Chris Houston News

Marin Theatre Company (MTC) hosts Encore!, its annual spring fundraiser tonight, May 10, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. at the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley. All proceeds benefit the 46-year-old nonprofit theater's artistic and educational programs.

Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Virginia Stage Company, stages the regional premiere of Matthew Lopez's Civil War drama The Whipping Man in Mill Valley from March 28 to April 21, 2013. MTC's artistic director Jasson Minadakis directs the production. Featuring popular Bay Area actors L. Peter Callender, Nicholas Pelczar and Tobie Windham, as well as the design team from MTC's 2011 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nominated production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, this co-production rehearsed and ran at VSC in Norfolk, Virginia, from February 26 to March 17, 2013, before tonight's move to MTC. Opening night at MTC is tonight, April 2.

Marin Theatre Company (MTC) hosts Encore!, its annual spring fundraiser on Friday, May 10, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. at the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley. All proceeds benefit the 46-year-old nonprofit theater's artistic and educational programs.

Marin Theatre Company, in a co-production with Virginia Stage Company, will stage the regional premiere of Matthew Lopez's Civil War drama The Whipping Man in Mill Valley from March 28 to April 21, 2013. MTC's artistic director Jasson Minadakis directs the production. Featuring popular Bay Area actors L. Peter Callender, Nicholas Pelczar and Tobie Windham, as well as the design team from MTC's 2011 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nominated production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, this co-production will rehearse and run at VSC in Norfolk, Virginia, from February 26 to March 17, 2013, before moving to MTC. Opening night at MTC is on Tuesday, April 2.

In Tennessee Williams' classic play, "The Glass Menagerie," a main character describes an encounter he has with a magician. Tom watched as the magician had audience members nail him into a coffin, but then escaped from the coffin without removing one single nail. Such a trick seems impossible in real life, and Tom feels trapped in his own coffin, unable to move on. Marin Theatre Company's production conveys this solemn situation with solid acting, bare sets and a lone trumpet player who plays music with the feel of a private-eye detective movie and that represents the ghostly memories of Tom, as well as a portrait of his deserting father. The trumpet, played by Andrew Wilke, is original to this production, added to help with scene transitions, as well as to create a symbol without having a full portrait of the father. Wilke stays in the background for the entire play, which lasts about two hours and fifteen minutes plus a fifteen minute intermission. His music, composed by MTC regular Chris Houston, amplifies the depression setting, but also adds a bit of hope when it wafts through Tom's small apartment, coming from a neighboring dance hall.

This year's Critics Circle Awards, sponsored by Actor's Equity Association, today announced is nominees for excellence in San Francisco Bay area theater. Berkeley Rep's production of American Idiot, which played in the fall of 2009, leads with 12 nominations and will open on Broadway this spring.

Thanks to the vision of BlueRare Productions, the collaboration of The SF Playhouse, PlayGround and of course, Aaron Loeb, Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party has hit New York by storm. The shows are sold out, and we open in a few short hours!

The San Francisco Playhouse, BlueRare Productions, and PlayGround team to present the SF Playhouse's critically acclaimed production of Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, by Aaron Loeb, directed by Chris Smith, as part of the13th Annual New York International Fringe Festival, thus furthering an SF Playhouse goal to deliver productions that can succeed on a national level. Performances will be held at HERE Arts Center (Mainstage Theater - Venue #17), 145 6th Avenue (between Spring and Broome).

Thanks to the vision of BlueRare Productions, the collaboration of The SF Playhouse, PlayGround and of course, Aaron Loeb, Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party has hit New York by storm. The shows are sold out, and we open in a few short hours!

The San Francisco Playhouse, BlueRare Productions, and PlayGround team to present the SF Playhouse's critically acclaimed production of Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, by Aaron Loeb, directed by Chris Smith, as part of the13th Annual New York International Fringe Festival, thus furthering an SF Playhouse goal to deliver productions that can succeed on a national level. Performances will be held at HERE Arts Center (Mainstage Theater - Venue #17), 145 6th Avenue (between Spring and Broome).

The San Francisco Playhouse, BlueRare Productions, and PlayGround team to present the SF Playhouse's critically acclaimed production of Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party, by Aaron Loeb, directed by Chris Smith, as part of the13th Annual New York International Fringe Festival, thus furthering an SF Playhouse goal to deliver productions that can succeed on a national level. Performances will be held at HERE Arts Center (Mainstage Theater - Venue #17), 145 6th Avenue (between Spring and Broome).

Representing the print and electronic media, 23 members of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle announce the winners of 37 Drama awards and 37 Musical awards from 257 nominated actors, designers, productions, and more reviewed in 2008. Over 400 productions were seen in 2008 by Circle critics reviewing theatre from San Jose to Santa Rosa, San Francisco to Concord.

SF Playhouse opens its fifth season with John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, directed by Bill English, beginning performances September 19, opening September 22 through November 17.

ACT and Magic Theatre celebrate their 40th anniversary seasons by teaming for their first-ever co-production: the West Coast premiere of ACT Artistic Director Carey Perloff's 'Luminescence Dating,' running Nov. 29 through Dec. 23 at the Magic Theatre, directed by veteran theatrical director Mark Rucker.