Duke Cunningham Can't Have Gun
Don Bauder 9:47 p.m., May 25
Theater
Blog entries about the theater scene in San Diego.
Entries
Behind the Grand Drape
During the Restoration era, two of the reigning actresses, both named Elizabeth, couldn't hate each other enough. They played a scene in which one would wave a knife - a prop, the audience assumed. But ...
Nobody Loves You at the Old Globe
TV's most damning expression reigns when the jobless rate's rarely been higher. Viewers wait an hour to hear what's-his-hair shout "you're FIRED!" Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter's featherweight musical comedy freatures an expression even more ...
"The Funniest Man I Ever Saw"
In The Scottsboro Boys, Haywood Patterson is condemned to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit. In the Old Globe production, Clifton Duncan plays Patterson and sings "Nothin'" two ways: he blasts out ...
No Child... Is Worth the Drive
Theatre Review By Kevin Six (from left) Marc Amial Caro, John Rogers, Robert Malave, Lynae DePriest, Dempsey Davis, Bianca Ostojich, and Rebekah Ensley in InnerMission and Mesa College Theatre's production of "No Child...". Photo: Paul ...
Master Harold...and the Boys at Lyceum Theatre
For its inaugural production, Living Light Theatre performs Athol Fugard's autobiographical drama. The intermissionless piece talks about an unexpected twist in a short story - then delivers a shocking one on stage. The twist is ...
Arts Left Behind?
Nilaja Sun's No Child opens this Saturday at Mesa College's Apolliad Theatre. It's based on her experiences directing a play during No Child Left Behind. Kevin Six, former arts administrator and arts education advocate, offers ...
The Cast Looks at Brownie Points
On the surface, Janece Shaffer's comedy-drama sounds pleasant enough. Girl Scouts go camping in the Northern Georgia pines. Five mothers tag along: two are troop leaders, three want to watch their daughters earn Brownie points. ...
The Hound of the Baskervilles at North Coast Rep
I saw a preview of Phil Johnson and Cynthia Stokes' work-in-progress. Johnson, in fact, was performing before his first live audience. So this won't be a "review" in any formal sense. Just two heartfelt plugs. ...
Respect: A Musical Celebration of Women at the Lyceum
About half way into Dorothy Marcic's revue, a shiny black rotary phone sits on a chair center-stage. Kelsey Venter kneels before it transfixed. When it doesn't ring, she grows antsy and begins singing the Vikki ...
A Look Back
Cygnet Theatre's extraordinary Parade must close this weekend. The musical tells the story of Leo Frank, a Southern Jew wrongly accused of murder and lynched by vigilantes in 1913. It ran only 84 performances on ...
Deconstruction of a Drag Queen at Circle Circle dot dot
Shaun Tuazon's terrific performance shoots a sure arc through a production filled with highs and lows. He plays Michael, a super-bright student with a clearly-defined path: get top grades, go pre-med. at UCSD, then med. ...
Ripples from Walden Pond
I used to teach in humanities programs. We began one with Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Student read it, took its message of self-reliance to heart, and quit school, vowing to live an authentic life from ...
This at North Coast Repertory Theatre
Slouching towards 40-something. A year ago Jane and Roy had an ideal marriage, if seen from afar; Tom and Marrell were expecting their first child; and Alan's mnemonic ability made him a popular TV personality. ...
The Pride at Diversionary Theatre
For Alexi Kaye Campbell's difficult drama, Diversionary imported director Glenn Paris, from Ion Theatre, and three Craig Noel Award-winning actors: Francis Gercke, Jessica John, and Brian Mackey. In spite of its accolades, The Pride's uneven ...
A Man, His Wife, and His Hat at Moxie Theatre
Sir Isaac Newton was wrong. Gravity isn't the only law of the land. In Lauren Yee's 90-minute, surrealistic piece, love also grounds people. And the un-loved float away. Oliver Sacks wrote *The Man Who Mistook ...
Turn of the Screw at Intrepid Shakespeare Company
In Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation, Henry James' spooky tale isn't a traditional ghost story. It's more like a demonic possession. Or seduction. A young governess on her first assignment can become "easily carried away." Like Jane ...
The deplorable state of theatre, and the coverage of same, in San Diego
A message to theatre decision-makers and the audiences they are killing off By Kevin Six Yes, kids. The Old Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse are theatres. They are not the only theatres in town, ...
Stage Directions
Someone once said, "to write a mystery, you can't be mysterious. You must be precise." Sam Shepard's experiments with form and surreal atmospheres have always been ahead of their time. But in one sense he's ...
Almost, Maine at Scripps Ranch Theatre
It's not a good sign when you're watching a play and it reminds you of another play, or playwright, more adept at similar material. John Cariani's Almost, Maine recalls Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegon, the TV ...
Ghosts and the Brothers James
Next week, Intrepid Shakespeare Company will stage an adaptation of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw, hailed by many as one of the, if not the, greatest ghost stories of all time. Seemed ...
