Accused! Patricia Milton Central Works Politicians and police ranting against immigrants and the crimes they bring. An invading plague blamed on other countries. Threats and fears of domestic terrorists and possible bombings. Suspicion of corrupt public officials. People of color ignored by police. Women’s opinions ridiculed and outright dismissed by the men in … [Read more...] about Accused!
3.5 E
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor Otto Nicolai (Composer); Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (Original Libretto); Donald Pippin (English Version, Libretto) Based on Play by William Shakespeare Pocket Opera With a measure of self-worth and a confidence in his own attraction to the fairer sex that are almost as mammoth as his rotund belly, Shakespeare’s Falstaff has through the … [Read more...] about The Merry Wives of Windsor
Pear Slices 2024
Pear Slices 2024 Various Playwrights Pear Theatre Pigs seeking shelter, zombies released by the millions, precious memories found in a flower garden, Juliet’s visitor in Romeo’s tomb, Tarot cards coming to life. These are just some of the glimpses from this year’s crop of Pear Slices 2024, the near-twentieth annual array of eight, original, one-act plays produced by … [Read more...] about Pear Slices 2024
Adventures with Alice
Adventures with Alice Ava Roy Adapted from Lewis Carroll We Players Leave all logic behind; put away the need for plotline; forget understanding exactly what is happening at all times; readily accept questions with no answers and riddles with no solutions. Anyone ready to meet these requirements is more than eligible to plunge into a two-hour, thirty-minute whirlwind … [Read more...] about Adventures with Alice
Cunning Little Vixen
Cunning Little Vixen Leoš Janáček (Music & Original Czech Libretto) Donald Pippin (English Version of Libretto) Pocket Opera An old badger waddles outside its bushy abode, batting away a horde of buzzing, pesky insects. A spry frog hops onto a nearby rock while one by one, other forest creatures happily hop, prance, and sniff as a butterfly and blue dragon flit and fly … [Read more...] about Cunning Little Vixen
The Pride of Lions
The Pride of Lions Roger Q. Mason Theatre Rhinoceros On October 1, 1928, Mae West opened her latest play, The Pleasure Man – a comic, murder mystery with a climatic Drag Ball spectacle, resulting in the show being raided in its first two – and only – performances before being permanently shut down by the New York vice squad. Over fifty performers were hauled off to … [Read more...] about The Pride of Lions
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday Sarah Ruhl The Pear Theatre In a tribute to her own mother’s 70th birthday, prolific and award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl has penned a play featuring a woman much like her mom along with her mom’s four, adult siblings. Both in the play and in real life, her mom is an actress whose lifelong career began as a child in Davenport, … [Read more...] about For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday
Swimming with Lesbians
Swimming with Lesbians Marga Gomez The Marsh Grab your life preserver; stop by the bar on the Lezzo Deck for a ‘sapphotini;’ and welcome aboard The Celesbian, “the world’s oldest lesbian cruise line because we have the world’s oldest lesbians on board.” We may think we are at The Marsh Berkeley; but under the command of the comic antics of veteran author and performer … [Read more...] about Swimming with Lesbians
Falsettos
Falsettos William Finn (Music & Lyrics); William Finn & James Lapine (Book) The Pear Theatre For me as an avid theatregoer and a critic, nothing is more upsetting than to see the applaudable efforts of a talented cast squandered by the choices and/or oversights by those who direct the production, both stage and musical. Unfortunately, such was the case in … [Read more...] about Falsettos
Yerma
Yerma Melinda Lopez (Adaptation & Translation) Based on the Play by Federico García Lorca Shotgun Players An opening scene of passionate lovemaking; a happy realization of a late period; and a pregnant, young woman singing sweetly a mesmerizing lullaby are still not enough to belie the feeling that all is not going as well as it at first seems. The fact that the … [Read more...] about Yerma
The SpongeBob Musical
The SpongeBob Musical Kyle Jarrow (Book) Based on the Series by Stephen Hillenburg Original Songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert of Edward Shape & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain Whites T’s, They Might Be Giants, T.I., David … [Read more...] about The SpongeBob Musical
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Music); Lorenzo Da Ponte (Libretto) West Bay Opera How can an opera about an arrogant, despicable rake who travels throughout Europe seducing women for pure sport and then leaving them often after having promised marriage continue to be one of the most popular, most produced operas of all times? Why in this particular era of “Me … [Read more...] about Don Giovanni
Getting There
Getting There Dipika Guha New Conservatory Theatre Center As a young woman sits on a bench alone, each of four other women of varied generations approach her with highly dramatic outreach motions, lip-singing Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” or in English translation, “No, I Don’t Feel Sorry about Nothing.” As they continue to bombard her with their … [Read more...] about Getting There
Wives
Wives Jaclyn Backhaus Aurora Theatre Company “He wrote our history not for us, for himself,” eulogizes the first wife of Ernest Hemingway as Wife 2 and Wife 3 nod in agreement. In Wives – Jacklyn Backhaus’ time-traveling, boundary-breaking script packed with playful yet powerful punches aimed at patriarchally told history – women once married to the rich and famous … [Read more...] about Wives
Man of La Mancha
Man of La Mancha Mitch Leigh (Music); Joe Darion (Lyrics); Dale Wasserman (Book) San Jose Playhouse Before even a word is spoken, Scott Evan Guggenheim directs one of the most gripping, disturbing, and memorable scenes of the evening’s production of Man of La Mancha by San Jose Playhouse. Before us is Julie Engelbrecht’s jarring set design that is too similar to … [Read more...] about Man of La Mancha
