From tragedy to farce on local stages
This coming weekend sees three shows hit the floorboards, with another in the wings. From Cloverdale to Windsor, and back to Healdsburg.
Persistence of Memory
Quality-of-life issues onstage in Cloverdale
Two men converse while one of them fishes off of a Chesapeake Bay dock. The fisherman regales the stranger with tales of fishing with his son. The stranger seems somewhat confused by the conversation. A woman soon approaches. As they...
Raven Theater stages seasonal plays, concerts
The Raven Players’ offerings begin as soon as Thursday, July 31, with the performance of one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, "Two Gentlemen of Verona," at the newest Raven venue, Bacchus Landing. While it’s technically not part of the Raven Players’ season, it fits the playbill nonetheless.
Interview with the Producer at 222
For the past four years there’s been a new stage in town: The 222. Located inside the Paul Mahder Gallery on Healdsburg Avenue, the risers and lights are used for many other kinds of performance art at The 222.. We spoke with Aldo Billingslea, the producer of the Theater series at The 222, to learn about the challenges and advantages of theater in Healdsburg.
Laundry, liquor and loose lips
There are some great production elements here. Director Emilie Talbot’s staging is clean and very effective for The 222’s unorthodox space. The costumes by Naomi Arnst are excellent. The choice of the yellow dress is especially perfect for clueing the audience into the setting of the show and the time period...
Mexican hero becomes a family legend
Local drama takes another step forward with the next play at the Raven, "Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa?" But the production, which opens on Jan. 22 for an eight-performance run, is hardly new. Gabriel Fraire and his brother John wrote it over 30 years ago and it had its first off-Broadway performance in New York in 1994.
Raven goes retro with ‘Home, I’m Darling’
Playwright Laura Wade’s "Home, I'm Honey" considers what happens to a contemporary young married couple when they embark on a lifestyle change that revolves around immersion into the world of 1950s Britain. See the Raven Players work it out on stage until May 25...
Madison County Replaces River City on Raven Stage
“We were down to 'Man of La Mancha' and this show,” director Joe Gellura said. “And Bridges of Madison County' was a show that I personally wanted to do since I saw it on Broadway 11 years ago, with the original cast.” That production won two Tony Awards, including for Best Original Score and Best Orchestration for the composer, Jason Robert Brown.
Racial debate on The 222 stage
Fair warning that this is the sort of play to which audience members will want to bring tissues. It is not a fluffy play by any means, forcing its audience to listen carefully and think deeply about difficult topics.
‘Bridges’ Over Black and White Waters
Even those who haven’t read the book or watched the movie probably know the plot: Francesca Johnson (Katie Watts-Whitaker) is a disillusioned Italian war bride now stuck in an Iowa farmhouse with a stereotypical American farmer (Matthew T. Witthaus) as a husband. Her husband and the kids have gone to the fair, leaving Francesca alone for four days... Entanglements ensue.
Arts & Entertainment
Blues from the Hill Country
“Modern Mississippi music.” If you ask singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Luther Dickinson to define what the North Mississippi Allstars (NMA) create, that’s the answer he’ll give. It’s the path he and his brother Cody have been traveling down ever since NMA dropped their 2000 debut, Shake Hands with Shorty, and one the band members will share when they hit the LBC stage on May 9.
