Put a Little Drama in your Life
KPBS AIRDATE: October 20, 2006 The best of intentions don’t always engender the best of results. Two theatrical cases in point: the much-anticipated revival of “The Wiz” at the La Jolla Playhouse and the regional premiere of the Off Broadway hit, “Bug,” at Cygnet Theatre. Both companies set out to achieve something new, different and thrilling. But alas, both fell short of the mark. Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: October 13, 2006 Here’s a little election-season treat: a dollop of politics, a dash of religion, wrapped in satirical comedy. A couple of light bonbons with a dark layer underneath. The La Jolla Playhouse is serving up “Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell” and the San Diego Repertory Theatre is ladling out “Miss Witherspoon.” The title character in Read More →
By Pat Launer www.sdtheatrescene.com 10/13/06 The Merry Widow , Miss Witherspoon, had plenty of cause for alarm: She met The Wiz while Movin’ Out of her sludge-and Pig-filled Farm. THE BUMPY BRICK ROAD Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: October 06, 2006 White men, black women. When each group gets together for a ritual experience, sparks inevitably fly. The assemblages couldn’t be more different, though you could say ‘trash’ unites them. “Middle-Aged White Guys” features one seriously low-end, trashy family. And “Four Queens - No Trump” introduces a quartet of middle-class African American women assembled for their weekly game of bid-whist – and Read More →
By Pat Launer www.sdtheatrescene.com 10/06/06 Trashy White Guys and hip black chicks, Hemingway’s Rose and Trolley’s last kicks. And also, don’t say I didn’t warn ya’: Zorro’s back in California . CRAZY LIKE A FOX THE SHOW: Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell, the Chicano crazies’ latest nutty/political creation (an actual play, with a plot!), part of a trilogy about The Golden State. This is a world premiere, co-produced and -commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Read More →
KPBS AIRDATE: September 29, 2006 When you were in school, did they teach you about the Harlem Renaissance? Did you learn about novelists like Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright? What about the ‘poet laureate of Harlem ,” Langston Hughes? Surprisingly, in a recent Q&A with audiences both black and white, few had learned about or read Hughes or the other Read More →
“San Diego is a hotbed of theater. Every year, I see 200-250 productions. This is fertile ground for new work. In addition to the prodigious local talent, theatermakers from around the country come here to premiere their latest creations. San Diego sends more shows to Broadway than nearly any other city in the U.S.”
-Pat Launer