Drama Backstage
The latest of several new Stuart Bousel plays premiering at the EXIT this year is about, by and mostly for theater people.
Tartan It Up
Thunderbird Theatre Company specializes in ridiculous comedies, whether it’s a Citizen Kane prequel with a demonically possessed sled, a coming-of-age story about Conan the Barbarian’s daughter, a beach party take on Harry Potter, a Fawlty Towers spoof populated by Greek gods, or a Jane Austen undead scuffle way before those were cool. Thunderbird’s latest, The Scotland Company, is certainly as silly as usual, but what makes it unique among the company’s offerings is that it was written by a 16-year-old, Jake Rosenberg.
San Francisco Values
I was born and raised in Berkeley, where most people can be safely assumed to be pretty liberal, and nothing sets my teeth on edge more than the belittling portrayal of the place I grew up as some kind of wacky radical madhouse, the view embodied in terms like “Berserkeley” or “San Francisco values.” My native Bay Area may make a mockery of itself on occasion—hometowns do that sometimes—but I’m always mighty sensitive about anything coming along to make it look silly.
