5 stars | Dangerous Common Sense

“Manahatta” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

By Galen|2018-09-29T16:49:34-07:00September 29, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Manahatta by Mary Kathryn Nagle directed by Laurie Woolery Steven Flores, Rainbow Dickerson, Sheila Tousey, Tanis Parenteau. ,br />Photo by Jenny Graham. This world-premiere production tells the story of the poor treatment of Native American people by Imperialistic white "settlers", brillianty weaves together narratives four centuries apart, and gives us a satisfying understanding of how the actions taken in 1626 reverberate in today's America. Manahatta deals with themes similar to the also-world-premiere The Way the Mountain Moved , but Manahatta did it right, engaging the audience instead of giving a sermon to it. Manahatta is about [...]

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Snow in Midsummer

By Galen|2018-09-07T19:55:21-07:00September 7, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Snow in Midsummer By Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig Based on the Play The Injustice to Dou Yi That Moved Heaven and Earth by Guan Hanqing Directed by Justin Audibert Snow in Midsummer may be the best production of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival season. It certainly is the best production most likely to be overlooked by old-chestnut-seeking, casual theater goers. One reason Snow is a candidate for audience neglect is that it's a new play that hasn't been vetted by Broadway. Another reason is that the publicity for Snow makes it sound intellectual and good-for-you. You learn that [...]

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Oklahoma!

By Galen|2018-07-15T09:56:21-07:00July 15, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Oklahoma Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the Play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original Dances by Agnes de Mille Directed by Bill Rauch Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been workshopping and mulling over this production of Oklahoma for five years, according to cast member Barzin Akhavan (playing Ali Hakim) when he spoke at a coffee in April. OSF's dream was to create an Oklahoma! with non-standard gender roles throughout the territory. Will Parker (Jordan Barbour) is hot for Ado Andy (Jonathan Luke Stevens) and Curly (a definitely [...]

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Destiny of Desire

By Galen|2018-03-03T20:23:03-08:00March 3, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Destiny of Desire by Karen Zacarías directed by José Luis Valenzuela Destiny of Desire is an evening of a schlocky, cheesy, unbelievable, perfectly-executed, spectacularly entertaining, brilliantly-written live telenovela. Before I write my 1000 words of "Oh my God, I loved it, here's why...", a picture: Vilma Silva, Ella Saldana North, Esperanza America. Photo by Jenny Graham. The photo is truly worth more than 1000 words of descriptive praise. (Click on it to see it full size.) But, here goes... Director José Luis Valenzuela has directed Destiny at four theaters -- everywhere it's been produced (or [...]

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Othello

By Galen|2018-03-03T19:01:35-08:00February 25, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Othello by William Shakespeare directed by Bill Rauch I know I have seen Othello before, at least a couple of times. But, I never experienced this deliberate, painful story with believable Evil, blinded goodness, and flawed purity. Other Othellos were classic SHAKESPEARE. This was 2018 artistry. I left the theater wondering if Othello's tragedy is personal or is the real sadness that racism, dislike of foreigners, faux-Christian superiority and male dominance has changed so little in 400+ years? Othello (Chris Butler) is certainly flawed and succumbs too completely to Iago's (Danforth Comins) suggestions of marital infidelity. [...]

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Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical

By Galen|2017-06-29T09:22:38-07:00June 29, 2017|plays|

Eureka Theater, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco at Theatre Rhinoceros Priscilla, Queen of the Desert The Musical By Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott Directed by John Fisher Photo by David Wilson, Theatre Rhinoceros The more I think about this production, the better I like it. And, I left the theater damn happy to begin with! The musical Priscilla follows the basic story of the original movie and adds in about every disco/pop hit of the late 70's and 80's in a supremely fun, colorful, and fast moving montage that makes the 2 1/2 hours running time go too quickly. [...]

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UniSon

By Galen|2017-04-25T13:08:59-07:00April 25, 2017|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Steven Sapp (Poet), Asia Mark (Apprentice) photo from OSF UniSon A new musical by UNIVERSES Inspired by August Wilson's Poetry In association with Constanza Romero WORLD PREMIERE UniSon is a brief, brilliant, shotgun wedding between poetry and drama, lubricated into position with just the right amount, and right style, of original music. UNIVERSES and collaborators pulled off a transformation. Wilson's original poetry, supplemented by UNIVERSES verses, are used as the dialogue in a coherent, sensible, sensitive narrative. No longer just words, even vivid words, the views and observations in poems are given context [...]

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“A Song at Twilight”

By Galen|2016-01-24T11:00:12-08:00January 23, 2016|plays|

San Francisco, CA at Theatre Rhinoceros A Song at Twilight By Noël Coward Theatre Rhinoceros’ A Song at Twilight is an excellent production in every way. Its short, two-week run is almost half over, and I say grab a ticket. (They're cheap, too!) First, I need to address the lingering, decades-old stigma of Theatre Rhino's productions. Too often in the distant past, going to The Rhino was a duty of gaydom/lesbianness. We went to support queer theater, and we often suffered through embarrassingly poor plays and unskilled actors. We went to show solidarity, but we rarely went expecting much or left [...]

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Head Over Heels — World Premiere

By Galen|2015-08-23T16:50:34-07:00August 23, 2015|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Head Over Heels Play by Jeff Whitty Music and Lyrics by the Go-Go's Jonathan Tufts and Ensemble. Photo by Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Head Over Heels is the latest saucy work from the razor-sharp, careful, sensitive, and insanely clever mind of Jeff Whitty. His inventive approaches to story telling are twisted and brilliant, and this Oregon Shakespeare Festival production exquisitely delivers pure fun. The play uses the Go-Go's songbook as the source of its music, although Music Director Geraldine Anello has dramatically freed some of the arrangements from the original signature driving beat when Whitty's [...]

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Sweat
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Sweat

osf, plays

Sweat

By Galen|2015-08-27T07:57:54-07:00August 19, 2015|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Sweat by Lynn Nottage | World Premiere Jack Willis, Carlo Alban, and K.T. Vogt in "Sweat".photo by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Sweat is Lynn Nottage's brilliant story of people and community in collapse. Before writing this commissioned American Revolutions series play, Nottage talked to residents of America's poorest city of 2001, Reading, Pennsylvania. Her work shares the residents' pain, losses, and self-immolation as their good jobs are eliminated in relentless, financially logical, corporate-mandated factory closings and union busting. I knew the story's outline coming into the theater. I expected satisfying liberal ranting and raving at the [...]

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