We Are Proud to Present a Year in Review

So, I’ll just say it: 2015 was a horrible, horrible year. Not for theater. There was some fine theater out there in the Bay Area, and I managed to see some of it. But for me, this year was pretty much a nightmare.

Day two of 2015, my mom died. No warning, no long illness (a lot of ongoing ailments, but nothing that would have made us expect it)—she just lay back on her bed one night and died. I’m glad for her sake that it wasn’t a long, drawn-out process, but for my sister and me it was a huge shock.

Not long after that, my wife informed me that we were going to have a baby! This was a big surprise and super exciting. Unfortunately, my wife had an incredibly difficult pregnancy and was sick all the time for months. Life was really, really hard around here for a long time.

Then Theatre Bay Area decided to stop publishing the magazine I edited, the publication that the whole organization was built around in 1976, and soon after that my position was eliminated when TBA’s online journalism was cut back as well.

Now, as it happened, being between jobs meant that I could focus all my energy on helping my wife through the last few months of the pregnancy (as well as finishing a play I needed to write), and gave me much more paternity leave than any day job would have given me, which has been a blessing.

The arrival of our child has been the only good thing that happened in a terrible, awful, no-good year (or almost the only good thing–the staged reading of my Medea play in November was also a pretty great experience), but it’s also one of the best things that’s ever happened to us. He’s amazing, and I’m incredibly thankful for him, and for my wonderful wife. Our dog’s great too. The rest of this year was pretty much the worst.

So you’ll understand if my showgoing this year was a bit of a blur. I saw exactly 100 plays in 2015, which is less than normal (as opposed to an average of 124 shows a year in the last five years) but is still a lot, especially when you consider that there were a couple of months when I didn’t see any shows at all.

Below are 10 of the plays I reviewed this year that really stuck with me. A Top 10, if you will, but presented in no particular order. Because of the weird, exhausting nature of this year (and because time between baby needs is scarce), I’m not going to recap here what it was about them that was so great, but each one links to my original writeup if you’re curious.

Megan Trout, James Carpenter, Peter Griggs, Jeannine Anderson and Beth Wilmurt in Shotgun Players’ Eurydice. Photo by Pak Han.

Eurydice, Shotgun Players

Lucas Hatton, Megan Trout, Rotimi Agbabiaka and David Moore in Just Theater’s We Are Proud to Present…. Photo by Cheshire Isaacs.

We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915, Just Theater

L. Peter Callender, JaBen Early and Elizabeth Carter in Marin Theatre Company’s The Convert. Photo by Kevin Berne.

The Convert, Marin Theatre Company

The water sprite Ondine (Ava Roy) falls for the dashing knight Hans (Benjamin Stowe) in We Players’ Ondine at Sutro. Photo by Lauren Matley.

Ondine at Sutro, We Players

Lizzie Moss, Jocelyn Pickett and Samantha Cardenas as the Heathers in Ray of Light Theatre’s Bay Area premiere of Heathers: The Musical. Photo by Erik Scanlon.

Heathers: The Musical, Ray of Light Theatre

Megan Trout and Mark Jackson perform their collaboratively created theater piece Now for Now at Z Below. Photo by Tracy Martin.

Now for Now, Z Space

Tristan Cunningham as Estrella and Sean San José as Prince Segismundo in California Shakespeare Theater’s Life Is a Dream. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Life Is a Dream, Cal Shakes

Echo Brown prepares for a very important Craigslist date in Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters at the Marsh. Photo by Alexis Keenan.

Black Virgins Are Not for Hipsters, the Marsh

Deleon Dallas (L) as Ogun Size and Terrance White (R) as Oshoosi Size in Ubuntu Theater Project’s The Brothers Size.

The Brothers Size, Ubuntu Theater Project

Kreon (Kevin Clarke), and Antigone (Rami Margron) face off in Shotgun Players’ Antigonick, with the Chorus (David Sinaiko) and Nick (Parker Murphy) in the background. Photo by Pak Han.

Antigonick, Shotgun Players

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And what the heck, let’s make it a Top 15 for 2015! Here are five shows that I didn’t get a chance to review but I absolutely loved.

Kyle Cameron, Marissa Keltie, Nandita Shenoy, Patrick Russell and Liz Sklar in Trouble Cometh at San Francisco Playhouse. Photo by Jessica Palopoli.

Trouble Cometh, San Francisco Playhouse

Kristen Beth Williams, Kevin Massey, and Adrienne Eller in the touring company of A Gentleman’s Guide to love & Murder. Photo by Joan Marcus.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, SHN

Adam Chanler-Berat and Samantha Barks in the world premiere of Amélie, a New Musical at Berkeley Rep. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com.

Amélie, a New Musical, Berkeley Rep

Jessica Bates and Greg Ayers in San Francisco Playhouse’s world premiere of Lauren Yee’s in a word. Photo by Fei Cai.

in a word, San Francisco Playhouse

Sarah Mattes, Taylor Jones and Devin O’Brien in Lauren Yee’s Hookman at Z Below. Photo by Mark Leialoha.

Hookman, Z Space

MVPs:

Megan Trout in Just Theater’s We Are Proud to Present… Photo by Cheshire Isaacs.

Megan Trout

I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that three of the productions on my top 10 list featured Megan Trout. I’ve been following her work since she was still in college, and Trout is a terrific performer who just keeps getting better. She’s now in Shotgun’s production of The Mousetrap, which is also pretty darned entertaining.

Playwright Lauren Yee.

Lauren Yee

This young San Francisco playwright has impressed me since the first play of hers I saw seven years ago, but she had a particularly terrific year with the one-two punch of world premieres in a word at San Francisco Playhouse and Hookman at Z Below, neither of which I got a chance to review but both of which were excellent.

Jasmine Strange, Brooklyn Fields and Tavia Percia in African-American Shakespeare Company’s Xtigone. Photo by Lance Huntley.

Sophocles

There were no fewer than three different reimaginings of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone at local theaters this year, completely by coincidence, all three of which were fascinating to watch. I hadn’t given that particular play a whole lot of thought before (though I’d seen some lousy adaptations in the past), but the old guy must have been doing something right.

OK, that’s quite enough of 2015. Away with it! And here hoping for a much, much better year of new beginnings in 2016.

And just for the heck of it, here’s a link to all my past year in review top 10s on this blog.