The Glorious Fall of Bay Area Theater
Tis the season for fall picks.
Check out my autumnal roundup on KQED Arts. Read more
Tell Me of Your Dreaming
Cal Shakes goes back to the Golden Age of Spanish drama with Life Is a Dream.
Return of the Prodigal Son
Playwright Luis Alfaro returns to Magic Theatre with the start of an epic American trilogy.
Read my review on KQED Arts. Read more
Crack Team in Search of Truth
Somebody’s trying to tell you something, and it’s clearly something desperately important, but you can’t understand. That’s what it feels like watching Superheroes, the world premiere by Sean San Jose that opens Cutting Ball’s 16th season.
Read my review in the San Jose Mercury News. Read more
Gotta Get That BART Cop
So a guy decides never to go out again after the LAPD Rodney King beating because it’s just not safe and finally emerges just in time for the Oscar Grant shooting by BART police. My review of Chasing Mehserle is up on KQED Arts and has already pissed at least one guy off in the comments.
What’s Going On
Scottish playwright Linda McLean’s back with another disturbing play at the Magic, and it’s a weird one.
American History Mex
California Shakespeare Theater’s season opener, Richard Montoya’s American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose, is completely bonkers. KQED Arts has my review.
The River Rolls Deep
There’s almost no point to reviewing The River. It’s not that kind of play. A world premiere play by Richard Montoya of Culture Clash, The River is a tribute to Luis Saguar, the late cofounder of Intersection for the Arts’ resident theater company Campo Santo, written for and performed by that company. As such, it’s an intensely personal project and ultimately feels very much like an in-joke. Maybe you had to have been there, you had to have known him, to understand what the heck is going on here.
Hot Shot Time Machine
Hey, who am I? Who are you? What are we doing here? Where is here, anyway? What’s this needle doing in my arm? And shouldn’t there be a baby in that crib, instead of just a chicken leg? Playwright Octavio Solis explores life’s eternal questions in the world premiere of Se Llama Cristina, and I give you the full report on the KQED Arts blog.
