Costuming Shakespeare
Local designers open up about designing costumes for Shakespeare productions.
Read my article for Theatre Bay Area. Read more
I and You and Walt Whitman Too
I saw not one but two brand new plays by the dizzyingly prolific Lauren Gunderson in the last week and a half. First came The Taming, which I heartily enjoyed. And then came I and You at Marin Theatre Company, which is more problematic. My review‘s in the Marin Independent Journal.
That’s Not Okay
An argument about household chores between an upper-middle-class married couple escalates into grade-school name-calling before they settle down and turn their attention to the pressing topic of an usually large amount of semen found in their teenage son’s underwear. That in turn gets them into a long debate about whether it’s normal to masturbate in class—or, for that matter, at work—and then the husband, an adjunct professor, gets back to work on his book manuscript by snorting a large amount of cocaine.
Stood Up Comedy
I went to see Waiting for Godot at Marin Theatre Company, and the headliner didn’t even bother to show! That’s just rude. Despite a promising cast, I wasn’t wild about this one, and you can head over to today’s Marin Independent Journal to find out why. So, shall we go? Yes, let’s go.
Body Slam Poetry
It’s not often that you see a guy in a Mexican wrestling mask just sitting in the audience at the theater, but then, it’s not every day that you see a play about professional wrestling. Everyone knows that wrestling is just as scripted as your average play, with the characters, twists, and outcomes all determined in advance, but I don’t know how much crossover there really is between the audiences of the ring and those of the stage.
Sentimental Medley
A funny thing happened at TheatreWorks’ opening night of Upright Grand at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre. Before the show started, my dad turned to me and asked if a certain piece of preshow music was Hoagy Carmichael or not. I didn’t know, I said, because while I’m into old-time jazz I’m not much for schmaltzy stuff. It’s not schmaltzy, he objected—it’s sentimental. Then the play started. In the second scene, 12-year-old daughter Kiddo rolls her eyes at the song her dad, Pops, is playing, “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin, and she mocks how schmaltzy it is. “It’s not schmaltzy, Kiddo, it’s sentimental. There’s a difference.”
Lazzi Come Home
Truffaldino Says No isn’t really a commedia dell’arte play, nor an adaptation of one. It is, however, about commedia stock characters, and what happens when one of them decides that he doesn’t want to be a guy who keeps doing the same thing over and over anymore.
Cop Dependency
Hot off the presses: my review of Keith Huff’s noir melodrama in today’s Marin Independent Journal. So head over there to read about it before the ink cools and the world collapses into chaos and void.
In Search of Lost Time
THEATER REVIEW: SAN FRANCISCO
Show #107: Sticky Time, Crowded Fire, October 29.
