by Charles Kruger Award winning local playwright Christopher Chen is a rising star on the regional theatre circuit, his plays being produced both in the Bay area (Cutting Ball Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory) on the East Coast (Long Wharf Theatre), and points in between. Last year, he was part of SF Playhouse’s popular […]
by Charles Kruger East Bay (Saturday Night) East Bay opera fans may want to attend a one-off concert performance on Saturday night benefitting Vallejo’s Verismo opera, featuring the company’s founder and artistic director, tenor Frederick Winthrop, and soprano Cecilia X. Cai. Verismo opera has recently received rave notices for their remarkable production of the classics […]
by Charles Kruger Theatergoer, if you take an interest in the avante garde, in experimental theatre, in art theatre, in the kind of theatre that goes well beyond the everyday and reaches for greatness, I urge you to go see Ubuntu Theater Project’s extraordinary, inspiring, mind boggling world premiere production of “Pool of Unknown Wonders: […]
by Charles Kruger In the 19th and early 20th centuries, as realism came to the fore of theatrical culture, opera composers were quick to follow suit. Composers sensitive to the new style created “Opera Verismo” (“true opera”) telling real stories of real people, sometimes sordid and tragic (think of “Carmen”), sometimes noble and tragic (think […]
by Charles Kruger Director Stephen Lawless, helped by the excellent set designed by Benoît Dugardy, has staged Donizetto’s baroque bel canto masterpiece, “Robert Devereux,” in the style of an Elizabethan play by Shakespeare. It is a bit of an odd mashup, as the melodramatic libretto is not at all Shakespearean, but very Italian, and full of […]
by Charles Kruger We Players is a company that specializes in site specific stagings of classic plays and stories, fully engaging the audience in the action. Such productions are a risky enterprise. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it falters. When it works, however, as in memorable stagings of “Macbeth” in the fog at Fort Point, or […]
by Charles Kruger Richard The Third is one of Shakespeare’s most popular characters for good reason. As purely evil as Iago, Richard’s charming personality and delight in villainy make him fascinate audiences. Few actors could resist the chance to embody him. Certainly not Danny Scheie, a Bay area Shakespearean stalwart. The beloved UC Santa Cruz […]
