Humboldt Light Opera Company typically mounts a big production in late summer and a smaller musical in spring, often staged at College of the Redwoods with accompaniment by a single pianist. Meanwhile, Redwood Curtain, which tends to specialize in contemporary “relationship” comedies, occasionally does a small musical with that theme. A few years ago the […]
theater
Posted inArts + Scene
Physical Reality and Mad Curiosities
Crazy is popular in dance these days, as HSU’s 40-person, 10-dance spring show, choreographed and performed by both students and instructors, demonstrates. Kelsey Brennan’s “The War Within” tackles post-traumatic stress disorder among vets, set to overlapping recitations from All Quiet on the Western Front by sound artist Tim Gray. The dancing here is percussive and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Bardiculous
Each spring North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka produces a Shakespeare play. This spring it is producing all of them. That’s the premise of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised], now on stage at North Coast Rep: 37 Shakespeare plays reduced to a single show. That description suggests that there’s nothing but Shakespeare […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Laughalot
Typical Humboldt theatergoer Ricky Plantagenet fondly recalls that as a young sprout helping Aunt Mary and Uncle John with the harvest, he and his buds amused themselves in the fields by reciting Monty Python and the Holy Grail word for word. Now semi-retired from selling plague insurance in Fortuna, Ricky has just seen the musical […]
Posted inArts + Scene
God’s Sitcom
The structure of Making God Laugh, now onstage at Redwood Curtain in Eureka, is straightforward. A nuclear family of five is presented in four scenes: Thanksgiving 1980, Christmas 1990, New Year’s Eve becoming New Year’s 2000 and Easter 2010. It’s like Same Time Next Year, the family edition. With a crucifix on the wall, the […]
Posted inArts + Scene
All the Stage’s A World
In ancient Greece, Athenians of all classes and in great number attended the tragedies and comedies of the spring festival. Much of what we know today as theater began there, including a profound purpose. Through the vision and artistry of one playwright combined with the performances of skilled actors, society could examine itself: its rational […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Plenty of Fields
North Coast stages depend on a relatively small number of producers, directors, designers and actors who often work on several shows in a given year before moving on or staying for decades. But even within this context, Michael Fields had a remarkable 2013. Fields directed four major productions and was responsible for the final script […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Christmas R Toys?
Apart from the deeper meanings, it comes down to: Christmas R toys, right? And not just for children. (Or do I have to give back my Enterprise com badge and Doctor Who sonic screwdriver?) And what’s better than toys that come alive? Among the many shows that play with this idea is Victor Herbert’s 1903 […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Is Happiness a Warm Musical?
After Nancy and Sluggo and before there was Doonesbury, the bright spot on the comics page was “Peanuts.” Named after the “peanut gallery” on Howdy Doody in the 1950s, the popular daily strip broke out of newsprint to become best-selling books (Happiness Is A Warm Puppy), animated films and a couple of stage musicals, which […]
Posted inBest Of Humboldt
Best Cathedral from the Glory Days of Timber
At the height of empire, you’ll always find excess (think Caligula). In 1920, the Pacific Lumber Co.’s industrial empire was at the pinnacle of its wealth and power — and Scotia was its capital city. Between 1920 and 1923, the company town’s corporate benefactor erected the Scotia Inn, the Scotia Hospital, the First National Bank […]
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Our Town Meets Frankenstein!
A year after Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, Thornton Wilder won it for Our Town. You Can’t Take It With You ends its run at North Coast Rep this weekend, while Our Town opens at Ferndale Repertory Theatre. Thornton Wilder was a classically educated teacher […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Can’t Buy Me Love
The 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning play You Can’t Take It With You, now on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Eureka, is a madcap comedy about an eccentric extended American family. A few columns ago I quoted an interview I did with Jason Robards Jr. backstage on Broadway. The play he was doing was the […]