The SF Bay Area Theatre Blog

Got an email from NY producer Ken Davenport alerting me to an awesome new app for theatre lovers. Well, theatre lovers who find themselves in NYC often enough to care about what's playing. It's called "At the Booth", and it let you know what's up at the TKTS booth at what price.

Here's his blog post about it.

And here's the blurb my favorite magazine Entertainment Weekly published about it.

I downloaded it right away! (And I'm not even in NYC that often.) You should too :)

Labels: Broadway, ipad, iphone, tkts

Stanford Summer Theatre is presenting an interesting series based around the works of Homer this summer. The centerpiece of the myriad goings on is a fully-staged production of The Wanderings of Odysseus, originally produced in 1992 by the Mark Taper Forum for the Getty Museum in Malibu, directed by Rush Rehm (now Artistic Director, Stanford Summer Theater).

Adapted by Oliver Taplin, The Wanderings of Odysseus is the story of Odysseus’ return to his island home of Ithaca after the Trojan War. You'll know some of these stories: Circe, the Sirens, Calypso, the Cyclops, etc. I read the works of Homer in college and they certainly are epic tales that have inspired other works of art for millennia. (Perhaps my favorite: Suzanne Vega's song "Calypso".)

The Wanderings of Odysseus stars company members L. Peter Callender, Alex Ubokudom, Courtney Walsh, and Paul Baird and features live percussion.

It opened Thursday night and runs through August 15th.

WHAT: The Wandering of Odysseus
WHERE: Stanford Summer Theatre, the Nitery Theater (only 75 seats!)
WHEN: July 22 – August 15, Thursdays and Sundays at 7:00 pm, Sunday matinees at 2 pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm
WHERE TO BUY: For ticket information, visit http://summertheater.stanford.edu, call 650-725-5838, or email summertheater@stanford.edu

BlogHer's big annual event is in less than two weeks, so I'll be off to NYC for a full week very soon. So timing doesn't seem good for me, but I held on to the email about this show for a long time, considering whether I could shove it into my schedule somehow.

Labels: odysseus, stanford

As if this economic environment isn't enough (and as a board member of 42nd Street Moon, I know exactly how hard theatres are working for every dollar) the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco is going through even more devastating hard times.

Back in April one of the show's co-founders and its Executive Director Quentin Easter died.

A month ago the Bay Citizen chronicled how Easter's co-founder, companion and the theatre's Artistic Director, Stanley E. Williams, was recovering from cancer surgery, while trying to cope with the loss of Easter and the theatre's economic hard times.

A poignant quote from Williams in that piece states, "People are telling me to rest. But if I do that, we’ll soon be forgotten because we’re an African-American theater company."

Let's hope he's not right, because sadly Williams too succumbed to cancer last Friday.

The link to their press room says it all: The last two pieces of news from the company both start with the words "In Memoriam".

Williams had a long, storied career, and perhaps this will create a rallying cry in the theatre and philanthropic community to not let the LHT fade away...after all, what could be a less fitting tribute than to let that happen?

If you want to help their Fundraising page is here.

Labels: Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Quentin Easter, Stanley E. Williams