English Sanaz Toossi Berkeley Repertory Theatre As an adult who is attempting to learn another language later in life, I know firsthand how the experience can be both exciting and tormenting, with my altering within minutes between feeling proud of all I know and stupid for all that I still do not. But like most Americans born here, I am not learning another language … [Read more...] about English
The Triumph of Love
The Triumph of Love Pierre De Marivaux, Translated by Stephen Wadsworth Shotgun Players Gender confusions left and right that lead to infatuations built on false pretenses. A cunning princess plotting to capture the love of a naïve prince who has been taught his whole life to hate and eventually usurp her. Loves built on mounting lies leading to three planned … [Read more...] about The Triumph of Love
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit Noël Coward City Lights Theater Company The world was at war; England was constantly threatened from the skies; the fear of death of self and of loved ones was on everyone’s mind. What better time to write a three-act farce about a séance gone haywire recalling an author’s dead wife from the beyond – a ghost only he can see and a ghost who has devilish … [Read more...] about Blithe Spirit
Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
Die Fledermaus Johann Strauss II Original German Libretto by Karl Kaffner & Richard Ginée; English Version by Donald Pippin Pocket Opera Everybody who is anybody of societal standing in Vienna is heading to the ball of the season at the palatial home of Prince Orlofsky. The gowned and tuxedoed guests include a man-about-town disguised as a French marquis who is … [Read more...] about Die Fledermaus, or The Revenge of the Bat
Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); George Furth (Book) Based on the Original Play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart 42nd Street Moon 6 a.m., October 1957, on a rooftop of a New York apartment building, two friends look to the sky, searching for the world’s first orbiting satellite. Frank has just been released from the Army and is about … [Read more...] about Merrily We Roll Along
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof Joseph Stein (Book); Jerry Bock (Music); Sheldon Harnick (Lyrics) BroadwaySF After its record-setting, award-winning initial run on Broadway in 1964; its five Broadway revivals since; countless openings on local and touring stages globally and in towns and cities from coast to coast in America – not to mention the 1971 film whose scenes are now … [Read more...] about Fiddler on the Roof
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman, The Musical Gerry Marshall & J.F. Lawton (Book); Bryan Adams & Jim Vallance (Music & Lyrics) Based on Touchstone Pictures motion picture by J.F. Lawton Broadway San Jose A billionaire New Yorker who buys at bargain prices troubled companies only to dismantle them and sell the pieces for millions in profits picks up a prostitute in a shady … [Read more...] about Pretty Woman
A Statue for Ballybunion
A Statue for Ballybunion Tom McEnery San Jose Playhouse It is January 1998; and after deadly decades of “The Troubles,” the prospects for peace in Ireland are looking better than ever, with much help coming from the Leader of the Free World, President Bill Clinton. But on the craggy, western shores of Kerry County, things are not looking so rosy for the small town of … [Read more...] about A Statue for Ballybunion
Clue
Clue Based on Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn Written by Sandy Rustin Additional Material by Hunter Foster & Eric Price Based on Paramount Pictures film, Clue Based on Hasbro Board Game, CLUE San Francisco Playhouse Six guests arrive at a New England, country mansion in 1954; and soon each receives from the host a plain-paper-wrapped gift – either a dagger, a … [Read more...] about Clue
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams The African-American Shakespeare Company In 1944, Tennessee Williams skyrocketed from near obscurity to wide-spread fame with the premiere of The Glass Menagerie, a play touted as a memory play both in the script and in its evident connections to the playwright and his family of an excessively attention-seeking mother, a mentally … [Read more...] about The Glass Menagerie
FANNIE: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer Cheryl L. West TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Despite having suffered polio as a child, a Mississippi sharecropper worked in the cotton fields twelve-to-eighteen-hour a day starting at the age of six in a state where 77% of the people were Black like she but where the minority whites ran 100% of everything. But then one day … [Read more...] about FANNIE: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Perfect Arrangement
Perfect Arrangement Topher Payne Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory The red stage light comes on, accompanied by a resounding ring; theme music fills the air; and lights come up on what could almost be a recreation of Lucy and Desi’s apartment. Canned applause joins in ushering to the stage another episode of Perfect Arrangement. But what starts out as a … [Read more...] about Perfect Arrangement
Richard II
Richard II William Shakespeare The Pear Theatre in Co-Production with Perspective Theatre Company Over four hundred years later, the plays of William Shakespeare often seem as if the Bard is writing about current events, recurring dilemmas, and a foreboding future of the 21st century. That is particularly true in 2023 as The Pear Theatre presents Richard II in a … [Read more...] about Richard II
Cambodian Rock Band
Cambodian Rock Band Lauren Yee, with Songs by Dengue Fever Berkeley Repertory Theatre Presenting the Signature Theatre Production in Association with Alley Theatre, ACT Theatre/5th Avenue & Center Theatre Group, A play about family displacement, trauma, and massive genocide is not a play one would normally expect often to laugh, to tap one’s foot to rock music, … [Read more...] about Cambodian Rock Band
Dear San Francisco
Dear San Francisco Shana Carroll & Gypsy Snider, Co-Creators A Production of The 7 Fingers at Club Fugazi San Francisco’s Club Fugazi is personally for me a sacred space where many memories were created during the more than twenty-five times I attended what became the world’s longest-running cabaret show during its forty-five-year history, Beach Blanket Babylon. … [Read more...] about Dear San Francisco
