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"content": "\u003cp>We just can’t get enough of the apocalypse. The imminent demise of civilization strikes a chord with the public and fuels many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters (\u003cb>Last Night\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Armageddon\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Deep Impact\u003c/b>, \u003cb>The Day After Tomorrow\u003c/b>). Even former sitcom star-turned-evangelist Kirk Cameron is getting in on the action with his participation in the \u003ca href=\"http://imdb.com/title/tt0190524/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Left Behind\u003c/a> film series. Is it wish fulfillment that fuels the subject’s popularity? (Audiences cheered when the White House was blown to bits during the previews for \u003cb>Judgment Day\u003c/b>). Or is it because these fictions allow folks to face their deepest fears? Or maybe people just like explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> is a thrilling and ambitious addition to the growing genre. Three years in the making, the play is presented by San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.foolsfury.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">foolsFURY Theater Company\u003c/a>. Writer Doug Dorst taps the dark undercurrent of modern society (a chronic sense of powerlessness, religious zealotry, governmental fearmongering) through his vision of a not-entirely-unfamiliar Orwellian world dominated by three forces: a totalitarian government (The Structure), a state-sponsored fundamentalist religion (The Makersellers), and the world of rampant consumerism (The Stuff-Thrusters).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The play begins with a woman falling from the sky, her suicide sparking days of endless rainfall, which will hasten the “end of times” through a major flood. Faced with imminent disaster, some cling to religion, government or consumerism for succor, others yeild to panic and confusion. As these characters are tested by increasingly dire events, they come to individually reveal and express the monster within, posing the question of what, if anything, separates humanity from the monster.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dorst’s characters are original and complicated and the actors who play them bring their own special something to the written word. Debora Eliezer carries the play with her compelling portrayal of a Makerseller awaiting Noah and his ark. Beth Wilmurt is mesmerizing as Mrs. Huddleston, a conflicted teacher torn between her allegiance to The Structure and her belief in freedom. And Blythe Foster comes alive as Delia, a clairvoyant prostitute, inciting laughter with her spot-on delivery. All actors contribute to communal characters, such as the seafaring pirate and the umbrella wielding Gestapo-esque figures representing The Structure. In a world full of jaded stars, it’s refreshing to witness the joy of these actors as they genuinely engage with the material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another note-worthy mention is Patrick Kaliski, the sound designer. He creates an eerily sinister atmosphere with sounds of persistent rain, white noise, and official announcements over a deconstructed public address system (the latter very cleverly utilized to inform the audience that The Structure has sanctioned a short intermission to purchase libations).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The production thrives most in its deviation from traditional structure, using theatrical abnormalities that make \u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> itself a monster. Instead of relying solely on in-scene dialogue, the narrative sometimes unfolds through the cyclical monologues of three characters. The actors also speak entirely original jargon created specifically for this alternate reality, referring to the body as a Skin Hull or the propaganda spoon fed to children as Structiculum. Even their movements stray from the norm, creating a raw physicality through choreographed flowing and plunging gestures that coincide with the flood’s invisible waves. The breakdown of conventional storytelling isn’t always effective, specifically when the cast engages in an arbitrary musical number that fails to deliver anything but groans. But the song is a minor and forgivable blunder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although a little lengthy and messy at times, \u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> truly is a “theatrical spectacle” and all of its risk-taking pays off in the end. I left the theater examining my own apocalyptic thought and anxiously awaiting the unveiling of my monster within.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> runs through March 23, 2008 at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St. (near 9th) in San Francisco. 415-626-2060. \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The production thrives most in its deviation from traditional structure, using theatrical abnormalities that make \u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> itself a monster. Instead of relying solely on in-scene dialogue, the narrative sometimes unfolds through the cyclical monologues of three characters. The actors also speak entirely original jargon created specifically for this alternate reality, referring to the body as a Skin Hull or the propaganda spoon fed to children as Structiculum. Even their movements stray from the norm, creating a raw physicality through choreographed flowing and plunging gestures that coincide with the flood’s invisible waves. The breakdown of conventional storytelling isn’t always effective, specifically when the cast engages in an arbitrary musical number that fails to deliver anything but groans. But the song is a minor and forgivable blunder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although a little lengthy and messy at times, \u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> truly is a “theatrical spectacle” and all of its risk-taking pays off in the end. I left the theater examining my own apocalyptic thought and anxiously awaiting the unveiling of my monster within.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Monster in the Dark\u003c/b> runs through March 23, 2008 at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St. (near 9th) in San Francisco. 415-626-2060. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last Saturday afternoon I drove to Cinema West in Fairfax, decided 12:30pm isn’t too early for popcorn, bought my ticket and went inside. Was I there for the latest epic romance? An indie film playing only at select theaters? A revival of a classic? Turns out it was a little of all three: San Francisco Opera’s first theatrical release of Giacomo Puccini’s \u003cb>La Rondine\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d been looking forward to this matinee for months. My husband, on the other hand, spent the drive to Fairfax enumerating the many other ways that we could spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon. But even he was won over by the benefits of opera at the movies. For example: you can wear jeans, there’s no pressure about clapping at the right or wrong time, tickets cost under $20, and you can enjoy soda and candy during the show. More importantly the sound quality is excellent, the picture is in high definition, and the cameras capture subtleties and expressions that can get lost in a big opera house. We were both genuinely moved by the story and by the immediacy of seeing the performers up close, thirty feet high, revealing the characters’ lives and loves to Puccini’s sweeping, romantic music. While it can’t replace the energy and excitement of a live performance, the theatrical release provides a more intimate and casual way to experience opera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>La Rondine (The Swallow)\u003c/b> tells the story of Magda, a young Parisian woman who lives in luxury as the mistress of a wealthy banker. When she falls in love with Ruggero, a naive young man from the country, she gives up the pleasures of her life in Paris, and must eventually decide whether she will deceive her young lover about her past. Though the opera is rarely performed, this production is an argument for mounting it more often due largely to the magnetic and deeply felt performance by Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu as Magda. Her voice is clear and rich and she floats high notes with grace and power. Equally revelatory is her physical portrayal, inhabiting Magda as a lively and conflicted young woman who seems to want to squeeze every drop of life from each moment. Gheorghiu is supported by excellent physical and vocal performances from Gerard Powers as the dapper poet Prunier and Anna Christy as the flighty maid Lisette. Only Misha Didyk, as the lover Ruggero, appeared stiff and was better to listen to than to watch. But the opera belongs to Gheorghiu’s Magda, and she holds the audience’s attention throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Operas have been filmed for decades, often for release on public television, with mixed results in capturing the vibrancy and depth of live performances. But recent advances in digital technology have opened up new options for filming live operatic performances. San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, both under new general directors since 2006, are taking advantage of this technology to bring opera out of the opera house and to wider audiences. In 2007, San Francisco Opera installed a high definition video production center at the War Memorial Opera House and filmed four operas from the season, which are now being released in movie theaters. The Met has been transmitting select operas in movie theaters since 2006. The management of both companies insist that opera is still best seen live, but with so many people unable to attend a performance (cost and distance are frequently prohibitive) these theatrical releases are an exciting way to reach new and old audiences alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re interested in exploring this innovative way to enjoy opera, or you just like the idea of eating popcorn while a soprano warbles onscreen, there are plenty of opportunities. \u003cb>La Rondine\u003c/b> will play at the Castro Theater on March 17, 2008 with future productions of \u003cb>Samson and Delilah\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Don Giovanni\u003c/b>, and \u003cb>Madama Butterfly\u003c/b> airing in theaters around the Bay Area in March and April, 2008. \u003ca href=\"http://www.thebiggerpicture.us/opera/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">More information\u003c/a> is available at thebiggerpicture. The Met’s next release is Benjamin Britten’s dark and brooding \u003cb>Peter Grimes\u003c/b>, which plays in local theaters March 15-16, 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last Saturday afternoon I drove to Cinema West in Fairfax, decided 12:30pm isn’t too early for popcorn, bought my ticket and went inside. Was I there for the latest epic romance? An indie film playing only at select theaters? A revival of a classic? Turns out it was a little of all three: San Francisco Opera’s first theatrical release of Giacomo Puccini’s \u003cb>La Rondine\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d been looking forward to this matinee for months. My husband, on the other hand, spent the drive to Fairfax enumerating the many other ways that we could spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon. But even he was won over by the benefits of opera at the movies. For example: you can wear jeans, there’s no pressure about clapping at the right or wrong time, tickets cost under $20, and you can enjoy soda and candy during the show. More importantly the sound quality is excellent, the picture is in high definition, and the cameras capture subtleties and expressions that can get lost in a big opera house. We were both genuinely moved by the story and by the immediacy of seeing the performers up close, thirty feet high, revealing the characters’ lives and loves to Puccini’s sweeping, romantic music. While it can’t replace the energy and excitement of a live performance, the theatrical release provides a more intimate and casual way to experience opera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>La Rondine (The Swallow)\u003c/b> tells the story of Magda, a young Parisian woman who lives in luxury as the mistress of a wealthy banker. When she falls in love with Ruggero, a naive young man from the country, she gives up the pleasures of her life in Paris, and must eventually decide whether she will deceive her young lover about her past. Though the opera is rarely performed, this production is an argument for mounting it more often due largely to the magnetic and deeply felt performance by Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu as Magda. Her voice is clear and rich and she floats high notes with grace and power. Equally revelatory is her physical portrayal, inhabiting Magda as a lively and conflicted young woman who seems to want to squeeze every drop of life from each moment. Gheorghiu is supported by excellent physical and vocal performances from Gerard Powers as the dapper poet Prunier and Anna Christy as the flighty maid Lisette. Only Misha Didyk, as the lover Ruggero, appeared stiff and was better to listen to than to watch. But the opera belongs to Gheorghiu’s Magda, and she holds the audience’s attention throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Operas have been filmed for decades, often for release on public television, with mixed results in capturing the vibrancy and depth of live performances. But recent advances in digital technology have opened up new options for filming live operatic performances. San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, both under new general directors since 2006, are taking advantage of this technology to bring opera out of the opera house and to wider audiences. In 2007, San Francisco Opera installed a high definition video production center at the War Memorial Opera House and filmed four operas from the season, which are now being released in movie theaters. The Met has been transmitting select operas in movie theaters since 2006. The management of both companies insist that opera is still best seen live, but with so many people unable to attend a performance (cost and distance are frequently prohibitive) these theatrical releases are an exciting way to reach new and old audiences alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re interested in exploring this innovative way to enjoy opera, or you just like the idea of eating popcorn while a soprano warbles onscreen, there are plenty of opportunities. \u003cb>La Rondine\u003c/b> will play at the Castro Theater on March 17, 2008 with future productions of \u003cb>Samson and Delilah\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Don Giovanni\u003c/b>, and \u003cb>Madama Butterfly\u003c/b> airing in theaters around the Bay Area in March and April, 2008. \u003ca href=\"http://www.thebiggerpicture.us/opera/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">More information\u003c/a> is available at thebiggerpicture. The Met’s next release is Benjamin Britten’s dark and brooding \u003cb>Peter Grimes\u003c/b>, which plays in local theaters March 15-16, 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Greek myth of Orpheus is a timeless legend about the power and futility of human love, in which Orpheus, a gifted musician, braves the dangers of the underworld to beg for the return of his beloved Eurydice. It’s been a popular subject for centuries, with composers inspired by the sacred ideals of love and music as embodied by Orpheus’ pursuit of his beloved even in death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you like your Greek mythology with a little more spice, then read on! Everything is turned upside down in Jacques Offenbach’s 1858 operetta \u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b>. Instead of a noble pair of lovers, Orpheus is now a conceited music professor pursuing nymphs while his wife Eurydice hates his music and is having an affair with a shepherd. Instead of noble gods and goddesses led by the brave Jupiter, Mount Olympus is populated by bored and dissolute deities who can’t wait to revolt against Jupiter’s hypocritical reign. There is seduction, infidelity, sexual innuendo, and inebriation. There’s even an infectious can-can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b> is the opening production of Pocket Opera’s 2008 season. For more than thirty years, Pocket Opera has been presenting intimate, accessible opera productions to Bay Area audiences, performing mostly in English with translations by the company’s founder, Donald Pippin. Now in his early eighties, Pippin still leads from the piano and introduces each scene with brevity and wit. His libretti are clever, flexible, and accessible. Pippin believes in translating “the spirit of the work rather than word by word, with complete fidelity to the composer’s musical intentions” and the translations serve the singers, audience, and original texts alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pocket Opera works in small houses with minimal sets, costumes, and staging. The orchestra is small, usually 8-15 instrumentalists with Pippin at the piano. There is none of the pomp and circumstance that you can expect from larger operatic productions, which often include dramatic set changes, elaborate costumes and even animals onstage (I’ve seen everything from a toy poodle to an elephant!). Pocket Opera’s \u003cb>Orpheus\u003c/b> is both approachable and enjoyable, but there’s also nowhere to hide — during opening night, on the few occasions when a line was missed or the singers and orchestra were out of sync, you could tell immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While energetic and committed, the cast possessed a wide range of vocal and dramatic ability. The production was anchored by Jillian Boye’s excellent performance as Eurydice. She brought a powerful voice, good comedic instincts and a vivacious presence to the role. Michael Mendelsohn was a hilarious Pluto, changing easily from seductive to scheming to silly as the situation required. In smaller roles, Jennifer Nadig as Venus and Julia Louise Hosack as Diana stood out for their bright singing and comic energy. A bit less comfortable when singing, Nicholas Patton as Orpheus and Donna Olson as Public Opinion were persuasive and funny during their speaking parts. Public Opinion’s characterization as a member of the paparazzi, frequently snapping pictures of the main characters, was an amusing modern touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b> is an operetta, a light comedic genre that is frequently performed in English. As a result, this production lacks the sense of revelation that can come from seeing a well-known foreign work performed in a good translation. The rest of Pocket Opera’s season includes plenty of opportunities to see English versions of familiar favorites that are usually performed in foreign languages, including Mozart’s \u003cb>Cosi Fan Tutte\u003c/b> and Puccini’s \u003cb>La Bohème\u003c/b>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pocket Opera’s \u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b> runs through March 15, 2008 at the Legion of Honor, located in Lincoln Park at 34th Avenue and Clement Street in San Francisco. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.pocketopera.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit pocketopera.org or call 415-972-8934.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Greek myth of Orpheus is a timeless legend about the power and futility of human love, in which Orpheus, a gifted musician, braves the dangers of the underworld to beg for the return of his beloved Eurydice. It’s been a popular subject for centuries, with composers inspired by the sacred ideals of love and music as embodied by Orpheus’ pursuit of his beloved even in death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you like your Greek mythology with a little more spice, then read on! Everything is turned upside down in Jacques Offenbach’s 1858 operetta \u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b>. Instead of a noble pair of lovers, Orpheus is now a conceited music professor pursuing nymphs while his wife Eurydice hates his music and is having an affair with a shepherd. Instead of noble gods and goddesses led by the brave Jupiter, Mount Olympus is populated by bored and dissolute deities who can’t wait to revolt against Jupiter’s hypocritical reign. There is seduction, infidelity, sexual innuendo, and inebriation. There’s even an infectious can-can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Orpheus in the Underworld\u003c/b> is the opening production of Pocket Opera’s 2008 season. For more than thirty years, Pocket Opera has been presenting intimate, accessible opera productions to Bay Area audiences, performing mostly in English with translations by the company’s founder, Donald Pippin. Now in his early eighties, Pippin still leads from the piano and introduces each scene with brevity and wit. His libretti are clever, flexible, and accessible. Pippin believes in translating “the spirit of the work rather than word by word, with complete fidelity to the composer’s musical intentions” and the translations serve the singers, audience, and original texts alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pocket Opera works in small houses with minimal sets, costumes, and staging. The orchestra is small, usually 8-15 instrumentalists with Pippin at the piano. There is none of the pomp and circumstance that you can expect from larger operatic productions, which often include dramatic set changes, elaborate costumes and even animals onstage (I’ve seen everything from a toy poodle to an elephant!). Pocket Opera’s \u003cb>Orpheus\u003c/b> is both approachable and enjoyable, but there’s also nowhere to hide — during opening night, on the few occasions when a line was missed or the singers and orchestra were out of sync, you could tell immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While energetic and committed, the cast possessed a wide range of vocal and dramatic ability. The production was anchored by Jillian Boye’s excellent performance as Eurydice. She brought a powerful voice, good comedic instincts and a vivacious presence to the role. Michael Mendelsohn was a hilarious Pluto, changing easily from seductive to scheming to silly as the situation required. In smaller roles, Jennifer Nadig as Venus and Julia Louise Hosack as Diana stood out for their bright singing and comic energy. A bit less comfortable when singing, Nicholas Patton as Orpheus and Donna Olson as Public Opinion were persuasive and funny during their speaking parts. Public Opinion’s characterization as a member of the paparazzi, frequently snapping pictures of the main characters, was an amusing modern touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Opera San José: Rigoletto",
"headTitle": "Opera San José: Rigoletto | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Opera San José’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b> gives you your Verdi straight. The opera is simply staged, with traditional costumes and sets. This is not a production that seeks new interpretations or insights by updating or rethinking the opera. Instead, with strong singing and acting from the leads and the ensemble, the brilliance of the score and the drama of the carefully constructed libretto by Francesco Maria Piave come alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opera San José maintains a resident company, meaning that many of the singers stay with the company for at least a year and perform a variety of roles throughout the season. Working primarily with young singers early in their careers, Opera San José offers them opportunities to perform significant roles and to work together as a company over time. Many of the productions, including this one, are double cast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick synopsis: Rigoletto is a hunchbacked court jester for the corrupt and licentious Duke of Mantua. In the opening scene, Rigoletto is cursed by a nobleman whose daughter has been ruined by the Duke. The curse terrifies Rigoletto because he has a daughter, Gilda, whom he is keeping secluded in order to protect her from the decadent court. Despite Rigoletto’s precautions, the Duke seduces Gilda. Rigoletto swears revenge and plots to kill the Duke, but unbeknownst to him Gilda decides to sacrifice herself for love and is killed instead. At the end of the opera, Rigoletto discovers her body and is devastated at the loss of the only thing he loved in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this performance, Rigoletto, Gilda, and the Duke were all portrayed by strong singers and actors with specific and believable approaches to their roles. Andrew Fernando physically embodied the challenging role of Rigoletto, limping heavily on one leg. While he sometimes strained in the upper register, he had a rich lower sound and conveyed a sense of barely contained fury and frustration. As the Duke, Isaac Hurtado sang with a smooth tenor and had a charm that recalled the iconic high school golden boy… star athlete, top student, president of the class. But the Duke’s magnetism is equaled only by his indifference to the suffering that he leaves in his wake. As Gilda, Rochelle Bard enchanted the audience with a bright tone and floating coloratura. Gilda came alive as she fell in love with the Duke, transforming from an uneasily obedient child into a more complex and confident young woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the overture the orchestra set the tone for the dark story to come, creating a foreboding mood that clashed with the hedonistic laughter of the opening scene. Soon after Rigoletto’s terror came through clearly as he recalled the old man’s curse in a dotted rhythm echoing another famous avenging father of opera, the Commendatore in Mozart’s \u003cb>Don Giovanni\u003c/b>. But some of the most stirring moments of the evening were quieter, including Bard’s riveting and seemingly effortless performance of the virtuosic ‘Caro nome” in which Gilda recalls the name of her beloved. Another quietly compelling scene occurred in Rigoletto and Gilda’s duet in Act II, after Rigoletto discovered that the Duke seduced his daughter. The father and daughter began standing apart from each other but the music slowly united them for a rare moment in which forgiveness trumped vengeance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melodrama at the level and intensity established during the first two acts is difficult to sustain, and there was a noticeable drop in energy during the third act. But overall the performers had enough commitment and emotion to keep audience members on the edges of their seats. With this \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b>, Opera San José offers a strong and compelling production of one of Italian opera’s great masterpieces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opera San José’s production of \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b> is at the California Theatre through Sunday, February 24, 2008. The California Theatre is located at 345 South First Street, San José. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.operasj.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit www.operasj.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Opera San José's current production of Giuseppe Verdi's \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b> gives you your Verdi straight. The opera is simply staged, with traditional costumes and sets. This is not a production that seeks new interpretations or insights by updating or rethinking the opera. Instead, with strong singing and acting from the leads and the ensemble, the brilliance of the score and the drama of the carefully constructed libretto by Francesco Maria Piave come alive. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Opera San José’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b> gives you your Verdi straight. The opera is simply staged, with traditional costumes and sets. This is not a production that seeks new interpretations or insights by updating or rethinking the opera. Instead, with strong singing and acting from the leads and the ensemble, the brilliance of the score and the drama of the carefully constructed libretto by Francesco Maria Piave come alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opera San José maintains a resident company, meaning that many of the singers stay with the company for at least a year and perform a variety of roles throughout the season. Working primarily with young singers early in their careers, Opera San José offers them opportunities to perform significant roles and to work together as a company over time. Many of the productions, including this one, are double cast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A quick synopsis: Rigoletto is a hunchbacked court jester for the corrupt and licentious Duke of Mantua. In the opening scene, Rigoletto is cursed by a nobleman whose daughter has been ruined by the Duke. The curse terrifies Rigoletto because he has a daughter, Gilda, whom he is keeping secluded in order to protect her from the decadent court. Despite Rigoletto’s precautions, the Duke seduces Gilda. Rigoletto swears revenge and plots to kill the Duke, but unbeknownst to him Gilda decides to sacrifice herself for love and is killed instead. At the end of the opera, Rigoletto discovers her body and is devastated at the loss of the only thing he loved in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this performance, Rigoletto, Gilda, and the Duke were all portrayed by strong singers and actors with specific and believable approaches to their roles. Andrew Fernando physically embodied the challenging role of Rigoletto, limping heavily on one leg. While he sometimes strained in the upper register, he had a rich lower sound and conveyed a sense of barely contained fury and frustration. As the Duke, Isaac Hurtado sang with a smooth tenor and had a charm that recalled the iconic high school golden boy… star athlete, top student, president of the class. But the Duke’s magnetism is equaled only by his indifference to the suffering that he leaves in his wake. As Gilda, Rochelle Bard enchanted the audience with a bright tone and floating coloratura. Gilda came alive as she fell in love with the Duke, transforming from an uneasily obedient child into a more complex and confident young woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the overture the orchestra set the tone for the dark story to come, creating a foreboding mood that clashed with the hedonistic laughter of the opening scene. Soon after Rigoletto’s terror came through clearly as he recalled the old man’s curse in a dotted rhythm echoing another famous avenging father of opera, the Commendatore in Mozart’s \u003cb>Don Giovanni\u003c/b>. But some of the most stirring moments of the evening were quieter, including Bard’s riveting and seemingly effortless performance of the virtuosic ‘Caro nome” in which Gilda recalls the name of her beloved. Another quietly compelling scene occurred in Rigoletto and Gilda’s duet in Act II, after Rigoletto discovered that the Duke seduced his daughter. The father and daughter began standing apart from each other but the music slowly united them for a rare moment in which forgiveness trumped vengeance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Melodrama at the level and intensity established during the first two acts is difficult to sustain, and there was a noticeable drop in energy during the third act. But overall the performers had enough commitment and emotion to keep audience members on the edges of their seats. With this \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b>, Opera San José offers a strong and compelling production of one of Italian opera’s great masterpieces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opera San José’s production of \u003cb>Rigoletto\u003c/b> is at the California Theatre through Sunday, February 24, 2008. The California Theatre is located at 345 South First Street, San José. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.operasj.org\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit www.operasj.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Shut up and listen.” “I want to tell you something.” “Listen to me!” These phrases, and countless variations thereof, are a recurring mantra in David Mamet’s \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b>, now running through March 2 at San Jose Stage Company. Okay: The f-bomb is dropped with far greater frequency throughout the 1984 two-act play, but it is this insistence to be heard, this demand to have one’s say, that characterizes this pitiless look into the heartless souls of real men doing a real man’s job, which, in this case, is selling bogus real-estate investment opportunities to a world full of suckers and fools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drama, which also has more than a few flat-out hilarious moments, opens in a Chinese restaurant, which at San Jose Stage is cleverly created from a single black-and-red paneled wall, a pair of lanterns, and a round table covered in a restaurant-red tablecloth, upon which sit two fortune cookies. In the first of three two-person vignettes, we meet the once great salesman Shelley (the Machine) Levine, masterfully played by Stephen Klum, and John Williamson, whose icy demeanor is brought to chilling life by Michael C. Storm. Levine is cold, too: he hasn’t closed a deal in months. But he is still a salesman, so he uses all his considerable powers of bullshit to pry a few good leads from office-manager-drone Williamson’s uncaring claws. Good leads are the lifeblood of salesmen like Levine. They are the difference between pitching one’s wares to a qualified buyer or a deadbeat, who, for Mamet’s chummy cadre of racists, usually means someone with a last name like Patel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right away we get a taste for Levine’s salesman’s schtick. Confronted by Williamson with the facts of his poor performance, Levine deflects and changes the focus, trying in vain to turn the conversation back to his glory days as top dog. “Don’t look at the board,” where failure is conspicuous by his name’s absence, he begs Williamson, “Look at me.” Like any good salesman’s line, this one is based on a noble ideal: shouldn’t people be more valuable to an organization than mere money? Nice sentiment, but Levine is no socialist, and he’d say just about anything to get what he needs. At one point he even offers to pay Williamson for the leads, even though he knows he doesn’t have enough money in his pocket to cough up his share of the lunch bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scene between Levine and Williamson offers the audience an introductory taste of that patented, stutter-step, mannered-interruption that is sometimes known as Mametspeak. The next pair of actors deliver even more. Dave Moss, played with guilty-pleasure coarseness by Michael Ray Wisely, is feeling out George Aaronow, who, in Colin Thomson’s expressive hands is a nervous Freddo Corleone. Moss is sick to death of Williamson and the masters who hold his leash, so he’s hatched a plan to strike at the heart of the company, and Aaronow is just the man to help him carry it out. As the two actors stop and start their lines, whose rhythms are carved into stone by the notoriously controlling Mamet, you can almost hear the audience hold its collective breath. More than the blizzard of f-bombs, this is what they have come to \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b> for, to see how well the actors will handle Mamet’s deliberately stilted and choppy dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross and Thomson handle their contrived pauses beautifully, but I find this little game that Mamet has perpetuated to be tiresome in the extreme. The reverence that the actors, and thus the audience, are obliged to show for the playwright’s sacred text distracts from the characters that Mamet has drawn for us. These are rich, complicated, contradictory individuals. Why would I want to leave them behind, even momentarily, to pay homage at the altar of Mamet? The net effect is that Mamet’s creations drop out of character, however subtly, to become actors, albeit supremely capable ones, on a stage reading lines in a play. For the life of me I don’t understand why an artist would prefer his audience to look at the frame around his picture rather than the content of the picture itself, but maybe I don’t fully appreciate the benefits of branding one’s aesthetic. “Listen to me,” Mamet seems to be demanding of his audience. Sorry, pal, I’d rather get lost in your characters. Don’t take this the wrong way, but they are a hell of a lot more interesting than you or your adorably earnest pile of art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the third pair of actors take their turn at the restaurant’s table, we are ready to see one of these guys in action on a real live mark. Until this point in the play, the sales jobs we’ve witnessed have been between the salesmen, whose familiarity with the form proves a formidable defense. Enter James Lingk. Rendered with affection and nuance by Kevin Kennedy, he’s no match for Richard Roma, played with peacock-like bluster and bravado by Randall King. Roma is a philosopher shyster, a veritable Heidegger of hustle. Lingk doesn’t have a chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither do we as the lights come up on the second act, which takes place entirely within the offices of these real-estate hucksters. The scenes between Levine and Roma are some of the best between two actors that you could ever hope to see; Klum’s and King’s performances of these touchstones are a joy to watch. I won’t tell you what happens, in case you are not fully familiar with the story. Suffice it to say that act two contains some of the funniest, most inflammatory dialogue your eardrums will ever have the pleasure of receiving, and the entire cast rises to the heady occasion (of the many withering put downs, Roma’s “Let me buy you a pack of gum and show you how to chew it” is one of the few that I can actually reproduce here).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the displays of shear wit and wordplay, our deeply flawed heroes never forsake their salesmanship skills. “I don’t understand,” Roma says in response to a perfectly understandable statement. “What does that mean?” he asks a few beats later, even though he and everyone in the theater knows exactly what “that” means. This is the meat of \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b>, a world in which language is a weapon to be wielded until your foe yields, or wilts, as Levine puts it. I surrender and you should, too: Go and see this eff’ing play!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b> continues at San Jose Stage Company through March 2, 2008. 490 South First Street, San Jose; (408) 283-7142. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanjosestage.com/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit sanjosestage.com.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Shut up and listen.” “I want to tell you something.” “Listen to me!” These phrases, and countless variations thereof, are a recurring mantra in David Mamet’s \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b>, now running through March 2 at San Jose Stage Company. Okay: The f-bomb is dropped with far greater frequency throughout the 1984 two-act play, but it is this insistence to be heard, this demand to have one’s say, that characterizes this pitiless look into the heartless souls of real men doing a real man’s job, which, in this case, is selling bogus real-estate investment opportunities to a world full of suckers and fools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drama, which also has more than a few flat-out hilarious moments, opens in a Chinese restaurant, which at San Jose Stage is cleverly created from a single black-and-red paneled wall, a pair of lanterns, and a round table covered in a restaurant-red tablecloth, upon which sit two fortune cookies. In the first of three two-person vignettes, we meet the once great salesman Shelley (the Machine) Levine, masterfully played by Stephen Klum, and John Williamson, whose icy demeanor is brought to chilling life by Michael C. Storm. Levine is cold, too: he hasn’t closed a deal in months. But he is still a salesman, so he uses all his considerable powers of bullshit to pry a few good leads from office-manager-drone Williamson’s uncaring claws. Good leads are the lifeblood of salesmen like Levine. They are the difference between pitching one’s wares to a qualified buyer or a deadbeat, who, for Mamet’s chummy cadre of racists, usually means someone with a last name like Patel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right away we get a taste for Levine’s salesman’s schtick. Confronted by Williamson with the facts of his poor performance, Levine deflects and changes the focus, trying in vain to turn the conversation back to his glory days as top dog. “Don’t look at the board,” where failure is conspicuous by his name’s absence, he begs Williamson, “Look at me.” Like any good salesman’s line, this one is based on a noble ideal: shouldn’t people be more valuable to an organization than mere money? Nice sentiment, but Levine is no socialist, and he’d say just about anything to get what he needs. At one point he even offers to pay Williamson for the leads, even though he knows he doesn’t have enough money in his pocket to cough up his share of the lunch bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scene between Levine and Williamson offers the audience an introductory taste of that patented, stutter-step, mannered-interruption that is sometimes known as Mametspeak. The next pair of actors deliver even more. Dave Moss, played with guilty-pleasure coarseness by Michael Ray Wisely, is feeling out George Aaronow, who, in Colin Thomson’s expressive hands is a nervous Freddo Corleone. Moss is sick to death of Williamson and the masters who hold his leash, so he’s hatched a plan to strike at the heart of the company, and Aaronow is just the man to help him carry it out. As the two actors stop and start their lines, whose rhythms are carved into stone by the notoriously controlling Mamet, you can almost hear the audience hold its collective breath. More than the blizzard of f-bombs, this is what they have come to \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b> for, to see how well the actors will handle Mamet’s deliberately stilted and choppy dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross and Thomson handle their contrived pauses beautifully, but I find this little game that Mamet has perpetuated to be tiresome in the extreme. The reverence that the actors, and thus the audience, are obliged to show for the playwright’s sacred text distracts from the characters that Mamet has drawn for us. These are rich, complicated, contradictory individuals. Why would I want to leave them behind, even momentarily, to pay homage at the altar of Mamet? The net effect is that Mamet’s creations drop out of character, however subtly, to become actors, albeit supremely capable ones, on a stage reading lines in a play. For the life of me I don’t understand why an artist would prefer his audience to look at the frame around his picture rather than the content of the picture itself, but maybe I don’t fully appreciate the benefits of branding one’s aesthetic. “Listen to me,” Mamet seems to be demanding of his audience. Sorry, pal, I’d rather get lost in your characters. Don’t take this the wrong way, but they are a hell of a lot more interesting than you or your adorably earnest pile of art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the third pair of actors take their turn at the restaurant’s table, we are ready to see one of these guys in action on a real live mark. Until this point in the play, the sales jobs we’ve witnessed have been between the salesmen, whose familiarity with the form proves a formidable defense. Enter James Lingk. Rendered with affection and nuance by Kevin Kennedy, he’s no match for Richard Roma, played with peacock-like bluster and bravado by Randall King. Roma is a philosopher shyster, a veritable Heidegger of hustle. Lingk doesn’t have a chance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither do we as the lights come up on the second act, which takes place entirely within the offices of these real-estate hucksters. The scenes between Levine and Roma are some of the best between two actors that you could ever hope to see; Klum’s and King’s performances of these touchstones are a joy to watch. I won’t tell you what happens, in case you are not fully familiar with the story. Suffice it to say that act two contains some of the funniest, most inflammatory dialogue your eardrums will ever have the pleasure of receiving, and the entire cast rises to the heady occasion (of the many withering put downs, Roma’s “Let me buy you a pack of gum and show you how to chew it” is one of the few that I can actually reproduce here).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the displays of shear wit and wordplay, our deeply flawed heroes never forsake their salesmanship skills. “I don’t understand,” Roma says in response to a perfectly understandable statement. “What does that mean?” he asks a few beats later, even though he and everyone in the theater knows exactly what “that” means. This is the meat of \u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b>, a world in which language is a weapon to be wielded until your foe yields, or wilts, as Levine puts it. I surrender and you should, too: Go and see this eff’ing play!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Glengarry Glen Ross\u003c/b> continues at San Jose Stage Company through March 2, 2008. 490 South First Street, San Jose; (408) 283-7142. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.sanjosestage.com/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a>, visit sanjosestage.com.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Somewhere in the thick of \u003cb>True West\u003c/b>, Sam Shepard’s classic tale of brothers, alcohol, Hollywood — and toasters, ne’er-do-well Lee tells his younger, Ivy League-educated, screenwriter brother, Austin, about an idea he has for a movie. Lee’s story is a preposterous riff on Steven Spielberg’s first full-length film, \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, in which Dennis Weaver is stalked by the mysterious driver of a menacing 18-wheeler. Like Weaver and the truck in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee’s pair tear up a lot of asphalt. Unlike the characters in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee’s cartoon daydreams dodge twisters in the Texas panhandle, run out of gas on cue, and then continue their four-wheel struggle on four legs. (Did I mention that both drivers are conveniently pulling horse trailers?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin, the artiste, is appalled by the stupidity of his oafish older brother’s story, embarrassed that he could even be related to someone whose mind could harbor such implausibly idiotic plot twists. But Lee has a metaphysical side. “The one who’s chasin’ doesn’t know where the other one is takin’ him,” Lee explains. “The one who’s being chased doesn’t know where he’s going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That just about sums up the relationship between Lee, played with authority and passion by director Ray Renati — who stepped into the role two weeks before the show’s opening, following the withdrawal of the actor originally cast — and Austin, who is brought to impatient, exasperated, cowering, and gloriously drunken life by John Romano. Renati and Romano don’t look a lot like real brothers — Renati, with his bad posture and wife-beater wardrobe, is a hulking, hair-trigger presence, whereas Romano is more of a John Hodgman type. But brothers are usually as different as they are alike, and Shepard’s sibs hew to that immutable rule. That’s not the play’s surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee is a petty thief by trade and temperament. A man who can live by himself in the Mojave for months on end, Lee prefers a world in which interactions with his neighbors occur in the dead of night when his hosts are safely asleep. How many color television sets and silver services do these people need, anyway? Lee reasons. He’s an angel of sorts, relieving mortal souls of the burden of too many earthly possessions. He’s Kris Kristofferson’s “walking contradiction,” a man who bristles when Austin offers him a cash handout, but is not too proud to badger his brother until the poor sop loans him his car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin is the mama’s boy who made good. When it’s time for mom to vacation in Alaska, it’s Austin who gets the call to house-sit and tend her precious plants, even though Lee lives close by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the play opens, Lee is sipping a mid-morning beer in their mom’s kitchen and thinking through, as best his thick brain will permit, this latest familial slight. Having nothing better to do, he proceeds to annoy the crap out of his brother. Austin is preparing for the prototypical “big meeting” with a big-time Hollywood producer. Working by candlelight, his preferred work affectation when it’s time to conjure the muse, Austin is struggling. Somewhere amid the piles of paper scattered about his typewriter (\u003cb>True West\u003c/b> premiered at The Magic Theatre back in 1980), is a love story that Austin has been pouring his heart into. For all his college training and smarts, this is hard work that does not necessarily come naturally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, it turns out, is something of a savant when it comes to thinking up crazy scenarios that people will pay good money to watch with a bag of popcorn. It takes Lee just one conversation with producer Saul Kimmer, played with bravado and bluster by Kevin High, to land himself a golf game with the mini mogul. Lee has been underestimated all his life, so he uses the producer’s low estimations of his golfing abilities to snare Kimmer into a bet to make his movie. Before Austin knows what’s happened, his deal with the producer has turned into an assignment, which he refuses, to write his barely-literate brother’s screenplay. Even though Saul has arrived at this uncomfortable place through Lee’s trickery, he recognizes that Lee’s idea is actually better than Austin’s. For all Lee’s ostensible outsiderness, he is more in tune with the tastes of the American movie-going public than his hot-shot brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A great deal of drinking ensues, which was my favorite part of the play because Romano is a terrific drunk and Renati’s multi-layered portrayal of Lee’s vulnerable side gives that character its required arc. While Lee struggles at the typewriter, Austin pinches a dozen or so of his neighbors’ toasters during an all-night crime spree. Austin, it seems, can beat Lee at his game, too. Does that make them even? Only inasmuch as their mutual jealousy and contempt for each other is about par.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the play, Shepard is channeling Albee, with the brothers literally at each other’s throats, rolling in a sea of beer cans, toasters, garbage, and the remains of a golf-clubbed typewriter. Austin and Lee are caught in a final face-off. Austin having played his final card to make good his escape; Lee standing between Austin and the door. Each has been chasing the other, neither knowing where the other would take him, let alone where he might be headed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>True West\u003c/b> continues at The Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K; Mountain View, 650-254-1148, through February 3. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.thepear.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit thepear.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Somewhere in the thick of \u003cb>True West\u003c/b>, Sam Shepard's classic tale of brothers, alcohol, Hollywood -- and toasters, ne'er-do-well Lee tells his younger, Ivy League-educated, screenwriter brother, Austin, about an idea he has for a movie. Lee's story is a preposterous riff on Steven Spielberg's first full-length film, \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, in which Dennis Weaver is stalked by the mysterious driver of a menacing 18-wheeler. Like Weaver and the truck in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee's pair tear up a lot of asphalt. Unlike the characters in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee's cartoon daydreams dodge twisters in the Texas panhandle, run out of gas on cue, and then continue their four-wheel struggle on four legs. (Did I mention that both drivers are conveniently pulling horse trailers?) Austin, the artiste, is appalled by the stupidity of his oafish older brother's story, embarrassed that he could even be related to someone whose mind could harbor such implausibly idiotic plot twists. But Lee has a metaphysical side. \"The one who's chasin' doesn't know where the other one is takin' him,\" Lee explains. \"The one who's being chased doesn't know where he's going.\"",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Somewhere in the thick of \u003cb>True West\u003c/b>, Sam Shepard’s classic tale of brothers, alcohol, Hollywood — and toasters, ne’er-do-well Lee tells his younger, Ivy League-educated, screenwriter brother, Austin, about an idea he has for a movie. Lee’s story is a preposterous riff on Steven Spielberg’s first full-length film, \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, in which Dennis Weaver is stalked by the mysterious driver of a menacing 18-wheeler. Like Weaver and the truck in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee’s pair tear up a lot of asphalt. Unlike the characters in \u003cb>Duel\u003c/b>, Lee’s cartoon daydreams dodge twisters in the Texas panhandle, run out of gas on cue, and then continue their four-wheel struggle on four legs. (Did I mention that both drivers are conveniently pulling horse trailers?)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin, the artiste, is appalled by the stupidity of his oafish older brother’s story, embarrassed that he could even be related to someone whose mind could harbor such implausibly idiotic plot twists. But Lee has a metaphysical side. “The one who’s chasin’ doesn’t know where the other one is takin’ him,” Lee explains. “The one who’s being chased doesn’t know where he’s going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That just about sums up the relationship between Lee, played with authority and passion by director Ray Renati — who stepped into the role two weeks before the show’s opening, following the withdrawal of the actor originally cast — and Austin, who is brought to impatient, exasperated, cowering, and gloriously drunken life by John Romano. Renati and Romano don’t look a lot like real brothers — Renati, with his bad posture and wife-beater wardrobe, is a hulking, hair-trigger presence, whereas Romano is more of a John Hodgman type. But brothers are usually as different as they are alike, and Shepard’s sibs hew to that immutable rule. That’s not the play’s surprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee is a petty thief by trade and temperament. A man who can live by himself in the Mojave for months on end, Lee prefers a world in which interactions with his neighbors occur in the dead of night when his hosts are safely asleep. How many color television sets and silver services do these people need, anyway? Lee reasons. He’s an angel of sorts, relieving mortal souls of the burden of too many earthly possessions. He’s Kris Kristofferson’s “walking contradiction,” a man who bristles when Austin offers him a cash handout, but is not too proud to badger his brother until the poor sop loans him his car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Austin is the mama’s boy who made good. When it’s time for mom to vacation in Alaska, it’s Austin who gets the call to house-sit and tend her precious plants, even though Lee lives close by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the play opens, Lee is sipping a mid-morning beer in their mom’s kitchen and thinking through, as best his thick brain will permit, this latest familial slight. Having nothing better to do, he proceeds to annoy the crap out of his brother. Austin is preparing for the prototypical “big meeting” with a big-time Hollywood producer. Working by candlelight, his preferred work affectation when it’s time to conjure the muse, Austin is struggling. Somewhere amid the piles of paper scattered about his typewriter (\u003cb>True West\u003c/b> premiered at The Magic Theatre back in 1980), is a love story that Austin has been pouring his heart into. For all his college training and smarts, this is hard work that does not necessarily come naturally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee, it turns out, is something of a savant when it comes to thinking up crazy scenarios that people will pay good money to watch with a bag of popcorn. It takes Lee just one conversation with producer Saul Kimmer, played with bravado and bluster by Kevin High, to land himself a golf game with the mini mogul. Lee has been underestimated all his life, so he uses the producer’s low estimations of his golfing abilities to snare Kimmer into a bet to make his movie. Before Austin knows what’s happened, his deal with the producer has turned into an assignment, which he refuses, to write his barely-literate brother’s screenplay. Even though Saul has arrived at this uncomfortable place through Lee’s trickery, he recognizes that Lee’s idea is actually better than Austin’s. For all Lee’s ostensible outsiderness, he is more in tune with the tastes of the American movie-going public than his hot-shot brother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A great deal of drinking ensues, which was my favorite part of the play because Romano is a terrific drunk and Renati’s multi-layered portrayal of Lee’s vulnerable side gives that character its required arc. While Lee struggles at the typewriter, Austin pinches a dozen or so of his neighbors’ toasters during an all-night crime spree. Austin, it seems, can beat Lee at his game, too. Does that make them even? Only inasmuch as their mutual jealousy and contempt for each other is about par.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the play, Shepard is channeling Albee, with the brothers literally at each other’s throats, rolling in a sea of beer cans, toasters, garbage, and the remains of a golf-clubbed typewriter. Austin and Lee are caught in a final face-off. Austin having played his final card to make good his escape; Lee standing between Austin and the door. Each has been chasing the other, neither knowing where the other would take him, let alone where he might be headed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>True West\u003c/b> continues at The Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K; Mountain View, 650-254-1148, through February 3. For \u003ca href=\"http://www.thepear.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit thepear.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The current TheatreWorks production of \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b>, perhaps the most beloved of William Shakespeare’s numerous comedies, is a delightful, first-rate gimmick. Set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love, the play is a bit like watching \u003cb>The Wizard of Oz\u003c/b> while listening to \u003cb>Dark Side of the Moon\u003c/b>: How many times, we are meant to wonder, will the 17th-century work sync up with one of the most mythologized events of the 20th?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frequently, it turns out, if you are Robert Kelley, who directs a disoriented Viola (wearing a form-fitting white mini-dress adorned with a \u003cb>Laugh-In\u003c/b> daisy) to stand beneath a cartoony, street-corner sign that reads “Haight” and “Ashbury” as she utters “What country is this?” Cue audience titters. Duke Orsino, who is meant to resemble Jimi Hendrix, lives in an “Auditorium” whose Peter Max-ish proscenium and Wes Wilson-inspired typeface are clearly intended to invoke the Fillmore. Get it? And then there’s Olivia’s uncle Toby, a good-natured and blustery old leech who swills bottles of Falstaff (hats off to the props team for THAT one) and entices Olivia’s hapless suitor, Andrew Aguecheek, with freshly rolled joints whenever the juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s words and cannabis seem destined to get a laugh. Which, invariably, they do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all in good fun, but the joke quickly wore thin for me, and not just because of the few minor visual goofs that distract from the company’s otherwise careful attention to detail (sorry, but the Grateful Dead logo on the conga drum dates from 1969, and I went to the high school where the phrase “420” was coined in 1971). So what’s my beef? Well, nothing all that important, I guess. Go see the thing. Get faced beforehand, if you like. It’ll probably make Allison Connor’s reference-riddled costumes all the richer, and Andrea Bechert’s sets even more like the eye candy they are intended to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, and with all due respect to Connor and Bechert, whose work is truly brilliant, one is not supposed to leave a play humming the scenery, so maybe that’s what ultimately bugs me about Kelley’s \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b>. There’s some pretty terrific acting happening up on that stage, but I found the pop-psychedelic setting distracting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carie Kawa is an arresting Viola and an even better Cesario, which is the disguise she assumes to weasel her way into the object of her affection, Duke Orsino’s, court. Orsino, who actor Michael Gene Sullivan plays for passion rather than laughs as his Hendrix costume might have prompted, is in love with Olivia, channeled with force and abandon by Vilma Silva. Orsino decides to express his feelings to Olivia by sending Cesario to woo her on his behalf, which is not exactly how things were done during the Summer of Love, but no matter. Olivia, of course, falls for Cesario, and Kawa delivers one her best performances of the evening when she finally realizes that Olivia has designs on her \u003cb>Sgt. Pepper’s\u003c/b>-costumed alter-ego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Alparone as Feste leads a band of musicians in songs written by Paul Gordon and performed live by the actors, and Shannon Warrick as Olivia’s maid Maria adds spark to the scenes with uncle Toby, played by Warren David Keith, and Aguecheek, played by Darren Bridgett. Together, the actors do a wonderful job at supporting the main story of Viola/Cesario trapped by her unactionable proximity to Orsino and the misplaced affections of Olivia. So how is it that a lowly servant steals this show?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer is that Ron Campbell’s Malvolio, Olivia’s steward, is riveting. He’s a prig’s prig, tossing his head with little sniffs of disapproval at this or that. His performance is virtuoso, and not just when he’s got the stage to himself. Indeed, his best scene, and perhaps the high point of the entire evening, occurs with the rest of the players hiding from him as they deliver their asides to his musings during mad dashes between the painted scenery, like so many bumbling Marx Brothers. Like us, they are here to witness the moment when Malvolio discovers a letter in the garden, which he opens with a funny little fake cough, as if to muffle the sound of the wax seal being violated. Written by the mischievous Maria to appear as Olivia’s handiwork, the letter seems to suggest that his employer is in love with him. Watching Campbell work out the meaning of the deliberately cryptic note is a joy to behold, second only to his determination to follow the letter of the letter by summoning a smile, which, heretofore, we could not imagine crossing his expressionless face. After numerous attempts, when he finally achieves a perfectly sincere grin (shit-eating, as it would have been described in the Haight) the audience erupts in equally sincere applause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hence our collective confusion later in the play when Malvolio is imprisoned beneath the stage in what could be good uncle Toby’s personal den of iniquity (at one point, Feste holds Malvolio’s head down in the smoky depths, an action which looked to me like nothing so much as a stoner’s variation on waterboarding). It is a characteristic of \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b> that modern audiences tend to feel like Malvolio gets it worse than he deserves, but in this production he is so much fun to watch and so sympathetic that we feel doubly wronged on his behalf. Maybe uncle Toby’s Falstaff had been laced with some bad acid, man. Bummer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TheatreWorks’ production of \u003cb>TwelfthNight\u003c/b> continues through December 23, 2007 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The current TheatreWorks production of \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b>, perhaps the most beloved of William Shakespeare’s numerous comedies, is a delightful, first-rate gimmick. Set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love, the play is a bit like watching \u003cb>The Wizard of Oz\u003c/b> while listening to \u003cb>Dark Side of the Moon\u003c/b>: How many times, we are meant to wonder, will the 17th-century work sync up with one of the most mythologized events of the 20th?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frequently, it turns out, if you are Robert Kelley, who directs a disoriented Viola (wearing a form-fitting white mini-dress adorned with a \u003cb>Laugh-In\u003c/b> daisy) to stand beneath a cartoony, street-corner sign that reads “Haight” and “Ashbury” as she utters “What country is this?” Cue audience titters. Duke Orsino, who is meant to resemble Jimi Hendrix, lives in an “Auditorium” whose Peter Max-ish proscenium and Wes Wilson-inspired typeface are clearly intended to invoke the Fillmore. Get it? And then there’s Olivia’s uncle Toby, a good-natured and blustery old leech who swills bottles of Falstaff (hats off to the props team for THAT one) and entices Olivia’s hapless suitor, Andrew Aguecheek, with freshly rolled joints whenever the juxtaposition of Shakespeare’s words and cannabis seem destined to get a laugh. Which, invariably, they do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all in good fun, but the joke quickly wore thin for me, and not just because of the few minor visual goofs that distract from the company’s otherwise careful attention to detail (sorry, but the Grateful Dead logo on the conga drum dates from 1969, and I went to the high school where the phrase “420” was coined in 1971). So what’s my beef? Well, nothing all that important, I guess. Go see the thing. Get faced beforehand, if you like. It’ll probably make Allison Connor’s reference-riddled costumes all the richer, and Andrea Bechert’s sets even more like the eye candy they are intended to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, and with all due respect to Connor and Bechert, whose work is truly brilliant, one is not supposed to leave a play humming the scenery, so maybe that’s what ultimately bugs me about Kelley’s \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b>. There’s some pretty terrific acting happening up on that stage, but I found the pop-psychedelic setting distracting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carie Kawa is an arresting Viola and an even better Cesario, which is the disguise she assumes to weasel her way into the object of her affection, Duke Orsino’s, court. Orsino, who actor Michael Gene Sullivan plays for passion rather than laughs as his Hendrix costume might have prompted, is in love with Olivia, channeled with force and abandon by Vilma Silva. Orsino decides to express his feelings to Olivia by sending Cesario to woo her on his behalf, which is not exactly how things were done during the Summer of Love, but no matter. Olivia, of course, falls for Cesario, and Kawa delivers one her best performances of the evening when she finally realizes that Olivia has designs on her \u003cb>Sgt. Pepper’s\u003c/b>-costumed alter-ego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Alparone as Feste leads a band of musicians in songs written by Paul Gordon and performed live by the actors, and Shannon Warrick as Olivia’s maid Maria adds spark to the scenes with uncle Toby, played by Warren David Keith, and Aguecheek, played by Darren Bridgett. Together, the actors do a wonderful job at supporting the main story of Viola/Cesario trapped by her unactionable proximity to Orsino and the misplaced affections of Olivia. So how is it that a lowly servant steals this show?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer is that Ron Campbell’s Malvolio, Olivia’s steward, is riveting. He’s a prig’s prig, tossing his head with little sniffs of disapproval at this or that. His performance is virtuoso, and not just when he’s got the stage to himself. Indeed, his best scene, and perhaps the high point of the entire evening, occurs with the rest of the players hiding from him as they deliver their asides to his musings during mad dashes between the painted scenery, like so many bumbling Marx Brothers. Like us, they are here to witness the moment when Malvolio discovers a letter in the garden, which he opens with a funny little fake cough, as if to muffle the sound of the wax seal being violated. Written by the mischievous Maria to appear as Olivia’s handiwork, the letter seems to suggest that his employer is in love with him. Watching Campbell work out the meaning of the deliberately cryptic note is a joy to behold, second only to his determination to follow the letter of the letter by summoning a smile, which, heretofore, we could not imagine crossing his expressionless face. After numerous attempts, when he finally achieves a perfectly sincere grin (shit-eating, as it would have been described in the Haight) the audience erupts in equally sincere applause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hence our collective confusion later in the play when Malvolio is imprisoned beneath the stage in what could be good uncle Toby’s personal den of iniquity (at one point, Feste holds Malvolio’s head down in the smoky depths, an action which looked to me like nothing so much as a stoner’s variation on waterboarding). It is a characteristic of \u003cb>Twelfth Night\u003c/b> that modern audiences tend to feel like Malvolio gets it worse than he deserves, but in this production he is so much fun to watch and so sympathetic that we feel doubly wronged on his behalf. Maybe uncle Toby’s Falstaff had been laced with some bad acid, man. Bummer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TheatreWorks’ production of \u003cb>TwelfthNight\u003c/b> continues through December 23, 2007 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Death is not meant to be funny, and surely watching people cope with death isn’t supposed to be funny either. Right? So why, then, is David Lindsay-Abaire’s \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b>, about the death of a child and its aftermath, so entertaining? A new production at Studio 300 brings up so many conflicting emotions that it leaves you more than a little rattled at the end. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The theater is also very small — an ideal size for this play; so only about 30 people can fit in. The experience in such a small space is far superior to larger venues like the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), which is nearby. Like Edward Albee’s \u003cb>Zoo Story\u003c/b> or Samuel Beckett’s \u003cb>Waiting for Godot\u003c/b>, the closer you are to what’s happening on stage the better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since much of the dialog in \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is constructed around arguments and misunderstandings, it is easy to feel like you have a role in the scenes — but as a silent family member, hoping not to get yelled at. Like real people, the characters argue then appease, make nice and then yell some more. In this way their personalities are revealed — not through their jobs, their costumes or what they do, but through their feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dominic Overstreet plays Howie, the father of the child that died. With macho decisiveness, he marches right into murky emotional territory and is so natural at arguing, he seems a little bit mean. His Howie is a man who is not in charge of his household, someone whose life has been dramatically altered by an event beyond his control. He finds too, that he can’t ease his wife’s sorrow — and discovers how talking can sometimes make things worse. Lindsay-Abaire seems to be making a point to men here; sometimes women just need to talk things out and they don’t need you to solve their problems. Allow them to talk and they can find their way through things. Howie, of course doesn’t get this and his frustration strains his relationship and ultimately isolates him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> At one point, Howie’s wife, Becca (Sina Eiden), explains the Greek myth of Orpheus. He played music so beautifully, she says, that it brought the dead back to life. However when someone he loved, Eurydice, died, all of his magical powers failed him. Eurydice was lost. In \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b>, each character knows they cannot bring the child back, so instead they lash out at one another for feeling too much or not feeling enough. It is a tug-of-war game that can never be won. Like Orpheus they all must live with the knowledge that there is nothing they can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The production of \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is a synergy between Katarina Fabic and Shari Carlson of Studio 300. Fabic is an actress who has worked in commercials, plays and movies for the past 15 years. Scenes from \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> were workshopped at Studio 300, which inspired Fabic to put together a full production of the play. Carlson was asked to direct. Fabic also performs as the Becca’s younger, carefree sister Izzy, who provides moments of comic relief with stories of her own misadventures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Candyce Anderson does what she can with her role as the grandmother. Unfortunately her character doesn’t get fully developed. Similarly, Joshua Duthie plays Jason, a minor role as the teenage boy who accidentally killed the child. His character appears mysteriously in the play and functions like the king’s ghost in \u003cb>Hamlet\u003c/b>, not fully there, but the thought of him sets everyone on edge. In fact the theme of absence and presence is the thread that connects everything in this play. For example, the absence of Becca and Howie’s child recalls the nonexistent baby in Albee’s \u003cb>Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?\u003c/b> or Clytemnestra’s sacrificed daughter Iphigeneia, in \u003cb>Agamemnon\u003c/b>. \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is a smart play that shouldn’t be missed if you can catch it during its short run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> runs through December 1, 2007 at Studio 300. For tickets and information visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/21987\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\"> BrownPaperTickets.Com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Death is not meant to be funny, and surely watching people cope with death isn’t supposed to be funny either. Right? So why, then, is David Lindsay-Abaire’s \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b>, about the death of a child and its aftermath, so entertaining? A new production at Studio 300 brings up so many conflicting emotions that it leaves you more than a little rattled at the end. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The theater is also very small — an ideal size for this play; so only about 30 people can fit in. The experience in such a small space is far superior to larger venues like the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), which is nearby. Like Edward Albee’s \u003cb>Zoo Story\u003c/b> or Samuel Beckett’s \u003cb>Waiting for Godot\u003c/b>, the closer you are to what’s happening on stage the better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since much of the dialog in \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is constructed around arguments and misunderstandings, it is easy to feel like you have a role in the scenes — but as a silent family member, hoping not to get yelled at. Like real people, the characters argue then appease, make nice and then yell some more. In this way their personalities are revealed — not through their jobs, their costumes or what they do, but through their feelings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dominic Overstreet plays Howie, the father of the child that died. With macho decisiveness, he marches right into murky emotional territory and is so natural at arguing, he seems a little bit mean. His Howie is a man who is not in charge of his household, someone whose life has been dramatically altered by an event beyond his control. He finds too, that he can’t ease his wife’s sorrow — and discovers how talking can sometimes make things worse. Lindsay-Abaire seems to be making a point to men here; sometimes women just need to talk things out and they don’t need you to solve their problems. Allow them to talk and they can find their way through things. Howie, of course doesn’t get this and his frustration strains his relationship and ultimately isolates him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> At one point, Howie’s wife, Becca (Sina Eiden), explains the Greek myth of Orpheus. He played music so beautifully, she says, that it brought the dead back to life. However when someone he loved, Eurydice, died, all of his magical powers failed him. Eurydice was lost. In \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b>, each character knows they cannot bring the child back, so instead they lash out at one another for feeling too much or not feeling enough. It is a tug-of-war game that can never be won. Like Orpheus they all must live with the knowledge that there is nothing they can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The production of \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is a synergy between Katarina Fabic and Shari Carlson of Studio 300. Fabic is an actress who has worked in commercials, plays and movies for the past 15 years. Scenes from \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> were workshopped at Studio 300, which inspired Fabic to put together a full production of the play. Carlson was asked to direct. Fabic also performs as the Becca’s younger, carefree sister Izzy, who provides moments of comic relief with stories of her own misadventures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Candyce Anderson does what she can with her role as the grandmother. Unfortunately her character doesn’t get fully developed. Similarly, Joshua Duthie plays Jason, a minor role as the teenage boy who accidentally killed the child. His character appears mysteriously in the play and functions like the king’s ghost in \u003cb>Hamlet\u003c/b>, not fully there, but the thought of him sets everyone on edge. In fact the theme of absence and presence is the thread that connects everything in this play. For example, the absence of Becca and Howie’s child recalls the nonexistent baby in Albee’s \u003cb>Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?\u003c/b> or Clytemnestra’s sacrificed daughter Iphigeneia, in \u003cb>Agamemnon\u003c/b>. \u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> is a smart play that shouldn’t be missed if you can catch it during its short run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rabbit Hole\u003c/b> runs through December 1, 2007 at Studio 300. For tickets and information visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/21987\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\"> BrownPaperTickets.Com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The word “genius” seems to get thrown around a lot in performing arts circles, but there isn’t an adjective more appropriate for writer and director Mary Zimmerman, whose latest theatrical thrill ride, \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, is making a spectacular west coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This marks Zimmerman’s fifth return to the Rep, where critics and audiences have generally (and many would say, rightfully) fawned over her uniquely inventive and often breathtaking style of theatre-making. Of these productions, the one that likely still lingers in the minds of Bay Area theatre-goers is \u003cb>Metamorphoses\u003c/b>, Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning staging of Ovid’s classic tales, which she set in and around a massive pool of water. With \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, the MacArthur “genius” grant-winner returns to the fables of Greek mythology, this time chronicling the heroic adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, and their epic quest for the Golden Fleece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drawing from the ancient Greek texts by Apollonius Rhodius and Roman poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Zimmerman and her production team from Chicago’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.lookingglasstheatre.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Lookingglass Theatre\u003c/a> have created a world where the lines between sets and costumes, props and lighting, and acting and improvisation are blurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the majority of the action taking place on the high seas, artists of less ingenuity might have chosen to again set this production on a pool of water. Instead, Zimmerman has collaborated with set designer Daniel Ostling to create an astonishing scenic playground of blond wood platforms, heavy swinging ropes, industrial metal clamps, trap doors and catwalks which, when accompanied by marvelous lighting effects by John Culbert and the occasional large swath of billowing fabric, can magically transform the performance space from the windswept deck of the ship to the dark forest of Mysia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a towering, ridiculously goofy Poseidon to a flying team of skeletal harpies — who seem to have a bit of an incontinence problem — Michael Montenegro’s astounding puppets work beautifully with Ana Kuzmanic’s costumes, which range from spare tunics on the men to dazzling gowns and drag queen-worthy platform boots on the ladies. Sound effects blend seamlessly with several lovely original musical compositions by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> is very much an ensemble piece, with nearly all of the large cast of 14 given ample stage time. Once Zimmerman sets up the main story line — Jason is given the formidable task of recovering the Golden Fleece by his power-hungry uncle Pelias; a mission which Pelias believes will be the death of his teenage nephew — the cast storms the stage with bongo drums and belts out a rollicking rap-style roll call. This number really puts the “fun” in functional, with each of the characters stepping forward to introduce themselves, although, between the tribalistic pounding of the drums and hand-clapping in the audience, some of the dialogue is difficult to decipher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the reluctant and all too imperfect hero — aren’t they all? — at the center of \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, Jake Suffian’s tormented Jason is a great match for Atley Loughridge’s hopelessly love-struck Medea. While Zimmerman’s interpretation of the infamous character of Medea is surprisingly sympathetic, her take on the relationship between Hercules (as portrayed by a boisterously delightful Soren Oliver) and Hylas (a charming Justin Blanchard) is perhaps even more interesting. Oliver’s Hercules is the king of the locker-room jocks, all raw muscle power and unbridled arrogance. But when his companion Hylas turns up missing, a heartbroken Hercules is inconsolable. It’s pretty clear that Zimmerman believes these guys were a lot more than just “friends.” (The scene in which Hylas is lured into the spring of Pegae by a beautiful nymph is particularly memorable.) Other outstanding contributions include Christa Scott-Reed’s contemptuous Hera, Sofia Jean Gomez’s antagonistic Athena, Ronete Levenson’s wailing Andromeda, and Allen Gilmore’s paranoid Pelias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who live in the city, it can be somewhat of a stressful schlep to make a 7:30 or 8:00 curtain in the East Bay (and I’d highly recommend you join in one of the lively pre-show docent presentations, which happen every Tuesday and Thursday, 30 minutes prior to curtain). But like the classic voyage of Jason himself, the journey to Berkeley Rep for this astounding production is well worth it. Employing a top-notch ensemble of actors on stage and a magnificently creative production team backstage, \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> is theatrical storytelling at its finest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> runs through December 16, 2007 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0708/1989.asp\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">For tickets and information\u003c/a> visit berkeleyrep.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to see a piece of genius filmmaking? \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO-m1240uUc\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out this clip\u003c/a> from the 1963 film adaptation of \u003cb>Jason and the Argonauts\u003c/b>, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen. Decades before the days of CGI, this absolutely mesmerizing battle scene, in which Jason and his band of well-built Argonauts battle an army of skeletons, apparently took four painstaking months to create via stop-action animation. The sequence is still largely considered to be one of the greatest special effects scenes in movie history.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The word “genius” seems to get thrown around a lot in performing arts circles, but there isn’t an adjective more appropriate for writer and director Mary Zimmerman, whose latest theatrical thrill ride, \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, is making a spectacular west coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This marks Zimmerman’s fifth return to the Rep, where critics and audiences have generally (and many would say, rightfully) fawned over her uniquely inventive and often breathtaking style of theatre-making. Of these productions, the one that likely still lingers in the minds of Bay Area theatre-goers is \u003cb>Metamorphoses\u003c/b>, Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning staging of Ovid’s classic tales, which she set in and around a massive pool of water. With \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, the MacArthur “genius” grant-winner returns to the fables of Greek mythology, this time chronicling the heroic adventures of Jason and the Argonauts, and their epic quest for the Golden Fleece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drawing from the ancient Greek texts by Apollonius Rhodius and Roman poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Zimmerman and her production team from Chicago’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.lookingglasstheatre.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Lookingglass Theatre\u003c/a> have created a world where the lines between sets and costumes, props and lighting, and acting and improvisation are blurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the majority of the action taking place on the high seas, artists of less ingenuity might have chosen to again set this production on a pool of water. Instead, Zimmerman has collaborated with set designer Daniel Ostling to create an astonishing scenic playground of blond wood platforms, heavy swinging ropes, industrial metal clamps, trap doors and catwalks which, when accompanied by marvelous lighting effects by John Culbert and the occasional large swath of billowing fabric, can magically transform the performance space from the windswept deck of the ship to the dark forest of Mysia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a towering, ridiculously goofy Poseidon to a flying team of skeletal harpies — who seem to have a bit of an incontinence problem — Michael Montenegro’s astounding puppets work beautifully with Ana Kuzmanic’s costumes, which range from spare tunics on the men to dazzling gowns and drag queen-worthy platform boots on the ladies. Sound effects blend seamlessly with several lovely original musical compositions by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> is very much an ensemble piece, with nearly all of the large cast of 14 given ample stage time. Once Zimmerman sets up the main story line — Jason is given the formidable task of recovering the Golden Fleece by his power-hungry uncle Pelias; a mission which Pelias believes will be the death of his teenage nephew — the cast storms the stage with bongo drums and belts out a rollicking rap-style roll call. This number really puts the “fun” in functional, with each of the characters stepping forward to introduce themselves, although, between the tribalistic pounding of the drums and hand-clapping in the audience, some of the dialogue is difficult to decipher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the reluctant and all too imperfect hero — aren’t they all? — at the center of \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b>, Jake Suffian’s tormented Jason is a great match for Atley Loughridge’s hopelessly love-struck Medea. While Zimmerman’s interpretation of the infamous character of Medea is surprisingly sympathetic, her take on the relationship between Hercules (as portrayed by a boisterously delightful Soren Oliver) and Hylas (a charming Justin Blanchard) is perhaps even more interesting. Oliver’s Hercules is the king of the locker-room jocks, all raw muscle power and unbridled arrogance. But when his companion Hylas turns up missing, a heartbroken Hercules is inconsolable. It’s pretty clear that Zimmerman believes these guys were a lot more than just “friends.” (The scene in which Hylas is lured into the spring of Pegae by a beautiful nymph is particularly memorable.) Other outstanding contributions include Christa Scott-Reed’s contemptuous Hera, Sofia Jean Gomez’s antagonistic Athena, Ronete Levenson’s wailing Andromeda, and Allen Gilmore’s paranoid Pelias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those who live in the city, it can be somewhat of a stressful schlep to make a 7:30 or 8:00 curtain in the East Bay (and I’d highly recommend you join in one of the lively pre-show docent presentations, which happen every Tuesday and Thursday, 30 minutes prior to curtain). But like the classic voyage of Jason himself, the journey to Berkeley Rep for this astounding production is well worth it. Employing a top-notch ensemble of actors on stage and a magnificently creative production team backstage, \u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> is theatrical storytelling at its finest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Argonautika\u003c/b> runs through December 16, 2007 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0708/1989.asp\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">For tickets and information\u003c/a> visit berkeleyrep.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to see a piece of genius filmmaking? \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO-m1240uUc\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out this clip\u003c/a> from the 1963 film adaptation of \u003cb>Jason and the Argonauts\u003c/b>, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen. Decades before the days of CGI, this absolutely mesmerizing battle scene, in which Jason and his band of well-built Argonauts battle an army of skeletons, apparently took four painstaking months to create via stop-action animation. The sequence is still largely considered to be one of the greatest special effects scenes in movie history.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The contrasts between “high” and “low” art, the sublime and the ridiculous, the earthy and the divine in Mozart’s final opera \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> are all on display in the San Francisco Opera’s current production. \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> can be considered a bipolar composition, beginning as a humorous and lively fairy tale and ending as a moral and spiritual lesson. This production, designed by Gerald Scarfe for the Los Angeles Opera in 1992 and fully refurbished for this run, conveys both aspects of the opera with moments of sublime transcendence and delightful comedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opera moves rapidly through a variety of characters, scenes, and musical styles, sometimes seeming to contradict itself and leaving the audience unsure of its villains and heroes. In Act I, prince Tamino is convinced by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina, who has been kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Sarastro. By the end of Act I, Tamino has recognized Sarastro as a wise priest and leader of a spiritual community. Tamino renounces the Queen, and in Act II he and Pamina commit to Sarastro’s trials to achieve enlightenment together. They are accompanied reluctantly by the simple birdcatcher Papageno. More interested in food and wine than in spiritual purity, Papageno fails Sarastro’s tests but finds love with Papagena. Along the way there is enchantment, deception, love at first sight, attempted suicide, and giant snake attacks — just another night at the opera!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first act abounds with whimsical details that serve the plot and characters, such as the scene in which Tamino, trying out his magic flute for the first time, calls forth “animals” from the forest. But these are unlike animals ever seen before: a giraffstrich, combination giraffe and ostrich, who enters on stilts; a strangely beautiful pink striped tigicorn (tiger and unicorn); and a short, hilarious crocoguin (crocodile and penguin) no more than three feet tall, who nudges Tamino’s flute, encouraging him to play more. The creatures give the scene a dreamy, otherworldly atmosphere that’s perfectly suited to the music of Tamino’s magic flute and \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A highlight of the production is the second aria sung by Erika Miklósa as the Queen of the Night, which provides a needed spark during Act II. The coloratura (very high, rapid vocal passages) is electric and the scene is further animated by the believable interaction between the Queen and Pamina, who tries and fails to stand up to her mother. Anyone who watches this scene should be glad that their mother can’t trill out high notes to win an argument!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The simplicity of the costumes and staging for the “heroic” characters of Tamino and Pamina creates an appropriate contrast with the colorful, manic theatrics of the comedic Papageno and the Three Ladies, aids to the Queen of the Night. While in some productions this contrast leaves the heroic roles seeming dull, they are saved here by the smooth, expressive singing of Piotr Beczala (Tamino) and Dina Kuznetsova (Pamina). As Sarastro, Georg Zeppenfeld combines a powerful, warm tone with a commanding and benevolent stage presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This production begins with great energy but slows down significantly during Act II. This may be partly due to the structure of the opera itself. Characters introduced in Act I, including the vibrant and entertaining Three Ladies, are nearly forgotten in Act II as the chorus takes on a more prominent, but also more static role. There are plot inconsistencies between the two acts as well, such why the Queen’s gifts to Tamino (including the magic flute) continue to aid him even after he has turned against her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theories abound to explain these inconsistencies in plot and tone. Were Mozart and his librettist Emanual Schickaneder unable to reconcile their different artistic visions, with Schickaneder advocating for broader humor and Mozart focusing on the sublime spiritual elements? Did they make last-minute changes to differentiate the opera from a contemporary opera (called \u003cb>The Magic Zither\u003c/b>) that dealt with similar themes? Were Mozart’s dramatic instincts at odds with his attempts to express Enlightenment and Masonic ideals? Was there a rush to finish the work against a difficult deadline?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be no one explanation for the inconsistencies and seeming contradictions of this opera, and in fact these elements are part of what make the work so fascinating. \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b>, undeniably one of Mozart’s great masterpieces, is not easy to categorize or define. The opera encompasses many different aspects of human experience: bawdy jokes and ethereal visions, sensual enjoyment and the search for wisdom, sexual aggression and selfless love, revenge and empathy, hatred and forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each time you watch or listen to the opera, you may decide that the favor lies with a different side. Are you moved by Sarastro’s calm mercy, or do you thrill to the seductive virtuosity of the Queen of the Night? Do you envy Papageno and Papagena’s simple earthy love, or Tamino and Pamina’s enlightened selflessness? Would you rather live in the unpredictable forest of Act I, or in the peaceful temple of Act II?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this production, the energy and interest is more sustained in the fairy tale of Act I. But perhaps the real truth of \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> is that these tensions and contradictions are all aspects of the same experience. Maybe the fun is in not having to choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> is at the San Francisco Opera through November 3, 2007. For \u003ca href=\"http://sfopera.com/opera.asp?o=254\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit sfopera.com.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The contrasts between \"high\" and \"low\" art, the sublime and the ridiculous, the earthy and the divine in Mozart's final opera \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> are all on display in the San Francisco Opera's current production. \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> can be considered a bipolar composition, beginning as a humorous and lively fairy tale and ending as a moral and spiritual lesson. This production, designed by Gerald Scarfe for the Los Angeles Opera in 1992 and fully refurbished for this run, conveys both aspects of the opera with moments of sublime transcendence and delightful comedy. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The contrasts between “high” and “low” art, the sublime and the ridiculous, the earthy and the divine in Mozart’s final opera \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> are all on display in the San Francisco Opera’s current production. \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> can be considered a bipolar composition, beginning as a humorous and lively fairy tale and ending as a moral and spiritual lesson. This production, designed by Gerald Scarfe for the Los Angeles Opera in 1992 and fully refurbished for this run, conveys both aspects of the opera with moments of sublime transcendence and delightful comedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opera moves rapidly through a variety of characters, scenes, and musical styles, sometimes seeming to contradict itself and leaving the audience unsure of its villains and heroes. In Act I, prince Tamino is convinced by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina, who has been kidnapped by the evil sorcerer Sarastro. By the end of Act I, Tamino has recognized Sarastro as a wise priest and leader of a spiritual community. Tamino renounces the Queen, and in Act II he and Pamina commit to Sarastro’s trials to achieve enlightenment together. They are accompanied reluctantly by the simple birdcatcher Papageno. More interested in food and wine than in spiritual purity, Papageno fails Sarastro’s tests but finds love with Papagena. Along the way there is enchantment, deception, love at first sight, attempted suicide, and giant snake attacks — just another night at the opera!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first act abounds with whimsical details that serve the plot and characters, such as the scene in which Tamino, trying out his magic flute for the first time, calls forth “animals” from the forest. But these are unlike animals ever seen before: a giraffstrich, combination giraffe and ostrich, who enters on stilts; a strangely beautiful pink striped tigicorn (tiger and unicorn); and a short, hilarious crocoguin (crocodile and penguin) no more than three feet tall, who nudges Tamino’s flute, encouraging him to play more. The creatures give the scene a dreamy, otherworldly atmosphere that’s perfectly suited to the music of Tamino’s magic flute and \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A highlight of the production is the second aria sung by Erika Miklósa as the Queen of the Night, which provides a needed spark during Act II. The coloratura (very high, rapid vocal passages) is electric and the scene is further animated by the believable interaction between the Queen and Pamina, who tries and fails to stand up to her mother. Anyone who watches this scene should be glad that their mother can’t trill out high notes to win an argument!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The simplicity of the costumes and staging for the “heroic” characters of Tamino and Pamina creates an appropriate contrast with the colorful, manic theatrics of the comedic Papageno and the Three Ladies, aids to the Queen of the Night. While in some productions this contrast leaves the heroic roles seeming dull, they are saved here by the smooth, expressive singing of Piotr Beczala (Tamino) and Dina Kuznetsova (Pamina). As Sarastro, Georg Zeppenfeld combines a powerful, warm tone with a commanding and benevolent stage presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This production begins with great energy but slows down significantly during Act II. This may be partly due to the structure of the opera itself. Characters introduced in Act I, including the vibrant and entertaining Three Ladies, are nearly forgotten in Act II as the chorus takes on a more prominent, but also more static role. There are plot inconsistencies between the two acts as well, such why the Queen’s gifts to Tamino (including the magic flute) continue to aid him even after he has turned against her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theories abound to explain these inconsistencies in plot and tone. Were Mozart and his librettist Emanual Schickaneder unable to reconcile their different artistic visions, with Schickaneder advocating for broader humor and Mozart focusing on the sublime spiritual elements? Did they make last-minute changes to differentiate the opera from a contemporary opera (called \u003cb>The Magic Zither\u003c/b>) that dealt with similar themes? Were Mozart’s dramatic instincts at odds with his attempts to express Enlightenment and Masonic ideals? Was there a rush to finish the work against a difficult deadline?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be no one explanation for the inconsistencies and seeming contradictions of this opera, and in fact these elements are part of what make the work so fascinating. \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b>, undeniably one of Mozart’s great masterpieces, is not easy to categorize or define. The opera encompasses many different aspects of human experience: bawdy jokes and ethereal visions, sensual enjoyment and the search for wisdom, sexual aggression and selfless love, revenge and empathy, hatred and forgiveness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each time you watch or listen to the opera, you may decide that the favor lies with a different side. Are you moved by Sarastro’s calm mercy, or do you thrill to the seductive virtuosity of the Queen of the Night? Do you envy Papageno and Papagena’s simple earthy love, or Tamino and Pamina’s enlightened selflessness? Would you rather live in the unpredictable forest of Act I, or in the peaceful temple of Act II?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this production, the energy and interest is more sustained in the fairy tale of Act I. But perhaps the real truth of \u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> is that these tensions and contradictions are all aspects of the same experience. Maybe the fun is in not having to choose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Magic Flute\u003c/b> is at the San Francisco Opera through November 3, 2007. For \u003ca href=\"http://sfopera.com/opera.asp?o=254\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">tickets and information\u003c/a> visit sfopera.com.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>There are many breathtaking visual effects in the Magic Theatre’s world premiere production of \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b>. Created and directed by acclaimed actor/director/producer Bill Pullman, and billed as “an imaginative docudrama exploring the personal and political life-and-death crisis of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut stranded in space after the Columbia shuttle disaster,” the show utilizes trapeze choreography as both a figurative and literal metaphor for the danger and beauty of weightlessness in space. When these daring actors swing through the dark fly-space above the stage, sometimes passing perilously close not only to each other, but also to structural support beams and the heads of some audience members, it’s a truly spine-tingling effect. Unfortunately, these moments, as well as many other remarkable effects created by set/lighting designer Kate Boyd, essentially serve as visual rewards for a rather aimless if not downright confusing script.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Presented as the highlight of a partnership between the Magic and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a>, \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> incorporates writings by astronauts, NASA reports and other source materials as the bulk of the spoken dialogue. (An exhibit of space-flown objects on loan from \u003ca href=\"http://www.thewfoundation.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">The W Foundation\u003c/a> accompanied the production, but was only on view through September 16.) The production does illuminate many interesting facts about the United States’ space exploration program, the psychological and physical effects of life in space, the doomed Columbia mission, and the men who were trapped aboard the International Space Station for four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many might not recall that back in early 2003, with the build-up of coalition forces in the Middle East, the media paid comparatively little attention to the Columbia shuttle disaster, and even less to the destiny of the three men who were effectively trapped on the space station with no plan for getting back to Earth. While the relationship between all of these events — and the societal fallout which still resonates today — is certainly worthy of discussion, it’s a formidable amount of territory to cover in a little over two hours on a stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there are some fine and even nuanced performances by this hard-working ensemble, particularly the three men at the heart of the story: Robert Karma Robinson and Brent Rose as the American astronauts and Justin Walvoord as the Russian cosmonaut. And not enough can be said about the spectacular aerial choreography by Robert Davidson, Director of Movement Choreography at the Denver Theatre Center’s National Theatre Conservatory, where the show was first developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s certainly a highly creative and admirable work-in-progress, too often \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> falls into a black hole of theatrical ARTINESS, especially when Pullman and his collaborators throw in what feel like obligatory anti-Bush proclamations and socio-political commentary about the culture of Islam. When asked why he chose to explore this topic in a performance art setting, Pullman said, “I was compelled to search out data from every perspective that could make sense of the Iraq issue, the future of the space program, and the fate of these astronauts orbiting the Earth while the world was polarizing below them. Outwardly, I functioned, but I spoke in fragments about the things I was reading and trying to sort out. I needed the theater.” Indeed, like the thoughts and ideas which inspired its creator, \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> is essentially a series of sometimes puzzling fragments which, regrettably, never quite come together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> runs through October 7, 2007. \u003ca href=\"http://www.magictheatre.org/pages/boxoffice.shtml\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">For tickets and information\u003c/a> visit magictheatre.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "There are many breathtaking visual effects in the Magic Theatre's world premiere production of \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b>. Created and directed by acclaimed actor/director/producer Bill Pullman, and billed as \"an imaginative docudrama exploring the personal and political life-and-death crisis of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut stranded in space after the Columbia shuttle disaster,\" the show utilizes trapeze choreography as both a figurative and literal metaphor for the danger and beauty of weightlessness in space. When these daring actors swing through the dark fly-space above the stage, sometimes passing perilously close not only to each other, but also to structural support beams and the heads of some audience members, it's a truly spine-tingling effect. Unfortunately, these moments, as well as many other remarkable effects created by set/lighting designer Kate Boyd, essentially serve as visual rewards for a rather aimless if not downright confusing script. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are many breathtaking visual effects in the Magic Theatre’s world premiere production of \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b>. Created and directed by acclaimed actor/director/producer Bill Pullman, and billed as “an imaginative docudrama exploring the personal and political life-and-death crisis of two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut stranded in space after the Columbia shuttle disaster,” the show utilizes trapeze choreography as both a figurative and literal metaphor for the danger and beauty of weightlessness in space. When these daring actors swing through the dark fly-space above the stage, sometimes passing perilously close not only to each other, but also to structural support beams and the heads of some audience members, it’s a truly spine-tingling effect. Unfortunately, these moments, as well as many other remarkable effects created by set/lighting designer Kate Boyd, essentially serve as visual rewards for a rather aimless if not downright confusing script.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Presented as the highlight of a partnership between the Magic and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.chabotspace.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a>, \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> incorporates writings by astronauts, NASA reports and other source materials as the bulk of the spoken dialogue. (An exhibit of space-flown objects on loan from \u003ca href=\"http://www.thewfoundation.org/\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">The W Foundation\u003c/a> accompanied the production, but was only on view through September 16.) The production does illuminate many interesting facts about the United States’ space exploration program, the psychological and physical effects of life in space, the doomed Columbia mission, and the men who were trapped aboard the International Space Station for four months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many might not recall that back in early 2003, with the build-up of coalition forces in the Middle East, the media paid comparatively little attention to the Columbia shuttle disaster, and even less to the destiny of the three men who were effectively trapped on the space station with no plan for getting back to Earth. While the relationship between all of these events — and the societal fallout which still resonates today — is certainly worthy of discussion, it’s a formidable amount of territory to cover in a little over two hours on a stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there are some fine and even nuanced performances by this hard-working ensemble, particularly the three men at the heart of the story: Robert Karma Robinson and Brent Rose as the American astronauts and Justin Walvoord as the Russian cosmonaut. And not enough can be said about the spectacular aerial choreography by Robert Davidson, Director of Movement Choreography at the Denver Theatre Center’s National Theatre Conservatory, where the show was first developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s certainly a highly creative and admirable work-in-progress, too often \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> falls into a black hole of theatrical ARTINESS, especially when Pullman and his collaborators throw in what feel like obligatory anti-Bush proclamations and socio-political commentary about the culture of Islam. When asked why he chose to explore this topic in a performance art setting, Pullman said, “I was compelled to search out data from every perspective that could make sense of the Iraq issue, the future of the space program, and the fate of these astronauts orbiting the Earth while the world was polarizing below them. Outwardly, I functioned, but I spoke in fragments about the things I was reading and trying to sort out. I needed the theater.” Indeed, like the thoughts and ideas which inspired its creator, \u003cb>Expedition 6\u003c/b> is essentially a series of sometimes puzzling fragments which, regrettably, never quite come together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street",
"headTitle": "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Stephen Sondheim might best be described as the American musical theatre’s greatest enigma. At the age of 77, he’s been the recipient of countless awards (including seven Tonys, more than any other composer), and the \u003ci>New York Times\u003c/i> called him “the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater.” And yet, unfortunately, as a 2002 Smithsonian article rightfully stated, “Sondheim has never quite escaped the ghetto of cult enthusiasm….[he] has always been an acquired taste. He’s never achieved the sort of popularity of Andrew Lloyd-Webber or had a megahit on the order of \u003cb>Cats\u003c/b>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a rabid fan base among musical theatre insiders, most of Sondheim’s artistically daring and harmonically challenging musicals — \u003cb>Company\u003c/b>, \u003cb>A Little Night Music\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Follies\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Into the Woods\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Sunday in the Park with George\u003c/b> — aren’t often produced by community or even large-scale repertory theatres. Admittedly, I’ve been a musical theatre fan for nearly four decades, yet only in recent years have I seen many of Sondheim’s works on stage for the first time. (And, like many other folks sitting in the audience, I bought a ticket based largely on the star-power of celebrities cast in the leading roles.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, perhaps no other work by Sondheim — with the possible exception of \u003cb>A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum\u003c/b> — is as accessible as \u003cb>Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\u003c/b>, launching its third national tour in an enormously appealing production at American Conservatory Theater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This scaled-down \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b> isn’t the decadent, blood-soaked extravaganza which stunned Broadway in 1979. That production wasn’t exactly a huge success. The show’s producers never earned back their original $1 million investment, and it’s rumored that half the opening night audience left in disgust at intermission. Still, that first legendary \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b>, with its massive industrial sets and gargantuan orchestra and cast, ran for over 500 performances, earned nine Tony Awards (including a fourth for Angela Lansbury), and ushered in the era of the mega-musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s interesting that when British director John Doyle staged this celebrated revival on London’s West End in 2004, subsequently transferring to Broadway the following season, he did it on a comparatively small if not miniscule scale — without an orchestra, the actors themselves playing the score on stage. (I couldn’t help but wonder how the legendary diva Patti LuPone reacted when she learned she’d be honking out a melody on a tuba.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the curtain rises on this odd and fascinating production, one is transported to a bleak, colorless world where the ghostly creatures who inhabit the minimalist set are less characters than storytellers. Doyle’s direction is a brilliantly choreographed, highly stylized dance in which the players rarely speak directly to each other, their tattered costumes and gaunt features made even more haunting by designer Angelina Avallone’s zombie-esque makeup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading this marvelously talented cast of ten, David Hess delivers a deliciously dark and alluring performance in the title role. When Todd proclaims ownership over his barber’s razor in the sweet ballad “My Friends,” he might just as easily be singing a love song to a long-lost high school sweetheart. But make no mistake, his Sweeney is a cold-blooded murderer, singularly obsessed with revenge on the judge who sealed his fate, and that of his family’s, 15 years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judy Kaye steps confidently into what many consider the \u003ci>real\u003c/i> leading role in the show: Mrs. Lovett, the murderous meat-pie maven and Todd’s deceptively sweet partner-in-crime. Kaye is a positively luminous performer. From the moment she steps forward to musically express the sad state of her meat-pie business (“The Worst Pies in London”) to a hilariously gruesome homage to cannibalism (“A Little Priest”) and the quintessential Sondheim ballad (“Not While I’m Around”), Kaye has a palpable stage presence that commands an audience’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren Molina, as a bushy-haired, ethereal Johanna, and Edmund Bagnell as the blissfully off-kilter Tobias, are both theatrical triple-threats: extraordinarily skilled vocalists, string players and actors, while Keith Buterbaugh (Judge Turpin) and Benjamin Eakeley (The Beadle) also turn in fine performances as Sweeney’s most delightfully deserving victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pardon the inevitable yet completely appropriate pun, this \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b> is a bloody good time and should prove to be one of the highlights of San Francisco’s exciting fall theater season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\u003c/b> has been extended through October 14, 2007. \u003ca href=\"http://act-sf.org/index.cfm?s_id=&pid=tkt_swt\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">For tickets and information\u003c/a> visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Stephen Sondheim might best be described as the American musical theatre's greatest enigma. At the age of 77, he's been the recipient of countless awards (including seven Tonys, more than any other composer), and the \u003ci>New York Times\u003c/i> called him \"the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater.\" And yet, unfortunately, as a 2002 Smithsonian article rightfully stated, \"Sondheim has never quite escaped the ghetto of cult enthusiasm....[he] has always been an acquired taste. He's never achieved the sort of popularity of Andrew Lloyd-Webber or had a megahit on the order of \u003cb>Cats\u003c/b>.\" ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Stephen Sondheim might best be described as the American musical theatre’s greatest enigma. At the age of 77, he’s been the recipient of countless awards (including seven Tonys, more than any other composer), and the \u003ci>New York Times\u003c/i> called him “the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater.” And yet, unfortunately, as a 2002 Smithsonian article rightfully stated, “Sondheim has never quite escaped the ghetto of cult enthusiasm….[he] has always been an acquired taste. He’s never achieved the sort of popularity of Andrew Lloyd-Webber or had a megahit on the order of \u003cb>Cats\u003c/b>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite a rabid fan base among musical theatre insiders, most of Sondheim’s artistically daring and harmonically challenging musicals — \u003cb>Company\u003c/b>, \u003cb>A Little Night Music\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Follies\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Into the Woods\u003c/b>, \u003cb>Sunday in the Park with George\u003c/b> — aren’t often produced by community or even large-scale repertory theatres. Admittedly, I’ve been a musical theatre fan for nearly four decades, yet only in recent years have I seen many of Sondheim’s works on stage for the first time. (And, like many other folks sitting in the audience, I bought a ticket based largely on the star-power of celebrities cast in the leading roles.) \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, perhaps no other work by Sondheim — with the possible exception of \u003cb>A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum\u003c/b> — is as accessible as \u003cb>Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\u003c/b>, launching its third national tour in an enormously appealing production at American Conservatory Theater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This scaled-down \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b> isn’t the decadent, blood-soaked extravaganza which stunned Broadway in 1979. That production wasn’t exactly a huge success. The show’s producers never earned back their original $1 million investment, and it’s rumored that half the opening night audience left in disgust at intermission. Still, that first legendary \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b>, with its massive industrial sets and gargantuan orchestra and cast, ran for over 500 performances, earned nine Tony Awards (including a fourth for Angela Lansbury), and ushered in the era of the mega-musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s interesting that when British director John Doyle staged this celebrated revival on London’s West End in 2004, subsequently transferring to Broadway the following season, he did it on a comparatively small if not miniscule scale — without an orchestra, the actors themselves playing the score on stage. (I couldn’t help but wonder how the legendary diva Patti LuPone reacted when she learned she’d be honking out a melody on a tuba.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the curtain rises on this odd and fascinating production, one is transported to a bleak, colorless world where the ghostly creatures who inhabit the minimalist set are less characters than storytellers. Doyle’s direction is a brilliantly choreographed, highly stylized dance in which the players rarely speak directly to each other, their tattered costumes and gaunt features made even more haunting by designer Angelina Avallone’s zombie-esque makeup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading this marvelously talented cast of ten, David Hess delivers a deliciously dark and alluring performance in the title role. When Todd proclaims ownership over his barber’s razor in the sweet ballad “My Friends,” he might just as easily be singing a love song to a long-lost high school sweetheart. But make no mistake, his Sweeney is a cold-blooded murderer, singularly obsessed with revenge on the judge who sealed his fate, and that of his family’s, 15 years earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judy Kaye steps confidently into what many consider the \u003ci>real\u003c/i> leading role in the show: Mrs. Lovett, the murderous meat-pie maven and Todd’s deceptively sweet partner-in-crime. Kaye is a positively luminous performer. From the moment she steps forward to musically express the sad state of her meat-pie business (“The Worst Pies in London”) to a hilariously gruesome homage to cannibalism (“A Little Priest”) and the quintessential Sondheim ballad (“Not While I’m Around”), Kaye has a palpable stage presence that commands an audience’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauren Molina, as a bushy-haired, ethereal Johanna, and Edmund Bagnell as the blissfully off-kilter Tobias, are both theatrical triple-threats: extraordinarily skilled vocalists, string players and actors, while Keith Buterbaugh (Judge Turpin) and Benjamin Eakeley (The Beadle) also turn in fine performances as Sweeney’s most delightfully deserving victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pardon the inevitable yet completely appropriate pun, this \u003cb>Sweeney\u003c/b> is a bloody good time and should prove to be one of the highlights of San Francisco’s exciting fall theater season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street\u003c/b> has been extended through October 14, 2007. \u003ca href=\"http://act-sf.org/index.cfm?s_id=&pid=tkt_swt\" target=\"offsite\" rel=\"noopener\">For tickets and information\u003c/a> visit act-sf.org.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"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. ",
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"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. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"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",
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"mindshift": {
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"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>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"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.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"perspectives": {
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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