If you're wondering what today's kids are up to, take a trip out to Three Stages at Folsom Lake College this weekend. You'll see some terrific theater by young people, and more than that, yo…
A "carapace" refers to the protective shell of a turtle or tortoise. When the idea turns up in a play you can bet it's symbolic of a character's, you know, protective shell. Dave Pierin…
I get the feeling that playwright Jason Wells intended his farce "The North Plan" as a cautionary black comedy about the potentially draconian results of the Homeland Security Act. Along the…
When I saw the off-Broadway production of Rajiv Joseph's "Gruesome Playground Injuries" in 2011, the production was being overshadowed by another Joseph play. The prolific and highly regarde…
Jack Gallagher specializes in both transparency and personal oral history. Comedian Jack Gallagher stars in his self-scripted show "Complete and Unfinished" at the B Street Theatre.
For our theater entertainment and edification, Jack Gallagher will again cannibalize his life. Jack Gallagher poses in the office of the B Street Theatre, where he's preparing his lates…
True story: In college, I took a class on the 17th century Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza and we examined his signature work "Ethics." I tried very hard but understood very little, …
The duo of Sam Misner and Megan Smith are fine actors and even better Americana singer-songwriters. The pair met, appropriately enough, in a production of the musical "Woody Guthrie's Americ…
Actor Jerry Lee branches out from his more well-scrubbed musical theater roles to an unusual one- person telling of "A Tale of Two Cities." Jerry Lee stars in Everett Quinton's retellin…
Glenn Casale has an international directing career that seems to have only two gears: overdrive and off. Cathy Rigby, center, as Peter Pan leads the Lost Boys through their frolicsome a…
"A Pail of Grace," the 17th original holiday play written by Buck Busfield, slyly slips in as a smart comedy with thoughtful underpinnings. But Busfield, who also directs, has spirituality o…
Holiday theater has a tradition of particular themes played out through beloved stories and characters. The popularity of these productions is a blessing and a curse for theater companies. …
The British panto tradition, for all its surface anarchy, follows a number of guidelines. Tyson Wheeler plays White Rabbit and Bradley Moates portrays the Dame in "Alice in Wonderland: …
California Musical Theatre has turned out the lights and dropped the curtain on the Cosmopolitan Cabaret. The Cosmopolitan Cabaret production of "Forbidden Broadway" features, clockwise…
Successful productions of "A Christmas Carol" are never about the play's destination, but about the journey of a certain character that still has the capacity to inspire us. Matt K. Mi…
Jerry R. Montoya's completely charming new adaptation of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" shows how effective and accessible the 1906 story remains. Brittni Barger plays Della and Sam…
From annual revivals of perennial chestnuts to original productions receiving world premieres, the works combine the spirit and celebration of the holiday season. Buck Busfield's "A Pai…
It's been 25 years since the Sacramento Theatre Company first presented its original version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." That production was written by Richard Hellesen with mus…
Della and James each give up a prized possession in order to get the other a gift.
'A Pail of Grace," which opened Sunday at the B Street Theatre, is the 17th original holiday play penned by Buck Busfield. In this comedy with smart and thoughtful underpinnings, Busfield wr…
Felix Artiflex goes on and on and on. He talks continuously. He talks endlessly. He talks ad nauseam. He talks as if his life depends on getting the words out, which in a figurative way, …
Director Carolyn Howarth believes a certain amount of trepidation can be healthy when taking on a new project. After she first read the script for Craig Wright's "Mistakes Were Made," she th…
In Shakespeare's ironic literary comedy "Love's Labour's Lost," the young King Ferdinand of Navarre persuades his friends to swear off women and pursue lives of study, fasting and sleep. …
There's been a lot of water under the bridge since Charles Ludlam and his companion Everett Quinton first staged "The Mystery of Irma Vep" in 1984. The cross-dressing mash-up of gothic melod…
Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" recalls the span of time when her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Dunne Michael, both died. Janis Stevens s…