Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith is the senior writer at the Reader; he began reviewing theater in 1980. He also writes a local history column. He has a Ph.D. in literature and critical theory from the University of California, Irvine, and wrote his doctoral dissertation on Shakespeare. He was the original writing director of two University of California freshman composition programs: the Humanities Core Course, at Irvine, and the Revelle Humanities/Writing Program at UCSD. Over the years, Jeff has dramaturged dozens of shows. Favorites include Sam Shepard’s Tooth of Crime, Peter Barnes’s Red Noses (both at the San Diego Rep), Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (North Coast Rep), Things May Disimprove: Samuel Becket One-Acts (L&L Productions), and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (New Village Arts).

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Recent Articles

Mule Hill: Field Notes

The Mule Hill Historic Trail begins near a golf driving range. With an imaginative twist, the sounds of cracking and ...

On the trail of San Diego history: Mule Hill

If you drive Interstate 15, just south of Via Rancho Parkway you'll pass a major local landmark without knowing it. ...

Unforgettable: Floating target

The edge of a minefield is no place to procrastinate.

A recounting of the WII experiences of YP-346, a San Diego tuna boat known as the the Prospect before it was conscripted into the South Pacific war effort.

The Sound of Music at San Diego Musical Theatre

In a way it's like cheating. Whenever Gabriella Dimmick enters, she hoards your eyes. She plays Gretel, youngest of the ...

Chicago at Welk Resort Theatre

I've seen two versions of Bob Fosse's blazing musical in the last three months - SD Musical Theatre and Welk ...

Old Globe maps Other Desert Cities

"Families are terrorized by their weakest member,” says a character in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities. The line’s got that yowza zing to it, as if a fire-spewing profundity. But give it some thought ...

Mr. TJ does a reading, part two

When Antonio TJ Johnson reads the part of Paul Robeson next Monday night, it will be his last performance before ...

Mr. TJ does a reading, part one

The timing's both perfect and sad. On Monday, May 6, Vagabond Theatre Project will do a staged reading of Ed ...

The Coffee Shop Chronicles at New Play Cafe

The set's authentic. That's because Coffee Shop Chronicles takes place at the Big Kitchen in South Park, where Judy "the ...

Federal Jazz Project time travels at the Rep

The good news about the Rep’s Federal Jazz Project: music lovers unfamiliar with the name Gilbert Castellanos are in for a surprise, maybe even an epiphany. The San Diegan’s a world-class trumpet player who can ...

End of things behind enemy lines

In the crosshairs of history, part threeYP-289 goes to war Hurry up and wait. San Diego’s tuna clippers conscripted for World War II saw far more downtime than action. Like the much larger Liberty ships ...