Feature articles on theater today.
Reflections Lynn Nottage Exposes How Corporate Profits Trump People by Tom van Nuenen “Sweat,” the Pulitzer-awarded play by Lynn Nottage, is a powerful examination of the capitalist strategy of divide-and-conquer. Race is pitted against race, and generation against generation in America’s Rust Belt. On the drive to the spacious, modern Lesher Center for the…
Reflections “Essential Services Project” Offers Free Thrills by Patricia L. Morin Imagine the creativity, stamina, and drive it takes for one person to write, act, direct, and produce, a solo play every week for over a year. John Fisher, Executive Artistic Director of Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco, took on this mind-boggling feat in his…
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…
Reflections Bernstein, Sondheim Champion Youthful Self-Discovery by Abby Tozer Whenever I hear the words “West Side Story,” I recall my Grandpa’s story of proposing to my Grandma at a 1961 packed premiere in downtown San Francisco. Assuming the musical has a Hollywood ending, he pulled out the ring halfway through. Little did he know…