I have never liked Edward Albee’s The American Dream, not as a part of my script analysis classes, nor in the multiple productions that I’ve seen performed. I find it to be shrouded with intellectual commentary and unfollowable simile that leaves the audience wondering what the hell is actually happening. Yet, I am still drawn […]
Front Row
Posted inArts + Scene
First Rate Twelfth Night
The sight of someone smoking a cigarette in costume is shocking to those of us who have been conditioned by every stage manager — some even threatening our lives should we disobey. My shock faded when I found out the man I saw outside the theater was not an actor, but 5th and D Street Theater’s […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Into the Woods’ Complicated Ever After
Modern renditions of fairytales are simplistic, bland stories that encourage learned helplessness and non-consensual kissing — a far cry from the dark folk tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. The musical Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, now being performed at the Van Duzer Theatre by the Cal Poly Humboldt Department of […]
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Second Acts
The journey to try to find the Exit Theatre (890 G St., Arcata) is guided by a mischievous Google Maps and skeptical townspeople convinced we bought tickets online to a San Francisco theater by mistake. But Arcata’s newest theater venue exists, marked by a lone banner adorning the wall of the G Street side of […]
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Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Slays
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder by Robet L. Freedman is a side-splittingly funny, dark-humored, self-aware and fast-paced romp of pure entertainment. The cast and crew at Ferndale Repertory Theatre pull out all the stops and hit all the marks right from the very start. They keep that energy up and the audience laughing […]
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Match Girl Strikes a Chord at the Playhouse
The Little Match Girl: A Warm Tale on a Cold Night, written and directed by James Peck and Sarah Peters Gonzalez, is the annual holiday show at Arcata Playhouse. It is a re-imagination of Hans Christian Andersen’s famous short story “The Little Match Girl,” with more plot, contemporary comment and a twist on the ending. […]
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Peter and the Starcatcher Shines at FRT
I wish more than a handful of people could have seen Jessie Gelormino as one of the best Cosettes I’ve had the pleasure to witness in Les Misérables. Her performance was inspiring, professional and sweet, but only performed in a rehearsal for understudies (as she was) to practice main roles should an actor not be able to […]
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The Life of Galileo in Epic Style
If one were to stage a Brechtian version of Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks would look directly into the camera and relinquish any evidence of his character to deliver the line, “Life is like a box of chocolates ….” There would be montages, live versions of the movie’s soundtrack and images of Trump with audio overlay […]
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Natural Shocks in the Storm of Gun Violence
On the evening of the preview performance of Natural Shocks by Laura Gunderson, the lights went up on the small stage at Exit Theatre revealing semi-haphazardly strewn household miscellany — a catch-all room with a door to one side. Howling wind let me know there was a fierce storm happening outside. A woman entered through […]
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Lysistrata‘s Raucous, Raunchy Rebellion at NCRT
It’s opening night of North Coast Repertory Theatre’s sex comedy Lysistrata. The excitement is palpable with bouquets in the hands of proud parents eager to support their kids, actors’ friends bursting with energy and support, not to mention the judging and roaming eyes of critics stashing observances for later. This raucous show dripping with penis […]
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Pintauro’s Defining Moments at NCRT
Joe Pintauro was an author, poet and prolific playwright in late 20th century New York. The eight plays in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s Pintauro, A Night of One Acts are expressions of the human condition selected from Metropolitan Operas: 27 Short Plays. Each one, though brief, is complete on its own and unique from the […]
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SpongeBob Soaks Up the Limelight
Stephen Hillenburg attended what was then Humboldt State University in the early 1980s, about a decade before I did. He had a more impressive major than myself: natural resource planning and interpretation, better known as NRPI (all the formidable science degrees on that campus seem to have acronyms) with an emphasis in marine biology. But […]