Director, actor, choreographer and wicked talent Alex Blouin let the new Redwood Curtain production of A New Brain marinate for years. Her persistence and ambition in getting this charming musical produced by Redwood Curtain Theatre finally comes to fruition in a spectacular way at 5th and D Street Theater. With star-studded local theater familiars, beautiful stage […]
Evan Needham
Posted inArts + Scene
Ferndale to Whoville
Wading through the gaggle of eager children and on-the-precipice-of-composed parents for Ferndale Repertory Theatre’s Seussical the Musical is part of the joy and laughter of this production. A newcomer to town may have thought the entire city in cahoots with the theatre to set the perfect scene for the Whos to peek around the alley […]
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Scrappy Dreamers
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 […]
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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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A Love Story for the Stages
With stages and shows dark, what are a couple of theater kids to do? For local actors, Evan Needham and Caroline McFarland, creativity burns in them and so doth the fire of love and, COVID be damned, both must be expressed! With their show Hamlet at North Coast Repertory Theatre on hiatus, a shared love of Shakespeare […]
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Word Play
As a young boy, I lost a classwide spelling bee on the word “broccoli.” My teacher said I spelled it with two ‘l’s (I didn’t, and I will die on that hill if I must). So when Chip Tolentino (Evan Needham) was eliminated on “tittup” in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, I empathized. […]
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Murder Mystery with an English Twist
There’s nothing quite like a good murder mystery (especially a British one — I admit I may be biased on this point). That’s just what’s on offer with the latest production of Frederick Knott’s Dial ‘M’ for Murder at the North Coast Repertory Theatre. If you’re not familiar with the story from the Hitchcock movie, […]