143 stories by "Chuck Louden"
I HAVEN'T BEEN THIS GAGGED AND CLAWED SINCE STEAMWORKS ON A SATURDAY NIGHT Summer is the perfect time to flock to theaters for campy escapist joy, and Oasis SF and producer D'Arcy Drollinger…
It's been 25 years since the debut of the tour de force play known as The Laramie Project. It's based on the 1998 brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old student at the University of…
FROM CUBICLES TO CLARITY: A THEATRICAL GEM IN FOG CITY San Francisco's Word for Word Theatre Company, known for its singular mission of staging short stories word-for-word"narration and all"…
IÂ DON'TÂ FEELÂ YOUR PAIN Corporate life"or working in an office"has a very specific subculture that goes along with it. Sharing confined spaces with others in a 9-to-5 structure can b…
LOVE, LOSS, AND THE PULSE OF PARIS San Francisco Opera's most beloved production is back, and it's as heartbreakingly beautiful as ever. La Bohème, Puccini's timeless tale of love, art, and…
THE SOUND OF FAMILY Berkeley Playhouse has a reputation for doing family-friendly musicals right, and their latest production, The Sound of Music, hits that sweet spot again. With a cast tha…
A PRESCRIPTION FOR GREAT THEATER Ray of Light Theatre has once again delivered a production that hits hard and sings even harder. With 25 years of tackling socially relevant musicals"whether…
THE WAITING GAME HAS WRINKLES As Bette Davis's sampler cushion said, "Old age ain't no place for sissies." We start to lose our memories. Our bodies start to ache as our strength and enduran…
SURVIVAL, STRUGGLE AND SMALL JOYS Young girls coming of age always makes for a good story usually filled with life-changing moments and lessons to be learned. In Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from t…
New Conservatory Theatre is premiering Eric Reyes Loo's family dramedy about life, breakups and soul searching: Simple Mexican Pleasures. The show opens with Eric (Alex Rodriguez) reeling fr…
August Wilson's Two Trains Running takes place in 1969 in the working-class Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now on at American Conservatory Theater, it's part of Wilson's famous "…
HERE THERE ARE HORRORS Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich's Here There Are Blueberries, directed by Kaufman at Berkeley Rep, involves a fascinating true story. We are at the U.S. Holocaust M…
A rare and exhilarating theatrical event is unfolding at American Conservatory Theater's Strand Theater: Suzy Eddie Izzard's one-person performance of Hamlet. This is no ordinary production.…
TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE…AND FUNNY Now playing at San Francisco Playhouse, Fat Ham is James Ijames' Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated riff on Hamlet"but this is no brooding royal …
STITCHING TOGETHER BEAUTY AND HORROR: SF BALLET'S ELECTRIFYING FRANKENSTEIN San Francisco Ballet's Frankenstein, a co-production with The Royal Ballet of London, had its world premiere in Lo…
ASHES TO ASHES, PIXIE DUST TO PIXIE DUST Academy Award-nominated actor, playwright, and former Bay Area resident Colman Domingo's semi-autobiographical dramedy, Wild With Happy, is having it…
AUDACIOUS AND FUN MUSICAL TAKES ON REALITY TV Last Wednesday, A.C.T. opened an extremely likeable, engaging and entertaining musical telling one of the tried-and-true stories of the 21st cen…
CABS, COKE AND COMING OUT: PEARL ONG'S JOYRIDE THROUGH SF At The Marsh Theater, Pearl Ong"who describes herself as a "former Hong Kong Princess, pot-smoking and coke-snorting lesbian"is perf…
PUSH/PULL PACKS A PUNCH Berkeley's Central Works is known for offering local Bay Area writers workshops and the opportunity for new playwrights to debut their works on stage with an audience…
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR RISES AGAIN. ROCK ON. Rock operas don't come much more iconic than Jesus Christ Superstar, and Berkeley Playhouse's electric new production makes it feel as urgent and…
A SUSPENSEFUL ONE-MAN MURDER MYSTERY The Gay community in San Francisco was shocked and terrified by a series of murders between 1974-75 committed by a serial killer known as "The Doodler." …
Currently playing at The New Conservatory Theater, Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend is a whirlwind one-man mystery that fuses elements of classic whodunits, camp, film noir, a…
THE THING ABOUT GREAT THEATER Directed by Tyne Rafaeli, Berkeley Rep's world premiere production of The Thing About Jellyfish delivers an emotionally resonant adaptation of Ali Benjamin's be…
San Francisco Ballet opened its season last weekend with Manon"the first in its "British Icons" series"a sumptuous and heartbreaking ballet by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Based on Abbé Prévost'…
A SPONTANEOUS MOCKERY OF JUSTICE, INDEED Now on for a short run through January 26 at Walnut Creek's Lesher Theater, Synergy Theater brings an improvised spoof of the iconic TV series Law &a…
