Suzan-Lori Parks Spotlights Overlapping Black Histories by Patricia L. Morin In her 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Suzan-Lori Parks creates a fantasy shared by two brothers, reflecting their confrontation with American racial conflict. She mingles the Civil War with conflicts today. It’s shocking in “Topdog/Underdog” how slavery blends so perfectly with our waves of brutality…
Millennial Notes Isaac Gómez Exposes the Horrors of Gentrification by Evelyn Arevalo “The Displaced” is not your run-of-the-mill horror story. Playwright Isaac Gómez gives us a bright, young interracial couple whose haunted past manifests itself, physically. The energy and chemistry in this two-person play is exhilarating. Marisa (Jordan Maria Don) and Lev (Troy Rockett)…
John Fisher Sends Up Silly Snobs in U.S. & U.K by Robert M. Gardner & Barry David Horwitz In “National Trust,” a solo show by John Fisher, we find our hero camping it up, calling into question our national priorities. His energy is infectious, his antics hilarious, as he tells us about grand houses…
Millennial Notes Lin-Manuel Miranda Revives Revolution in Living Color by Evelyn Arevalo The touring company of “Hamilton” in San Francisco boasts an exciting diversity of singers and dancers. Much like the Bay Area, the cast is multi-cultural and phenomenal—like Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, itself. Miranda’s ground-breaking show about the American Revolution—in rap, jazz, and ballad–has…