The Wizard of Oz Frank Baum (Book); Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg (Music & Lyrics); Herbert Stothart (Background Music) American Conservatory Theater Let’s be clear: Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, in the current American Conservatory Theater production, we are also definitely not in the same version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz that we read in … [Read more...] about The Wizard of Oz
American Conservatory Theater
Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2
Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2 Qui Nguyen American Conservatory Theater Qui Nguyen refuses to write a play that can be easily described by any conventional terms. His highly inventive, irreverent, wild ride of a love story, Vietgone, that pulled up in 2018 on a motorcycle onto the intimate Strand stage of A.C.T. was a topsy-turvy combination of romantic comedy; … [Read more...] about Poor Yella Rednecks: Vietgone 2
The Headlands
The Headlands Christopher Chen American Conservatory Theater There are so many reasons to get your ticket today to see the West Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s The Headlands at American Conservatory Theater before the last curtain on March 5: For anyone who lives in or near San Francisco, the play is like a SF love fest, featuring some of the most … [Read more...] about The Headlands
Fefu and Her Friends
Fefu and Her Friends María Irene Fornés American Conservatory Theater It is New England in the mid 1930s; flowers are blooming, birds are singing; and Fefu has invited seven of her female, educator friends to come to her lovely countryside estate to practice their talks for an upcoming event – a reunion of former classmates, some of whom have not seen each other in … [Read more...] about Fefu and Her Friends
Toni Stone
To a Bay Area that has two baseball teams long esteemed by tens of thousands comes the largely unknown story of a baseball pioneer and hero with local connections, a story of the first woman to play professional baseball on an all-male team. Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone is a baseball lover’s dream while also unmasking the nightmarish sexism and racism the title character had … [Read more...] about Toni Stone
Gloria
Into a drab-gray, Manhattan office of half-walled cubicles and several desks within touching range of each other drag in one-by-one, three editorial assistants with the morning already half over. Immediately begins a barrage of back-and-forth banter that includes arrow-sharp insults full of cynicism; biting gossip about colleagues not within earshot; and soap-box diatribes … [Read more...] about Gloria
Wakey, Wakey
A half-dressed man lying flat on the stage seems surprised when the stage lights suddenly come up and he turns to see hundreds of audience eyes looking at him. “Is it now? I thought I had more time,” he says with some regret, anxiety, but also excitement of what is to come next. An immediate black-out and a few moments later, he appears now in pajama bottoms, slippers, and … [Read more...] about Wakey, Wakey
Testmatch
Cricket – a sport created by England and played today mostly by the mother country and countries of her former Empire – becomes the backdrop for Kate Attwell’s Testmatch, now in its time-traveling, gender-bending, hard-reality-and-parody-prolific world premiere at American Conservatory Theater. A Pandora’s Box of issues bursts open in the course of the ninety-minutes, including … [Read more...] about Testmatch
“Top Girls”
Top Girls Caryl Churchill American Conservatory Theater Rosie Hallett, Summer Brown, Michelle Beck, Monica Lin & Julia McNeal It is 1982; and search-firm interviewer Marlene admires Britain’s Margaret Thatcher: “She’s a tough lady, Maggie; I’d give her a job.” Marlene has toughed it out herself in the man’s world where she works and has just been named the new … [Read more...] about “Top Girls”
“Rhinoceros”
RhinocerosEugène IonescoTranslated by Derek ProuseAmerican Conservatory TheaterMatt Decaro & David BreitbarthAs a middle-aged, single man who works in a French village’s newspaper office, Berenger “just can’t get used to life,” has “barely got the strength to go on living,” and tells his friend Gene as he readies himself for a mid-day cognac, “I feel out of place in life, … [Read more...] about “Rhinoceros”
“Vanity Fair”
Vanity FairKate HamillBased on the Novel by William Makepeace ThackerayAmerican Conservatory Theatre (in association with Shakespeare Theatre Company)The Cast of Vanity FairImmediately, we are given advanced warning by the tuxedoed Manager of the Strand Musik Hall that “there are no morals here in our play.” He comes to the stage’s edge to advise us in more detail: “This … [Read more...] about “Vanity Fair”
“The Great Leap”
The Great LeapLauren YeeAmerican Conservatory TheaterBD Wong, TIm Liu, Arye Gross & Ruibo Qian“I am quick, I am relentless. I am the most relentless person you have ever met and if you have met someone more relentless than me, tell me, tell me and I will meet them and I will find a way to become even more relentless than them!” He may be still a senior in high school; he … [Read more...] about “The Great Leap”
“Her Portmanteau”
Her PortmanteauMfoniso UdofiaAmerican Conservatory TheatreEunice Woods & Kimberly Scott“In God’s time, my Iniabasi, hello.” First translating her daughter’s Nigerian name into English before saying the name in its native language, Abasiama welcomes a daughter whom she has not seen in over two decades to the New York apartment of another daughter, Adiaha, half-sister … [Read more...] about “Her Portmanteau”
“Seascape”
SeascapeEdward AlbeeAmerican Conservatory TheaterSean Gallagher, Ellen McLaughlin & James CarpenterEven before the grand, gold curtains of the Geary Theatre open, sounds of an ocean’s waves permeate around us, punctuated by the cries of sea gulls overhead. A beach and its sea grass spills into the laps of the first row of audience members – a beach that grows into … [Read more...] about “Seascape”
