An Enemy of the People Henrik Ibsen Adaptation by Thomas Ostermeier & Florian Borchmeyer English-Language Version by Duncan Macmillan San Jose Stage Company "There are no moral billionaires. Not when millions are starving. And yet we revere them! We hope their electric cars will save the planet or, if not, that their rockets will get us to Mars. A … [Read more...] about An Enemy of the People
MUST SEE
The Thing about Jellyfish
The Thing about Jellyfish Based on the Novel by Ali Benjamin Adapted for the Stage by Keith Bunin Berkeley Repertory Theatre A bright, curious, talk-a-mile-a-minute seventh-grade girl learns a life lesson that "sometimes things [even very bad things] just happen." To reach that important conclusion, Suzy must also ask herself, "What can jellyfish teach us about … [Read more...] about The Thing about Jellyfish
Daisy
Daisy Sean Devine Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory A three-year-old, blonde girl stands in a meadow, holding a daisy and counting to ten in her sweet, high voice as she plucks off petals, charmingly making a few mistakes along the way. As she hesitates after nine, a booming male voice begins counting backwards from ten, much like heard in a rocket launch. Just as … [Read more...] about Daisy
Takes All Kinds
Takes All Kinds Dan Hoyle The Marsh In the fall of 2022, Dan Hoyle found himself at a “40s-something” party where during the chit-chat of chardonnay sipping, someone said to him, “So you do journalistic theatre? But aren’t they both kinda collapsing?” Given an insatiable drive to discover core truths about a community, culture, and/or even an entire country; a … [Read more...] about Takes All Kinds
Rachmaninoff and the Tsar
Rachmaninoff and the Tsar Hershey Felder (Book); Sergei Rachmaninoff (Music) TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Little doubt but that there is a very real love affair between the San Francisco Bay Area and Hershey Felder. This is particularly true for the audiences of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley who have reveled in so many of his past musical biographies of famed composers … [Read more...] about Rachmaninoff and the Tsar
Mother Road
Mother Road Octavio Solis Berkeley Repertory Theatre Seventy-plus years have passed since the Joad family of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath joined a parade of desperate migrant farmers, all leaving their starving lives in Dust-Bowl-ravaged Oklahoma of the 1930s while looking for the lush life they saw painted on fruit crates from California. Two Joads – a mother and … [Read more...] about Mother Road
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie Dan Gillespie Sells (Score) & Tom MacRae (Book & Lyrics) Based Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Directed by Jenny Popplewell Ray of Light Theatre What better way for a San Francisco audience to celebrate Pride Month than enjoying to the hilt a joyous, upbeat, and totally inspiring coming out story of a sixteen-year-old whose only dream … [Read more...] about Everybody’s Talking about Jamie
The Lehman Trilogy
The Lehman Trilogy Stefano Massini Adapted by Ben Power American Conservatory Theater It is a story whose ending we already too well know. The world’s fourth largest investment bank files for the biggest bankruptcy in American history, sending Wall Street into panic and initiating the 2008-09 global financial crisis and the collapse of numerous, other banking … [Read more...] about The Lehman Trilogy
Galileo
Galileo Danny Strong (Book); Michael Weiner & Zoe Sarnack (Music & Lyrics) Berkeley Repertory Theatre From one side we hear, “Science asks the questions; the Bible has the answers;” from the opposing view, “The Scriptures is a book about going to heaven; it is not a book about how the heavens go.” Sounds like countering arguments made in some current, state … [Read more...] about Galileo
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams San Francisco Playhouse As we enter the theatre, we immediately notice at the stage’s corner a young man intently smoking, looking one moment longingly into a non-descript distance and writing the next with much intent into a small notebook clasped tightly in his hand. In between, he rummages through a collection of records, … [Read more...] about The Glass Menagerie
Something Rotten
Something Rotten Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell (Book); Wayne & Karey Kirkpatrick (Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory With eyes sparkling their excitement and a spry body moving almost like a stringed puppet, the Minstrel sings, “Welcome to the Renaissance, where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance ... where everything is new.” Touting … [Read more...] about Something Rotten
The Tutor
The Tutor Torange Yeghiazarian New Conservatory Theatre Center, In Partnership with Golden Threads Productions “Everyone knows that everyone is lying … Eventually you learn what you can get away with publicly, and the rest, you manage privately … It may seem like a lot to juggle; but practice, daily practice makes perfect," declares the young Baran, soon after … [Read more...] about The Tutor
Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin
Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin Michael Gene Sullivan (Book); Betty Reid Soskin (Lyrics); Betty Reid Soskin, Daniel Sovio & Others (Music) Concept by Jamie Zimmer Based on the Life, Music & Writing of Betty Reid Soskin San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) There are times when seeing a live, theatre production is … [Read more...] about Sign My Name to Freedom: The Unheard Songs of Betty Reid Soskin
The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps Adapted by Patrick Barlow Based on the Novel by John Buchan From the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock San Francisco Playhouse In Patrick Barlow’s 2005 theatrical adaptation of the 1915 John Buchan novel and the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film version of The 39 Steps, the suspense and dark natures of Hitchcock’s enduring thriller – ranked in 1999 by the British Film … [Read more...] about The 39 Steps
Unpacking In P’Town
Unpacking in P’Town Jewelle Gomez New Conservatory Theatre Center “Nothing erodes a mountain of pain better than a river of friendship.” So claims Lydia, one of four, long-term friends from yesteryear’s vaudeville circuit days who are once again returning to Provincetown for their annual, summer reunion. And in 1959, there is pain aplenty in the air of laid-back, … [Read more...] about Unpacking In P’Town
