Sarah Ruhl Mixes Witchcraft, Women, & Wit by Barry David Horwitz As you walk into Berkeley Rep, you see life-size mannequins in Puritan costumes, looming over the ground-level stage. It looks like the inside of a hokey Salem Museum of Witchcraft, in Massachusetts—because that’s where we are! That’s the kind of in your face…
Brian Copeland: A Genuine Christmas Gem! by Barry David Horwitz Everyone knows that Brian Copeland, famed for his “Not a Genuine Black Man” solo show that has toured the country and played for ten years in San Francisco, is our master story-teller. His gift to audiences during the holidays, “The Jewelry Box,” offers a…
Bryna Turner Depicts Daring Lesbian Leader by Barry David Horwitz Under the old filagree wooden arches and overflowing ivy of a small women’s college–thanks to designer Nina Ball–we enter two women’s hurricane of ideas. At the eye of that delicious academic climate, we meet Mary Wooley and Jeanette Marks. In 1901, before women’s rights,…
International Acrobats Leap, Fly, Dance into Our Dreams by Barry David Horwitz Acrobats and spectacular gymnasts from Japan, Brazil, Canada, Russia, UK, Australia, and U.S. come together in a swirling surreal fantasy to tell a tempestuous love story. Based on Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” Cirque du Soleil has created a remarkable vision of feminine magic and…