Where Did We Sit on the Bus? Brian Quijada (Book and Music); Satya Chávez (Additional Compositions) Marin Theatre Company When he was in the third grade, Brian Quijada sat in a classroom during a lesson about Rosa Parks contemplating the bus where she took her seat. In the front, he heard, was where the whites normally sat; in the back were the Blacks. Brown-skinned, … [Read more...] about Where Did We Sit on the Bus?
solo show
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
Satchmo at the Waldorf
Satchmo at the Waldorf Terry Teachout San Jose Stage Company Coughing and wheezing desperately for his next breath and with shoulders hunched as he stumbles toward the portable oxygen tank in the corner, the elderly man we see entering the large, backstage dressing room still is recognizable at first sight. After all, who else always has a white handkerchief hanging … [Read more...] about Satchmo at the Waldorf
Talk to Your People
Talk to Your People Dan Hoyle The Marsh Celebrated creator and performer of solo shows about such topics as Nigerian oil scandals (Tings Dey Happen), Red States folks telling their side of the story (The Real Americans), and heart-wrenching yet funny portrayals of men and women from minority races and cultures (The Border People), Oakland … [Read more...] about Talk to Your People
“Who Killed Sylvia Plath”
Who Killed Sylvia PlathLynne KaufmanThe MarshLorri HoltAs she sits looking at her own tombstone – the fourth one after feminist vandals keep chiseling away her last name “Hughes” of a husband they believe caused her early-age suicide – Sylvia Plath quotes the lyrics of Taylor Swift, another so-called femme fatale often now linked to the poet who died over twenty-five years … [Read more...] about “Who Killed Sylvia Plath”
“Border People”
Border PeopleDan HoyleThe MarshDan HoyleHow many average-sized, white guys can start a one-man show in San Francisco taking on the South Bronx, slang-filled dialect and the smooth-moving body motions of a six-foot-five black man and not get booed off the stage? What if that same white actor employs numerous other ways of positioning his eyebrows, eyes, mouth, posture, … [Read more...] about “Border People”
“How I Learned What I Learned”
How I Learned What I LearnedAugust Wilson (Co-Conceived with Todd Kreidler)Marin Theatre (in co-production with Lorraine HansberryTheatre and Ubuntu Theatre Project)Steven Anthony JonesAs the elderly man walks across the stage carrying his aged limp with dignity and purpose, we are immediately struck by eyes that twinkle with humor and a face beautifully burrowed with a … [Read more...] about “How I Learned What I Learned”
“A History of WWII: THe D-Day Invasion to the Fall of Berlin”
A History of WWII: The D-Day Invasion to the Fall of BerlinJohn FisherThe MarshJohn FisherIs it because he was just an over-imaginative, hyper-active boy? Was it the fact his parents had a woods in the back yard that begged to be the site of grandiose war games with the neighborhood gang? Did he really see himself as a WASP-y kid who needed the thrill of play … [Read more...] about “A History of WWII: THe D-Day Invasion to the Fall of Berlin”
“Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?”
Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?Irma HerreraThe MarshIrma HerreraSo how would you say her name: Irma Herrara? If you are thinking the same as a few somewhat famous Irma’s you may know like Irma Rombauer (author, Joy of Cooking), Irma Thomas (“Soul Queen of New Orleans”), or Hurricane Irma (2017, Category 5), then you – like I -- evidently are not among the 47 million … [Read more...] about “Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?”
“The Obligation”
The ObligationRoger GrunwaldThe Mitzvah Project in association with Playground Potrero StageRoger GrunwaldThe April 12, 2018, edition of The New York Times printed the following findings from a survey released a few days earlier on Holocaust Remembrance:- 31% of Americans and 41% of Millennials believe that two million or less Jews were killed in the Holocaust (not the actual … [Read more...] about “The Obligation”
“Acid Test: The Many Reincarnations of Ram Dass”
Acid Test: The Many Reincarnations of Ram DassLynne KaufmanThe MarshWarren David KeithCarrying his upturned, paralyzed hand with both proud dignity and obvious discomfort, the old gentleman enters limping with a smile genuine and glowing while his words creep out slowly. “Thank you for being here ... now.” Explaining that “I was stroked,” he continues to describe … [Read more...] about “Acid Test: The Many Reincarnations of Ram Dass”
“Hold These Truths”
Hold These TruthsJeanne SakataTheatreWorks Silicon ValleyJoel de la FuenteA child of Japanese internees herself, playwright Jeanne Sakata ran across a story so incredible for its audacious and persistent gumption of one man’s stand against the wartime edict – Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt – that her resulting play, Hold These Truths, could be at first glance … [Read more...] about “Hold These Truths”
“A Fatal Step”
A Fatal StepJill ViceThe MarshJill ViceMaybe the archetype goes all the way back to Eve and the apple. Ancient models can be traced to Jezebel, Delilah, and Salome in the biblical era or Aphrodite, Helen of Troy, or Medea from the Greek and Roman myths. Jumping millennia ahead into the 1930s and ‘40s Hollywood, the great femme fatales – “fatal women,” sometimes … [Read more...] about “A Fatal Step”
“Our Great Tchaikovsky”
Our Great TchaikovskyHershey Felder (Book); Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Music)TheatreWorks Silicon ValleyHershey Felder The musical chameleon Hershey Felder, who has transformed himself at the keyboard body and soul from Bernstein to Beethoven to Berlin and has at least annually for the past several years taken the Bay Area by storm, returns to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in … [Read more...] about “Our Great Tchaikovsky”
