a hard-edged cynic. Joseph O'Loughlin is a burglar who not only convinces his captors to release him but persuades them to take up a collection so he can start out again on the right track. Lynn Sotos portrays Nurse Guiness, the housekeeper who has an interesting connection with the burglar.

With the aid of a well balanced ensemble cast, Director Robert Estes has rendered admirably Shaw's lighthearted pandemonium and his apocalyptic vision of a new English class consciousness. The imprint of Anton Chekhov's style is apparent in Shaw's reliance on dialogue to express characterization in the atmosphere of post-war England. The whole play takes place in the course of one evening and runs three and a half hours.

Heartbreak House continues at the Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Avenue (at Berryman) in Berkeley through February 19, 2011, Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 13 at 2 p.m.; and Thursday, February 17 at 8 p.m. For reservations, call 510-649-5999 or go online at www.aeofberkeley.org.

Coming up next at the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley will be the West Coast Premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play, April 22-May 21.