Gary Soto Urges Us to Reflect by Patricia L. Morin As a therapist who ran a suicide hot-line, I have talked to teens who cut themselves, then heal, and cut again. In Gary Soto’s play, The Afterlife,” Crystal (engaging Bianca Catalan), daughter of wealthy almond growers, begins to “cut” herself. And another schoolmate gets…
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Questions Workers’ Choices by Patricia L. Morin Watching ACT’s streaming version of “Gloria,” I miss being a participant—there’s nothing like live theater. But I enjoyed how MacArthur Fellow playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins explores young workers competing in a toxic show-biz office, like Entertainment Today. He drops us into a smartly designed sterile office…
Kate Cortesi’s Exploited Women Demand Pay-Back by Patricia L. Morin “Love” swims in the gray area of consensual versus manipulated sexual relations. Playwright Kate Cortesi asks profound questions about honesty, morality, and reciprocity. In 2004, Penelope (Clea Alsip), a smart-ass Stanford grad who talks way too much, applies for an intern job, letting the…
Laurel Ollstein Flies High with Jerrie Cobb’s Dream by Patricia L. Morin The true story of hopeful astronaut Jerrie Cobb inspires us to reach for the heavens, and to pursue what we most love. At TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, in Palo Alto, Jerrie (magnetic Sarah Mitchell) stands alone in a spotlight, with a control tower…