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 […]
Front Row
Posted inArts + Scene
Kinky Boots Walks Tall at FRT
The musical Kinky Boots, written by Harvey Fierstein (music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper), is about the journey of self-expression fraught with internal and external barriers. And, yes, it’s about boots. The 2005 British movie from which the musical is adapted is inspired by the real-life story of a declining family-owned shoe business that makes […]
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Crazy for Poetry
I’ve written before about how the past is the ultimate foreign land, shrouded permanently by the forward nature of time in our particular dimension. We can read texts and compare accounts, study architectural systems — both physical and linguistic — all in the service of conjuring an image of a departed era. Things get even […]
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Camping in Hell
Jean Paul Sartre was known for a great many things, chief among them is likely the creation of a quote as misunderstood as Friedrich Nietzsche’s line about God being dead. Like that out of context, nihilistic chunklet, “Hell is other people” has probably been written on backpacks and high school walls by disaffected youth for […]
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The Timing’s the Thing
Timing and rhythm can turn a 90-minute masterpiece into a 120-minute dental experience. They make comedy gut-busting or obligatorily chuckling. They set up style, and era, and can even relate to culture. The context of what an audience experiences in a given day — the death of a political figure, the birthday of rock star, […]
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Radium Girls Make Their Case
The first decades of the American 20th century were filled with contradiction. In some rural corners, medicine shows hawked cold remedies that were a quarter alcohol and hair tonics that contained frightening levels of lead. Meanwhile, the U.S. at large was in thrall to the burgeoning scientific breakthroughs at the tail end of the industrial […]
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Working Through Sister Act at FRT
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” […]
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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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By the Horns
Friday night at Redwood Curtain Theatre, we had our first glimpse of the fiery passion between Professor Wooley and her student Jeanette Marks as played by Natasha White and Caroline Needham in Bull in a China Shop. The lovers exited the stage in perfect synchronicity with a complete blackout. The anticipation built in the audience […]
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When Fairy Tales Become Self-aware
The fourth wall is fully and gleefully disassembled from the moment you arrive at North Coast Repertory Theatre for Never After Happily. Doc and Ella welcome the audience personally at the box office while Card Girl enthusiastically waves her “Applause” sign. Young Prince Charming and the Priest hand out programs in the lobby. Goldilocks ensures […]
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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 […]