Kurt Landisman News

Aurora Theatre Company continues its dynamic 27th season with EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, based on the best-selling, critically acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Tom Ross directs the West Coast premiere that features Adam Burch, Lura Dolas (Abigail's Party, The Glass Menagerie, The Persians), Jeremy Kahn (Dry Powder, Wittenberg), Marissa Keltie and Julian Lopez-Morillas (The Heir Apparent, The Homecoming). EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED runs November 9 - December 9 (Opens: November 15).

Aurora Theatre Company will add seven performances to its Bay Area premiere of DRY POWDER, the razor-sharp and whip-smart comedy that skewers the world of high finance by Sarah Burgess.

Critics and audiences agree: THE ROYALE delivers a knockout punch. Aurora Theatre Company announces it will add an additional 7 performances to the Bay Area premiere of the riveting ringside drama about boxing and race by award-winning TV writer and producer Marco Ramirez (Orange Is The New Black, Sons of Anarchy).

Marin Theatre Company opens its 50th Anniversary Season with Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. The play debuted at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, IL, moving directly to Broadway in 2007. Following its TONY® Award-winning NYC run, the production began its US National Tour in 2009. It has since enjoyed successful runs at theatres around the world, however MTC's production will be one of the first professional productions in the Bay Area since the Broadway tour in 2009.

Marin Theatre Company opens its 50th Anniversary Season with Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. The play debuted at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, IL, moving directly to Broadway in 2007.

Like its title queen, Howard Brenton's 'Anne Boleyn' knocks at curiosity's door, difficult to grasp, but fascinating nonetheless. Henry VIII nearly erased the historical figure from the books, with religious leaders and historians labeling Anne a martyr or a harlot over the years. In his revised history, Brenton offers a strong, clever Boleyn, the effective and vibrant Liz Sklar in Marin Theatre Company's West Coast Premiere. This Anne loves a tender Henry and considers herself an Esther positioned for 'such a time as this.' But Brenton also bookends his play with a mocking Anne who concludes her lengthy tale in an abrupt, contrived message disconnected from preceding material. Where 'Boleyn' works best, however, is in its politics and religion, and it's a shame its final scene only briefly references that which an overall smart script has built.

Santa Cruz Shakespeare opens its 2015 summer repertory season on Friday, July 1, 2015, at 8:00 pm with Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in the Sinsheimer-Stanley Festival Glen at the University of California. Performances run through August 30, 2015.

San Francisco Playhouse begins the new year of its twelfth season with the regional premiere of Tree, by Julie Hebert and directed by Jon Tracy.

San Francisco Playhouse begins the new year of its twelfth season with the regional premiere of Tree, by Julie Hebert and directed by Jon Tracy.

San Francisco Playhouse begins the new year of its twelfth season with the regional premiere of Tree, by Julie Hebert and directed by Jon Tracy.

San Jose Repertory Theatre presents the Bay Area premiere of the critically-acclaimed The Big Meal, by Dan LeFranc, the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award Winner. This razor sharp portrait of a modern American family runs today, May 8 through June 1, and is directed by Kirsten Brandt, San Jose Rep's Associate Artistic Director.

San Jose Repertory Theatre presents the Bay Area premiere of the critically-acclaimed The Big Meal, by Dan LeFranc, the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award Winner. This razor sharp portrait of a modern American family runs May 8 through June 1, and is directed by Kirsten Brandt, San Jose Rep's Associate Artistic Director.

Marin Theatre Company, in association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, will stage August Wilson's Fences, the 1950s entry into his Century Cycle (also known as his Pittsburgh Cycle) - a decade-by-decade exploration of the black experience in 20th century America. Directed by Derrick Sanders, the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning play will feature veteran film and television actor Carl Lumbly as Troy Maxson, Steven Anthony Jones, the artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as Jim Bono and award-winning actor, playwright and director Margo Hall as Rose, as well as Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Eddy Ray Jackson as Cory, Adrian Roberts as Gabriel,Tyee Tilghman as Lyons and two Marin City youths - Jade Sweeney, who attends Willow Creek Academy, and Makaelah Bashir, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy - splitting the role of Raynell. Scroll down for a first look at the stars!

Marin Theatre Company, in association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, will stage August Wilson's Fences, the 1950s entry into his Century Cycle (also known as his Pittsburgh Cycle) - a decade-by-decade exploration of the black experience in 20th century America. Directed by Derrick Sanders, the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning play will feature veteran film and television actor Carl Lumbly as Troy Maxson, Steven Anthony Jones, the artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as Jim Bono and award-winning actor, playwright and director Margo Hall as Rose, as well as Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Eddy Ray Jackson as Cory, Adrian Roberts as Gabriel,Tyee Tilghman as Lyons and two Marin City youths - Jade Sweeney, who attends Willow Creek Academy, and Makaelah Bashir, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy - splitting the role of Raynell. Scroll down for a first look at the stars!

Marin Theatre Company, in association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, will stage August Wilson's Fences, the 1950s entry into his Century Cycle (also known as his Pittsburgh Cycle) - a decade-by-decade exploration of the black experience in 20th century America. Directed by Derrick Sanders, the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning play will feature veteran film and television actor Carl Lumbly as Troy Maxson, Steven Anthony Jones, the artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, as Jim Bono and award-winning actor, playwright and director Margo Hall as Rose, as well as Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Eddy Ray Jackson as Cory, Adrian Roberts as Gabriel, Tyee Tilghman as Lyons and two Marin City youths - Jade Sweeney, who attends Willow Creek Academy, and Makaelah Bashir, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy - splitting the role of Raynell.

The 2013 BroadwayWorld San Francisco audience choice awards saw a fantastic number of nominations for theatres throughout Northern California this year, from Fresno's Good Company Players to Modesto's Gallo Center to Broadway Sacramento, San Jose and San Francisco. If only enough time existed for us writers to see every talented cast perform. Here are a few of my favorite productions from 2013 in a brief look back at some of the shows I was fortunate enough to witness.

Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2013-14 season today. Featuring six productions in MTC's intimate 231-seat Boyer Theatre, the season includes the regional premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's national sensation Good People; a revival of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play Fences;world premieres of I and You by Bay Area-based playwright Lauren Gunderson and Lasso of Truth, which MTC commissioned from Carson Kreitzer with the support of the National New Play Network; the west coast premiere of Philip Dawkins' "whimsical beyond all imagining" Failure: A Love Story; and a unique holiday production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol by Tom Mula. Based in Mill Valley, MTC is a 47-year old professional nonprofit theater, a destination for exhilarating performances, inspired new American plays and powerful theatrical experiences.

Song echoes heart in Jon Marans' 'Old Wicked Songs,' a beautiful play that, like the classical music it celebrates, takes its time to mature story and soak in emotion and meaning. Much like the infamous Maria Callas account, 'Master Class,' 'Old Wicked Songs' follows teacher and student as pasts divulge and talents unfold.