The ubiquity of technology in today’s society is undeniable. Citizens young and old frequently check their phones for new messages and spend their time indoors watching the latest YouTube video. It is because of this pervasiveness that Benicia High School drama teacher Christine Mani was influenced to select Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play “Our Town” as […]
“Two Trains Running” brings race relations to the stage
“Two Trains Running”- a tale of race relations and small-business ownership- will be coming to Benicia Old Town Theatre next week. August Wilson’s play explores the changing attitudes of race in the late ’60s. It is set in a diner in Pittsburgh’s mostly African-American Hill District neighborhood in 1969, one year after the assassination of […]
On the Stage: Marin Shakespeare puts on enthralling ‘Richard III’
EVERY YEAR, THEATER ENTHUSIASTS from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival in Oregon to view their exemplary productions. Here in the Bay Area, we are very fortunate to be proximal to the well-esteemed Marin Shakespeare Company in San Rafael, whose innovative productions of the past 26 years have received numerous […]
On the Stage: Fresh Danville cast enlivens ‘Streetcar’
THE ROLE PLAYERS ENSEMBLE OF DANVILLE opened its 2015-16 season Friday with a fresh and vital production of the die-hard drama, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Tennessee Williams’s enduring portrait of sexuality and class distinction set in the French Quarter of 1940s New Orleans. Always a quality act, the troupe’s current opener is truly a piece […]
For Benicians, Majestic still stirs memories
Longtime downtown staple to open doors to public again this weekend for city film festival IN THE 1950S, BEFORE THERE WAS A BRIDGE to Contra Costa County or an interstate to Vallejo and other points west, Benicia’s 5,000 isolated souls had just one entertainment option: going to the movies. Mothers took small children to The […]
On the Stage: Area theater calendar picking up in September
THE MONTH OF JULY WAS UNUSUALLY QUIET on the theater front this year. It’s always a light time, since many groups have seasons that follow the school year from September through June. Still, with several recent changes that have forced local companies to either abandon their home venues or reduce their production output, this year’s […]
On the Stage: Central Works’ ‘Project Ahab’ thoughtfully melds two eras
CENTRAL WORKS OF BERKELEY PRODUCES THEATER IN A SMALL, rectangular meeting room inside the Berkeley City Club. Yet their productions often transport audiences to other worlds as effectively as any full-scale theatrical stage. “Project Ahab; or, Eye of the Whale,” a new musical on stage now through Aug. 23, is no exception — in fact, […]
Lamplighters bring exceptional ‘Pinafore’ to multiple stages in August
LAMPLIGHTERS MUSIC THEATRE opened an exceptionally polished and lively Gilbert and Sullivan musical at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on Friday. “H.M.S. Pinafore” is the tale of a humble sailor in love with his captain’s daughter, while the captain’s heart in turn is sought by a lowly “bumboat woman” who hawks her wares on […]
On the Stage: Orinda Starlight stages madcap ‘Madness on Madrona Drive’
THE ORINDA STARLIGHT VILLAGE PLAYERS opened Louis Flynn’s madcap satire, “Madness on Madrona Drive,” at the Orinda Community Park amphitheater Friday. The play mocks a sector of suburban America that isn’t as familiar today as it would have been in the 1970s, the modern setting for Flynn’s 1958 play, so for younger audiences at least, […]
On The Stage: Top performers grace ‘Top Girls’ on Ashby stage
The best part of “Top Girls,” a modern play about women’s roles through the ages now showing at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley, is the incredible acting on the parts of all seven female players. Actors’ Equity Association member Kendra Lee Oberhauser commands the role of Marlene, a woman striving to succeed as an office […]