Jan Probst Reveals Marital Truths in Lock-Down by Patricia L. Morin Phoenix Theatre’s “Bird on a Tree Branch” magnifies the psychological fallout from holding long-hidden secrets in a patriarchal marriage. It’s 1964, and a white middle-class couple is driving home in a terrible storm. They stop to pick up Hannah Jackson (Desiree Rogers), a…
Erika Dickerson-Despenza Chronicles A Black Girl’s Trauma by Patricia L. Morin SF Playhouse and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre unfold disquieting truths in Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s intense play “[hieroglyph],” born from real events at the Louisiana Superdome. The playwright highlights one Black girl who represents many girls harboring the psychological pain of rape. “[hieroglyph]” tells the horrific…
Harrison David Rivers Depicts a Writer’s Return Home by Patricia L. Morin Forty-year-old writer Jesse Howard (H. Adam Harris) wants to unpack all the important experiences that led him to where he is today. Taking refuge in his childhood home, Jesse hears his mother saying again: “You want to have a happy plate, don’t…
Will Eno Probes One Man’s Thoughts & Feelings by Patricia L. Morin Will Eno’s “Thom Pain (based on nothing),” live-streamed from the Bus Barn Theater by Los Altos Stage Company, attempts to piece together an obscure jigsaw puzzle of human thoughts and feelings through the events of one agonized man’s life. As Thom Pain,…