Wendy MacLeod Exposes Depravity in the Insular Elite by Kevin Marley Have you ever felt a little tension around the holiday table? Imagine that tension on steroids. Add a dash of betrayal. I…
Philip Kan Gotanda Asks, "What Is an American?" by Sydney Roberts  "Sisters Matsumoto" by Philip Kan Gotanda tells a moving and heartwarming story that sheds light on the after effects of…
August Wilson Shows Why Black Traditions Matter by Irene Nelson I love a play full of conversation where words flow like poetry, like music. I love a play about regular working people. I lov…
Ingmar Bergman Streamlines Ibsen's Classic "A Doll's House" by Victor Cordell A house is not a home "Nora, you are first a wife and mother."Â "No, Torvald, I am first a human being."Â …
Christina Lazo's Musical Classic Delivers the Goods by Sydney Roberts The curtain is down at the Lesher Center of the Arts, and it reads "Rydell" in classic high school letterman font. It's …
Yussef El Guindi Raises the Stakes on Selling Out  by Susan Dunn Picture a movie that starts with a Thanksgiving dinner suddenly invaded by a blood-seeking terrorist who tortures Dad with…
Lisa Ramirez Traps Latina Torment in a Cage by Robert M. Gardner Ubuntu Theater Project's "To The Bone" by Lisa Ramirez shocks us with its immediacy. Writer and lead actor, Lisa Ramirez …
Bob Merrill's Bad Girl Goes Good by Kim Waldron Lovers of musicals rhapsodize over how song and dance transform stories into epic events with emotions larger than life. They delight in the e…
Al Letson's Rapid-Fire Memories Make Lives Matter by Kevin Marley Al Letson is forced to deal with generational poverty and racism, when he consents to teach writing in a Summer Sanctuar…
Paula Vogel, Jonathan Moscone Make a Magical Mystery Tour by Kim Waldron A fantasia with lots of farcical sex and laughs, "The Baltimore Waltz" ultimately leads us to harsh truth. Kindly, pl…
Shakespeare and Director Glenn Havlan Pull No Punches  by Kim Waldron Theater of Others' "Merchant of Venice" refuses to downplay the bigotry of Shakespeare's most appealing and sympathet…
Gilbert & Sullivan: "Someday My Prince Will Show Up in a Dress" Â by Jeremiah Wall If you have seen Topsy Turvy, the movie about Gilbert & Sullivan, Lyric Theatre's "Princess Ida,…
A Millennial's Notes Michael Frayn's Discombobulated Divas Dash around Stage by Tyler Jeffreys Welcome to the backstage shenanigans that every actor knows and fears. Michael Frayn's slapstic…
Michael Frayn Tickles the Underbelly of Theater by Victor Cordell Give farce a chance. Let's start by accepting that farce is not everyone's cup of tea. That said, farce comes in differe…
Toddlers Delighted, Engaged by One-of-a-Kind Bus Ride by Rosa del Duca With trepidation, I arrived at the Bay Area Children's Theatre in Oakland for a 10 A.M. performance of "The Wheels on t…
WE Players Make America Geat Again  by Buzz Goldberg A saxophonist up on a hillside, nearly camouflaged by the surrounding foliage, sounds a clarion call. A woman gathers a massive length…
Mia Chung Tracks Strangers in Strange Lands by Kim Waldron In "You for Me for You," Playwright Mia Chung and Director M. Graham Smith track two North Korean sisters who are separately fleein…
Patricia Milton Casts A Discerning Eye on Capital Punishment by D. Marc Capobianco The great paradox of the last year's election in California was the defeat of Proposition 62, which would h…
Jiehae Park Makes Murder Fun in Macbeth Mash-Up by Barry David Horwitz Every detail in Jiehae Park's "peerless" goes way Over the Top. The Barbie-Doll dressed Chinese American twin sisters, …
Arthur Miller's Italian Immigrant Drama Still Meaningful Today by Tony Urgo Arthur Miller's "A View From The Bridge," first performed in 1956, is now over 60 years old. The cultural tragedy …
Danai Gurira Shines Light on African Patriarchy by Sydney Roberts In dark political times, Danai Gurira's  "Eclipsed," a wartime herstory from Liberia about five women, brings to light to…
Paul Ebenkamp is author of Parallel Realism (Despite Editions, 2017) and The Louder the Room the Darker the Screen (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2015); is co-editor of Modernist …
Jewelle Gomez Exposes Our Star-Spangled Bigotry  by Kim Waldron Playwright Jewelle Gomez and Director Arturo Catricala bring home a painful truth in the brand new play "Leaving the Blues.…
The play draws us in with the tension of competing narratives: the story as told by polished lawyer Sarah Weddington (Sarah Jane Agnew) who, along with Linda Coffee (a convincingly eccentric…
Wes Adrianson is an east bay activist and graduate student at UC Berkeley. He's worked against university tuition hikes, led campaigns against extreme fossil fuels in California, and organiz…