Galen | Dangerous Common Sense

Oklahoma!

By Galen|2018-07-15T09:56:21-07:00July 15, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Oklahoma Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the Play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original Dances by Agnes de Mille Directed by Bill Rauch Oregon Shakespeare Festival has been workshopping and mulling over this production of Oklahoma for five years, according to cast member Barzin Akhavan (playing Ali Hakim) when he spoke at a coffee in April. OSF's dream was to create an Oklahoma! with non-standard gender roles throughout the territory. Will Parker (Jordan Barbour) is hot for Ado Andy (Jonathan Luke Stevens) and Curly (a definitely [...]

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Repeating Today’s Big Lie,
or Defending Sessions’ and Trump’s Policy Separating Families

By Galen|2018-06-20T12:44:00-07:00June 20, 2018|philippic, Politics|

This week's uproar on separating children from their asylum-seeking parents unpleasantly confirms how far apart on basic morality we are in this country. To me, my Trump-approving friends ignore the imperative of the urgent human needs of the asylum seekers and their young children. Instead, they cite instances where Democrats years ago may have broken up families of asylum seekers. They mention that the government imprisons criminals with young children, thereby breaking up those families, so Trump's policies aren't new. It's great misdirection. First, even if the statements were accurate, the comments simply make the argument that two (or three [...]

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Vietgone

By Galen|2018-04-03T10:22:49-07:00April 2, 2018|plays|

San Francisco, CA at the American Conservatory Theater, Strand Theater Extended through April 29, 2018 Vietgone by Qui Nguyen directed by Jaime Castañeda ACT advertising Vietgone as "The irreverent road-trip comedy" is almost sacrilegious. The categorization misses the depth, power, and cultural importance of this newish play. Anyone selling Vietgone as a mindless-sounding comedy rode the momentary surface story, ignoring the characters, context, and important human issue that makes Vietgone truly memorable. The strength of Vietgone is its suburb writing which hits the mark in storytelling, characterization, pace, and perspective. The playwright character (Jomar Tagatac) comes on stage in the opening scene to assure the [...]

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Henry V

By Galen|2018-03-05T20:02:55-08:00March 5, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Henry V Ensemble as Chorus. Photo by Jenny Graham. by William Shakespeare directed by Rosa Joshi Daniel José Molina (Henry V) and other cast members deliver many truly spectacular moments -- especially in Act II -- which make this Henry a must see. Unfortunately, Director Rosa Joshi's choices diminish the impact of the play itself and leaves the audience to appreciate master-class acting set in a confusion of activity. I think the audience is supposed to [endlessly] appreciate the turmoil and indiscriminate horrors of the machine of war. Toward that end, actors push [...]

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Sense and Sensibility

By Galen|2018-03-04T18:35:29-08:00March 3, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Sense and Sensibility Ensemble. Photo by Jenny Graham. by Jane Austen adapted by Kate Hamill directed by Hana S. Sharif This "updated adaption" is, in fact, a completely uninspired snoozefest of outdated manners humor unworthy of the acting talent and craft workers it wastes. We went into the performance expecting that S&S would be a frothy comedy. But, maybe our expectations were raised too high by the thought that it had been adapted to be more modern. But, whatever. It was not amusing enough to create a bubble of happiness, much less froth. If [...]

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Destiny of Desire

By Galen|2018-03-03T20:23:03-08:00March 3, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Destiny of Desire by Karen Zacarías directed by José Luis Valenzuela Destiny of Desire is an evening of a schlocky, cheesy, unbelievable, perfectly-executed, spectacularly entertaining, brilliantly-written live telenovela. Before I write my 1000 words of "Oh my God, I loved it, here's why...", a picture: Vilma Silva, Ella Saldana North, Esperanza America. Photo by Jenny Graham. The photo is truly worth more than 1000 words of descriptive praise. (Click on it to see it full size.) But, here goes... Director José Luis Valenzuela has directed Destiny at four theaters -- everywhere it's been produced (or [...]

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Othello

By Galen|2018-03-03T19:01:35-08:00February 25, 2018|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Othello by William Shakespeare directed by Bill Rauch I know I have seen Othello before, at least a couple of times. But, I never experienced this deliberate, painful story with believable Evil, blinded goodness, and flawed purity. Other Othellos were classic SHAKESPEARE. This was 2018 artistry. I left the theater wondering if Othello's tragedy is personal or is the real sadness that racism, dislike of foreigners, faux-Christian superiority and male dominance has changed so little in 400+ years? Othello (Chris Butler) is certainly flawed and succumbs too completely to Iago's (Danforth Comins) suggestions of marital infidelity. [...]

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Imaginary Comforts
or the Story of the Ghost of the Dead Rabbit

By Galen|2017-10-29T09:36:53-07:00October 29, 2017|Berkeley Rep, plays|

Berkeley, CA at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre Opening Scene of IMAGINARY COMFORTS, OR THE STORY OF THE GHOST OF THE DEAD RABBIT Imaginary Comforts or The Story of the Ghost of the Dead Rabbit by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) WORLD PREMIERE I am unreasonably pleased at not knowing how to start a discussion of Imaginary Comforts. The locally-produced theater I've seen in the Bay Area in the past decade has been linear, easily described, one-dimensional. Some productions, especially recent Theatre Rhinoceros shows, have been quality, great fun events. But, none has risen to the gob-smacking, "I got to think about this" level [...]

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Henry IV, Part 2

By Galen|2017-08-27T09:58:12-07:00August 22, 2017|osf, plays|

Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Henry IV, Part 2 By William Shakespeare Directed by Carl Cofield Daniel Jose Molina as Prince Hal. Photo by OSF/Jenny Graham. This production is unique in my Ashland experience. Not in a good way. At all. The Festival is allowing an actor to go onstage who does not know his lines and cannot read them from the script he's holding on a clipboard. It is bizarrely unbelievable that this nationally-known repertory theater has hired an actor for a single role which he cannot do. And, they have left him in the role, [...]

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Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical

By Galen|2017-06-29T09:22:38-07:00June 29, 2017|plays|

Eureka Theater, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco at Theatre Rhinoceros Priscilla, Queen of the Desert The Musical By Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott Directed by John Fisher Photo by David Wilson, Theatre Rhinoceros The more I think about this production, the better I like it. And, I left the theater damn happy to begin with! The musical Priscilla follows the basic story of the original movie and adds in about every disco/pop hit of the late 70's and 80's in a supremely fun, colorful, and fast moving montage that makes the 2 1/2 hours running time go too quickly. [...]

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