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"content": "\u003cp>There again is that tell-tale rusty chain-link fence. The stage is something of a junk yard. The lighting is harsh; strip lights exposed. It could be a stage representing a work camp in Germany, or the East Village of disaffected youth. It could be \u003cb>Rent\u003c/b> or \u003cb>American Idiot\u003c/b>. This time it’s Bertolt Brecht’s \u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b>, a modernist play written in 1944, which smells a little musty today. I could submit that the theater of Brecht is itself obsolete. War is hell. Heads of state are immoral. Justice is corrupt. Tell us something we don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley Rep made it all very relevant a few years back with its powerful staging of \u003cb>Mother Courage\u003c/b> (Halliburton, anyone?). So the fault must lie, in part, in John Doyle’s new production of \u003cb>Chalk Circle\u003c/b> which opened last Wednesday at ACT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes the play itself is not as powerful as \u003cb>Mother Courage\u003c/b> and not as devilishly entertaining as \u003cb>Three-Penny Opera\u003c/b>. But this spiritless revival — with a new translation by A.C.T. associate artist Domenique Lozano — doesn’t help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b> features actors playing instruments, a signature of the play’s Tony Award-winning director John Doyle (see revivals of \u003cb>Sweeney Todd\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Company\u003c/b>), with original music from avant-garde composer Nathaniel Stookey (Lemony Snicket’s \u003cb>The Composer Is Dead\u003c/b>). A narrator/singer played by Manoel Felciano tells the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play begins with a military coup in what is now Georgia, during the country’s war with Persia. As rebels invade the palace, the governor and his wife prepare to flee. The Governor’s wife, amusingly played by the excellent René Augesen, is so preoccupied with stuffing her luggage with fancy frocks and getting the F out of dodge that she forgets all about her infant son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Augesen brings a lot of humor to her role as a trashy, spoiled prima donna. Her tacky attire is American glitzy ’80s — or present day Eastern Europe. But other actors are costumed in generic Euro-olden peasant wear — scarves and tunics and kerchiefs. The corrupt police and soldiers wear bad-guy sunglasses. Some actors wear contemporary American military uniforms, others, Middle Eastern garments. There are black leather jackets and a bowler hat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In essence, there is little cohesion to the costume choices and not much cohesion to the performances either. It isn’t quite clear what Doyle, who directed and designed the production, is going for. And “rag tag” doesn’t suffice as a theatrical style. The acting is neither naturalistic nor stylized. If the actors are emulating Brechtian unadorned artifice, the result is often just stilted delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likewise, stabs at updating the translation detract from simple truth and eloquent wit. For instance, speeches and songs sample Obama and Edwin Starr lyrics — “War (What is it Good For?)” — contributing to the jumble of styles. And even though the story is simple, the action feels cluttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grusche, a palace servant, hides the forgotten baby from the soldiers who are searching for him after they behead the wealthy Governor (the baby’s father). After the Governor’s wife flees, Grusche (Omozé Idehenre) heads for the countryside, protecting the baby from winter weather, greedy country folk and an inhospitable sister-in-law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some amusing scenes, such as when Grusche tries to find shelter with a group of exiled aristocrats by putting on airs and pretending she is one of them. When the snooty women espy her calloused hands, it’s as if they’ve encountered a leper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act II takes a palpable shift, developing the character of Azdak, a corrupt judge, who ultimately decides to whom the baby will belong, the mother who abandoned it or the servant who saved and protected it. At long last, the play arrives at its reason why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is here should belong to those who deserve it,” concludes the singer, equating maternal legitimacy with Marxist thought. “The children to the motherly so they may thrive; the wagons to the good drivers so they are well driven; and the valley to those who water it so it may bear fruit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its close, the cluttered goings on are distilled into something refreshingly unadorned and neo-classical. It’s no compliment to the production that the telling works better than the showing. Too much of this “re-imagined” production proves that more is less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b> runs through March 14, 2010 at The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), located at 415 Geary Street in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.act-sf.org\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There again is that tell-tale rusty chain-link fence. The stage is something of a junk yard. The lighting is harsh; strip lights exposed. It could be a stage representing a work camp in Germany, or the East Village of disaffected youth. It could be \u003cb>Rent\u003c/b> or \u003cb>American Idiot\u003c/b>. This time it’s Bertolt Brecht’s \u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b>, a modernist play written in 1944, which smells a little musty today. I could submit that the theater of Brecht is itself obsolete. War is hell. Heads of state are immoral. Justice is corrupt. Tell us something we don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley Rep made it all very relevant a few years back with its powerful staging of \u003cb>Mother Courage\u003c/b> (Halliburton, anyone?). So the fault must lie, in part, in John Doyle’s new production of \u003cb>Chalk Circle\u003c/b> which opened last Wednesday at ACT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes the play itself is not as powerful as \u003cb>Mother Courage\u003c/b> and not as devilishly entertaining as \u003cb>Three-Penny Opera\u003c/b>. But this spiritless revival — with a new translation by A.C.T. associate artist Domenique Lozano — doesn’t help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b> features actors playing instruments, a signature of the play’s Tony Award-winning director John Doyle (see revivals of \u003cb>Sweeney Todd\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Company\u003c/b>), with original music from avant-garde composer Nathaniel Stookey (Lemony Snicket’s \u003cb>The Composer Is Dead\u003c/b>). A narrator/singer played by Manoel Felciano tells the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play begins with a military coup in what is now Georgia, during the country’s war with Persia. As rebels invade the palace, the governor and his wife prepare to flee. The Governor’s wife, amusingly played by the excellent René Augesen, is so preoccupied with stuffing her luggage with fancy frocks and getting the F out of dodge that she forgets all about her infant son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Augesen brings a lot of humor to her role as a trashy, spoiled prima donna. Her tacky attire is American glitzy ’80s — or present day Eastern Europe. But other actors are costumed in generic Euro-olden peasant wear — scarves and tunics and kerchiefs. The corrupt police and soldiers wear bad-guy sunglasses. Some actors wear contemporary American military uniforms, others, Middle Eastern garments. There are black leather jackets and a bowler hat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In essence, there is little cohesion to the costume choices and not much cohesion to the performances either. It isn’t quite clear what Doyle, who directed and designed the production, is going for. And “rag tag” doesn’t suffice as a theatrical style. The acting is neither naturalistic nor stylized. If the actors are emulating Brechtian unadorned artifice, the result is often just stilted delivery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likewise, stabs at updating the translation detract from simple truth and eloquent wit. For instance, speeches and songs sample Obama and Edwin Starr lyrics — “War (What is it Good For?)” — contributing to the jumble of styles. And even though the story is simple, the action feels cluttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grusche, a palace servant, hides the forgotten baby from the soldiers who are searching for him after they behead the wealthy Governor (the baby’s father). After the Governor’s wife flees, Grusche (Omozé Idehenre) heads for the countryside, protecting the baby from winter weather, greedy country folk and an inhospitable sister-in-law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are some amusing scenes, such as when Grusche tries to find shelter with a group of exiled aristocrats by putting on airs and pretending she is one of them. When the snooty women espy her calloused hands, it’s as if they’ve encountered a leper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act II takes a palpable shift, developing the character of Azdak, a corrupt judge, who ultimately decides to whom the baby will belong, the mother who abandoned it or the servant who saved and protected it. At long last, the play arrives at its reason why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is here should belong to those who deserve it,” concludes the singer, equating maternal legitimacy with Marxist thought. “The children to the motherly so they may thrive; the wagons to the good drivers so they are well driven; and the valley to those who water it so it may bear fruit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At its close, the cluttered goings on are distilled into something refreshingly unadorned and neo-classical. It’s no compliment to the production that the telling works better than the showing. Too much of this “re-imagined” production proves that more is less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Caucasian Chalk Circle\u003c/b> runs through March 14, 2010 at The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), located at 415 Geary Street in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.act-sf.org\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Long Play: Bruce Conner and the Singles Collection",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bruce Conner, along with the Legion of Decency, figured out pretty early on that rock ‘n’ roll and sex were joined at the, well, hip. (It’s a youth thing, don’t you know.) The San Francisco artist and filmmaker, who died in 2008, was also among the first to pioneer a new way of thinking about images, namely that appropriating footage shot for one purpose — educational films, cartoons, commercials, propaganda films — and presenting it in another context offered all sorts of shocking and entertaining possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of found footage, as the approach has come to be known, is familiar to the point of cliché thanks to countless TV ads and music videos. So I’m extremely pleased (and relieved, frankly) to report that Conner’s \u003cb>Three Screen Ray\u003c/b>, a triptych reworking of 1961’s \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b> that’s on view at SFMOMA through the spring, remains an energy-packed chunk of voracious, irreverent Americana. Half a century on, Conner’s fast and furious marriage of sexy black-and-white imagery and swaggering Ray Charles stomp has lost none of its wit but a good bit of its audacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"float: right;margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px;font-size: 77%;color: #a2a2a2;line-height: 12px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/conner-breakaway.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Conner, Breakaway, detail from film strip, 1966\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Conner, Breakaway\u003cbr>detail from film strip, 1966.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b>, as well as this new ultra-widescreen installation, lays Charles’s soulfully, suggestively lascivious \u003cb>What’d I Say\u003c/b> underneath a barrage of shots and snippets that essentially traverse the arc from foreplay to climax. A choice selection of nude female dancers provide the surface come-on, augmented with shots of rockets, cannons (courtesy of a Mickey Mouse ‘toon) and even the raising of the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima. (Insert flagpole joke here.) The fire-hose-like cascade from an uncorked bottle — eyes on the left screen only, if you please — provides the punch line in case you took everything that came before it too seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, Conner is proffering serious social commentary, if you can elevate your mind from your belt buckle, about the testosterone that drives both U.S. military adventures and consumer spending. The effort and expense expended by women to win approval and attract a mate, while not exclusive to America, first manifested itself most visibly in 1950s and ’60s TV commercials. In other words, \u003cb>Three Screen Ray\u003c/b> is an acknowledgment of both basic human hormonal urges and the society that exploited and manipulated them. Hmmm, did I need to use the past tense there? I thought not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s inevitable that while we still take much pleasure from Conner’s editing and rhythm, we can’t fathom what a bold smack in the face \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b> was when it debuted at underground events back in the day. Neither nudity nor ribald sight gags shock us anymore, not after decades of MTV, prime-time wardrobe malfunctions and porn on demand. Consumerism is beyond satire at this point, while the military is above it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Conner was credited with introducing the music video, a notion he rejected out of hand. SFMOMA has nonetheless assembled a bunch of music-related works by various artists in an adjacent gallery, the best of which, far and away, is Conner’s gorgeous black-and-white \u003cb>Breakaway\u003c/b> (1966). Featuring Antonia Christina Basilotta (\u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4CyNvEfWoE\">Toni Basil\u003c/a>) onscreen and on the soundtrack, the film and its subject are fresh, bouncy and overtly sexual. But there’s an enormous difference between Basil and the girls on display in \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b>. She owns her body and its visual representation (long before Madonna, by the by); she isn’t passively accepting the male gaze but challenging it. Five minutes of pure pop goodness, \u003cb>Breakaway\u003c/b> is liberating, intoxicating, energizing and timeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of those lovely words apply to the other selections. Two examples: Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s \u003cb>I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much\u003c/b> (1986) is painfully self-indulgent but at least offers a few bars of The Beatles’ \u003cb>Happiness Is a Warm Gun\u003c/b> (get the connection?). Cory Arcangel’s \u003cb>All the Parts From Simon and Garfunkel’s 1984 Central Park Performance Where Garfunkel Sings With His Hands In His Pockets\u003c/b> is amusing for 20 seconds, but goes on for more than six minutes. I look at it this way: Every installation needs a room clearer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Long Play: Bruce Conner and the Singles Collection\u003c/b> is on view through May 23, 2010 at SFMoMA, 151 Third St. (at Howard) in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http:www.sfmoma.org/\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bruce Conner, along with the Legion of Decency, figured out pretty early on that rock ‘n’ roll and sex were joined at the, well, hip. (It’s a youth thing, don’t you know.) The San Francisco artist and filmmaker, who died in 2008, was also among the first to pioneer a new way of thinking about images, namely that appropriating footage shot for one purpose — educational films, cartoons, commercials, propaganda films — and presenting it in another context offered all sorts of shocking and entertaining possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of found footage, as the approach has come to be known, is familiar to the point of cliché thanks to countless TV ads and music videos. So I’m extremely pleased (and relieved, frankly) to report that Conner’s \u003cb>Three Screen Ray\u003c/b>, a triptych reworking of 1961’s \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b> that’s on view at SFMOMA through the spring, remains an energy-packed chunk of voracious, irreverent Americana. Half a century on, Conner’s fast and furious marriage of sexy black-and-white imagery and swaggering Ray Charles stomp has lost none of its wit but a good bit of its audacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"float: right;margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 10px;font-size: 77%;color: #a2a2a2;line-height: 12px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/conner-breakaway.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Conner, Breakaway, detail from film strip, 1966\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bruce Conner, Breakaway\u003cbr>detail from film strip, 1966.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b>, as well as this new ultra-widescreen installation, lays Charles’s soulfully, suggestively lascivious \u003cb>What’d I Say\u003c/b> underneath a barrage of shots and snippets that essentially traverse the arc from foreplay to climax. A choice selection of nude female dancers provide the surface come-on, augmented with shots of rockets, cannons (courtesy of a Mickey Mouse ‘toon) and even the raising of the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima. (Insert flagpole joke here.) The fire-hose-like cascade from an uncorked bottle — eyes on the left screen only, if you please — provides the punch line in case you took everything that came before it too seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, Conner is proffering serious social commentary, if you can elevate your mind from your belt buckle, about the testosterone that drives both U.S. military adventures and consumer spending. The effort and expense expended by women to win approval and attract a mate, while not exclusive to America, first manifested itself most visibly in 1950s and ’60s TV commercials. In other words, \u003cb>Three Screen Ray\u003c/b> is an acknowledgment of both basic human hormonal urges and the society that exploited and manipulated them. Hmmm, did I need to use the past tense there? I thought not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s inevitable that while we still take much pleasure from Conner’s editing and rhythm, we can’t fathom what a bold smack in the face \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b> was when it debuted at underground events back in the day. Neither nudity nor ribald sight gags shock us anymore, not after decades of MTV, prime-time wardrobe malfunctions and porn on demand. Consumerism is beyond satire at this point, while the military is above it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years later, Conner was credited with introducing the music video, a notion he rejected out of hand. SFMOMA has nonetheless assembled a bunch of music-related works by various artists in an adjacent gallery, the best of which, far and away, is Conner’s gorgeous black-and-white \u003cb>Breakaway\u003c/b> (1966). Featuring Antonia Christina Basilotta (\u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4CyNvEfWoE\">Toni Basil\u003c/a>) onscreen and on the soundtrack, the film and its subject are fresh, bouncy and overtly sexual. But there’s an enormous difference between Basil and the girls on display in \u003cb>Cosmic Ray\u003c/b>. She owns her body and its visual representation (long before Madonna, by the by); she isn’t passively accepting the male gaze but challenging it. Five minutes of pure pop goodness, \u003cb>Breakaway\u003c/b> is liberating, intoxicating, energizing and timeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of those lovely words apply to the other selections. Two examples: Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s \u003cb>I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much\u003c/b> (1986) is painfully self-indulgent but at least offers a few bars of The Beatles’ \u003cb>Happiness Is a Warm Gun\u003c/b> (get the connection?). Cory Arcangel’s \u003cb>All the Parts From Simon and Garfunkel’s 1984 Central Park Performance Where Garfunkel Sings With His Hands In His Pockets\u003c/b> is amusing for 20 seconds, but goes on for more than six minutes. I look at it this way: Every installation needs a room clearer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Long Play: Bruce Conner and the Singles Collection\u003c/b> is on view through May 23, 2010 at SFMoMA, 151 Third St. (at Howard) in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http:www.sfmoma.org/\">more information\u003c/a> visit sfmoma.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>You might think that clamor about who should marry whom is coming from the San Francisco federal courthouse, where same sex marriage is currently on trial. You might think that the debate about traditional values and societal stability is coming from the attorneys arguing over Proposition 8.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not. It’s coming from the Golden Gate Theater where Tevye is weighing these selfsame issues in the new production of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think the voices raised in hatred and intimidation against the Jewish people are those of the actors playing the Cossacks who rampage the shtetl of Anatevka in the pogrom at the end of Act I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no again. Those are members of the congregation of The Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas standing in front of the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Museum and even Brandeis Hillel \u003ci>Elementary School\u003c/i>, wielding placards that say “God Hates Jews.” (Their \u003ca href=\"http://sfist.com/2010/01/28/scene_from_todays_anti-gay_anti-jew.php\">tour of San Francisco\u003c/a> had included Thursday’s performance of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> but apparently, they were a no show.) Their schedule also includes the Federal courthouse, \u003ci>Jewish News Weekly\u003c/i> and a student production of \u003cb>Rent\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lest anyone think we’ve come a long way from Anatevka, Pastor Fred Phelps and his church are here to tell us otherwise. (\u003ca href=\"http://laughingsquid.com/san-franciscos-answer-to-westboro-baptist-church/\">See Laughing Squid’s coverage\u003c/a> of San Francisco’s clever counter protest.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this symmetry is more trenchant than the show itself. I wish I could tell you that the new national tour of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>, which opened Wednesday, January 27, gut-punches us anew with its wrenching depiction of lives at the crossroads of old ideals and new ideas. And I wish that the new generation of theatergoers, who never got to see Zero Mostel, Theodore Bikel or Chaim Topol play Tevye, could experience the depth of emotion that the play can communicate. But director Sammy Dallas Bayes’s take on the Jerome Robbins masterpiece is not that play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was to be the farewell tour for Topol, who played Tevya in the 1971 film version and in countless stage productions since. Due to a shoulder injury he was replaced by Harvey Fierstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed the 1964 Broadway production of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b>starring Zero Mostel. The musical is an adaptation of Sholem Aleichem?s stories about small town Jewish life in Czarist Russia. Mostel (then Topol, then Fierstein) played Tevye, the milkman whose sense of tradition is shaken when his three marriageable daughters fall in love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harvey Fierstein is the Tony-winning playwright and actor who has created or starred in the best in drag-themed Broadway fare — \u003cb>Torch Song Trilogy\u003c/b>, \u003cb>La Cage aux Folles\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Hairspray\u003c/b>. In other words, he’s an iconically gay performer. Yet, in the 2005 Broadway revival of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b>, Fierstein starred as Tevye. Opposite Rosie O’Donnell. All I can imagine is that some very gay Broadway producers got very high and thought this would be hysterical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Certainly gay is the new Jew. Perhaps Fierstein-as-Tevye could work on some meta-level: in San Francisco this week, tradition is being challenged within a hall of mirrors — in Anatevka, in theatrical casting, in the San Francisco courts, and out on the streets. Meanwhile, Kansans stand nearby, trying to decide whether the gays or the Jews go to a bigger Hell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, this adds a new political twist to an old classic, but it doesn’t enlarge the play. The merits and demerits of stunt-casting and non-traditional casting aside, Fierstein doesn’t begin to fill Topol’s shoes. In fact, everything in Bayes’s production feels smaller than life; it’s a shrunken midget version of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b> trying to fill the impressive space waiting for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fierstein-as-Tevye commands no presence or authority. He is vocally incapable of bellowing — and bellowing is needed. Instead, he works the shtick. He clowns and mugs and even his intimate, one-sided banter with his personal pal, God, seem to be played to the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that voice. One wants to ask Fierstein — as Billy Crystal’s mother once asked Louis Armstrong — “can’t you just cough it up?” Fierstein’s throaty, phlegmy voice upstages pretty much everything. It’s unique, yes. And distracting. Moreover, it has no resonance, no beauty, no sorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As written by Joseph Stein (book), the character of Tevye is a larger-than-life patriarch who thunders, pounds his chest, weeps, cowers and melts for his daughters. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics and music) wrote songs that reflected all of this. The role calls for an actor who can belt it out like nobody’s business. Harvey Fierstein does not have that range, emotionally or vocally. And too many of the other cast members lack the technical chops for musical theater. The orchestra overpowers the weak voices and the vocals seem trapped in a tinny transistor radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while I’m a traditionalist — and a cranky one — when it comes to beloved Jerome Robbins musical theater, I must admit that Fierstein does know how to dance the Yidle-diddle gig. And those bottle dancers really know how to flail their limbs. Susan Cella suffices as Golde; she’s refreshingly real, if not all that moving. Rena Strober, Jamie Davis and Deborah Grausman offer touching performances as Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava, the three daughters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the men for whom the daughters break their father’s heart hardly seem worth it. As the first in a trio of fiances to marry without a matchmaker, Erik Liberman’s Motel is weirdly inert. We don’t witness this nebbishy wuss gather his manhood and we don’t hear it in his song of self-celebration, “Wonder of Wonders.” Colby Foytik’s Perchik, the big city revolutionary, gives a low-key, but still appealing performance. But his vocals aren’t robust either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Disappointing though it is, this \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> benefits from being a \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>. Very much of the material works all by itself. The musicality, if not, the pathos, is fail-safe. The music bursts with vitality, intensity and personality; these are the type of songs that stay with you a lifetime. You’d have to be an anti-Semite to not adore “To Life” or “Matchmaker.” You’d have to be a Westboro Baptist to not get verklempt during “Sunrise, Sunset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> runs through February 21, 2010 at The Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.shnsf.com/shows/show.asp?key=18&subkey=1177\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit shnsf.com.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "So Much For Tradition. Harvey Fierstein Stars in Fiddler On The Roof. | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You might think that clamor about who should marry whom is coming from the San Francisco federal courthouse, where same sex marriage is currently on trial. You might think that the debate about traditional values and societal stability is coming from the attorneys arguing over Proposition 8.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s not. It’s coming from the Golden Gate Theater where Tevye is weighing these selfsame issues in the new production of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think the voices raised in hatred and intimidation against the Jewish people are those of the actors playing the Cossacks who rampage the shtetl of Anatevka in the pogrom at the end of Act I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But no again. Those are members of the congregation of The Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas standing in front of the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Museum and even Brandeis Hillel \u003ci>Elementary School\u003c/i>, wielding placards that say “God Hates Jews.” (Their \u003ca href=\"http://sfist.com/2010/01/28/scene_from_todays_anti-gay_anti-jew.php\">tour of San Francisco\u003c/a> had included Thursday’s performance of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> but apparently, they were a no show.) Their schedule also includes the Federal courthouse, \u003ci>Jewish News Weekly\u003c/i> and a student production of \u003cb>Rent\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lest anyone think we’ve come a long way from Anatevka, Pastor Fred Phelps and his church are here to tell us otherwise. (\u003ca href=\"http://laughingsquid.com/san-franciscos-answer-to-westboro-baptist-church/\">See Laughing Squid’s coverage\u003c/a> of San Francisco’s clever counter protest.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this symmetry is more trenchant than the show itself. I wish I could tell you that the new national tour of \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>, which opened Wednesday, January 27, gut-punches us anew with its wrenching depiction of lives at the crossroads of old ideals and new ideas. And I wish that the new generation of theatergoers, who never got to see Zero Mostel, Theodore Bikel or Chaim Topol play Tevye, could experience the depth of emotion that the play can communicate. But director Sammy Dallas Bayes’s take on the Jerome Robbins masterpiece is not that play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was to be the farewell tour for Topol, who played Tevya in the 1971 film version and in countless stage productions since. Due to a shoulder injury he was replaced by Harvey Fierstein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed the 1964 Broadway production of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b>starring Zero Mostel. The musical is an adaptation of Sholem Aleichem?s stories about small town Jewish life in Czarist Russia. Mostel (then Topol, then Fierstein) played Tevye, the milkman whose sense of tradition is shaken when his three marriageable daughters fall in love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harvey Fierstein is the Tony-winning playwright and actor who has created or starred in the best in drag-themed Broadway fare — \u003cb>Torch Song Trilogy\u003c/b>, \u003cb>La Cage aux Folles\u003c/b> and \u003cb>Hairspray\u003c/b>. In other words, he’s an iconically gay performer. Yet, in the 2005 Broadway revival of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b>, Fierstein starred as Tevye. Opposite Rosie O’Donnell. All I can imagine is that some very gay Broadway producers got very high and thought this would be hysterical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Certainly gay is the new Jew. Perhaps Fierstein-as-Tevye could work on some meta-level: in San Francisco this week, tradition is being challenged within a hall of mirrors — in Anatevka, in theatrical casting, in the San Francisco courts, and out on the streets. Meanwhile, Kansans stand nearby, trying to decide whether the gays or the Jews go to a bigger Hell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, this adds a new political twist to an old classic, but it doesn’t enlarge the play. The merits and demerits of stunt-casting and non-traditional casting aside, Fierstein doesn’t begin to fill Topol’s shoes. In fact, everything in Bayes’s production feels smaller than life; it’s a shrunken midget version of \u003cb>Fiddler\u003c/b> trying to fill the impressive space waiting for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fierstein-as-Tevye commands no presence or authority. He is vocally incapable of bellowing — and bellowing is needed. Instead, he works the shtick. He clowns and mugs and even his intimate, one-sided banter with his personal pal, God, seem to be played to the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that voice. One wants to ask Fierstein — as Billy Crystal’s mother once asked Louis Armstrong — “can’t you just cough it up?” Fierstein’s throaty, phlegmy voice upstages pretty much everything. It’s unique, yes. And distracting. Moreover, it has no resonance, no beauty, no sorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As written by Joseph Stein (book), the character of Tevye is a larger-than-life patriarch who thunders, pounds his chest, weeps, cowers and melts for his daughters. Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics and music) wrote songs that reflected all of this. The role calls for an actor who can belt it out like nobody’s business. Harvey Fierstein does not have that range, emotionally or vocally. And too many of the other cast members lack the technical chops for musical theater. The orchestra overpowers the weak voices and the vocals seem trapped in a tinny transistor radio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while I’m a traditionalist — and a cranky one — when it comes to beloved Jerome Robbins musical theater, I must admit that Fierstein does know how to dance the Yidle-diddle gig. And those bottle dancers really know how to flail their limbs. Susan Cella suffices as Golde; she’s refreshingly real, if not all that moving. Rena Strober, Jamie Davis and Deborah Grausman offer touching performances as Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava, the three daughters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the men for whom the daughters break their father’s heart hardly seem worth it. As the first in a trio of fiances to marry without a matchmaker, Erik Liberman’s Motel is weirdly inert. We don’t witness this nebbishy wuss gather his manhood and we don’t hear it in his song of self-celebration, “Wonder of Wonders.” Colby Foytik’s Perchik, the big city revolutionary, gives a low-key, but still appealing performance. But his vocals aren’t robust either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Disappointing though it is, this \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> benefits from being a \u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b>. Very much of the material works all by itself. The musicality, if not, the pathos, is fail-safe. The music bursts with vitality, intensity and personality; these are the type of songs that stay with you a lifetime. You’d have to be an anti-Semite to not adore “To Life” or “Matchmaker.” You’d have to be a Westboro Baptist to not get verklempt during “Sunrise, Sunset.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fiddler on the Roof\u003c/b> runs through February 21, 2010 at The Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.shnsf.com/shows/show.asp?key=18&subkey=1177\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit shnsf.com.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Since 2006, the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley has been hosting its annual Global Age Project, in which a jury of local directors chooses new plays to be read on successive Monday nights. The four new works for 2010 were selected from a pool of 200 submissions and features the return, for a second year in a row, of Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson, whose 2009 GAP submission, “The First Grade” is running concurrently at Aurora through February 28, 2010. As in years past, attendance to Global Age Project readings is free on a first-come, first-served basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal of “GAP,” as conceived by Aurora artistic director Tom Ross, is to highlight new works that address issues in the global age, including the changing nature of human relationships. To that end, this year’s first reading, on February 1 at 7:30pm, is Johnson’s \u003cb>A Guide for the Perplexed\u003c/b>. Directed by Matthew Graham Smith, \u003cb>Perplexed\u003c/b> explores the role gender plays in a hastily created household of three men — an ex-con, his off-the-charts-smart gay nephew, and the ex-con’s nervous brother-in-law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also in the lineup is Bekah Brunstetter’s provocatively titled \u003cb>Miss Lily Gets Boned\u003c/b> on February 15 and Allison Moore’s \u003cb>Collapse\u003c/b> on February 22, both at 7:30pm. These are accomplished playwrights all: Johnson’s \u003cb>Perplexed\u003c/b> is set to premiere at Victory Gardens in Chicago after its reading here, Brunstetter is currently working on a commission for New York’s Roundabout Underground and Moore is readying an adaptation of Willa Cather’s \u003cb>My Antonia\u003c/b> for the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Into this fine company steps San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/profile/index.jsp?essid=18904\">Garret Jon Groenveld\u003c/a>, whose \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> will be read on February 8 at 7:30pm. Directed by Margo Hall and starring Liam Vincent as Buddy Beauchamps, \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> is a comedy about a gay love triangle set against the backdrop of a high-society marriage. “The play actually has a very local connection,” Groenveld says. “It was commissioned in 2007 by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/profile/index.jsp?essid=6266\">PlayGround\u003c/a> and rewritten for a public reading in 2008.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story focuses in large part on the indispensability of the gay community (interior decorators, florists, photographers) to the local marriage industry. “Without gay men,” Groenveld quips, “the super-wealthy could never pull off a wedding, and yet gay men can never marry.” It may sound like a message play, but Groenveld is quite comfortable with \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> as a comedy. “Comedy is just tragedy sped up,” he says, paraphrasing a famous quote, adding, “There’s a high joke-per-page ratio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groenveld knows he’s the odd man out at this year’s GAP. “It’s super-rare,” he says, “to get picked for a festival with a comedy.” But with two high-powered attorneys, once bitter adversaries, arguing in Federal Court on behalf of gay marriage as the reading is being rehearsed, Groenveld also knows that his subject matter is not just a fast-paced string of gags. “I’m hoping it will become anachronistic so I can rewrite it again,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2010 Global Age Project runs through February 22, 2010 at the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.auroratheatre.org/show.php?prod_id=71&ref=seas\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit auroratheatre.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Over four consecutive Mondays in February (starting TONIGHT), Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company presents staged readings of the four finalists for their annual Global Age Project competition, which highlights new plays that address issues in the global age.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Since 2006, the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley has been hosting its annual Global Age Project, in which a jury of local directors chooses new plays to be read on successive Monday nights. The four new works for 2010 were selected from a pool of 200 submissions and features the return, for a second year in a row, of Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson, whose 2009 GAP submission, “The First Grade” is running concurrently at Aurora through February 28, 2010. As in years past, attendance to Global Age Project readings is free on a first-come, first-served basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal of “GAP,” as conceived by Aurora artistic director Tom Ross, is to highlight new works that address issues in the global age, including the changing nature of human relationships. To that end, this year’s first reading, on February 1 at 7:30pm, is Johnson’s \u003cb>A Guide for the Perplexed\u003c/b>. Directed by Matthew Graham Smith, \u003cb>Perplexed\u003c/b> explores the role gender plays in a hastily created household of three men — an ex-con, his off-the-charts-smart gay nephew, and the ex-con’s nervous brother-in-law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also in the lineup is Bekah Brunstetter’s provocatively titled \u003cb>Miss Lily Gets Boned\u003c/b> on February 15 and Allison Moore’s \u003cb>Collapse\u003c/b> on February 22, both at 7:30pm. These are accomplished playwrights all: Johnson’s \u003cb>Perplexed\u003c/b> is set to premiere at Victory Gardens in Chicago after its reading here, Brunstetter is currently working on a commission for New York’s Roundabout Underground and Moore is readying an adaptation of Willa Cather’s \u003cb>My Antonia\u003c/b> for the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Into this fine company steps San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/profile/index.jsp?essid=18904\">Garret Jon Groenveld\u003c/a>, whose \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> will be read on February 8 at 7:30pm. Directed by Margo Hall and starring Liam Vincent as Buddy Beauchamps, \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> is a comedy about a gay love triangle set against the backdrop of a high-society marriage. “The play actually has a very local connection,” Groenveld says. “It was commissioned in 2007 by \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/profile/index.jsp?essid=6266\">PlayGround\u003c/a> and rewritten for a public reading in 2008.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story focuses in large part on the indispensability of the gay community (interior decorators, florists, photographers) to the local marriage industry. “Without gay men,” Groenveld quips, “the super-wealthy could never pull off a wedding, and yet gay men can never marry.” It may sound like a message play, but Groenveld is quite comfortable with \u003cb>The Serving Class\u003c/b> as a comedy. “Comedy is just tragedy sped up,” he says, paraphrasing a famous quote, adding, “There’s a high joke-per-page ratio.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Groenveld knows he’s the odd man out at this year’s GAP. “It’s super-rare,” he says, “to get picked for a festival with a comedy.” But with two high-powered attorneys, once bitter adversaries, arguing in Federal Court on behalf of gay marriage as the reading is being rehearsed, Groenveld also knows that his subject matter is not just a fast-paced string of gags. “I’m hoping it will become anachronistic so I can rewrite it again,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2010 Global Age Project runs through February 22, 2010 at the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.auroratheatre.org/show.php?prod_id=71&ref=seas\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit auroratheatre.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A.C.T.'s Phèdre a Hot Mess",
"headTitle": "A.C.T.’s Phèdre a Hot Mess | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When it comes to tragedies, nothing puts butts in seats like a good old-fashioned tale of incest. Oedipus had four children with his mother; Dustin Hoffman couldn’t resist the wiles of that original MILF, Anne Bancroft; Woody married Soon-Yi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current A.C.T. production of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s translation and adaptation of Jean Racine’s 1677 \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b>, now through February 7, 2010 at the American Conservatory Theater, is in this grand, forbidden-love tradition. It should be inappropriate, it should be passionate, it should make every mother and son in the audience squirm. Instead, we are punished by colorless acting, rigid — if beautiful — 17th-century costumes, a boring park-and-bark directing style, and a complete lack of connection, let alone chemistry, between the two principals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble begins in the first scene, when we meet king Theseus’s son Hippolytus (Jonathan Goad) and his tutor, Théramène (Sean Arbuckle), who is too close in age to his student for the pairing to be believable. With his monotone, William Shatner-like delivery, Goad fails to convince us of the torment in his heart. Instead, he comes off as a whiner — “my daddy gets to slay monsters; I want to slay monsters, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This being a tragedy, Hippolytus is also looking for an excuse to get as far away as possible from the woman he loves, Aricie (Claire Lautier), whose family is his father’s mortal enemy (gotta love the “Romeo and Juliet” subplot). This business of fleeing from problems — whether by leaving his home of Trézène, as Hippolytus vows to do, or by leaving this mortal coil, as his stepmother, Phèdre (Seana McKenna), will soon threaten — is one of the play’s richest themes. But the audience can take no pleasure in this foreshadowing because the actors are so detached from the words flowing from their mouths. In fact, many of the words that Wertenbaker has pulled from the original Racine are wonderful to listen to, but the actors are as isolated from their characters as they are from their colleagues on stage, creating a chasm between the audience and the spectacle we’ve been invited to witness. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phèdre, as you probably know, is secretly in love with Hippolytus, her stepson. This sort of thing runs in her family — Phèdre’s mother mated with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, so mom was not exactly a role model. But in McKenna, I didn’t see a woman condemned by Venus’s curse, though Phèdre claims that fate. I saw histrionics, which didn’t help when it came time for an unhinged Phèdre to confess her love to moody Hippolytus. In order for there to be tension between these two, we in the audience have to be able to at least entertain the possibility that icky sparks might actually begin to fly, that Hippolytus’s knees might buckle. In McKenna and director Carey Perloff’s hands, though, Phèdre’s tragedy is not the mere utterance of her desires; it is her pathetic inability to do anything about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally Theseus is not dead, as has been announced earlier in the play. Phèdre’s husband’s death had been the catalyst behind her confession to Hippolytus, but I for one was glad that dear old dad had survived long enough to take the stage. As Theseus, Thomas McCamus wakes this production up. He bellows, he struts, and it’s not just his character that swaggers. McCamus owns his role in a way the other leads don’t. We trust his bluster and wince at his pride because we believe both. In the end, I left the theater feeling like this version of \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b> was more Theseus’s story than Phèdre’s, which is perhaps the cruelest punishment the theater gods could heap upon the play’s ostensible lead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The A.C.T. production of \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b> runs through February 7, 2010 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.act-sf.org\" target=\"offsite\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When it comes to tragedies, nothing puts butts in seats like a good old-fashioned tale of incest. Oedipus had four children with his mother; Dustin Hoffman couldn’t resist the wiles of that original MILF, Anne Bancroft; Woody married Soon-Yi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current A.C.T. production of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s translation and adaptation of Jean Racine’s 1677 \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b>, now through February 7, 2010 at the American Conservatory Theater, is in this grand, forbidden-love tradition. It should be inappropriate, it should be passionate, it should make every mother and son in the audience squirm. Instead, we are punished by colorless acting, rigid — if beautiful — 17th-century costumes, a boring park-and-bark directing style, and a complete lack of connection, let alone chemistry, between the two principals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble begins in the first scene, when we meet king Theseus’s son Hippolytus (Jonathan Goad) and his tutor, Théramène (Sean Arbuckle), who is too close in age to his student for the pairing to be believable. With his monotone, William Shatner-like delivery, Goad fails to convince us of the torment in his heart. Instead, he comes off as a whiner — “my daddy gets to slay monsters; I want to slay monsters, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This being a tragedy, Hippolytus is also looking for an excuse to get as far away as possible from the woman he loves, Aricie (Claire Lautier), whose family is his father’s mortal enemy (gotta love the “Romeo and Juliet” subplot). This business of fleeing from problems — whether by leaving his home of Trézène, as Hippolytus vows to do, or by leaving this mortal coil, as his stepmother, Phèdre (Seana McKenna), will soon threaten — is one of the play’s richest themes. But the audience can take no pleasure in this foreshadowing because the actors are so detached from the words flowing from their mouths. In fact, many of the words that Wertenbaker has pulled from the original Racine are wonderful to listen to, but the actors are as isolated from their characters as they are from their colleagues on stage, creating a chasm between the audience and the spectacle we’ve been invited to witness. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phèdre, as you probably know, is secretly in love with Hippolytus, her stepson. This sort of thing runs in her family — Phèdre’s mother mated with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur, so mom was not exactly a role model. But in McKenna, I didn’t see a woman condemned by Venus’s curse, though Phèdre claims that fate. I saw histrionics, which didn’t help when it came time for an unhinged Phèdre to confess her love to moody Hippolytus. In order for there to be tension between these two, we in the audience have to be able to at least entertain the possibility that icky sparks might actually begin to fly, that Hippolytus’s knees might buckle. In McKenna and director Carey Perloff’s hands, though, Phèdre’s tragedy is not the mere utterance of her desires; it is her pathetic inability to do anything about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally Theseus is not dead, as has been announced earlier in the play. Phèdre’s husband’s death had been the catalyst behind her confession to Hippolytus, but I for one was glad that dear old dad had survived long enough to take the stage. As Theseus, Thomas McCamus wakes this production up. He bellows, he struts, and it’s not just his character that swaggers. McCamus owns his role in a way the other leads don’t. We trust his bluster and wince at his pride because we believe both. In the end, I left the theater feeling like this version of \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b> was more Theseus’s story than Phèdre’s, which is perhaps the cruelest punishment the theater gods could heap upon the play’s ostensible lead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The A.C.T. production of \u003cb>Phèdre\u003c/b> runs through February 7, 2010 at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.act-sf.org\" target=\"offsite\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s Christmas Eve, 1864, on the banks of the Potomac River, just outside Washington D.C. We know this because in the TheatreWorks production of Paula Vogel’s \u003cb>A Civil War Christmas\u003c/b>, now through December 27 at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto, the actors and singers stand before us, look us in the eye, and tell us so in words, song, and a pair of pantomime horses. Balancing all the relentless exposition is a handful of intertwined stories, each of which culminates in redemption, deliverance, or forgiveness of some sort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is curiously sentimental stuff for Vogel, whose work is usually more at home with characters whose struggles shall not always be overcome. Here, her characters sing “Silent Night” without a hint of cynicism, belt out “Follow the Drinking Gourd” as they make their way north to freedom, and transform “The Yellow Rose of Texas” from a very red state’s unofficial marching song to a tender ballad of lost love. Even more curiously, it all pretty much works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the secret, I think, is that Vogel has a sure touch when it comes to the mechanics of her story. For example, she knows just how much peril to put a young Confederate volunteer named Raz (Jayne Delly) in, so much so that at one point we sincerely wonder if things are about to get rather dark. Similarly, we know that Vogel cannot let little lost Jessa (Myha’la Herrold and Tiana Travis alternate in the role) actually freeze to death on the streets of the nation’s capital, but she pushes things just far enough to give the inevitable mother-and-child reunion a satisfying, emotional punch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pacing is another of this show’s many strengths. The sets are always in motion, which means the 14 actors — playing some 90 roles — are almost always on the move, too. The result is that no actor, even the leads, hogs the spotlight for long. As soon as John Wilkes Booth (Kit Wilder) has revealed his plan to ambush the president, he exits to become someone else while we are spirited away on, say, a shopping trip with Abraham Lincoln’s famously neurotic wife, Mary (Diana Torres Koss), and her African-American confidante, Elizabeth Keckley (C. Kelly Wright).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite an economy of dialog, along with the inevitable stereotyping of Keckley as the simple but wise friend of color, the relationship between the two women feels surprisingly real, as does the one between an idealistic, Quaker private (Jonathan Shue) and his embittered and vengeful African-American sergeant-turned-blacksmith, Decatur Bronson (Michael A. Shepperd).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are laughs, too, particularly when it comes to those pantomime horses. No doubt Vogel wants us to wince when we first witness young Confederate Raz tying a rope around the neck of Daveed Daniele Diggs, the African-American actor who, among other parts, plays Silver, Raz’s trusty steed. But once we get past our liberal squeamishness, Diggs as Silver takes over, eliciting laughs of relief from the audience. Similarly, it is difficult not to chuckle at Robert Parsons as an earnest Abraham Lincoln, who seems to be doing his best John Cleese when he trots out of the White House for a solo Christmas Eve ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the music, which even a holiday Scrooge like me found enriching. I very much enjoyed the mix of traditional Christmas carols — some with altered lyrics — spirituals, and original tunes that Vogel and her arranger, Daryl Waters, have brought together for \u003cb>Civil War\u003c/b>. And it doesn’t hurt that most of the voices are strong and powerful, particularly Shepperd’s, whose slow, sad, “Yellow Rose” was one of this hopeful show’s beautifully melancholy highlights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TheatreWorks’ production of \u003cb>A Civil War Christmas\u003c/b> runs through December 27, 2009 at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.theatreworks.org/\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit theatreworks.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s Christmas Eve, 1864, on the banks of the Potomac River, just outside Washington D.C. We know this because in the TheatreWorks production of Paula Vogel’s \u003cb>A Civil War Christmas\u003c/b>, now through December 27 at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto, the actors and singers stand before us, look us in the eye, and tell us so in words, song, and a pair of pantomime horses. Balancing all the relentless exposition is a handful of intertwined stories, each of which culminates in redemption, deliverance, or forgiveness of some sort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is curiously sentimental stuff for Vogel, whose work is usually more at home with characters whose struggles shall not always be overcome. Here, her characters sing “Silent Night” without a hint of cynicism, belt out “Follow the Drinking Gourd” as they make their way north to freedom, and transform “The Yellow Rose of Texas” from a very red state’s unofficial marching song to a tender ballad of lost love. Even more curiously, it all pretty much works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the secret, I think, is that Vogel has a sure touch when it comes to the mechanics of her story. For example, she knows just how much peril to put a young Confederate volunteer named Raz (Jayne Delly) in, so much so that at one point we sincerely wonder if things are about to get rather dark. Similarly, we know that Vogel cannot let little lost Jessa (Myha’la Herrold and Tiana Travis alternate in the role) actually freeze to death on the streets of the nation’s capital, but she pushes things just far enough to give the inevitable mother-and-child reunion a satisfying, emotional punch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pacing is another of this show’s many strengths. The sets are always in motion, which means the 14 actors — playing some 90 roles — are almost always on the move, too. The result is that no actor, even the leads, hogs the spotlight for long. As soon as John Wilkes Booth (Kit Wilder) has revealed his plan to ambush the president, he exits to become someone else while we are spirited away on, say, a shopping trip with Abraham Lincoln’s famously neurotic wife, Mary (Diana Torres Koss), and her African-American confidante, Elizabeth Keckley (C. Kelly Wright).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite an economy of dialog, along with the inevitable stereotyping of Keckley as the simple but wise friend of color, the relationship between the two women feels surprisingly real, as does the one between an idealistic, Quaker private (Jonathan Shue) and his embittered and vengeful African-American sergeant-turned-blacksmith, Decatur Bronson (Michael A. Shepperd).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are laughs, too, particularly when it comes to those pantomime horses. No doubt Vogel wants us to wince when we first witness young Confederate Raz tying a rope around the neck of Daveed Daniele Diggs, the African-American actor who, among other parts, plays Silver, Raz’s trusty steed. But once we get past our liberal squeamishness, Diggs as Silver takes over, eliciting laughs of relief from the audience. Similarly, it is difficult not to chuckle at Robert Parsons as an earnest Abraham Lincoln, who seems to be doing his best John Cleese when he trots out of the White House for a solo Christmas Eve ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the music, which even a holiday Scrooge like me found enriching. I very much enjoyed the mix of traditional Christmas carols — some with altered lyrics — spirituals, and original tunes that Vogel and her arranger, Daryl Waters, have brought together for \u003cb>Civil War\u003c/b>. And it doesn’t hurt that most of the voices are strong and powerful, particularly Shepperd’s, whose slow, sad, “Yellow Rose” was one of this hopeful show’s beautifully melancholy highlights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TheatreWorks’ production of \u003cb>A Civil War Christmas\u003c/b> runs through December 27, 2009 at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.theatreworks.org/\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit theatreworks.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes",
"headTitle": "The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>While British theaters have a long history of putting on annual \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime_dame\">cross-dressing Christmas shows for kids\u003c/a>, this custom has stubbornly resisted making the journey across the Atlantic (surprising, I know). However, things are beginning to change here in the Bay Area thanks to a dragtastic live version of senior sitcom \u003ca href=\"http://www.voicefactorysf.org/goldengirls.html\">\u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b>\u003c/a>, now back for its third holiday season. The show is threatening to become a full-blown holiday tradition in San Francisco, and why not? Yuletide is a great time to be gay, after all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before we go any further, there’s something important I want to clear up. It’s something I’ve never really admitted in public before: I love \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b>. There, I’ve said it. I’ve come out of my pastel-colored-wicker closet. I’m a friend of Dorothy (plus Rose, Blanche, and Sophia, of course). And this isn’t some knowing, post-ironic hipster thing; I genuinely believe it’s an outstanding sitcom. The setup is beautifully simple — four ladies of a certain age living together in a suburban Miami home — and the tightly written scripts don’t deviate from this basic winning formula. No aliens turn up, no one suffers a head-and-body transplant, no sharks are jumped. Indeed, the main characters rarely stray further from their living room than the kitchen over the course of seven seasons and 140 episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This simplicity also makes \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b> ideal for transferring to the stage, even in a small-scale production like this one. There are no difficult outdoor locations to deal with, just two rooms and a few soft furnishings. The four returning leads in the cast all have a strong lineage in San Francisco drag royalty and they play their characters with appropriately reverent understatement, relying instead on scripts that are already packed with plenty of bitchy comments, camp humor, and sexual innuendo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the main subject dealt with in \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b> (both this version and the original) is sex. Sure, the words are kept daytime-telly safe, but some of the gags are still surprisingly racy for a mainstream American sitcom, especially one originally aired in the 1980s. For example, when Rose gives Blanche a blouse for Christmas, she innocently adds, “I hope it’s alright. Dorothy said you’d like something crotchless.” Elsewhere there are references to infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, bestiality, and even Bob Hope. This isn’t just sex, but senior sex, from a time when Viagra was just a glimmer in Pfizer’s eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But who can focus for long on mundane matters like sexual politics when you’re being dazzled by a geriatric fabulous parade of sequined blouses, scene sweaters, and shoulder-padded nightgowns? In the end, this show is a superb slice of festive fun served with a healthy side order of misty-eyed nostalgia. What could be more Christmassy than that? Perhaps this year Santa’s elves shouldn’t be the only gender-ambiguous part of your holiday celebrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes\u003c/b> runs through December 26, 2009 at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory. For tickets and information, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.voicefactorysf.org/goldengirls.html\">voicefactorysf.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While British theaters have a long history of putting on annual \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime_dame\">cross-dressing Christmas shows for kids\u003c/a>, this custom has stubbornly resisted making the journey across the Atlantic (surprising, I know). However, things are beginning to change here in the Bay Area thanks to a dragtastic live version of senior sitcom \u003ca href=\"http://www.voicefactorysf.org/goldengirls.html\">\u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b>\u003c/a>, now back for its third holiday season. The show is threatening to become a full-blown holiday tradition in San Francisco, and why not? Yuletide is a great time to be gay, after all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before we go any further, there’s something important I want to clear up. It’s something I’ve never really admitted in public before: I love \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b>. There, I’ve said it. I’ve come out of my pastel-colored-wicker closet. I’m a friend of Dorothy (plus Rose, Blanche, and Sophia, of course). And this isn’t some knowing, post-ironic hipster thing; I genuinely believe it’s an outstanding sitcom. The setup is beautifully simple — four ladies of a certain age living together in a suburban Miami home — and the tightly written scripts don’t deviate from this basic winning formula. No aliens turn up, no one suffers a head-and-body transplant, no sharks are jumped. Indeed, the main characters rarely stray further from their living room than the kitchen over the course of seven seasons and 140 episodes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This simplicity also makes \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b> ideal for transferring to the stage, even in a small-scale production like this one. There are no difficult outdoor locations to deal with, just two rooms and a few soft furnishings. The four returning leads in the cast all have a strong lineage in San Francisco drag royalty and they play their characters with appropriately reverent understatement, relying instead on scripts that are already packed with plenty of bitchy comments, camp humor, and sexual innuendo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the main subject dealt with in \u003cb>The Golden Girls\u003c/b> (both this version and the original) is sex. Sure, the words are kept daytime-telly safe, but some of the gags are still surprisingly racy for a mainstream American sitcom, especially one originally aired in the 1980s. For example, when Rose gives Blanche a blouse for Christmas, she innocently adds, “I hope it’s alright. Dorothy said you’d like something crotchless.” Elsewhere there are references to infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, bestiality, and even Bob Hope. This isn’t just sex, but senior sex, from a time when Viagra was just a glimmer in Pfizer’s eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But who can focus for long on mundane matters like sexual politics when you’re being dazzled by a geriatric fabulous parade of sequined blouses, scene sweaters, and shoulder-padded nightgowns? In the end, this show is a superb slice of festive fun served with a healthy side order of misty-eyed nostalgia. What could be more Christmassy than that? Perhaps this year Santa’s elves shouldn’t be the only gender-ambiguous part of your holiday celebrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes\u003c/b> runs through December 26, 2009 at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory. For tickets and information, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.voicefactorysf.org/goldengirls.html\">voicefactorysf.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Tony Kushner at the Berkeley Rep",
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"content": "\u003cp>I am not a theater-goer. And, judging by the predominantly silver-haired audience at the Berkeley Rep last week, neither are a lot of younger folk. In a culture dominated by the immediacy of Youtube and Tivo, the patience and concentration required for an intelligent night at the theater has all but vanished. But there is hope for revival in plays like Tony Kushner’s \u003cb>Tiny Kushner\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cheeky title refers to the format of the show: in direct opposition to the lengthy, epic works of his past (the 6 hour \u003cb>Angels in America\u003c/b> being the best example), Kushner has decided to put on five distinct one-act plays. What the viewer gets is a little over 2 hours of variety, talent, and sheer genius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Kushner has a habit of appropriating historical figures (often subversive ones) and injecting them into his fictional creations. And he keeps with this tradition with the first play of this set entitled “Flip Flop Fly!” The piece takes place on the moon (naturally) and revolves around two polar opposites, Lucia Pamela (Valeri Mudek) and Geraldine, Queen of Albania (Kate Eifrig).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qACGIfJIirA&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tiny Kushner\u003c/b> plays through November 29, 2009 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyrep.org/\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit berkeleyrep.org\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I am not a theater-goer. And, judging by the predominantly silver-haired audience at the Berkeley Rep last week, neither are a lot of younger folk. In a culture dominated by the immediacy of Youtube and Tivo, the patience and concentration required for an intelligent night at the theater has all but vanished. But there is hope for revival in plays like Tony Kushner’s \u003cb>Tiny Kushner\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cheeky title refers to the format of the show: in direct opposition to the lengthy, epic works of his past (the 6 hour \u003cb>Angels in America\u003c/b> being the best example), Kushner has decided to put on five distinct one-act plays. What the viewer gets is a little over 2 hours of variety, talent, and sheer genius.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Kushner has a habit of appropriating historical figures (often subversive ones) and injecting them into his fictional creations. And he keeps with this tradition with the first play of this set entitled “Flip Flop Fly!” The piece takes place on the moon (naturally) and revolves around two polar opposites, Lucia Pamela (Valeri Mudek) and Geraldine, Queen of Albania (Kate Eifrig).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qACGIfJIirA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qACGIfJIirA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tiny Kushner\u003c/b> plays through November 29, 2009 at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyrep.org/\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit berkeleyrep.org\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“I’m going to get a gun!” Marv is whining. Slouched on the family sofa and wearing a paper party hat, a torn and stained cardigan, and an even dirtier white t-shirt underneath, Marv (Will Marchetti) is turning 75 today, and he just can’t face it. “I’m going to get a gun!” he repeats, as his wife, Lois (Frances Lee McCain) bellows back at him from off stage. “That’s all I need,” she grouses. “Holes in the remodel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus begins \u003cb>The Horses\u003c/b>, a new 80-minute play written by Brian Thorstenson and staged by Alternative Theater Ensemble in a San Rafael storefront, now through November 15, 2009. Sandwiched between Floorcoverings of Marin County and the Rebound Bookstore, which, on the night I attended, served as the theater-company-without-a-home’s lobby, the space is clean, cramped, and unpretentious — there’s a “For Lease” sign in the window. Most of the chairs are of the folding variety; two of them are perched in one of the storefront’s windows. Extension cords snake around the ceiling and spotlights are secured with plastic zip ties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marv is your typical big baby, the classic crusty old coot who’s crushed by a lifetime of petty regrets. Lois is well within her rights to be impatient with this shallow shell of a man. It’s not the big questions he’s wrestling with. He bellyaches about never having been fly-fishing, he wishes he had gone hang-gliding. Boo-freaking-hoo. And while his wife is running around trying to get ready for his party, including making him his favorite cake, he can’t even get it together to change out of his ratty rags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, we learn, is that Marv has a rather active fantasy life. As soon as Lois is out of the room, the couch becomes the Pontiac Marv never had, and a younger woman named Patsy (Anne Darragh) appears by his side. In her blue party dress and bright red pumps, Anne is the opposite of practical Lois, a sassy, flirty, fun-loving broad who shares Marv’s fondness for bucket-list adventures. Their relationship is not sexual (that train appears to have left Marv’s station some time ago), but Patsy is a fantasy nonetheless, a none-too-bright party girl who uses quirky phrases like “That’s a total bust!” to describe the things she likes. She’s Marv’s kind of gal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Marv’s minor regrets (minor, to the extent that it appears to trouble him less than never having been to Machu Picchu) is his son, Michael (Michael Ray Wisely), who describes himself as an “interior architect” rather than an “interior designer” because his father already thinks he’s a bit “fruity.” As if to help confirm his father’s assumptions about his sexuality, Michael gives his dear old dad a new sweater for his birthday. This momentarily alleviates Lois’s concern that Marv’s old sweater is not “spiffy” enough to wear in front of his guests, but we can easily predict that Marv will never see them anyway. When given the choice between attending a birthday party he doesn’t want and hanging out in his living room with Patsy and his magical couch, well, it’s not even close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general the actors do a fine job with this material, and I liked the numerous Mamet-like scenes in which the actors deliberately and harmoniously talked over each other. But for the most part, I wonder if in trying to illuminate the struggles of a not-especially sympathetic, ordinary, and boring individual, Thorstenson might have set his sights too high. Worse is the play’s improbable plot twist at the end, which felt wildly out of character for Lois and a cop-out when it came to Marv. How will this schlub come to terms with his late-life crisis? The answer Thorstenson has devised would work if \u003cb>The Horses\u003c/b> was strictly a farce, but there’s just enough reality and seriousness here that I wished the playwright had followed through and delivered a more thoughtful and cathartic payoff. Lord knows a number of us would have been interested in his answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Horses\u003c/b> runs through November 15, 2009 at Alternative Theater Ensemble’s temporary location at 1609 Fourth Street in San Rafael. For \u003ca href=\"http://altertheater.org/index.htm/\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit altertheater.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“I’m going to get a gun!” Marv is whining. Slouched on the family sofa and wearing a paper party hat, a torn and stained cardigan, and an even dirtier white t-shirt underneath, Marv (Will Marchetti) is turning 75 today, and he just can’t face it. “I’m going to get a gun!” he repeats, as his wife, Lois (Frances Lee McCain) bellows back at him from off stage. “That’s all I need,” she grouses. “Holes in the remodel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus begins \u003cb>The Horses\u003c/b>, a new 80-minute play written by Brian Thorstenson and staged by Alternative Theater Ensemble in a San Rafael storefront, now through November 15, 2009. Sandwiched between Floorcoverings of Marin County and the Rebound Bookstore, which, on the night I attended, served as the theater-company-without-a-home’s lobby, the space is clean, cramped, and unpretentious — there’s a “For Lease” sign in the window. Most of the chairs are of the folding variety; two of them are perched in one of the storefront’s windows. Extension cords snake around the ceiling and spotlights are secured with plastic zip ties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marv is your typical big baby, the classic crusty old coot who’s crushed by a lifetime of petty regrets. Lois is well within her rights to be impatient with this shallow shell of a man. It’s not the big questions he’s wrestling with. He bellyaches about never having been fly-fishing, he wishes he had gone hang-gliding. Boo-freaking-hoo. And while his wife is running around trying to get ready for his party, including making him his favorite cake, he can’t even get it together to change out of his ratty rags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem, we learn, is that Marv has a rather active fantasy life. As soon as Lois is out of the room, the couch becomes the Pontiac Marv never had, and a younger woman named Patsy (Anne Darragh) appears by his side. In her blue party dress and bright red pumps, Anne is the opposite of practical Lois, a sassy, flirty, fun-loving broad who shares Marv’s fondness for bucket-list adventures. Their relationship is not sexual (that train appears to have left Marv’s station some time ago), but Patsy is a fantasy nonetheless, a none-too-bright party girl who uses quirky phrases like “That’s a total bust!” to describe the things she likes. She’s Marv’s kind of gal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Marv’s minor regrets (minor, to the extent that it appears to trouble him less than never having been to Machu Picchu) is his son, Michael (Michael Ray Wisely), who describes himself as an “interior architect” rather than an “interior designer” because his father already thinks he’s a bit “fruity.” As if to help confirm his father’s assumptions about his sexuality, Michael gives his dear old dad a new sweater for his birthday. This momentarily alleviates Lois’s concern that Marv’s old sweater is not “spiffy” enough to wear in front of his guests, but we can easily predict that Marv will never see them anyway. When given the choice between attending a birthday party he doesn’t want and hanging out in his living room with Patsy and his magical couch, well, it’s not even close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>I’m getting old(er). I can tell. The signs are all around me: my hair is thinning, I’m noticing more deaths, births, and weddings, and I prefer naps over going out for drinks. The Intersection for the Arts’ current show: \u003cb>The Future Project: Sunday Will Come\u003c/b> shines the light on mortality and humanity. I was ready for a theatrical take on existentialism. So I went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time Sean San Jose and Erika Chong Shuch, of Campo Santo and the ESP Project respectively, are performing onstage together. Separately, they are vibrant movers and shakers in the Bay Area. When I heard they were combining their creative forces, I had to witness the alchemy. And the result is pure gold. This hour-long theatrical and dance performance is, at times, heart-wrenching, at other times, playful, and at all times, engaging. Denizen Kane adds live soulful singing and plays guitar throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/futureproject2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>Before the show began, I took in the set. A row of rocks, rubble, and concrete slabs lined each side of the black box theater to create a square for the playing space. The entire upstage wall was transformed into a large textured slab. I wondered what the desired effect was: the side of a mountain? the Wailing Wall? Prehistoric cave? Post-apocalyptic landscape?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of vignettes, punctuated by blackouts, tell a non-linear story of one couple’s existence and place in the universe. One scene played out physically and silently (San Jose flopping his limp and heavy hand on the table as Chong Shuch repeatedly tries to bring life into it.) Another was a lighthearted game of one-up-manship where the couple comes up with new ways to die. Another scene: the somber decision-making process of how to kill a sick goldfish. I was awe-struck during a tragicomic display of grief as Erika threw herself around the stage with great physical stamina. A scene or two later, I laughed when she reappeared as the goldfish to sing a 30 second jingle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/futureproject1.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>It was during the blackouts that I had time to think about my own place in the world. I thought about my family and my relationship with my parents. They’re getting old(er), too. I thought about how quickly my time on this planet can sometimes feel. I thought about that little goldfish and how we all are just tiny fishies on this big blue spinning orb. And I cried. None of it would have moved me as much if it weren’t for the chemistry between the three performers (Denizen takes stage at times). None of it would have worked if Erika and Sean didn’t wear their hearts on their sleeves and perform with a kind of raw expressivity. It does, however, work. It works very well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Future Project: Sunday Will Come\u003c/b> runs October 15 through November 7, 2009 (Thursday through Saturday at 8pm) at the Intersection for the Arts. Tickets are $15 ? $25 and Thursdays are “Pay What You Can.” Call for tickets: 415-626-2787 x109.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I’m getting old(er). I can tell. The signs are all around me: my hair is thinning, I’m noticing more deaths, births, and weddings, and I prefer naps over going out for drinks. The Intersection for the Arts’ current show: \u003cb>The Future Project: Sunday Will Come\u003c/b> shines the light on mortality and humanity. I was ready for a theatrical take on existentialism. So I went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the first time Sean San Jose and Erika Chong Shuch, of Campo Santo and the ESP Project respectively, are performing onstage together. Separately, they are vibrant movers and shakers in the Bay Area. When I heard they were combining their creative forces, I had to witness the alchemy. And the result is pure gold. This hour-long theatrical and dance performance is, at times, heart-wrenching, at other times, playful, and at all times, engaging. Denizen Kane adds live soulful singing and plays guitar throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/futureproject2.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>Before the show began, I took in the set. A row of rocks, rubble, and concrete slabs lined each side of the black box theater to create a square for the playing space. The entire upstage wall was transformed into a large textured slab. I wondered what the desired effect was: the side of a mountain? the Wailing Wall? Prehistoric cave? Post-apocalyptic landscape?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A series of vignettes, punctuated by blackouts, tell a non-linear story of one couple’s existence and place in the universe. One scene played out physically and silently (San Jose flopping his limp and heavy hand on the table as Chong Shuch repeatedly tries to bring life into it.) Another was a lighthearted game of one-up-manship where the couple comes up with new ways to die. Another scene: the somber decision-making process of how to kill a sick goldfish. I was awe-struck during a tragicomic display of grief as Erika threw herself around the stage with great physical stamina. A scene or two later, I laughed when she reappeared as the goldfish to sing a 30 second jingle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Plays, movies, concerts, art galleries: yeah, been there, seen that. The opera: nope. Stories of sweeping emotions and decadent affairs had aroused my imagination. As a thirty-something San Franciscan it was high time I high-tailed it down to the War Memorial Opera House to attend the S.F. Opera’s current production of Mozart’s comic masterpiece \u003cb>The Abduction from the Seraglio\u003c/b> (seraglio = harem).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hopped in a cab, and, anxious and excited, prematurely told the driver “thanks, this is good” two blocks too far away mistaking some other Civic Center structure as my destination. Briskly, I headed in the right direction alongside an obvious stream of opera goers (read: diamond-studded older white people) and even some from the hipster crowd (read: people who look like me). A fair amount of rubbernecking was in order upon entering the castle-like lobby of marble walls and ornate ceilings. I definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto, or, at least, not in my familiar Nob Loin neighborhood. I picked up my ticket, grabbed a cookie, found the restroom down some stairs and through a labyrinth, and got back to my plush seat in time for the show to begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lights down and curtain up. Meet Belmonte, one of the two dashing lovers, looking for his love, Constanze, who had been sold as a slave to the Pasha Selim (fancy name for “owner of the palace” played by Bay Area actor Charles Shaw Robinson). The gatekeeper, Osmin (Peter Rose), prevented Belmonte from entering. Belmonte soon encountered his manservant Pedrillo (Andrew Bidlack) who, along with his love, Blonde, are also the property of the Pasha. Tenor Matthew Polenzani as Belmonte was captivating. He thrilled and gave goosebumps with his Act I aria: “Here shall I see you, Constanze, you my hope.” His voice effortlessly filled the 3,000-plus-seat house with forte and even finer still in I-could-hear-a-pin-drop pianissimo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act II began with the feisty Blonde, played and sung with flirtatious and comic verve by Anna Christy, refusing the advances of Osmin. A parallel story played out later when Constanze appeared to sing “Tortures of all kinds” in defiance of the Pasha’s threat of torture if she were to reject him. Returning to the SF Opera stage, soprano Mary Dunleavy grabbed on to this most challenging aria of vocal acrobatics and devoured every note (and there are many — “too many notes” so said the Emperor who commissioned the opera 200 years ago — or so the infamous tale goes). It was a highlight of the evening and elicited well-deserved “brava’s” from the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act III provoked laughter when Pedrillo, before embarking upon the high stakes plan to rescue the women from the palace, paused to announce the need for a serenade. “Just don’t drag it out,” replied Belmonte. All arias drag it out — a good thing when Mozart does it. During Pedrillo’s interlude, the four lovers were captured. The Pasha arrived and, upon learning that Belmonte is the son of his greatest enemy, sentenced them to death. Constanze and Belmonte shared a heart wrenching duet: “Oh what a fate, oh soul’s misery.” The Pasha returned and, touched by their sorrow, granted liberty to all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/seraglio.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>Designer David Zinn created a sumptuous feast for the eyes. The set was a stage onstage complete with its own balcony boxes, proscenium, and footlights(!) It took a while for my brain to wrap around this aesthetic choice. I slowly embraced it as a way to allow for other theatrical devices: a two-dimensional boat sailing by, a door appearing from the floorboards, and a lute being handed from the prompter’s box. More eye candy followed with the 18th century period-perfect costumes. Each actor was dressed in garb that not only looked specific to the period and specific for each lover’s pairing, but was also tricked out with extra flair, ruffle, and sparkle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chas Rader-Shieber, making his SF Opera debut, succeeded in directing with the kind of simple storytelling this “Singspiel” opera asks for. He rightly allowed for the comic moments to be comic (the top of Act II duet between Osmin and Blonde) and the heartfelt moments to be dramatic (Constanze and Belmonte’s duet in Act III). (“Singspiel”: a term referring to an opera where much of the action moves forward through spoken dialogue and the arias have time for fuller expression of a thought or feeling.) The last moment of the opera left me scratching my head, though. What I heard was a bright, happily-ever-after, and redemptive finale: “Never will I thy kindness forget”, but what I saw was a somber group of soldiers, a dark night sky, and the Pasha holding his head in his hands as if grief stricken. Shouldn’t there have been a celebration?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evening, clocking in at an engaging 2 hours and 40 minutes, ended with shouts of bravo and a well-earned standing ovation. I’ve read the opera that was quite a financial and critical success when it first appeared over two hundred years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same reaction takes place for the SF Opera’s production today. As for me, an opera virgin no more, it all felt so good that I’m planning my next tryst with \u003cb>Salome\u003c/b> in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Abduction from the Seraglio\u003c/b>, a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago, runs through October 23, 2009 at the SF Opera located at 301 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. Sung in German with English dialogue and English supertitles. For tickets and information visit sfopera.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Plays, movies, concerts, art galleries: yeah, been there, seen that. The opera: nope. Stories of sweeping emotions and decadent affairs had aroused my imagination. As a thirty-something San Franciscan it was high time I high-tailed it down to the War Memorial Opera House to attend the S.F. Opera’s current production of Mozart’s comic masterpiece \u003cb>The Abduction from the Seraglio\u003c/b> (seraglio = harem).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hopped in a cab, and, anxious and excited, prematurely told the driver “thanks, this is good” two blocks too far away mistaking some other Civic Center structure as my destination. Briskly, I headed in the right direction alongside an obvious stream of opera goers (read: diamond-studded older white people) and even some from the hipster crowd (read: people who look like me). A fair amount of rubbernecking was in order upon entering the castle-like lobby of marble walls and ornate ceilings. I definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto, or, at least, not in my familiar Nob Loin neighborhood. I picked up my ticket, grabbed a cookie, found the restroom down some stairs and through a labyrinth, and got back to my plush seat in time for the show to begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lights down and curtain up. Meet Belmonte, one of the two dashing lovers, looking for his love, Constanze, who had been sold as a slave to the Pasha Selim (fancy name for “owner of the palace” played by Bay Area actor Charles Shaw Robinson). The gatekeeper, Osmin (Peter Rose), prevented Belmonte from entering. Belmonte soon encountered his manservant Pedrillo (Andrew Bidlack) who, along with his love, Blonde, are also the property of the Pasha. Tenor Matthew Polenzani as Belmonte was captivating. He thrilled and gave goosebumps with his Act I aria: “Here shall I see you, Constanze, you my hope.” His voice effortlessly filled the 3,000-plus-seat house with forte and even finer still in I-could-hear-a-pin-drop pianissimo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act II began with the feisty Blonde, played and sung with flirtatious and comic verve by Anna Christy, refusing the advances of Osmin. A parallel story played out later when Constanze appeared to sing “Tortures of all kinds” in defiance of the Pasha’s threat of torture if she were to reject him. Returning to the SF Opera stage, soprano Mary Dunleavy grabbed on to this most challenging aria of vocal acrobatics and devoured every note (and there are many — “too many notes” so said the Emperor who commissioned the opera 200 years ago — or so the infamous tale goes). It was a highlight of the evening and elicited well-deserved “brava’s” from the audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Act III provoked laughter when Pedrillo, before embarking upon the high stakes plan to rescue the women from the palace, paused to announce the need for a serenade. “Just don’t drag it out,” replied Belmonte. All arias drag it out — a good thing when Mozart does it. During Pedrillo’s interlude, the four lovers were captured. The Pasha arrived and, upon learning that Belmonte is the son of his greatest enemy, sentenced them to death. Constanze and Belmonte shared a heart wrenching duet: “Oh what a fate, oh soul’s misery.” The Pasha returned and, touched by their sorrow, granted liberty to all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003ccenter>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/arts/blog/seraglio.jpg\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\u003c/center>\n\u003cp>Designer David Zinn created a sumptuous feast for the eyes. The set was a stage onstage complete with its own balcony boxes, proscenium, and footlights(!) It took a while for my brain to wrap around this aesthetic choice. I slowly embraced it as a way to allow for other theatrical devices: a two-dimensional boat sailing by, a door appearing from the floorboards, and a lute being handed from the prompter’s box. More eye candy followed with the 18th century period-perfect costumes. Each actor was dressed in garb that not only looked specific to the period and specific for each lover’s pairing, but was also tricked out with extra flair, ruffle, and sparkle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chas Rader-Shieber, making his SF Opera debut, succeeded in directing with the kind of simple storytelling this “Singspiel” opera asks for. He rightly allowed for the comic moments to be comic (the top of Act II duet between Osmin and Blonde) and the heartfelt moments to be dramatic (Constanze and Belmonte’s duet in Act III). (“Singspiel”: a term referring to an opera where much of the action moves forward through spoken dialogue and the arias have time for fuller expression of a thought or feeling.) The last moment of the opera left me scratching my head, though. What I heard was a bright, happily-ever-after, and redemptive finale: “Never will I thy kindness forget”, but what I saw was a somber group of soldiers, a dark night sky, and the Pasha holding his head in his hands as if grief stricken. Shouldn’t there have been a celebration?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The evening, clocking in at an engaging 2 hours and 40 minutes, ended with shouts of bravo and a well-earned standing ovation. I’ve read the opera that was quite a financial and critical success when it first appeared over two hundred years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same reaction takes place for the SF Opera’s production today. As for me, an opera virgin no more, it all felt so good that I’m planning my next tryst with \u003cb>Salome\u003c/b> in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Abduction from the Seraglio\u003c/b>, a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago, runs through October 23, 2009 at the SF Opera located at 301 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. Sung in German with English dialogue and English supertitles. For tickets and information visit sfopera.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, at City Lights",
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"content": "\u003cp>In the August 3, 2009 issue of \u003ci>The New Yorker\u003c/i>, Joan Acocella wrote one of the magazine’s classic Critic at Large think pieces called “Betrayal.” In it, she pondered the various, sometimes conflicting, stories of Judas Iscariot as told in the Gospels; reported on the recent translation of a long-lost Gnostic tract about Judas; and compared several contemporary works about the man who supposedly sold out Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. I say ‘supposedly’ because there’s apparently a lot of reconsidering going on about the much-vilified Mr. Iscariot, the crux of which is that perhaps the poor fellow was merely doing his good friend’s bidding, to hasten Jesus’s martyrdom and subsequent resurrection. Besides, Jesus was a pretty well-known character in Judea: Did the authorities really need a patsy like Judas to lead them to the self-proclaimed Messiah? It just doesn’t make sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One citation that was missing from Acocella’s otherwise fine essay was \u003cb>The Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u003c/b>, a 2005 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, playing now through October 18, 2009 at City Lights Theater Company in San Jose. This fierce and frequently hilarious production, directed by Kit Wilder, follows the imagined trial, in purgatory, of Judas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catatonic with the despair that caused him to take his own life, even before his former friend had been nailed to the cross, Judas (Isaac Benelli) is represented by Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Alika Ululani Spencer), a tough, leggy defense attorney. Cunningham can’t get Judge Littlefield (Bill Davidovich), a Southern Comfort-swigging former Confederate soldier who, like Judas, hung himself rather than face disgrace, to give her client his day in court. Naturally she prays for 40 days and nights to St. Monica (Lonnique Genelle). Knowing a good nag when she sees one, the fabulously foul-mouthed Saint gets a writ from God himself, forcing the trial to proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the prosecution, representing “God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth” is Yusef El-Fayoumy (John Romano) — if he wins this case, maybe the powers that be will let him out of hell. And so the trial begins, with a lollipop-sucking bailiff (Jake Van Tuyl) calling a parade of witnesses, from Judas’s grief-stricken mother, Henrietta (Vera Sloan), to a hard-of-hearing, stooped Mother Teresa (Patricia Tyler), to a pompous and smug Sigmund Freud (John Baldwin).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are too many fine performances to mention in detail here, but standouts definitely include Romano, who speaks with a delightfully smarmy, fake Persian accent and is seemingly propelled by his pelvis as he waltzes about the stage. Davidovich is also terrific, not just as the imperious and impatient judge but also as St. Matthew, and especially as the self-righteous Caiaphas the Elder (Guirgis wraps both hands around the eternal third-rail question of whether or not Jews were complicit in Christ’s death). Jake Vincent’s Pontius Pilate is an unrepentant GoodFella, while Jeff Clarke’s Satan is wicked good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, I doubt Guirgis is going to change many minds — those who believe that Judas was the traitorous Jew who sold their savior down the river will not be moved by this profane and profanity laden exercise in What If. Which is really a shame, because despite the linguistic pyrotechnics and the numerous moments of seriously comic relief, at its core, \u003cb>Judas\u003c/b> is a thoughtful rumination on the tug between faith and free will, as well as that even greater miracle, forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u003c/b> runs through October 18, 2009 at City Lights Theater Company in San Jose. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.cltc.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit cltc.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the August 3, 2009 issue of \u003ci>The New Yorker\u003c/i>, Joan Acocella wrote one of the magazine’s classic Critic at Large think pieces called “Betrayal.” In it, she pondered the various, sometimes conflicting, stories of Judas Iscariot as told in the Gospels; reported on the recent translation of a long-lost Gnostic tract about Judas; and compared several contemporary works about the man who supposedly sold out Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. I say ‘supposedly’ because there’s apparently a lot of reconsidering going on about the much-vilified Mr. Iscariot, the crux of which is that perhaps the poor fellow was merely doing his good friend’s bidding, to hasten Jesus’s martyrdom and subsequent resurrection. Besides, Jesus was a pretty well-known character in Judea: Did the authorities really need a patsy like Judas to lead them to the self-proclaimed Messiah? It just doesn’t make sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One citation that was missing from Acocella’s otherwise fine essay was \u003cb>The Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u003c/b>, a 2005 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, playing now through October 18, 2009 at City Lights Theater Company in San Jose. This fierce and frequently hilarious production, directed by Kit Wilder, follows the imagined trial, in purgatory, of Judas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Catatonic with the despair that caused him to take his own life, even before his former friend had been nailed to the cross, Judas (Isaac Benelli) is represented by Fabiana Aziza Cunningham (Alika Ululani Spencer), a tough, leggy defense attorney. Cunningham can’t get Judge Littlefield (Bill Davidovich), a Southern Comfort-swigging former Confederate soldier who, like Judas, hung himself rather than face disgrace, to give her client his day in court. Naturally she prays for 40 days and nights to St. Monica (Lonnique Genelle). Knowing a good nag when she sees one, the fabulously foul-mouthed Saint gets a writ from God himself, forcing the trial to proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the prosecution, representing “God and the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth” is Yusef El-Fayoumy (John Romano) — if he wins this case, maybe the powers that be will let him out of hell. And so the trial begins, with a lollipop-sucking bailiff (Jake Van Tuyl) calling a parade of witnesses, from Judas’s grief-stricken mother, Henrietta (Vera Sloan), to a hard-of-hearing, stooped Mother Teresa (Patricia Tyler), to a pompous and smug Sigmund Freud (John Baldwin).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are too many fine performances to mention in detail here, but standouts definitely include Romano, who speaks with a delightfully smarmy, fake Persian accent and is seemingly propelled by his pelvis as he waltzes about the stage. Davidovich is also terrific, not just as the imperious and impatient judge but also as St. Matthew, and especially as the self-righteous Caiaphas the Elder (Guirgis wraps both hands around the eternal third-rail question of whether or not Jews were complicit in Christ’s death). Jake Vincent’s Pontius Pilate is an unrepentant GoodFella, while Jeff Clarke’s Satan is wicked good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, I doubt Guirgis is going to change many minds — those who believe that Judas was the traitorous Jew who sold their savior down the river will not be moved by this profane and profanity laden exercise in What If. Which is really a shame, because despite the linguistic pyrotechnics and the numerous moments of seriously comic relief, at its core, \u003cb>Judas\u003c/b> is a thoughtful rumination on the tug between faith and free will, as well as that even greater miracle, forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Last Days of Judas Iscariot\u003c/b> runs through October 18, 2009 at City Lights Theater Company in San Jose. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.cltc.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit cltc.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
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}
},
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"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
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"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
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