The Original Romcom
TheatreFIRST tries its hand at free Shakespeare in the park with Much Ado.
Read my review in the San Jose Mercury News. Read more
Super, Thanks for Asking
I was bummed to miss Super:Anti:Reluctant the first time around, in 2006, because I’m interested in the San Francisco ensemble Mugwumpin’s collaboratively devised work, and it’s a whole show themed around superheroes. I don’t want to shock you or anything, but I’m a big ol’ geek about superheroes. Fortunately, Mugwumpin’s celebrating its tenth anniversary with a celebration mysteriously titled Mugwumpin10 (what could it possibly mean?!), which includes revivals of favorite old pieces such as S:A:R and 2010’s
This Is All I Need. Mugwumpin was going to follow these revivals in rep with the premiere of a new piece in September, Blockbuster Season, but the show has had to be postponed for health reasons. Read more
Boys Will Be Girls
TheatreFIRST reemerges from a producing hiatus to take over Berkeley’s Live Oak Theatre and produce Sarah Ruhl’s luminous take on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. My review is on KQED Arts.
Some People Call Him Maurice
E.M. Forster’s gay romance Maurice isn’t nearly as well known as his other novels such as A Passage to India, A Room with a View and Howard’s End. Although the book was written in 1914, Forster only allowed it to be published after his death in 1970, as it was far too telling of the author’s own closeted homosexuality. It was also made into a Merchant Ivory film, as all Forster novels must, but not a particularly good one.
