Return to Oz After battling high winds on State Route 299, I was braced for Dell’Arte’s 2019 holiday show, Return to Oz, and the on-stage hurricane that carries Dorothy away from the world where Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, and everyone at school think she’s a little crazy and back to a version of L. Frank […]
Pat Bitton
Posted inArts + Scene
Grief, Loss and Parallel Universes
Rabbit Hole When we hear the phrase “going down a rabbit hole” today, we tend to think of the endless distractions dangled in front of us by the internet. But there are many other less voluntary reasons people dive down rabbit holes and the loss of a loved one is the one playwright David Lindsay-Abaire […]
Posted inArts + Scene
All for One and One for All
France was still embroiled in revolution when the story of The Three Musketeers first appeared in 1844. So, even though the story itself is set in the early 17th century, the battle between republicans and monarchists for the soul of the nation was still being hotly contested. Ken Ludwig’s fun, high-energy adaptation of the Alexandre […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Goat Cheese Galore in Bayside
Somehow, lavender is not the first scent you expect on a goat farm. But Karin Eide, owner and operator of Spring Hill Farmstead Goat Cheese in Bayside, is probably not what you imagine when you think of goat farmers, either. With a mane of fiery red hair, a love of bright colors and seemingly-endless tolerance […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave …
If you’re looking for lighthearted entertainment that will have you wondering who did it right until the very end, you’ll have a lot of fun with North Coast Repterory Theatre’s latest production. Spider’s Web is deservedly one of Dame Agatha’s most popular staged works, second only in performance numbers to The Mousetrap. It has all […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The (French) Women’s Revolution
The Revolutionists takes a fresh look at the French Revolution through the experiences of four women, three real and one composite. Two are familiar: Queen Marie Antoinette (Kaitlyn Samuel Rosin) and Charlotte Corday (Holly Portman). But chances are you’ve never heard of playwright Olympe de Gouges (Alexandra Blouin) or activist Marianne Angelle (Lakia Solomon), who […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Fool Me Once
First performed in France in 1664, Molière’s Tartuffe is a comedy for the ages — a hypocritical individual seeks to relieve an impressionable gentleman of his wealth, possessions and social standing by means of flattery and persuasion. Currently on stage at the North Coast Repertory Theatre, the play perfectly illustrates the willingness of some people […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Honoring Humboldt’s Knight of Musicality
This year’s Mad River Festival kicked off on a rather different note than previous years. Instead of the usual biting satirical drama, Dell’Arte is celebrating someone who’s been a key part of more than 50 Dell’Arte productions in Blue Lake and around the world. Indeed, if you’ve listened to any music created, recorded or performed […]
Posted inArts + Scene
In Transition
Thesis Festival Dell’Arte’s annual Thesis Festival represents the graduating MFA students’ transition to the world beyond school — a world to which they will bring the totality of their three-year immersion in theater of place. The four pieces presented are all very different, reflecting the broad range of techniques studied, but all also very much […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Who Wants to be 15 Again?
Playwright John Patrick Shanley describes 15 as a “special, beautiful room. In hell,” in Prodigal Son, now playing at Redwood Curtain Theatre. The play sets a teenage boy’s search for identity against a background of the complex mores and philosophies in a small private Catholic preparatory school. The result is a multifaceted coming-of-age story in […]
Posted inArts + Scene
The Women Have It
It’s International Women’s Day this Friday, March 8, so it’s particularly appropriate that Humboldt theater-goers have two very different female-centric productions to choose from. At Humboldt State University’s Gist Hall Theatre is José Rivera’s Adoration of the Old Woman, a well-crafted envisioning of Puerto Rico’s future through the eyes of a young woman, her great-grandmother, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Who’s Who?
Buddhism tells us that we are like a bunch of flowers: When we die, we become the raw material to make new flowers. But the original is never coming back. What we, the audience, want to do with this little gem is what the Usher (a friendly, matter-of-fact Jeff Cooper) asks us to consider (along […]