Put a Little Drama in your Life
5/11/18 I just saw a terrific play in the Wagner New Play Festival at UCSD . “How to Defend Yourself,” by Lily Padilla, a third year MFA student in the playwriting program, is a knockout. Another of her works was in the La Jolla Playhouse WoW Festival (“And Then You Wait”). This one has an offstage centerpiece: a campus rape, which engenders all manner of feelings, among seven fellow students who know the victim and the perpetrators Read More →
The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle announces 2017 Craig Noel Award nominations SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle has announced the nominations for its 16th annual Craig Noel Awards for Theatrical Excellence, which will be presented in a ceremony on Feb. 12, 2018, at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation in San Diego. Named for the late founding artistic director of San Diego’s longest-established theater, The Old Globe, the Craig Noel Awards honor the top Read More →
Blog Post: 12/02/17 “CINDERELLA” brought to us by Broadway San Diego There’s a bit of magic in the Civic Theatre this weekend. The national (non-Equity) touring company of “Cinderella” is in town… and it’s a winner: elaborate sets, excellent sound and lighting, and a robust 9-piece orchestra. The magic is in those spectacular costume transitions from glum to glam that both Ella and Marie the madwoman (who morphs into Fairy Godmother) undergo. The rest of the cast’s costumes Read More →
Blog Post: “ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914” 11/12/17 Enemies can be friends, even if only for one night. In the middle of a war, they can pile out of their trenches and make merry together. This isn’t a fantasy, or a metaphor. It really happened – on the battlefields in Belgium, in 1914. It was the beginning of World War I, and the Germans were facing off against the Brits. One Christmas Eve, one side started Read More →
11/10/17 The latest entry to San Diego Opera’s dētour series of intimate presentations is "As One," the provocative, two-person, 80-minute chamber opera composed by Laura Kaminsky, with libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed (Reed also created the accompanying film/video). There are so many moving, touching moments, so many universals in this journey of transition (from Hannah Before to Hannah After) -- one bifurcated soul coming together. But the struggles of feeling different, being bullied, grappling with puberty and self-acceptance Read More →
New play, great expectations. The collaboration between Markuz Rodriguez and Davig Vaughn was 15 years in the making (they met while performing in a theater production at Mt. Carmel High School). Once they re-connected, “The Cat Lady” had a two-year gestation, and it’s now premiering at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center. There are many good ideas here. Too many, in fact. The production also has a problem of excess: too many characters, too many extraneous stories, too many Read More →