If you don’t know his name, you know his visage and presence. His cadence and playful monotony have made him a stalwart of the standup comedy scene for nearly four decades. If you’ve somehow missed all of the last 40 years of standup, you likely still know him from any one of his multiple major […]
Theater
Posted inArts + Scene
When Worlds Collide — The Last Weekend of Mad River Festival Theatre
#//<EMBEDDED>//# and Life Beneath the Stars at the Arcata Playhouse, Eli and the Bear at the Carlo Theatre in Blue Lake all challenge our perceptions of reality and our role in the world. #//<EMBEDDED>//# For anyone concerned with humankind’s increasing overlap with, and dependence on, internet-connected machines, this is must-see theatre. The central character, a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Mad About Dell’Arte
Humboldt County’s own Dell’Arte International received a shout-out from the San Francisco Chronicle this week in an article highlighting the performing art center’s 47-year history, nearly all of which has been spent in the bucolic city of Blue Lake. Currently ongoing is its 28th annual Mad River Festival, which features original theatrical works by the […]
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Will We Ever Get Out of Here? A review of Dell’Arte’s Let Me Out!
Let Me Out! explores what happens when theater meets role-playing game meets escape room, wrapped up in a murder-mystery evening that may or may not be trapped in an endless repeating cycle. The outcome of a year of research and development by Dell’Arte graduates Eric William Jones, Marguerite Boissonault and Linnea Ytterlid, Let Me Out […]
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Hedwig Postponed Due to Injury
It looks like the 20-odd stitches Hedwig and the Angry Inch star Morgan Cox got last week haven’t quite healed up enough to go on with the show. During last Saturday’s performance at North Coast Repertory Theatre, a staged struggle over a bottle went awry when the bottle accidentally slipped from actor Jo Kuzelka’s grip […]
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SpongeBob and Sara Bareilles at the Tonys
Is it us or is this year’s Tony Awards lineup more Humboldt than anticipated? For one thing, locally grown songstress/composer/Broadway star Sara Bareilles is slated to co-host Broadway’s biggest night on June 10 with Josh Groban (a man with a beard who is evidently also musically inclined but not from here so let’s stay focused). […]
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Catch Sara Bareilles in Jesus Christ Superstar Live Tonight
Maybe a flight to New York to see hometown girl Sara Bareilles’ Broadway run in the musical Waitress wasn’t practical. That’s no reason to put “When She Was Mine” on repeat and cry into a lemon meringue. (Oh, like I’m the only one.) Tonight at 8 p.m., you can catch her live performance as Mary […]
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The Papaya Lounge is Ripe for Comedy
The funny, bawdy and sometimes naughty comedy and music show The Papaya Lounge met its goal of turning the Arcata Playhouse into a seedy cabaret nightclub on Saturday, Jan. 27. Velvet Q. Jones (Sarah McKinney) hosted the cabaret, billed as a music, comedy and variety show “with a fruity attitude.” The show was supported with excellent live […]
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Century Celebration
It took four days to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Creamery Building in Arcata this past week. Building owners Lisa and Brian Finigan, of Arcata, have spent the last 40 years rejuvenating the building and hosting an eclectic mix of tenants in the center of the emerging Creamery District — so they and friends […]
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Serious Stuff with Comedian W. Kamau Bell
W. Kamau Bell has a big laugh. It’s full and deep over the phone, inviting you to laugh with him — maybe at a joke he just made, maybe at him, maybe at an awkward moment, like hanging out at a white nationalist convention as an African American man. The laugh is part of what […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Jane Doe and the Rabbit Hole of Sex Trafficking
I’ve been a supporter of the Jane Doe in Wonderland project since playwrights Grace Booth, Erin Johnston, and Kate Tobie, in collaboration with Humboldt sex trafficking survivor Elle Snow, first presented it as a reading at Dell’Arte just about a year ago. Since then, it’s matured into a powerful piece of theatre that journeys deep […]