The SF Bay Area Theatre Blog

You might notice that I altered the name of this blog from being solely about Foothill Music Theatre to being more generally about theatre in this area and beyond.

Foothill has hired me for the past 3 summers to do online marketing for their summer production, including this blog. In between summers, though, I'm on my own. I still enjoy periodically posting about theatre, and I particularly enjoy providing a place for local actors to plug away! But it's never really been consistently and exclusively about Foothill. More than that I am not positive I'll be able to commit to doing that annual work anymore, should the ask me, due to my BlogHer commitments.

Now a couple of years ago I solicited the departing Foothill summer cast to see if anyone wanted to co-author this blog and keep it up with Foothill info. No one bit, so I just sporadically solider on. And that sporadicity (?) sporadicism (?) sporadicness (?) shouldn't reflect on Foothill...which it kinda does when their name is on it.

So, that's the story behind the name change.

Move along, nothing to see here :)

If you spend much time perusing the blogosphere you know that occasionally memes catch fire and spread across it. The most recent meme, and one that seems to have tremendous staying power is the "5 Things You Don't Know About Me" meme. I was tagged for this by Tekla over at the Silicon Valley Mom Blog. As it turns out I had already done this over at my Worker Bees blog, but i don't know if my theatre and marketing lives intersect or not, so I figured I'd re-join the party and post it again here.

So, without further ado, I give you 5 Things You Don't Know About Me:

1. I was a theatre major in college, spent two summers as an apprentice at a summer stock theatre, got my union card and headed off to NYC to pursue mostly musical theatre. I lived in NYC for four years before deciding I didn't like being poor and that there was way more to success in that field than either talent or hard work. Little did I know at 26 that every field in life is as far from a meritocracy as the theatre world is! Fact is, I still have my union card and continued to occasionally do work here in the Bay Area until about 1999...which is the last time I was in a show. Now I resist giving up that little card, even though I have no expectation of needing it any time soon. (OK, some of you probably knew this one.)

2. I am a terrible back seat driver. In fact, I rarely, if ever, let my fiance drive if we're going any significant distance. I tell him it's not his driving I don't like, but everyone else's (which is partly a lie...I also don't like his driving that much!) My mother is the same way, and my grandmother, who lived in NYC and never did drive, nonetheless was the plague of taxi drivers everywhere as she freaked out from the back seat. This is multi-generational control-freakitude at work here.

3. I love crossword puzzles and logic problems. I tend to buy a new magazine of them every time I'm in an airport and have many half completed magazines hanging around the house. I used ot do the NY Times puzzle online every day, but I just don't seem to have the time anymore.

4. I am a terrible sleeper. I have trouble falling asleep; I have trouble staying asleep, and I wake up too early, even on the weekends. I blame some of this on my fiance who keeps me up late, and my cat who wakes me up early, but the truth is I have always been a bit of an insomniac, and have the same issues when traveling alone without fiance or cat.

5. I have never changed a diaper in my life. Not completely shocking, given I'm not a mom, but still, I think it's a streak worth keeping. I've come 42 years without changing one...why start now?

That's it.

I know I'm no fun, and the whole point is to tag specific people and spread this meme like wildfire, but hey, I've already seen it around everywhere...it apparently doesn't need my assistance. So readers, feel free to post a couple of things we don't know abut you in the comments, but no pressure to write a post :)

At least according to Karen D'Souza's blog over at the Merc.

ACT's site (which generally, I must say, SUCKS for finding basic information) does not seem to confirm that anywhere yet. I'm excited, since I missed it in New York, but who on Earth will they get to be in it? I'm all agog!

I saw Spring Awakening with a friend who descirbed himself as "obsessed" with it. And he spent time pre-show telling me how it was wrong to position it as "risque" because it really wasn't that bad, and certainly no worse than half of what's on TV.

As Act 1 closed with a scene of the two leading teens losing their virginity to one another on stage, complete with naked parts. As the lightsd came up I turned to my friend and said, "OK, it's a li'l bit risque, I have to say."

Sure, maybe not compared to HBO, but comapred to Broadway, particularly Broadway musicals? Definitely.

As this Reuters story attests.

I'm just glad they're describing it as a hit.

I think you'll appreciate this story about a young local actress who contacted me because I gave her a great review almost 18 months ago. I mean, hey, she got me to blog about her in two places!

So, check out Thoroughly Modern Millie at Peninsula Youth Theatre if you want to see a talented and intrepid Millie!

Is on my personal blog, here.

Bottom line:
I was already a fan of composer Duncan Sheik's music, and particular his previous album where he collaborated with Book/Lyricist Steven Slater, so I may have been pre-disposed to enjoy this. That being said, every aspect of this production was really well-done, and really avoided the kind of spoon-fed mediocrity that too often infects Broadway.

Highly recommended.

Labels: Broadway, Spring Awakening

The review is published on my personal blog here.

Bottom line: One amazing acting moment doesn't make the entire show a must-see, unfortunately.

Anyone else out there seen it?

Or ar you finding it too appalling?

I watched, and here is my (only slightly snarky) review, over at my personal blog.

I'm talking about eating during the show. According to NewYorkology, most Broadway theatres have decided to allow it. And drinking too.

Personally I think that sucks. Not just the sound, but the smell factor. I don't want to smell what other people are eating while in a confined, none-too-well-veentilated space.

What? Am I being a snob? I don't think so!

But enough about me...what do you think about allowing eating during Equus, mastication during Music Man, nutrition during Nunsense?