Being stuffed into folding chairs in the wheelchair section affirmed the mistake of not confirming my seat for Sister Act: The Musical at Ferndale Repertory Theatre. Turns out the early ’90s nostalgia for the Whoopie Goldberg movie is leaving tickets scarce. This is not the movie though. In fact, key musical numbers like “My God” […]
Tiggerbouncer Custodio
Posted inArts + Scene
Who’s Your Venus?
It would be foolish to not see the limited run of Venus in Furs at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Also, what a shame that this is not a full run of David Ives’ 90-minute comedic play of intricacies, intrigue and intimacy. Jesse March and Kathryn Cesarz will undoubtedly find even more nuance layered between the […]
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Struggles of The Elephant Man at FRT
Ferndale Repertory Theatre set aside its regular spectacle of song and dance to produce a play that explores creativity and centers acting for its latest offering, The Elephant Man. The multi-award-winning script by Bernard Pomerance tells the story of John Merrick, who suffers from a rare medical condition that severely covers his body and face […]
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Nightlight Illuminates a Different Dell’Arte
I am used to Dell’Arteians eviscerating themselves for audiences to use their organs as runes to divine a work’s meaning — the absurdity of characters so realized that overly grand gestures are not only normal but expected as the given circumstances of the piece. Nightlight, the newest devised Dell’Arte work is neither. Nor does it […]
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Ferndale to Whoville
Wading through the gaggle of eager children and on-the-precipice-of-composed parents for Ferndale Repertory Theatre’s Seussical the Musical is part of the joy and laughter of this production. A newcomer to town may have thought the entire city in cahoots with the theatre to set the perfect scene for the Whos to peek around the alley […]
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Mind Games
There are a lot of bold ideas in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s production of Gaslight that will likely come to fruition in the run. On opening night, I was left with fewer answers and unresolved intrigue. However, what is theater that does not risk or dare and inspire questions of its audience? This is one of the many we are […]
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She Kills Monsters on a Quest at CPH
A brilliant theatrical script leaves room for designers to be bold in their decisions. And if you pair that with a raucous cast obviously enjoying themselves, an audience will share in the joy and overlook or even justify some imperfections. Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters is that script and it is a pleasure to witness […]
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Dreaming Big
From the moment Managing Art Director Calder Johnson took the opening night stage to introduce A Midsummer Night’s Dream at North Coast Repertory Theatre, clad in an outfit out of a Hunter S. Thompson book, I knew this production was going to be different. The first fully rehearsed production in more than two and a […]
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Rocky Horror Revival Rises in Ferndale
I wish I’d brought my Erotica red lip stain to Ferndale Repertory Theatre to mark the first-time audience members’ foreheads with a large V to anoint them into the cult that is the The Rocky Horror Show, first mounted in 1973 with music and lyrics by Richard O’Brien, and adapted for the screen as The […]
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The Sound of Magic‘s Misdirection
THE SOUND OF MAGIC. I believe in magic. I live in a world where people spontaneously sing and dance, and cherry blossom petals fall from trees in the most opportune times. Because of this outrageous fortune, the world of The Sound of Magic, the new K-Drama series streaming on Netflix is immediately enticing. A downtrodden […]
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Cock and Bull Stories
WHITE HOT: THE RISE & FALL OF ABERCROMBIE & FITCH. Why is White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch on Netflix a poignant documentary? Was it supposed to be a piece of expository journalism explaining the nature of the brand? I was waiting for a surprise, a twist, a revelation but the […]
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Laughing in Shakespeare’s Shadow
It only took close to 500 years for a musical that enacts my unpopular opinion that Shakespeare has become a model of elite and pompous thespian culture in which good acting is determined by mere participation, historically documented BIPOC people of the period apparently didn’t exist (except for that one guy) and migraine-inducing word salads […]