Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

?Don?t worry,? reassures Jill Bourque, the host and creator of [tag]How We First Met[/tag]. ?We won?t make fun of you. We celebrate the commonalities of relationships, and if we make fun of anyone, it?ll be our improvisors.? Thus begins a hilarious, touching, and just plain joyous celebration of love through [tag]improvisational theatre[/tag]. Bourque?s kind words [...]

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[tag]Dreamweavers Theatre[/tag] opened their latest offering of [tag]Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille[/tag] on the 18th. This lesser-known [tag]play[/tag] written by [tag]Bruce Graham[/tag] enjoys a home with the Dreamweavers company. This production is the third time this play has been directed by Louise Anderson. She obviously loves the play, and it is [...]

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Remember the intoxicating feeling of meeting that special someone you’ve been waiting for? Or how about the aching heartbreak when forever ends too soon? [tag]Jason Robert Brown[/tag]‘s [tag]Off-Broadway musical[/tag] “[tag]The Last Five Years[/tag]” explores a relationship going through both of those and everything in between. It’s a rocky road for more than just the show’s [...]

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[tag]Ross Valley Players[/tag] are in the midst of their run of [tag]Over My Dead Body[/tag], which continues through the weekend of 20 August. This is important information should you be in the mood for a play that spoofs murder mysteries. Director Cris Cassell has assembled a cast of eight, all of them men save for [...]

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Are we our work? Three characters explore this question along with many others in Adam Bock?s intelligent comedy [tag]The Typographer?s Dream[/tag]. [tag]Encore Theatre Company[/tag] and [tag]The Shotgun Players[/tag] present a nearly flawless production of this witty and insightful work at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley through September 3. The premise is simple: a geographer and [...]

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Our dedicated theatre reviewers are taking time off this week, but will return next week with new reviews of two local productions. Julia Glattfelt will be reviewing [tag]Over My Dead Body[/tag]. The Ross Valley Players continues its 76th season with Over My Dead Body by Michael Sutton & Anthony Fingleton and directed by Cris Cassell. [...]

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[tag]Kathy Griffin[/tag] is the funniest person in the world. Period. In a world that seems to value ?Cult Of Personality? over anything else (Why, really, does Western Culture care about Tom Cruise, other than as an example of how to jump up and down on someone else?s furniture?) she has positioned herself as the person [...]

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It?s a rare [tag]theatrical feat[/tag] to combine humor, warmth, history, struggle, sorrow, joy, and genuine humanity into one musical. [tag]Fiddler on the Roof[/tag] has been doing that for nearly 42 years, thanks to a splendid score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and to Joseph Stein?s brilliant book. This perennial classic is a perfect fit [...]

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My husband and I have a saying around our house that most community theatre companies suffer from the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland syndrome of ?let?s put on a show!? The problem inherent in this attitude is that, based on the aforementioned musicals, it seems so easy to achieve miraculous results. The reality is that [...]

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I love actors. They are committed and determined folk who will go onstage and give their all even in the face of a dated and ill-conceived production. [tag]Dreamweavers Theatre[/tag]?s current production of [tag]Seven Keys to Baldpate[/tag] is such an offering. When George M. Cohan wrote this play, it was a different time and place. It [...]

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Quick! Somebody, get this play into an established theater! One of Oakland’s best kept secret, the [tag]Lower bottom Playaz[/tag], have created in [tag]?Mama’s Letters[/tag]? a powerful poetic drama that sings of the pain and the beauty that is the lives of Black women. It?s an original, compelling and engrossing piece of [tag]theater [/tag]that leaps from [...]

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If the History Channel decided to hire a vaudeville act to present all of its best material on the good ol? U.S. of A. in just under two hours, you?d end up with [tag]The Complete History of America[/tag] (abridged). Billed as ?600 years is 6000 seconds,? The [tag]Sonoma County Repertory Theater[/tag] presents this silly send [...]

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[tag]Napa Valley Opera House[/tag] offers [tag]Late Nite Catechism[/tag] through 2 July. This show, written by Maripat Donovan with Marc Silvia and Jane Morris, has been honored with [tag]Drama Critics Circle Award[/tag] (Los Angeles) for Best Solo Performance, and an [tag]Outer Critics Circle Award[/tag] nomination (New York) for Outstanding Solo Performances. It?s easy to see why [...]

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We live in an age when blockbuster musicals regularly feature flash and style, often at the expense of any real substance. Without glitzy gimmicks, one wonders if a simple little show like the long-running off-Broadway chestnut [tag]The Fantasticks[/tag] can still hold up after 46 years. The answer brought to us by [tag]The Masquers Playhouse[/tag] is [...]

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As if Charles Dickens? tale of a young orphan named [tag]Oliver Twist[/tag] wasn?t enough of a classic, Lionel Bart turned the 19th century novel into a classic of his own: the brilliant 1963 Tony Award-winning musical Oliver!. With an infectious score, it is no wonder [tag]Pinole Community Players[/tag] chose Oliver! for their 20th anniversary season. [...]

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