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Front Row

Front Row / By David Jervis

Alternative Farce

The Liar at NCRT

(July 27, 2017) The truth is a tricky thing. It can be objective or subjective, slippery or elusive. It can be deep and bitter and hard to hear. It is rarely absolute. More...

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Front Row / By David Jervis

The Drag King

The Legend of Georgia McBride takes the stage at Redwood Curtain

(July 13, 2017) Drag shows, and even drag itself, are in a sense as old as theater itself, for varied reasons ranging back countless centuries. Be it a lack of female performers for...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

This Land Belongs To ... Whom?

Dell'Arte's State of Jefferson Picnic

(June 22, 2017) It's coming up on the Fourth of July and the MacBurn family has checked into KOALA (Kampground Of American Liberty for All) for their annual State of Jefferson Picnic, courtesy...

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Front Row / By David Jervis

Hello, Sailor

HMS Pinafore at NCRT

(May 25, 2017) The genre of light opera may seem like an odd one to 21st century audiences but only if you think about it too much. Productions in that niche pop...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

Four Journeys of Love and Loss

Dell'Arte International's Thesis Festival

(May 25, 2017) Each May, the graduating students in Dell'Arte's MFA program in ensemble-based physical theatre put the sum of their talents and training on the stage at the Carlo Theatre in...

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Front Row / By David Jervis

By the Horns

Beauty and the Beast at Ferndale Rep

(May 11, 2017) Beauty and the Beast has evolved into some sort of larger-than-life thing of its own in the past quarter century. It really owes all this to Disney's 1991 animated film,...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

(May 4, 2017) Picture, if you will, a small liberal arts college. A feminist professor of literature. A white male undergraduate on an athletic scholarship. Unconscious bias kicked in yet? Such unthinking assumptions...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

Viva las Mujeres!

Real Women Have Curves at HSU

(April 27, 2017) It is September 1987, and the Reagan Administration has recently passed the Simpson-Rodino Amnesty Act, enabling thousands of undocumented immigrants to become legal residents. Such is the case for the...

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Front Row / By Craig Kurumada

Glow and Flow

Luminescence at the Van Duzer

(April 13, 2017) An impressive variety of 11 choreographed pieces with 50 dancers compose Luminescence, the Humboldt State University Dance Program's spring concert. The production is the culmination of original student and...

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Front Row / By David Jervis

A Bloody End

Richard III at NCRT

(March 30, 2017) The final years of Richard of Gloucester, in which he became Richard III and was crowned king of England, were violent, tumultuous ones. They served as the final chapter of...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

Stitching Together a Life

Quilters at Ferndale Repertory Theatre

(March 16, 2017) It would be a mistake to think of Quilters as a play — rather, it is a metaphor for the lives of pioneer women of the 19th century Midwest....

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton

The Power of Faux News

Julius Caesar at Humboldt State University

(March 9, 2017) Political intrigue is timeless fodder for dramatists and with an overtly political play like Julius Caesar, it's tempting to start correlating key characters with members of the current administration. Is...

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Front Row / By Craig Kurumada

Dance Off

Dancing Stars of Humboldt returns

(February 23, 2017) On Saturday, 21 dance groups and soloists will hit the stage at the Arkley Center for the Performing Arts, each hoping to take home prize money to further their goals...

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Front Row

The Lady Doth Persist

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight at Redwood CurtainBy Pat Bitton

(February 16, 2017) Emilie du Châtelet is an all but forgotten figure whose contributions to scientific knowledge brought together physics, philosophy and gender in a challenge that continues to resonate today. She met...

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Front Row / By Pat Bitton and David Jervis

Family Circles

Eleemosynary, All My Sons and Shirley Valentine

(February 2, 2017) Don't hold Eleemosynary's title against it. It's a clever device by playwright Lee Blessing (whose Going to St. Ives was a popular production at Redwood Curtain Theatre last year)...

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Front Row / By David Jervis

O-o-oklahoma!

Rogers and Hammerstein sweep into NCRT

(January 26, 2017) The play Oklahoma! and I go back a ways. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's famed play was, at the age of 8, the very first live theater I ever saw....

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