Every few months, myself, another Bay Area theatre critic, two directors, an actor and a producer get together to host what we call a "theatre salon" -- an evening involving anything between 12 and 50 people, food, wine and conversation about a specific topic to do with the performing arts. Past themes have included the San Francisco Fringe Festival, theatre-makers' relationship with audiences and theatre and the (ailing) economy.This time around we decided to spend an evening with a smallish group of colleagues (some new to the salon concept … [Read more...]

Following the debacle that was the San Francisco Fringe "Sneak Peek" preview soiree a few weeks ago, I didn't have high hopes for my day of Fringeing on Sunday. I had six shows on my schedule starting at 1pm. I figured that the only way I could get through it all was to medicate heavily between each performance.So I was unimaginably thrilled to discover that not only did I not need booze to soften each theatrical blow, but that this was probably the best day of Fringeing I've experienced to date.I didn't manage to get to all six shows -- … [Read more...]

Why is it that no one thinks twice of adapting classic plays to suit certain ensembles and aesthetic predilections in the theatre, whereas the idea of creating new versions of canonical works from classical music repertoire is often frowned upon?On Saturday, I attended a concert given by the ever-innovative New Century Chamber Orchestra (music director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, pictured left) which featured a program of re-envisioned takes for string orchestra on two works by J S Bach ("Chaconne" from Partita No. 2 for solo violin arranged by … [Read more...]

The close-knittedness of the Bay Area performing arts community (and indeed of any community worth its salt) is a constant source of delight and fascination to me.Yesterday evening, while at the inaugural festivities for Z Space Theatre Company's new home at Theatre Artaud in San Francisco, I was reminded of the oddball pleasures of community when I joined a cluster of local theatre people mid-conversation. We were a group of four, myself included. I knew two of the people in our little group and the other person was a stranger to me, though he … [Read more...]

A few people have written to me this morning both publicly via ArtsJournal and privately via my email address in response to the blog post I wrote yesterday about the upcoming National Arts Journalism Summit in Los Angeles.A couple of commentators brought up some worthwhile criticisms of the concept which I would like to highlight and reply to. Here is the first:"Only four hours for a "summit on journalism"? Seems to me a rather paltry amount of time to spend on such an important subject, and most of it is going to be taken up by speeches and … [Read more...]

A few reasons why the upcoming National Arts Journalism Summit which is taking place on October 2 at the University of California Los Angeles has me stoked:1. It's about time that arts journalists from around the world got together to figure out how to make cultural coverage viable from a business perspective for the future. As old media struggles to stay afloat and new media struggles to find its financial footing in a tough economic climate, the summit will provide an array of concepts aimed at promoting sustainability.2. The summit is being … [Read more...]

Whenever a baby boomer waxes lyrical about how great the 1960s were, and in particular, how great the Woodstock Festival was, I tend to switch off. But Ang Lee's new film about the events leading up to the famous festival, Taking Woodstock, actually makes me wish I'd been around in 1969.The festival, which attracted some 500,000 concert goers to hear al fresco performances by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Ravi Shankar, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane, took place on a 600-acre dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of … [Read more...]

It's well known that here in the Bay Area, people have a habit of taking political correctness too far.I was gratingly reminded of this fact a few days ago during a singing rehearsal. I am part of a group of singers that is preparing to perform a bunch of a cappella songs for the patients on the cancer wards of the University of California San Francisco Medical Campus. At the inaugural rehearsal last week, we were working on a trio of new arrangements of old folk songs, one of which was about a mother scolding her daughter for not behaving … [Read more...]

One of the signs of a good actor is that they can hold your attention even when the play they are performing in doesn't. There are a few performers in the Bay Area that truly have this uncanny ability -- so often dubbed "presence". The San Francisco actor Sean San Jose walks among them.San Jose, an actor of Filipino and Puerto Rican background, is most closely associated with the Intersection for the Arts organization. He's not the most versatile actor I've ever seen on stage. He's best at playing tortured heroes with hearts of gold but serious … [Read more...]

Nearly every day brings news of another arts organization in financial straits. The latest casualty on the Bay Area performance scene is the Willows Theatre Company. The Concord and Martinez-based company, which has been producing well-trodden, though lively productions in the Bay Area for more than 30 years, has announced that it is facing a financial crisis that may force it to shut down its main-stage facility in Concord and a cabaret in Martinez unless the theater can raise $350,000 by November 1.It's an old story. And a troubling one. The … [Read more...]