Each spring North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka produces a Shakespeare play. This spring it is producing all of them. That’s the premise of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised], now on stage at North Coast Rep: 37 Shakespeare plays reduced to a single show. That description suggests that there’s nothing but Shakespeare […]
William S. Kowinski
Posted inArts + Scene
Laughalot
Typical Humboldt theatergoer Ricky Plantagenet fondly recalls that as a young sprout helping Aunt Mary and Uncle John with the harvest, he and his buds amused themselves in the fields by reciting Monty Python and the Holy Grail word for word. Now semi-retired from selling plague insurance in Fortuna, Ricky has just seen the musical […]
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God’s Sitcom
The structure of Making God Laugh, now onstage at Redwood Curtain in Eureka, is straightforward. A nuclear family of five is presented in four scenes: Thanksgiving 1980, Christmas 1990, New Year’s Eve becoming New Year’s 2000 and Easter 2010. It’s like Same Time Next Year, the family edition. With a crucifix on the wall, the […]
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All the Stage’s A World
In ancient Greece, Athenians of all classes and in great number attended the tragedies and comedies of the spring festival. Much of what we know today as theater began there, including a profound purpose. Through the vision and artistry of one playwright combined with the performances of skilled actors, society could examine itself: its rational […]
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Plenty of Fields
North Coast stages depend on a relatively small number of producers, directors, designers and actors who often work on several shows in a given year before moving on or staying for decades. But even within this context, Michael Fields had a remarkable 2013. Fields directed four major productions and was responsible for the final script […]
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Christmas R Toys?
Apart from the deeper meanings, it comes down to: Christmas R toys, right? And not just for children. (Or do I have to give back my Enterprise com badge and Doctor Who sonic screwdriver?) And what’s better than toys that come alive? Among the many shows that play with this idea is Victor Herbert’s 1903 […]
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And Everything is Going Fine
I last talked with Spalding Gray at Wildberries Marketplace on the afternoon of his last Center Arts performance. I’d had dinner with him in Pittsburgh (along with six or eight others) several years before, where the general conversation was high-spirited — at least until he quietly observed that he couldn’t laugh anymore. He didn’t know […]
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Is Happiness a Warm Musical?
After Nancy and Sluggo and before there was Doonesbury, the bright spot on the comics page was “Peanuts.” Named after the “peanut gallery” on Howdy Doody in the 1950s, the popular daily strip broke out of newsprint to become best-selling books (Happiness Is A Warm Puppy), animated films and a couple of stage musicals, which […]
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Robot Futures
Forget the scary scenarios and dire special effects of our Apocalypse Summer at the cinema. This book is really frightening about a future that’s coming on fast, and we’re really not ready for it. According to the author, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon, we aren’t necessarily on a direct path to Robbie the […]
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Changing Times
After the Japanese government surrendered to end World War II, American forces occupied Japan. The occupation brought close to a million Americans to Japan at its height, and even though it was officially over in 1951, there was still a sizeable U.S. military presence in 1954. That’s the time, place and situation in A.R. Gurney’s […]
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Our Town Meets Frankenstein!
A year after Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, Thornton Wilder won it for Our Town. You Can’t Take It With You ends its run at North Coast Rep this weekend, while Our Town opens at Ferndale Repertory Theatre. Thornton Wilder was a classically educated teacher […]
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Can’t Buy Me Love
The 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, now on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka, is a madcap comedy about an eccentric extended American family. A few columns ago I quoted an interview I did with Jason Robards Jr. backstage on Broadway. The play he was doing was the […]