If you come to Man of La Mancha knowing nothing more than it was a Broadway hit and Tony winner that spawned the hit song and eventual standard “The Impossible Dream,” you’re not alone. I myself preferred Roberta Flack’s version to the one Jim Nabors sung on Gomer Pyle. There is considerably more to it […]
Front Row
Posted inArts + Scene
Clint Rebik’s Legacy of Kindness
The celebration of life for Clint Rebik at Blue Lake Casino’s Sapphire Palace on Dec. 4, 2021, was a lively one. The venue was packed with masked attendees from his hometown in Brawley, family, colleagues from Cal Poly Humboldt where he was the registrar, old friends from his blackjack dealer days and an ensemble cast […]
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Growing Old, Humboldt Style
Let’s face it, care homes for seniors do not have the greatest reputation. But perhaps that’s because they’re not run by a belatedly woke and gender-fluid CEO and an events director with chronic stage fright, staffed by a uniquely mismatched minimum-wage couple, and where healthcare needs are met by a doctor who trained with Timothy […]
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Noises Off! Hits the Mark
For the first show since shuttering its doors two years ago due to COVID-19, Ferndale Repertory has staged playwright Michael Frayn’s popular farce Noise Off. It’s an ambitious choice — the plot is complicated, the dialogue is demanding; missed lines or uneven timing could easily derail the comedy of errors. Fortunately, the cast, under the […]
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Don’t Wait, Go
Last week, I went to Tin Can Mailman in Arcata and purchased a used copy of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and started reading it again for the first time in 20 years. I did this in anticipation of reviewing the performance of the same play in the beautiful new Eureka headquarters of Synapsis at […]
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Slings and Arrows
You may know more lines from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet off the top of your head than you think you even do; it’s just that great packed with excellent lines and modern society is just that full of people who want to sound smart at work meetings. It’s a magnificent play of the bard’s but also […]
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Quick and Wordy
The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspre (Abridged) (Revised) — hereinafter referred to as CWWS for the sake of my fingers — was assembled by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield in the early 1980s. While it did make a nine-year detour to legitimate theater in London, CWWS has lived largely on the edge of […]
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Longshadr Emerges from the Shadows
Michael Fields is at pains to point out that Longshadr, his newly unveiled theatrical venture, is not a production company. Rather, it is project-based, existing solely for the purpose of putting on theater. The intention is not to compete with existing theatrical ventures but to expand the universe — a version of Blue Ocean Strategy […]
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Social Dis-Dancing
They danced in their kitchens, in their tiny bedrooms, on their porches with the dog running around their feet. Amid a pandemic, Humboldt County’s dancers kept dancing, even though their studios were closed and performances were canceled. “Dance is our heartbeat,” says Humboldt State University Dance Program Leader Linda Maxwell. “There’s movement ingrained within us […]
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Dare You Enter The Cauldron of Destiny?
I strongly recommend you do because you’ll find live theatre within. After more than a year of online performances, the Dell’Arte graduating MFA class of 2021 is going out in a style truly their own, with four original works under the umbrella title of The Cauldron of Destiny. That is the great joy of the […]
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The (Holiday) Show Must Go On
The holidays in Humboldt wouldn’t be the same without the fun and frolicking of Dell’Arte’s annual holiday show, an hour of nonstop high-energy, story-driven entertainment that has something for everyone. Back in September, Dell’Arte’s challenged its third-year MFA students to come up with a concept that could be produced with the number of actors available […]
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Making Theater in the Time of COVID
About a millennium ago (OK, in March of this year), Dell’Arte MFA students in their final year were preparing their thesis productions. Then came the Great Shutdown. No more live performances for audiences that provide the ultimate feedback for actors. The school proposed students continue working on their productions remotely and perform via Zoom. Most […]