Podcasts about thursday sunday

Happy Masters Thursday. As promised, the crew walks you through the second nine at Augusta National Golf Course. We dissect every hole from the course architecture, to which players have the best scoring average, and why each hole gives so many players trouble year in and year out. From tee to green you won't find another podcast dive into the course like we have this year. We also take a stab at locking in our picks to win it all. Crew member Dante stays with a pick he made all to early back in September! Dalton decides to go across the pond for his pick to receive the green jacket in Butler Cabin from Eldrick (Tiger) Woods. ***Sorry, neither of us picked a Tiger repeat. If you all enjoyed today's episode please consider sharing via social media and with your closest friends. We grow when you share! @enjoythewalkpod on Twitter & Instagram You can find all Masters themed merchandise 20% off during the Tournament days (Thursday - Sunday) so head on over to www.enjoythewalkpod.com to grab your piece of Enjoy The Walk Podcast & Masters merch before it's gone for good! As always, get out there, carry your clubs, watch every shot of the Masters, & Enjoy The Walk #enjoythewalk #enjoythewalkpod #enjoythewalkpodcast #golfpodcast #golf #golfing #golfers #golfer #themasters #themasters2020 #augusta #augustaga #augustageorgia --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/enjoythewalk/support

Franklin County CiderDays now has a "Cider Trail" with 16 stops covering western Massachusetts and the Berkshires! This is part 2 of the series on traveling the Cider Trail and we will look at 10 stops along the trail. Episode 243 is part 1 of this series and details a 5 stop loop and day trip. View from West County Cider - picnic area looking out to Vermont and New Hampshire[/caption] This episodes brings us west of the Connecticut River and into the rolling hills of west county. We begin with: Bear Swamp Orchard - Distillery and Cidery 1209 B Hawley Road, Ashfield MA 01330Bottle Shop Saturday and Sunday 1-5 on November 7th & 8th Bear Swamp Orchard WebsiteTelephone (413) 625-2849 The apple brandy/hard cider bottle shop and tasting room is open  November 7th & 8th (traditional cider days weekend) 1-5 PM all dates. Besides that we will still offer Saturday afternoon in person pick up for orders through our online store until the end of November. Bear Swamp is at the top of the hills on the east side of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, with views that reach out to Vermont and New Hampshire. The farm borders the Trustees of Reservations Bear Swamp Reservation, which offers miles of scenic hiking trails and views of its own.Look for: Hard Cider, brandy and liqueurs. Vinegar (raw, unpasteurized, untreated) Jams and Jellies Maple syrup Headwater Cider 112 Forget Road, Hawley, MA 01339 Open weekends, Oct. 10-November 8; 10-5 Saturdays and Sundays Headwater Cider Website (413) 695-6099 Grow What You Press. Press What You Grow.Estate Cider from Franklin County. Crisp and Dry. Grown, Pressed, and Bottled here at the orchard. Sample and purchase a range of alcoholic ciders at the source! $12 / 750ml bottle Pine Hill Orchards 248 Greenfield Road, Colrain, MA 01340 Store open daily 9am-6 pm, year-round. Food trailer operates Thursday-Sunday 9 am-4 pm, seasonally Pine Hill Orchard website Pine Hill Orchards on Facebook (413) 624-3325 Orchard selling apples, cider and locally made foods. Special Blend Cider Sale for Cider Days Weekend: Bring your carboys and barrels to fill up with fresh-pressed specialty blends for bulk sale! Four different blends with multiple cider varieties used. 4000+ gallons will be available on November 7th and 8th from 9am to 5pm ONLY!! First come first served! Bob DeLisle and Charlie Olchowski will be available all Saturday morning at the juice room to answer cider making questions and to give guidance. The Farm Store is open year-round from 9 am to 6 pm daily. The New Food Trailer is open seasonally Thursday through Sunday serving over-the -top burgers, poutine, irresistible fried dough, and more! Make sure to grab a bag of Cider Donuts! Ryan & Casey Liquors 55 Main St., Greenfield, MA 01302 Hours of operation: Mon-Sat, 8 am-11 pm; Sun 10 am-9 pm Ryan & Casey Website (413) 775-6585 Bottle shop featuring ciders from Western MA producers, as well as other national and international brands, plus wines, beers, and spirits. There will be samples and discounts on cider and all things apple from mid-October through Franklin County CiderDays weekend (Nov. 7-8). Shelburne Falls Cork 1 Deerfield Avenue, #2, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 Wednesday- Saturday 11am - 6pm; Sunday 2pm - 5pm Shelburne Falls Cork Website Shelburne Falls Cork on Facebook (413) 362-0265 Hard cider, artisanal wine, craft beer, local cheese, charcuterie, chocolate, and preserves. It is my desire to sell local hard ciders, craft beer, and wine from family-owned wineries, where I think the best values are found. We also carry local cheese and charcuterie from Massachusetts and Vermont. And of course, we have case discount of 10% for mixed or not mixed cases of hard cider and wine. West County Cider 208 Peckville Rd. Shelburne MA 01370 Thurs. 2-5, Fri. 3-6, Sat 11-6, Sun 11-6 West County Cider Website (413) 768-9318 Come visit the oldest running cider house in the country. Our tap room and bottle shop at 208 Peckville Road in Shelburne will be open Thursday through Sunday this fall. Come for our legendary ciders while enjoying our hiking trails and picnic grounds with a glorious three state view. West County Cider was started by the Maloney family in 1984 with a commitment to making small-batch ciders with impeccable apples from local orchards. Thirty-five years later, our family has grown but the tradition continues. We use fine-winemaking techniques and focus on freshness of flavor and total respect for each individual apple variety. Every harvest year represents a new a foray into the possibility of the apple. Artifact Cider Project 34 N. Maple Street, Suite 15, Florence MA 01062 Fridays, 3 - 9 pm; Saturdays, 1 - 9 pm; Sundays, 1 - 7 pm Artifact Cider Project Website Artifact Cider Project on Facebook (508) 308-7361 We make cider for the new Northeast. We produce craft cider in a variety of styles by respecting tradition, but refusing to let it limit us. Using local apples and innovative cidermaking practices, we create ciders that are as authentic, eclectic, and forward-looking as the region they come from. Artifact was founded in 2014 by Jake Mazar and Soham Bhatt and is based in Florence, Massachusetts. Carr’s Ciderhouse  295 River Drive, Hadley, MA 01035 Farm Store open Thursday-Friday, 3-6 pm; Saturday 12-6 pm; and Sunday 12-3 pm. Also open by appointment: call (413) 336-7363 Carr's Ciderhouse Website Farm shop featuring Carr’s wild-fermented hard ciders, vinegars, cider syrup, fruit shrubs, and more. We produce ciders from locally grown apples and are the authors of The Ciderhouse Cookbook, available for sale at the farm store, which shares how we make everything and contains 127 recipes for cooking with cider. On CiderDays weekend we will be holding a tasting at our press barn at Preservation Orchard, located at 12 Mt. Warner Road in Hadley, MA. Tastings open on Saturday, Nov. 7 and Sunday Nov. 8 from 12-5. Please see our website for directions, details about parking, and important updates. Carr’s ciders are $12-$15/750 ml bottle Clarkdale Fruit Farms 303 Upper Road, DeerfieldRetail store open 9am-5pm every day of the week, August-December. Open weekends only in the winter months. Clarkdale Fruit Farms Website(413) 772-6797 Fourth-generation family orchard growing high-quality tree fruit since 1915. We farm 45 acres and grow over 50 varieties of apples, including several heirlooms. Our diverse plantings also include pears, peaches, plums, cherries, nectarines, and grapes. We produce our own sweet cider in season, and offer several special blends for holidays in the Fall. Bulk cider for fermenting is available upon request. Find us on fb and Instagram as well. Artisan Beverage Cooperative 324 Wells St. Greenfield, MASaturdays 12-2pm Artisan Beverage Cooperative Website Artisan Beverage Cooperative on Facebook(413) 335-0576 Artisan Beverage Cooperative—makers of many gluten-free, high-quality beverages. For Cider Days we offer our famous Valley and Whiskey cyzers. Apple-honey wine made with cider from Clarkdale Fruit Farm and honey from Western Mass. Cyzers are a variation of mead, a traditional fermented honey wine, but instead of water, cider is used. Both our cyzers are made with local raw honey and cider from Clarkdale Fruit Farm. The Whiskey Cyzer gets its name because it was aged in Bully Boy whiskey barrels before bottling, giving it a slightly smokier and oak-ier flavor profile than the Valley Cyzer. Both variations have been aging to perfection and supplies are limited. 14% ABV Gluten-free. Valley Cyzer - $15/ 500ml bottleWhiskey Cyzer - $20/ 500ml bottle Mentions in this Chat Additional stops: Perkarski's Sausage - on Route 116 Elmer's - food stop in center of Ashfield 3 Cider Features in the press; It’s Time to Get Obsessed With Hard Cider, The Next Frontier in American Drinking - Inside Hook 10/14/20  Matt Kaminsky - Climbing Apples Trees with a Man Called Gnarly Pippins - Boston Globe article 10/20/20 YouTube presentation with John Bunker from Maine Historical Society Help Support Cider Chat Please donate today. Help keep the chat thriving! Find this episode and all episodes at the page for Cider Chat's podcasts. Listen also at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher (for Android), iHeartRadio , Spotify and wherever you love to listen to podcasts. Follow on Cider Chat's blog, social media and podcast Twitter @ciderchat Instagram: @ciderchatciderville Cider Chat FaceBook Page Cider Chat YouTube

Plan the Perfect Cider Road Trip! This is Part 1 of a two part series on the new Cider Trail for Franklin County CiderDays 2020. The following is a recommended loop to visit 5 venues on the map. You can go in either direction of this loop - look to ciderdays.org to find the map and additional info on the other stops along the Cider Trail 1. Beaver Pond Distillery A German-made copper still for only 50 gallons, means every batch is hand-crafted and lovingly distilled, catching the heart of each run. Look for the Apple Brandy - double distillation - 1 year in oak Contact: 88 Woodward Rd. Petersham, MA 01366 By appointment only Beaver Pond Distillery Website Beaver Pond Distillery Facebook Page (978) 724-3443 Also available at Stan's Liquor Mart New Salem General Store - by the Next stop on the Cider Trail Ryan & Casey Liquors 2. Stan's Liquor Mart, with over 75 different hard ciders with their main focus on ciders made in New England! With everything from artisanal table ciders to 4 packs of fruited sweet ciders they try to carry a broad spectrum of the category. Stan’s Liquor Mart is a family-run business with over 30 years of experience. Besides the large selection of hard ciders, they focus on craft beer and fine wines and have an extensive selection of whiskies and other liquors. experience a a safe clean shopping experience and located 5 minutes off of Route 2. Contact: 1586 South Main Street, Athol, MA 01331 (Covid hours) Monday – Saturday 10-8 Sunday 11-5 (978) 249-9550 3. New Salem Cider In addition to apples, cider donuts, sweet and hard ciders and preserves, several vendors will also be on site to sell local products. Space will be limited by state restricted event capacity and we will post this as well as any updates on the website and Facebook pages as the dates approach. Contact 67 South Main St. in New Salem, Massachusetts. Parking available in marked areas across from driveway. Farm Store open every day, 10am-6pm Cider Garden open 12pm – 6pm and staffed on weekends (617) 634-9392 The cider garden will stay open up to Thanksgiving, with a fire pit lit on weekends, and growlers will be for sale the first two weeks of December. Halloween weekend, weather permitting, we will be offering small outdoor workshops on home cider making, vinegar making, pruning and orcharding; check the website and Facebook page for additional information and times. 4. Phoenix Fruit Farm Orchard with 20 acres of apples, 5 acres of peaches, and a farm store featuring locally grown produce and locally made foods. Phoenix Fruit Farm was founded in 2017 by Elly Vaughan, a graduate of U. Mass with a degree in Plant and Soil Science. We press and sell our own ra of raw, unpasteurized cider and actively building toward making our own hard cider, as part of our diversification plans. Contact 49 Sabin Street (farm), 401 Mill Valley Road (store), Belchertown, MA 01007 Store open daily, Mon-Sat 8-6, Sun 10-6 (978) 430-9459 5. Ragged Hill Cider Ragged Hill Cider Company is an award-winning orchard-based craft cidery, specializing in small batch ciders made using traditional methods with no added sugar. All the apples we use are proudly grown, picked, pressed, fermented and bottled at our 100% solar-powered orchard and cidery in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Located in a beautiful hilltop orchard just East of the Quabbin Reservoir. The orchard offers pick-your-own blueberries, raspberries, peaches, pears and about 30 varieties of apples. All of our ciders are made in the orchard with fruit grown solely at the orchard. Cider Offerings: Traditional Dry ABV 6.4% -Light, crisp, refreshing Traditional Semi-Dry ABV 5% - Light, aromatic, fruity Rasé (Raspberry Rosé) ABV 5% - Semi-dry, raspberry infused Honeycrisp ABV 7.1% - Semi-sweet, medium bodied, notes of honey and ripe stone fruit Ice Cider ABV 12% Our location is easily accessed from Route 9 or Route 32. Other local attractions include hiking at Rock House Reservation and the Quabbin Reservoir, breads and pastries at Rose32 Bakery, and Farm to Table dining at Salem Cross Inn & Tavern. Contact 94 John Gilbert Rd, West Brookfield, MA 01585 From Sept. 1-Dec 31, Friday 2p-5p, Saturday 11a-4p, Sunday 11a-4p (415) 405-5215 This next stop can be a full stand alone day trip with stops at The Spruces , The Clark Art Institute and MassMoCA. Berkshire Cider Project  Berkshire Cider Project is a new craft cidery focused on dry sparkling ciders. Located in a beautiful former textile mill with adjacent café and distillery. We’re open for tastings, CIDER merch, and bottles to-go. Berkshire Cider Project opened in July 2020. Our dry ciders start in the orchards and forgotten apple trees across Berkshire country. We focus on traditional techniques to craft sparkling ciders that are refreshingly complex yet accessible! Our bright labels and tie-dye accessories are inspired by warm Berkshire summers and the modern art at MassMoCA, just down the road. By partnering with orchards across the county we hope to share our deep interest in agricultural development and sustainability. Located at the beautiful Greylock WORKS facility– a former textile mill turned event venue, co-working space and food incubator. An adjacent café, The Break Room, is open Thursday-Sunday 8am-3pm. Check our website for special CiderDays events Contact: 508 State Road, North Adams, MA 01247 Friday and Saturday 12-6pm. Check our website for special CiderDays events. (413) 409-6058 Help Support Cider Chat Please donate today. Help keep the chat thriving! Find this episode and all episodes at the page for Cider Chat's podcasts. Listen also at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher (for Android), iHeartRadio , Spotify and wherever you love to listen to podcasts. Follow on Cider Chat's blog, social media and podcast Twitter @ciderchat Instagram: @ciderchatciderville Cider Chat FaceBook Page Cider Chat YouTube

Whether he's playing the triangle, the square, or the fiddle, Chris James (comedian, Not Even a Show) is always a fan favourite, and this episode is wild off the hop as some changed plans result in a remote episode with one of our closest friends. The Blocked Boys' familiarity with Chris results in a lot of one-upmanship in the beginning of the show as they piece together how Chris ended up on this episode, and we talk about Father's Day, Twitter mentions, Queensryche, and dunking on Conservatives. Of course, the real spice of the show happens with the Block Tale, as Chris, the unofficial "Fourth King", details the story of how he got blocked from the Go Off Kings' Twitch stream, and why Stefan was being unfair.   One way to ensure you never get blocked by us is to donate to the show at https://patreon.com/blockedparty, where $5/month gets you access to THREE bonus episodes every month and this month is a DOOZY. We recorded an all-new Cameo bonus episode with Emma Wong, we watched the trashy Canadian primetime soap opera Whistler with Cait Raft, and coming up soon, John eats his first-ever Big Mac in the style of Peep This Out. It's only getting wilder as we are introducing a brand-new series in July commissioned by a listener, and of course your donation gets you access to our entire back catalogue PLUS our Discord. It's gonna be a Blocked Boy Summer.   Chris James hosts the Twitch show No Prank Radio every Thursday/Sunday and is the host of the prank show Not Even a Show, airing every week on YouTube. He is on Twitter at @TheCJS.

With Gillon's words last Friday, Roy, Calvin and Warnie were pumped to get back in the studio and start talking Fantasy with a purpose. Footy will return on June 11 and we could not be more excited. Warnie runs through the things Fantasy coaches need to know ahead of round two as the lads map out what we should be thinking with our trades and other quirks in this 'Coronaball' season. Included is a song written by Ben Latham (@BeafortBeaus on Twitter) to help you understand how to understand Fantasy scoring with 16-minute quarters.Episode guide3:00 - The best news Fantasy coaches received was that we are looking at normal rounds with Thursday-Sunday games.7:15 - Travis Auld's comments on the fixture are analysed.11:30 - RIP to Magoos News with no reserves competition.15:00 - 16-minute quarters are likely.18:15 - Roy, Calvin and Warnie perform their take on AC/DC's "TNT" with "BCV".22:00 - How many trades will we have ahead of round two.27:20 - Player and injury news over the last couple of months.32:10 - Callan Ward and Zac Williams being back could hurt round two chances for Tom Green and Isaac Cumming.35:20 - Questions from social media - follow @AFLFantasy on Twitter and like the Official AFL Fantasy facebook page.39:25 - Which junk time specialists do we need to be aware of with 'Coronaball'?45:40 - Should we target players on the pre-season watchlist who smashed it in round one, or players returning from injury that we would have picked if available in round one?48:20 - Do you fix premiums or rookies with your three trades?

Another solo episode this week, and the start of my new bi-weekly version of Thin The Herd; going to be live-streaming every Thursday & Sunday evening. Episodes will be posted immediately after on here and all other platforms.  This week I take a look at what's going on with California Covid, I do a quick review of the new 'Capone' movie and I break down what I think we need to do to better our collective social situation.

11:00 News, Notes & Injuries: Steven Stamkos, Mark Stone & Johnny Boychuk17:00 Thursday-Sunday streams40:50 Ben Bishop, Sergei Bobrovsky, Petr Mrazek; Goalie streams48:20 Week 22 schedule55:30 Listener questions: Playoff strategy, Cam Talbot, Marc-Andre Fleury, Joonas Korpisalo, Igor Shesterkin, Week 23 streams and moreFollow Chris on Twitter: @chrismeaneyFollow Eric on Twitter: @TheEricYoungTheathletic.com/fourstackedlines for 40% off a subscription to The Athletic.

On this round, we sit down with Robyn & Nicole. Local realtors by day, the two of them decided they wanted to impact their community differently. And over the past several years, they have built a group of more than 10,000+ subscribers. With rich history here in both Pleasanton & Livermore, the ladies give us their perspective on what they have found people are looking for in a thriving city. Making references to the flywheel mentioned in Brandon Cardwell's episode, the ladies share where they wish to make an impact. J'mon takes one for the team and sits this one out but still hung out to enjoy a donut and glass of wine and was able to capture some fun pics and videos. Be sure to look out for some of those shots and videos on the Love Livermore pages on both Instagram & Facebook all week. Join the ladies and us as we continue our charge for a communal message in which we can take this valley, market, and community to the next level. If you have enjoyed listening to us, we ask that you give us a follow and subscribe. We will also have a Facebook and LinkedIn soon so that we can continue to meet you where you are. Tell a friend or come hang out with us in the tasting room Thursday - Sunday from 12:00 - 5:00.

Happy New Year! In our season 2 opener of Melanin and Miles, we want to recap Joi’s first Squad Retreat (group travel trip) to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The retreat was from December 19th to the 22nd (Thursday-Sunday) with 10 women who signed up. We enjoyed the RIU Reggae resort, ate a lot of food, had a Fros in Focus goal-setting session, a beauty excursion, a pool party, and a lot of nightlife. We also climbed Dunn’s River Falls, took a party cruise, and snorkeled a coral reef with tropical fish! Get notified about future retreats by joining Joi’s email list at joiwade.com/squad

We are excited to look at the letters the Apostle Paul wrote when he was in prison: Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. Colossians will be covered during our Thursday/Sunday worship gatherings. Check back for more content soon!

This week Patrick, Andres and guest host Adam discuss the games we are most excited to watch from Thursday- Sunday. We like some favored teams, but also are predicting a few upsets! Listen to hear who we think which NFL and College Football teams are going to win this weekend! You don't feel Friday coming, you feel the weekend coming. The Weekend Starts on Wednesday. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The sports podcast that brings you the most exciting sports match ups that take place Thursday - Sunday! Bold Predictions, Money Making Bets and Scumbags of the Night give us plenty to talk about. Yes we favor a few teams and trust us, you will know who they are. You won't listen to another show discussing the same exact combination of games! This week we discuss NFL, College Football, Fantasy Football, NBA and a little Hockey - listen and let us know what you're watching! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

7-16-19 Tonight at 9PM Eastern we're headed out to Colorado, to talk with Mike and DJ from Honnibrook Meadery. AJ and I met Mike and DJ at the 2019 MeadCon and MazerCup, and I was *blown away* by their salted mango session mead (and all their other meads). These guys are doing something right, and if you haven't tried it, you need to. Honnibrook Craft Meadery has been open for five months and the guys are really dialling in on serving session meads, refreshing meads below 8% ABV that are easy drinkers. The meadery is located just a little over a mile south of downtown Castle Rock Colorado in industrial warehouse space and hosts a 12 tap tasting room in addition to a very modern production facility. They're doing self-distributing right now, and from what I've seen online, their meads are getting pretty popular. DJ and Mike are both longtime home brewers that met at church and started brewing beer religiously every weekend for about ten years, experimenting with all the spectrum of styles. DJ even worked part-time as an assistant brewer at a very successfully Denver Brewery to learned a lot about the beer business. DJ also has a culinary degree and worked as executive chef at the local country club. Their experimenting was not limited to beer, and they made several meads too. The meads received such a positive response they changed their focus to mead completely. They have attended the mead making classes at UC Davis to hone their craft and understand the commercial side of mead making and tinkered on draft mead recipes for several years with the focus on being professional mead makers. They both have won awards individually and together in the amateur and professional mead competitions. Even with success, Honnibrook has experienced, DJ still has his day job delivering medical supplies, and Mike has his day job working in IT, so the meadery is open Thursday-Sunday evenings. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback. Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Show links and notes Evoak - Oak Solutions Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Guests: July 23 - Matt Weide and Curt Stock - Valkyries Horn mead comp July 30 - Recolte Mead Upcoming Events July 18 - The Hive - Mead, Peace, Love and Cheesecake Pairing July 20 - Folklore Brewing and Meadery - Home Brewing Workshop July 24 - Bos Meadery - synthesizer group The Blips July 25 - Golden Coast Mead - Monthly Meading and Homebrew share July 27 - Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival Aug 3 - Queen City Meadery - Grand Opening and National Mead Day Festival Aug 3 - Meridian Hive Meadery - National Mead Day Celebration Aug 3 - Long Island Mead Festival - Including Beacon Meadery, Enlightenment Wines, Haymaker Meadery, Meridian Hive, Mutiny Distribution, MYSTO MEAD, Remarkable Liquids Distribution, Slate Point Meadery, & W A Meadwerks with more being added every day. Aug 8 - Skal Beer Hall - Washington Mead Fest Aug 31 - New Day Craft Mead - Meadful Things and Outciders Festival Got an event you’d like us to mention on GotMead Live? Send us an email at gotmeadlive@gotmead.com and tell us about it!

Talked with Col. Trent Stephens and Elizabeth Dashiell from Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival. This year the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival presents: Romeo and Juliet for the " Shakespeare by the Sea 29" running: July 11-14, 2018 & July 18-21, 2018 Gates open at 6:30 pm • Show at 8:00 pm Seabreeze Amphitheater – Carlin Park, Jupiter. It's their 29th Shakespeare by the Sea. They offer free professional performances at Carlin Park in Jupiter. Thursday-Sunday. Listeners can bring their own food, blankets, chair, drinks or purchase food and drink there. Admission is free but they do accept donations. This year they have fun gift for a $20 and up donations. For more information on volunteering, performing, becoming a vendor or making a donation, listeners can go to www.pbshakespeare.org or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. Weather conditions are posted on FB/Twitter the days of the show.

I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and although it's about wargaming you may want to stop by anyway. The topic is the current "golden age" of the hobby, and part of what I have to say is how there are more euro-wargame crossover titles now. Some good aspects of euro design & production have made their way into wargames. I'm thinking of titles like Memoir '44, Twilight Struggle, Academy Games' 1754/1775/1812 series, A Few Acres of Snow, and so on. Whether you attend the panel or not, I'm happy to hand out my little BoardgamesToGo and WargamesToGo buttons to listeners. Just track me down and I should have some onhand to give away. I'll mostly be doing open gaming, I think. Drop me a note on Twitter or geekmail if you like. Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current “Golden Age” of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours) Opener: Silver & Gold Closer: SdJ jury comments • Dale Yu's 2009 interview with Tom Werneck at Opinionated Gamers • Harald Schrapers and other jury members It's Spiel des Jahres season. That means the speculation has happened, the actual nominees & recommended titles have been announced, and now we're just waiting on the final prizewinning selection. This doesn't matter to many people--in fact many gamers don't think it's a big deal. But it's a big deal to me and here's why: I'm a hobby gamer from way, way back. Like four decades. If you think hobby gaming is niche now, you have no recollection of what an odd corner it was in back then. Stereotyped as being full of nerdy boys and grumpy old men, that was kind of true. Game shops did not smell good. Mature romances and stable careers were hard to find. Now, those people are still around--and they deserve their hobby, too--but I find it FAR better today that we have more diverse game groups filled with everyday people doing everyday jobs. Interesting games are on sale in bookstores, at Target, and of course online. Not everything has to have an orc in it. I don't know if the hobby IS bigger & broader, but it sure feels that way. True, these improvements may have come around on their own. After all, formerly geeky entertainments like Game of Thrones and Marvel comics now dominate our cultural landscape. Perhaps hobby games would've developed on their own. I don't think so, however. Or, at least, it all happened much faster (and--importantly--across a broader audience) because a group of game reviewers in Germany took artistic criticism of gaming as an artform seriously. They drove their publishers to do better, and in turn the publishers were rewarded with increased business. It was a positive cycle, and we are some of its lucky recipients. There are a lot of awards thought up & given out by all sorts of organizations. There have been some in America for decades. Yet they didn't have this impact. In fact, there were other awards in Germany, too. The Spiel des Jahres has worked like no others because it has been cultivated & maintained by a dedicated, revolving collection of game critics. Even if the lighter, more family-focused games aren't your favorites, you still benefit from their polishing of the games business. For someone like me, it's even better because I honestly love many of the titles that have won the Spiel des Jahres. I don't love ALL of them, though. Not even close. As you'll hear, I'd say I love about a third, like another third, and don't like the final third. Close to that. This episode is a ranking of all 40 of the SdJ winners, and (briefly) what I think of them. -Mark ============================================================ ============================================================ ============================================================

No episode geeklist this time, just the three games below I'll be attending Origins Game Fair this year (June 2019) in Columbus. I've been there before, but only in the 80s & 90s, so I'm sure it's substantially different now. I'll be there Thursday-Sunday, including participating on a panel of wargame podcasters/YouTubers/bloggers Sunday morning. That's listed in the program as shown below. I think it's free, and I hope any WGTG listeners still around that morning will stop by. I don't have anything else in particular planned for Origins. Just want to see the thing, play some boardgames, and enjoy some relaxation. Drop me a note on Twitter or geekmail if you like. Armchair Dragoons Presents Wargaming Media: State of Play This panel featuring wargaming media personalities will discuss the current “Golden Age” of board wargaming and what can be done to ensure its survival. Location: GCCC - Apods - A210 Date: Sunday 6/16/2019 10am (2 hours) Here's another one-off podcast. I thought last episodes exploration of solitaire games was an exception to my normal wargaming--and it is--but here I am again to discuss three different solo wargames. I swear I'll get to more WW2 East Front explorations sooner or later, but right now I wanted to drop this episode about some other games: Doolittle Raid, Pavlov's House, and Utmost Savagery. The games are all about WW2 topics, and all solitaire systems, but in other respects they're quite different. Their solo rules are completely different, as a matter of fact. Of course, Pavlov's House, being about a location in the Battle of Stalingrad, relates to my Eastern Front exploration, albeit at a different scale. Last time I had designer David Thompson on the podcast to talk about the process of wargame design. Now I got to see how one of his games actually worked. The Doolittle Raid is different, something I heard my father & grandfather talk about growing up. They both served in the USAF/USAAF and I grew up with stories of America's famous air exploits. My buddy Brian suspected this game was right up my alley after he'd enjoyed it, so at a GMT Weekend at the Warehouse I bought a copy. As for Utmost Savagery, my interest was sparked by reading Eugene Sledge's outstanding WW2 memoir, which was adapted into the HBO series The Pacific. The Battle of Peleliu plays a central role in that narrative. A look through my collection revealed that I already owned a game on that topic, part of a dual-game within Against The Odds magazine. It all makes for an unusual collection of titles to discuss together, as well as books & films to take in. Movies & Video • Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo • Destination Tokyo • Pearl Harbor (just the end has Doolittle's Raid) • Enemy at the Gates • The Pacific (HBO) (episodes 5-7 are about Peleliu) • Sands of War (WW2 military short film about the Desert Training Center) Books • Target Tokyo, by James M. Scott • Enemy At The Gates, by William Craig • With The Old Breed, by Eugene Sledge My Twitter videos about the games • Doolittle Raid • Pavlov's House • Utmost Savagery Other • Geeklist of Award-Winning Magazine Games Next I'm really going to start playing more WW2 East Front games. Besides Pavlov, I've already played Battle for Moscow and No Retreat. I have many more titles to explore which are listed on a geeklist. If you're not a Twitter user (or don't follow me), but still want to see my photos and short videos about some wargames, just go to http://www.twitter.com/WargamesToGo. Feedback here or there is always welcome. -Mark

The Two Gay Geeks have a chat with Brandon Rhea, Social Media Manager for Square Egg Entertainment, the parent company of Phoenix Fan Fusion. Brandon filled us in on the specifics of their new signature event, "Queen Lantern Corps, Dragstravaganza". We also learned about his career and how he came to work for Square Egg and what is in store for Fan Fusion. It was an exciting conversation about a new fandom for folks to celebrate, not to mention inclusivity in fandoms as a whole.   About Phoenix Fan Fusion Phoenix Fan Fusion is a multigenre entertainment and comic book convention held annually in Phoenix, Arizona. It was founded as the Phoenix Cactus Comicon in June 2002, and originally consisted of a one-day six-hour event held in Ahwatukee, Arizona. PHXFF plays host to comic related panels, programming events, art contests, and autograph signings for all ages. It is a four-day event (Thursday-Sunday) held during the summer at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix. On Thursday evening prior to the official opening of the event, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors, and select guests pre-registered for all four days. www.phoenixfanfusion.com   About Queen Lantern Corps "Dragstravaganza!" "In darkest timelines... in brightest spotlight... against all insult or slight, let those who deny love beware their power... the Queen Lanterns' might!" Phoenix Fan Fusion has a new signature event featuring a veteran of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Phi Phi O’Hara and an all-star roster of fabulous local drag queens ready to be your heroines and take the stage to slay in a one-night-only revue! This is an 18+ separately ticketed event so, go to PhoenixFanFusion.com for tickets. In our second segment we chat very briefly about The Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind as well as talk about the Jumper premiere at The American Pavilion at Festival de Cannes. We also highlight recent articles posted to the tggeeks.com in the past week. As always we have our birthdays and we have the ever popular feedback segment. We welcome your feedback. Please, let us know what you think. Good or bad, we want to know and you could receive a shoutout in the feedback segment. Thank you for listening, we really do appreciate you taking time out of your day to spend with us.     Our YouTube channel is audio only:   Show Notes / Links: TG Geeks Episode 219 TG Geeks Episode 220 TG Geeks Episode 221 Regarding Erin’s Arcade of Words Reviews The Sequels #3 - Van Helsing High School Gini's Yaps - Restaurants on the Road | Market on Houston - San Antonio, TX Dr. Zombie – Monster Family Physician #48 Five Questions With... Janni Olsson Trial by Fire: Moving and Emotional | Andrea's Angle All is True: Legacies of the Bard | Andrea's Angle Movie Review: Tolkien Is Not a Portrait of the Artist News Sushi #63: Morsels of News from Japan and Beyond Movie Review: The Souvenir Ben’s Breakdown | What We Left Behind: A Love Letter for “Deep Space Nine” Five Questions With... Dean Newcombe Festival de Cannes: Special Coverage | The American Pavilion presents Jumper Premiere     Visit Hero Within Store    Visit Uncharted Regions Website  Thank You to our Web Hosting Partner Visit Hero Within Store Travel To Uncharted Regions Krypton Radio  Featured Podcast     Thank You: The Arkle Times Post Dispatch News - The Human Arkle on Twitter @arkle --- Be sure to take a look at Arkle’s other venture: Arkle Studios presents Shameless Cash Grab Special thanks go the Facebook Group moderators of "Gay Geeks Afterhours" for encouraging us to share our content there, and there URL is www.facebook.com/groups/gaygeeksafterhours/. Here's a special shout out to “The Gay Geek” for graciously allowing us to post our episodes in their Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/thegaygeek. And a special Thank You to Jeremiah Reeves,

Ashley, with 192 days of sobriety, shares her story. Paul talks about how alcohol is the invitation.  What is this invitation?  It’s called addiction.  Depending on how you RSVP you could have a life filled with infinite joy.  The fact that you are listening to this podcast right now is a good clue as to how you’re going to RSVP.  At first the invitations may not show up with enough frequency to connect the dots.  But, sooner or later, these invitations will start to show up more frequently, once a year, once every 6 months, once a week, once a day in every aspect of our lives.  For many that struggle with addiction they ignore this invitation their entire lives and it is not pretty.  If we stick to this long enough it will become clear that our addiction is the best thing that has happened for us.  For those of you listening, you have earned your invitation.  Keep in mind the pain and suffering required to initiate this positive change in behind you.  This thing called life, if it hasn’t already, is about to get good.  So how will you RSVP to this invitation?    SHOW NOTES   [12:30] Paul Introduces Ashley.   Ashley lives in Chicago, IL with her sister and their 2 dogs.  She is single and is 31 years old.  She recently finished cosmetology school and is currently an apprentice to become a hair stylist at a salon in the city.   For fun Ashley likes to cook, enjoys music and going to concerts, power lifting, meditation, and is back playing soccer.    [14:30] Give us a little background about your drinking.    She was 13/14 years old the first time she got drunk, in her neighbors’ basement.  She remembers going home and telling her mom that she had been drinking, and that she got sick.  During high school she hung out with a lot of different crowds so went to, and drank at, a lot of parties.  She says she knew right away that she had a problem.  From the moment she would start drinking she would fixate on how she could drink more.    When she got into college, she hit the ground running with partying.  She did a lot of partying and blacking out, had a lot of fun and didn’t get into any sever trouble, which she says, she thinks is why she continued to drink like she did.  In the back of her mind she was telling herself that once she was done with college things would change and she would grow up.    After college she moved to Chicago and continued to drink on the weekends (Thursday-Sunday), which felt normal to her.  When she was 25, she woke up one morning, grabbed her phone, and Googled “what is an alcoholic?”.    At 27, after a relationship that ended badly, she found herself in a super dark place.  She was depressed, having panic attacks, eating disorder flair ups, drinking, and drugging.  She managed to pull herself out of that dark place, and to prove to herself that she didn’t have a problem she didn’t drink for 30 days.    [22:15] What was it like when you did prove it to yourself and not drink for 30 days?       She felt she had it under control, although she continued to do drugs.  Then she slowly started drinking again until she was drinking more than she was before the 30 days.  She started blacking out every time she drank.    After a really bad incident with her ex she walked into AA.  She made it 65 days before she went back out for another year and ½.  That year and ½ it got even worse, she was drinking hard and using a lot of drugs.    On July 23, 2018 she came clean with her doctor and walked back into AA where she found an amazing group of women and her home group.         [28:37] Comment a little more about honesty.    Because of her issues with depression and anxiety her whole life she had been in/out of going to therapists.  She said she always lied to them about her alcohol/drug use.  After also being diagnosed bi-polar she knew she had to come clean with her doctors.    [32:15] Why do you think you drank?   She said that to begin with, alcoholism runs in her family.  She wanted to escape from the feeling of having to micromanage her up/down feelings all the time and that unfortunately she thinks she was just made for it.    [36:00] How did you do it?  You talked about AA, what else did you do to get sober?        She stopped going to the places where she always drank, like concerts and bars.  She sought out a higher power.  She started running.  She made sure she got to her AA meetings and listened to the podcast, of course.    [38:00] Tell us how you got through your week-long family reunion during the early days of your sobriety.   With about a week of sobriety she tried to look at the trip as a way to take advantage of the beautiful nature, instead of a big party.  She listened to podcasts and hiked.  With only a week of sobriety she wasn’t comfortable telling her family yet, and she was terrified of failing if she did.    [42:15] After burning the ships on FB you mentioned you got reactions you didn’t expect, what kind of reactions did you expect??   She thought that people really wouldn’t care, or that they would think that it would change who she is.  She didn’t expect all the positive response.    [43:30] Talk to us about some wins in sobriety.    She can fly with out hitting the airport bar first.  She can go to concerts and remember everything.  She can go out with friends and have fun without drinking.    [44:50] What is something you learned about yourself during this journey?    She is super sensitive and can feel others emotions which used to be scary, but now that she is sober, she has learned how to use it to help other people.      [46:38] Rapid Fire Round     What was your absolute worst memory from drinking?   My mom had surgery one time and we were in the recovery room and I was so hungover, and probably still drunk, from the night before that I threw up all over the hospital room.    What was your ‘oh-shit’ moment, indicating that alcohol had to go?   The morning I woke up and just knew I couldn’t keep doing this.    What is your plan in sobriety moving forward?   To keep building a network.  Keep working the steps and stay in AA.  To keep on doing what I’m doing, one day at a time.    In regards to sobriety what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?   To take everything one day at a time.       What parting piece of guidance can you give to listeners?   Avoid things that are triggering to you and strive to do things that are healthy and look for self-care.   You might be an alcoholic if...   You constantly find yourself keeping tabs on other peoples’ drinking.            Upcoming retreats: Bozeman Retreat – August 14-18, 2019 Asia Adventure – January 20-31, 2020 You can find more information about these events here Resources mentioned in this episode:   Connect with Cafe RE- Use the promo code OPPORTUNITY for your first month free Sobriety Tracker iTunes Sobriety Tracker Android Sober Selfies! - Send your Sober Selfie and your Success Story to info@recoveryelevator.com   “Recovery Elevator – It all starts from the inside-out.”

Episode 199 of InterBrews was recorded at Fortress Beerworks with owners John O’Hara and Rob Fleming. They sat down with InterBrews host Josh Stewart to discuss their new brewery in Spring, TX. They talked about the beers they now offer, including the Wit and SMASH IPA they drank while doing the interview. The guys discussed their opening weekend as well as their plans for live music, a kids play area, food trucks and much more at one of the Houston area’s newest breweries. Fortress Beerworks is open Thursday – Sunday. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did making it. This is InterBrews. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/interbrews/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/interbrews/support

This episode is brought to you by NOBULL. Show Notes: 02:36 - Is heavy weightlifting or high-level gymnastics more important for every day CrossFitters? 04:25 - I have 4kg to lose - better to do a strict calorie deficit or focus on balanced macros? 06:45 - At an older age (say 50), where would you suggest somebody start to if they want to work on mobility? 09:29 - How important are rest days? Should I listen to my body or do it every Thursday/Sunday? 11:23 - How do you measure volume in Games athletes’ programming? Barbell volume, conditioning volume, etc. 14:18 - What’s your opinion on training so much (or so hard) you get sick? 17:28 - How can you differentiate an activity that you really enjoy from one that “sets you on fire”? 22:56 - Do you have any advice for someone transitioning from six-figure high comfort job to coaching/business owner? 27:01 - Is the rower or C2 Bike better in a class setting? 29:56 - What is your snatch PR? 30:34 - How do you handle negative opinions on social media? 33:25 - When was the last time you had to slap the complaint bracelet? 37:37 - Does traditional bodybuilding have a role in CF training? 40:02 - As an athlete, should I split up my strength & endurance training during the day? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Google Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify Grab the book on Amazon Chasing Excellence is a show dedicated to dissecting what it means to live a life of excellence, both inside the gym & out. On each episode, we'll deep dive on various aspects of running a CrossFit affiliate, becoming a better coach or athlete, & maximizing your potential. Web | Instagram | Facebook

Episode 6 - Today is a very special episode a pre-show to the big show that is New York Comic Con 2018 which is going down this Thursday - Sunday. NYCC week starts here!!! Send your emails with your questions to : Room013Podcast@gmail.com 1-614-MENACE-1 #Room013 #NYCC2018

‘Tis the season for Shakespeare al fresco so pack a picnic, grab a blanket and check out these North Bay productions: Marin Shakespeare closes out its season under the stars with Pericles, a play whose authorship by Shakespeare has fostered many a debate. Plot points include incest, assassination, famine, a shipwreck, marriage, maternal death, familial separation, attempted murder, kidnapping, pirates, prostitution, and a seemingly dead person rising from a watery grave. Who knew Shakespeare wrote a zombie play? And this is a comedy. Director Lesley Currier and her design team have taken all these elements, dressed them up in modern garb, added a few topical references, and come up with the theatrical equivalent of a “B” movie. It’s entertaining and even moving at the end, but it evaporates quickly in the night air. Artist-in-residence Dameion Brown brings his commanding stage presence to the title role. Fine supporting work is done by Cathleen Ridley as the loving Queen Simonedes and the treacherous Dionyza; Eliza Boivin as Marina, Pericles’s daughter; Rod Gnapp and Richard Pallaziol in a variety of roles; and Diane Wasnak, who is very engaging as the puckish storyteller Gower. 'Pericles' runs Thursday–Sunday through August 5 at Forest Meadows Amphitheater at Dominican University in San Rafael. The showtimes vary and the venue opens one hour before curtain for picnicking. For more information, go to marinshakespeare.org Santa Rosa’s Shakespeare in the Cannery ceases to exist after this season’s production as the property is being “repurposed.” Co-founder/director David Lear decided to go out on a lighter note so they’re presenting Shakespeare in Love, the stage adaptation of 1998’s Best Picture Oscar winner. Poor Will Shakespeare (John Browning) has writer’s block and can’t seem to finish his latest opus, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. A muse arrives in the person of Viola (Sydney McNulty), who disguises herself as ‘Thomas Kent’ so as to get around the ‘no women on stage’ rule. Shifty theatre producers, a loathsome Lord, a treacherous boy and a haughty queen all come into play before Romeo and Juliet sees the light of day. It’s a piffle but the cast has fun, with good comedic support from Alan Kaplan and Liz Jahren. Isiah Carter impresses in two roles and keep an eye out for Isabella, one of the moodiest, scene-stealing “bitch” characters I’ve seen on a North Bay Stage. 'Shakespeare in Love' runs Friday through Sunday through August 5 at the Cannery in Railroad Square in Santa Rosa. Show time is at 7pm with the gate opening at 5pm for picnicking. For more information, go to shakespeareinthecannery.com

Talked with Col. Trent Stephens and Elizabeth Dashiell from Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival. This year the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival presents: Antony + Cleopatra or "The Curse of Cleopatra" Shakespeare by the Sea 28 running: July 12-15, 2018 & July 19-22, 2018Gates open at 6:30 pm • Show at 8:00 pm Seabreeze Amphitheater – Carlin Park, Jupiter. It's their 28th Shakespeare by the Sea. They offer free professional performances at Carlin Park in Jupiter. Thursday-Sunday. Listeners can bring their own food, blankets, chair, drinks or purchase food and drink there. Admission is free but they do accept donations. This year they have fun gift for a $10.00 donation. For more information on volunteering, performing, becoming a vendor or making a donation, listeners can go to www.pbshakespeare.org or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

Fox League commentators Warren Smith and Matt Russell reassess Round 9 and the ref controversy involved from Thursday - Sunday. Waz also has some very strong thoughts on NRL being played in suburban grounds and the monster that is Origin. 

Dramas old and new dominate North Bay stages with two good ones continuing their runs. Film, television, and theatre veteran Charles Siebert headlines the 6th Street Playhouse production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller’s Pulitzer Prize and multi-Tony Award winning treatise on the elusiveness of the American Dream is considered by many to be the greatest American play ever written. While almost seventy-years-old, in the hands of the right artistic team it can seem as fresh as ever. Director Craig Miller has assembled that team to surround Siebert’s towering central performance as Willy Loman, a traveling salesman whose days on the road are rapidly coming to an end. Frustrated at still living paycheck-to-paycheck at his late age, Willy is coming unraveled to the consternation of his wife Linda (Sheila Lichirie) and son Happy (Ariel Zuckerman). Things aren’t helped by the return of semi-prodigal son Biff (Edward McCloud). The action glides between the present and the past and between fantasy and reality as we see why Willy’s dreams for his boys and himself have come to naught. The Studio theatre setting brings a level of intimacy to the show that makes Willy’s downfall, Linda’s helplessness, and Biff’s acknowledgement of his own failures even more gut-wrenching. In a very strong ensemble of North Bay regulars, take note of Bay Area newcomer Zuckerman’s performance as the son most like his father. Attention should be paid to this excellent production of an American classic. ‘Death of a Salesman’ runs Thursday–Sunday through April 28 at the 6th Street Playhouse Studio Theatre in Santa Rosa. Thursday through Saturday performances at 7:30pm; Sunday matinees at 2pm. For specific show information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com If political drama is more to your liking, then the scrappy Redwood Theatre Company is presenting Farragut North by Beau Willimon (who’s responsible for Netflix’s House of Cards). Willimon turned his time as a press aide during Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 Presidential run into this tale of the inner-workings of a similar campaign. Set in Iowa over two days before their caucuses, Press Secretary Stephen Bellamy (Kot Takahashi) is a 25-year-old political hot shot working on what everyone thinks is a winning campaign. Clandestine meetings and questionable decisions lead to double-crosses, triple crosses and unemployment before the first votes are cast. RTC’s no-budget productions are always interesting and director Ron Smith uses the energetic young troupe to good advantage here. What they lack in production value, they make up for in talent and heart. 'Farragut North' runs Friday through Sunday through April 22 at the Redwood Theatre Company Studio Theatre in Healdsburg. Friday and Saturday evening performances at 7:00pm; Sunday matinee at 2pm. For more information, go to redwoodtheatrecompany.com

John Mueller is one of the most controversial men in the barbecue world and he's carved his niche in the industry doing things in own way. With a hot and fast method of cooking, house made sausage, tasty pork ribs, brisket stew, plus brisket and beef ribs rubbed with a heavy dose of pepper a good visit is rewarded with a unique and flavorful experience. Don't forget the cheesy squash loaded with ladles of cheese, a rich end to a memorable meal. John sat down with us for a fun and informative chat. In the episode we cover the time after he left Louie Mueller Barbecue to present day, including some big news from John! We announce a new giveaway and also give an update on our Yeti cooler filled with BBQ swag that includes some very cool merchandise.  The Texas Monthly article we discussed on the episode is here: https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/of-meat-and-men/ Catch John and his crew Thursday - Sunday from 10:30am-sold out 201 E. 9th Street Georgetown Texas 78626 Twitter @JSM_meat  

The guys are handling the lack of daily fantasy basketball contests about as well as Fergie handled the national anthem, but we’ll get through this NBA drought by breaking down all of this week's games Thursday - Sunday. Whitlock and the Vaughn have the lineup tips to help you start the second half of the fantasy season strong, looking at players returning from injury, top values, and the high priced players to fade.  

North Bay theatre kicks off the new year with 6th Street Playhouse’s Honky Tonk Angels, a country music revue by Ted Swindley. Swindley, best known for the community theatre staple Always, Patsy Kline, has taken about thirty country standards and wrapped the thinnest of stories around them to create a raucous and enjoyable evening of entertainment. It’s the tale of three would-be singers, each stuck in a rut, who decide to take a chance and follow their dreams of a singing career to Nashville. There’s Angela (played by Daniela Innocenti Beem), queen of her double wide who’s having trouble standing by her man (cue Tammy Wynette). Darlene (played by Abbey Lee), is struggling with being a coal miner’s daughter (cue Loretta Lynn) and the loss of her boyfriend Billy Joe (cue Bobbie Gentry). Finally, there’s Sue Ellen (played by Amy Webber), who’s fed up with the chauvinist boss at her 9 to 5 job (cue, of course, Dolly Parton). Act I begins with their backstories and their individual decisions that it’s time for them to fly (cue REO Speedwagon. Wait a minute, REO SPEEDWAGON?!) and concludes with their fortuitous meeting on a Greyhound bus. A lot must happen during intermission because Act II consists of their farewell performance after a record-breaking six-week engagement at Nashville’s Honky Tonk Heaven. In addition to the songs alluded to earlier, others performed include “I Will Always Love You”, “Delta Dawn”, “Rocky Top”, “Sittin’ on the Front Porch Swing”, and “I’ll Fly Away”. Director Michael Ross has a trio of talented ladies for angels. Ms. Beem as Angela is the unabashed leader of the trio. As the oldest and most worldly member, she grabs hold of the stage – and the audience – and never lets go. Ms. Webber gives her a run for her money as the brassy, big-haired Sue Ellen while Ms. Lee has the quieter moments as the wide-eyed, innocent Darlene. Eye-popping costumes by Pamela Enz (think leopard skin and a lot of sequins) add to the fun, as does some playful choreography by Michella Snider. Both come together in the amusing “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial” number. Swindley’s script – if you can call it that – doesn’t provide character depth and there’s no great message to be found beyond the pat “follow your dreams” axiom but what it does provide is the opportunity to hear some great American music performed live. Music director Robert Hazelrigg and musicians Ian Scherer, Quinten Cohen and Kassi Hampton handle the country/bluegrass songbook well. Credit the ladies for bringing the right amount of character and a quality voice to each song, particularly on some very sweet three-part harmonies. When it comes to shows like Honky Tonk Angels, it is all about the songs. They’ve got this. “Honky Tonk Angels” runs Thursday–Sunday through Feb. 4 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse with evening performances at 7:30 pm and matiness at 2pm. For more information, go to 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Ross & Evan tell you who to sit & start in the Thursday / Sunday 1pm ET games for Week 1 in the NFL.

Hall’Em In Fishin’ host Captain Scott, takes you to the canals, ponds and “ditches” of South Florida and talks “Ditch Fishing 101” with Travis Palmer! Ditch Fishing 101 on Facebook is geared to teaching the fishing community about the basic techniques of in-shore freshwater angling on a budget.  It is the mission of Travis Palmer to pass his passion and experience on to the next generation of anglers. In this episode he will share tips, tricks and tackle secrets for fishing the “ditches”. It’s all about traveling around your neighborhood, pulling up to an area of water, grabbing your gear out the back of a vehicle and FISHING! The Grouper Grapple Offshore Fishing Tournament. Additionally on todays program, Scott features some outstanding “on location” interviews from the Annual Grouper Grapple Offshore Fishing Tournament at Fish-Tale Marina in Fort Myers Beach Florida. The Grouper Grapple was founded by Brian Peachey in 2013 as a means to give back to the community and show support to Combat Wounded Veterans that have served our country. By teaming with Freedom Alliance the tournament has been able to turn the event into an actual vehicle that provides much needed therapy for combat wounded veterans returning from service. Grouper Grapple and Freedom Alliance provide the veterans with transportation to and from the event, hotel accommodations, breakfast, lunch and dinner Thursday – Sunday, Back Bay fishing trips, commemorative plaques, entry into the tournament and tournament events tournament, specialized apparel and a chance to join their brothers in arms in an atmosphere designed just for them! Charities. In addition to the Freedom Alliance the Grouper Grapple has also added a beneficiary to our event for 2017. The Jeff Sommer Memorial Scholarship Fund, honoring the memory of Coach Jeff Sommer of Estero High School and the positive impact that he had on hundreds of young people and adults. Brian Peachey, the founder of the Grouper Grapple Offshore Fishing Tournament was an all-star athlete who ran cross country and track for Coach Sommer from 1989-1993. Along with his fellow athletes, Coach Sommer pushed them to be their best taking them to the State meet where they were Runner up in 1991 and State Champions in 1992. Peachey was recognized as All Southwest Florida Cross Country Runner of the year during his time with Coach at Estero HS and has stayed close with Coach Sommer and his family throughout the years. “Coach Jeff Sommer always told his cross country runners that pain is temporary and pride is for ever he instilled in us that nothing hurts compared to what it feels like to quit. He was a builder of leaders and people who would and could, quite literally, go the extra mile. He also taught me how to give. That’s why we want to give back. ” -Brian Peachey  Listen to this episode and witness how the fishing community in Southwest Florida is giving back. As always you can subscribe to our complete list of programming by clicking the links on our home page to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Tunein, Android etc. Also don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram by hitting the links on our page as well.

Happiness! Anyone who listens to Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! on Bondi Beach Radio and the iTunes podcast every week, will know that I am a massive fan and believer in chasing your dreams in the pursuit of happiness.  This week I am excited to have award-winning Australian comedian, podcaster & writer, Tom Ballard on Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! to promote his 2017 stand-up show ‘Problematic’ that’s LIVE at Giant Dwarf this Thursday - Sunday as part of Sydney Comedy Festival.  Over the past 2 years since our last recording together, Tom’s stand-up comedy career has been on a sharp rise to the top, enjoying nominations for Best Show at both Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016, his American television debut on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, his political podcast Like I’m A Six-Year-Old has just hit 100 episodes and continues to grow from strength to strength and at the end of 2016 he appeared in SBS’s ground-breaking series First Contact, a journey of discovery into Aboriginal Australia. One of the joys that I have discovered that comes as a result of surrounding yourself with like-minded people also pursuing their own ambition and success, is that invariably you get to watch your friends rise to the challenge, share their journeys and celebrate your collective wins along the way.  Tom Ballard was certainly already well on his way to this success we first met 6 years ago, whilst launching triple j unearthed as a radio station back in 2011, but to then watch him have the courage to leave his role has co-host of the Tom & Alex morning show on triple j, take a leap of faith to achieve his dream of being a successful stand-up comedian and see where he’s at now just makes me so happy! "Being your own master of your life and your passions, it’s a very powerful and important thing to do and if you have a chance to take it then grab it with both hands.” - Tom Ballard. Never a truer word spoken, my man. Let’s get into the show! Buy tickets to Tom Ballard’s stand up show ‘Problematic’ at Sydney Comedy Festival (Thursday May 4th - Sunday May 7th) today! http://www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au/single-event?show_id=1707   Connect with Tom Ballard online: http://tomballard.com.au/ https://twitter.com/TomCBallard https://www.facebook.com/tomballardaustralia/ Download the 'Like I’m A Six-Year-Old' political podcast with Tom Ballard: https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/like-im-a-six-year-old/id959362738?mt=2 Tom Ballard - 2017 Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKAkSYmsARw Watch SBS -First Contact: http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/first-contact   Hit Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet up on social media here: Twitter https://twitter.com/hotndelicious Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hotndelicious/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/craftbeerlovin/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HotnDelicious Hot & Delicious YouTube - Ballistyx Snowboard Show, interviews & more. https://www.youtube.com/user/HotnDeliciousRecords 'Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet’ entertainment, travel, photography & lifestyle blog: http://hotndelicious.com/   For social media, photography & influencer business enquiries contact: info@hotndelicious.com

There’s a line that comes about halfway through Edward Albee’s classic play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Unlike so much of the rest of Albee’s brutal and brilliant drama, it’s not a line full of anger or recrimination, or witty humor, or caustic observation. As such, it stands out like a whisper in a rainstorm. It is uttered by an extremely inebriated young woman named Honey, curled up on a couch after a period of extreme alcohol-fueled nausea, making her barely-conscious remark in response to her host, George, telling a deeply personal story, which Honey’s own husband, Nick, told George less than an hour before, while Honey was indisposed in the upstairs bathroom. As it so happens, it’s a story about Honey. “This story sounds familiar,” she murmurs softly, unexpectedly adding, “Familiar stories are the best.” Sometimes, that’s true, isn’t it? Sometimes, familiar stories are the best. That’s why classics like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” keep cycling through our culture every so often. They might have been written 55-years-ago, like “Virginia Woolf,” but the good ones – like “Virginia Woolf” – always seem to have something to say. Whatever familiarity you might have with Albee’s masterpiece, or with George and Martha and Honey and Nick – that furious foursome of funny-and-ferocious married academics whose relationships all unravel spectacularly over the course of single evening - you’d be well advised to leave your expectations - and perhaps your past disappointments - at the door of Main Stage West, where director David Lear and his first rate cast are serving up a dry and dirty, perfectly poured presentation of Albee’s caustic excoriation of modern marriage and the deadly addictiveness of illusion and deceit. If I seem to be using a lot of words, I am. After nearly three hours with these loquacious, word-wielding folks, you too might find yourself luxuriating in the rich highlights and lowlights of the English language. In the play, George — a sensational Peter Downey — is a middling history professor at a small university, and his wife Martha — Sandra Ish, also marvelous — obviously resents him for his lack of academic ambition. Early one morning, after a lengthy faculty dinner, George and Martha have invited another couple over for drinks. Nick—John Browning, quite strong in a difficult role—is the school’s new biology professor, and his wife, Honey—a remarkable Rose Roberts—well, um, Honey has a habit it throwing up a lot when things become too “intense.” So, you know, woe is them. Director Lear keeps the tone masterfully light, recognizing that the escalating intensity of all those words works best when they’re delivered as if it’s all pretty hilarious – which, amazingly, it often is. The production’s best moments include Ish’s priceless expression when a potted Venus flytrap is placed in her hand as a “hostess gift.” Or Downey’s hilariously multi-layered response to Nick’s saying, “Well, you know women.” And words cannot describe Robert’s jaw-dropping brilliance when Honey launches an improvised dance that includes elements of ballet, hand-jive and a mime stuck in a box. The brilliance of Albee’s script, of course, and this razor-sharp interpretation, lies in the awareness that beautiful truths can be found even amongst people as vile and ruthless as these. Yes, they are, to varying degrees, swine, but they are remarkably believable swine. And as George so memorably puts it, late in the show, “You have to have a swine to show you where the truffles are.” 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ runs Thursday–Sunday through March 19 at Main Stage West www.mainstagewest.com

Playwright Clare Barron, a New York theater artist with a fast-rising reputation for crafting quirky comedy-dramas with the ring of truth and an affection for damaged people, is finally getting her shot in the North Bay, where Left Edge Theater has just opened the West Coast premiere of her oddball play ‘You Got Older.’ Skillfully directed by Argo Thompson, ‘You Got Older’ follows a struggling, twenty-something lawyer named Rae, who’s recently lost her job, her apartment, her boyfriend, and her self-esteem, at the very same moment that her father is diagnosed with a mysterious, possibly fatal throat cancer. She’s also got a truly terrible-sounding rash. Rae is played with meticulous sensitivity by Paige Picard, a first-rate performance in a play full of them, and Joe Winkler, as Rae’s kind but befuddled father, is frequently astonishing, particularly so in a key scene at the end where his steady bravado suddenly crumbles. Barron’s writerly kookiness manifests itself mainly through the stunningly candid dialogue between her characters. The awkward but believable way that Rae converses with Mac, a rash-loving stranger she meets in a bar. He’s played nicely by Jared Wright. There’s sexy-but-menacing Cowboy (played by Chris Ginesi) who Rae conjures up in a series of increasingly disturbing sex fantasies. Then there’s the way Rae makes wobbly plans for the future with her loving, easily distracted siblings, all while waiting at the hospital bedside of their post-surgery dad. The convincingly familiar siblings are played by Sandra Ish, Devin McConeell, Victoria Saitz, all good, though the apparently twenty year spread in ages seems a bit unrealistic, given other details of the script putting them closer together than that. That one weirdness aside, there is a palpable honesty and “realness” to the story that sneaks up on you, and delivers a surprising impact. As hinted in the title, You Got Older is actually a play about growing up, about the ways that facing our losses, disappointments and the eccentric irritations of life, in time make us all older - and sometimes, a little wiser, too. Meanwhile, 6th Street Playhouse’s Buyer & Cellar, which also opened last weekend, is a one-actor exploration of the affluent eccentricities of singer-actor Barbra Streisand. Written by Jonathan Tolins, directed with energetic simplicity by Sarah Muirhead, Buyer & Cellar takes a well-documented fact about Streisand—that she built a miniature shopping mall in her cellar to hold the costumes and kitsch acquired over the years—and uses it to launch a flight of fancy about an unemployed actor named Alex who is hired as a make-believe storekeeper in Bab’s bizarre basement playground. The enjoyable, joke-packed script contains a truly effective play-ending twist, but its insights into Streisand’s psyche mostly tend toward the obvious—her mother never told her she was pretty, she grew up in poverty so she now likes to flaunt her wealth. And the story itself, while definitely funny and affectionate, sometimes strains for purpose and relevance. It doesn’t matter. The real reason to see Buyer & Cellar is Patrick Varner’s outstanding performance as Alex. Jaw-droppingly good, Varner’s inventive characterizations and clear emotional arc carry this kooky comedy along on a wave of energy and sweetness, with only occasional lapses of momentum. Taken together, both new shows show extraordinary humanity and compassion for their messy, identifiable characters, and at a time when its sometimes hard to recognize the commonalities between us, a bit if humanity and compassion are exactly what the world needs more of. 'You Got Older’ runs Friday–Sunday, through Feb. 3 – Feb. 19 at Left Edge Theater, www.leftedgetheater.com. 'Buyer & Cellar’ runs Thursday–Sunday through Feb. 19 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Valentine’s Day is less than a month away, and love is already in the air at some local theaters. Well, love and sex, and betrayal … and sex, and also mathematics … and sex, and stage-fright, fake kissing, real kissing … and sex. Sound fun? Let’s start in Ross, in Marin County, where the Ross Valley Players have just opened a four-week run of Lauren Gunderson’s surreal 2010 drama, ‘Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight.’ That’s an unwieldy but intriguing title for an intriguing but unwieldy play, the true story, sort of, of the Emile Du Châtelet, an 18th Century mathematician, physicist and philosopher who scandalized French society by becoming the lover of the famous playwright-adventurer Voltaire - and challenged scientific assumptions by writing papers finding fault with some of the most esteemed thinkers of her day. In Gunderson’s poetically convoluted version, the show’s heroine has just died. Robyn Grahn plays her with undeniable charm, yet always feels strangely distant from us, as if she is relating her story from beyond the mists of time, which she is. The script is written that way. Offered a chance to relive and review her life, possibly even getting to finish her life’s work — a book describing the Life Force as a mathematical equation — Emilie finds that actually touching these memory-people she encounters leads to a nasty electric shock. Nice sound effects, by the way. Anyway, whenever Emilie’s story gets “physical,” in that she remembers doing the nasty with Voltaire or any of her other occasional lovers, she avoids ethereal electrocution by calling in a younger version of herself, played by Neiry Rojo, to handle all the kissing and groping. Director Patricia Miller takes a very bold, but ultimately unsuccessful risk in casting Catherine Luedtke as Voltaire. Luedkte, a first-rate actor, does everything she can, but the choice doesn’t work, taking an already over-analytical, over-complex story, and adding another level of unreality, pushing it all even further from the grasp of the audience’s emotions. We want to feel for this brave, intelligent woman, but she never seems real enough, despite Grahn’s best efforts to make her so. Yes, the scientific stuff is frequently thrilling, but the sexy parts - mainly reduced to men chasing women while shouting “hoo-hoo-hoo” - are about as un-sexy as a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Considerably sexier—and considerably more convincing—is 6th Street Playhouse’s production of Ruhl’s “Stage Kiss,” directed with welcome farcical fury by Marty Pistone. This one is definitely easier to wrap one’s head around, but only so much. As written by Ruhl, this story of stage actors in love is so oddly structured as to require constant audience effort to absorb what’s happening some of the time. Structured as a play-within-a-play—followed by another play-within-a-play—‘Stage Kiss’ gives us two ex-lovers, He and She, played by Edward McCloud and Jenifer Coté. Both He and She are actors, thrown together in a very bad 1930’s play called ‘The Last Kiss.’ The other actors in the play-within-a-play are a delightfully underachieving bunch, played gleefully by Rusty Thompson, Lydia Revelos, Abbey Lee, and Tim Kniffin, all of them guided by a woefully unprepared Director, played by mollie boice. ‘Stage Kiss,’ as promised in the title, contains a whole lot of kissing - some serious, some very, very funny - and it’s entertaining to watch the way fake kissing can lead to real kissing, then back again. Though ultimately kind of pointless, vague, and a bit overly mean-spirited, Stage Kiss is an enjoyable enough romp, cleverly comparing the easy promises of love-struck fantasy with the hard-but-worthwhile work of creating real-life love. ‘Emilie’ runs Thursday–Sunday through February 5 at Ross Valley Players. www.rossvalleyplayers.com. 'Stage Kiss’ runs Thursday–Sunday through February 5 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

“Hope. Do we ever give up on hope? Even in the face of hard evidence?” That the question at the heart of Si Kahn’s succinctly-titled new musical memory play Hope, running through December 18 at Main Stage West theater, in Sebastopol. A world premiere, Hope is a surprisingly innovative, if not always entirely smooth collection of stories, some a little on the tall take side, that Kahn heard over and over growing up in a family of Jewish immigrants with a strong political conscience, and a clear knack for spinning a good yarn. Kahn, who authored Main Stage West’s popular musical Mother Jones in Heaven, is an award-winning folksinger, nationally renowned for his politically fueled songs and progressive activism. Hope is his fourth Main Stage West collaboration with director Elizabeth Craven. In the new show, transformed from a straightforward monologue-type piece into something far more theatrical and a bit strange and wonderful, Kahn uses stories to mine his own family’s past, borrowing songs from his own celebrated discography. These are stories of his aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents, including some relatives he never got a chance to meet. Filled with references to pogroms and concentration camps, these are stories of hope somehow surviving in the midst of unspeakable loss and sacrifice. As one piece of the massive story of European immigration to America in the 1900s, it’s powerful stuff. Which is not to say it isn’t occasionally very funny. In presenting Kahn’s loosely connected stories, Craven and her troupe of four actor-singers and three versatile musicians have created something altogether unexpected, though a bit confusing. Kahn’s first-person narration has been spread out amongst the members of the cast, each of whom tell bits of the author’s family history, all speaking as Kahn. While ultimately quite effective, this approach takes a while to figure out, and leads to some initial befuddlement. That said, the stylized storytelling does yield some supremely satisfying fruit. The expert cast features Mary Gannon Graham, Sharia Pierce, John Craven, and Alia Beeton, working their way through short overlapping vignettes of determination, love, resilience and grief, playing an array of characters: from Si Kahn himself to members of Kahn’s family, to Cossacks engaged in pogroms, and even a hilarious Angel of Death, who gets laughs with lines like, “Oy, what a day I’ve had!” At such times, ‘Hope’ resembles nothing as much as a Jewish immigrant ‘Hee Haw,’ the popular 1969-1981 television show combining country music, one-liners, and folksy sketch comedy. The main difference, of course, is that ‘Hee Haw’ went solely for belly laughs, while Kahn’s deeply personal assemblage of memories aims straight at the heart. The ensemble is first-rate, and under the musical direction of Jim Peterson, Kahn’s songs are simply and precisely orchestrated for maximum emotional impact. Craven’s gracefully energetic staging, though a bit uneven at times, is always striking and dreamlike in its flow. Despite some wobbly moments, it works, much like a really good Si Kahn folksong, serving up its scraps of dreams and slivers of hope with quiet power, and deep, wholehearted emotion. ‘Hope’ runs Thursday–Sunday through December 18 at Main Stage West. www.mainstage west.com

The Threepenny Opera — Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 “play with music — is like an expensive desert that’s so complex and filled with flavor most people can’t quite figure out how to enjoy it. That’s how Brecht liked it. A proponent of what he called “Epic Theater,” Brecht was not interested in entertaining his audiences or allowing them to become lost in the emotions of a story. He wanted his audiences to stay a bit uncomfortable, to remain just distant enough from their feelings —and from the show they are watching — to always be thinking about how the play is being presented, what it all actually means. Therefore, I’d say that for most people, the only significant obstacle in 6th Street’s thoroughly effective and often delightful production of Threepenny Opera is that in the end, it’s still The Threepenny Opera. Staged in the larger G.K. Hardt theater, it a fascinating choice for 6th Street, where its main-stage musicals have tended, of late, toward the safe and predictable. Directed by Michael R.J, Campbell, Threepenny features thrilling singing voices, excellent musical direction by Janis Dunson Wilson, frequently brilliant staging, cooler-than-cool visual stylings, and whimsically Brechtian touches. The set, essentially a large room filled with props and costumes, resembles a theater hoarder’s paradise, and I loved those chalk-drawn signs some characters hold up from time to time, and that well-lit proscenium over the stage, chalked over with the scrawled titles of all the songs, constantly reminding us that this is, after all, just a play with music. The music, by the way, is by Kurt Weill, and includes some of his best known songs. The story is set in London in 1937, and plays like a Victorian-version of the Rocky Horror Show. It’s gleefully sexy and aberrant, and joyously contemptuous of those too sensitive and proper to sit and watch a dark, twisted, tune-filled show about the seedy underbelly of society. Ironically, the musical—based on John Gay’s 1728 “The Beggar’s Opera”—is actually (if you pay attention) all about Europe’s wealthy class of bankers and businessman, who too-often behave like crooks and murderers. Though in Threepenny Opera, we get crooks and murderers behaving like bankers and businessmen. The show’s best-known song (“The Ballad of Mack the Knife”), is presented in a gothy prelude by an accordion-playing street-singer (a first-rate Shawna Eierman), after which the plot-heavy story introduces Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Robert Rogers & Eileen Morris, both excellent). The Peachums oversee a network of robbers and thugs, rivaled only by the vicious gang of the knife-wielding Macheath (a wonderful Jerry Lee, singing beautifully while looking like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Gomez Addams). When Mack secretly marries the Peachum’s daughter Polly (Molly Larsen, adding yet another excellent voice to the cast), things get complicated. It seem Mack has more than one wife, and a girlfriend or two on the side. One of them, the prostitute Jenny, played powerfully by Seran Elize Flores, reluctantly collaborates with the Peachums to have Mack arrested, his eventual fate illuminated, literally, the noose hanging over the stage, occasionally lit by a spot so we don’t forget its there. The twisty tale is deliberately hard to follow (Brecht trikes again), but for venturous audiences willing to take their tea with a bit of arsenic, this energetic romp of an anti-capitalist fable is served up with enough style to keep you smiling, even as it sends you out of the theater thinking hard, and perhaps just a little unsettled. 'Threepenny Opera’ runs Thursday–Sunday through October 23 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Victorian England produced some spectacularly bloody and murderous literature. Some was written and published, some began as the stuff of urban legend before being translated for the stage or to the cheap and popular ‘penny dreadful’ magazines that were filled with stories of the macabre, the sensational, the bloody, the mysterious. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries landed somewhere in between. And gruesome tales like that of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, they were retold in increasingly outrageous and shocking ways. Continuing the trend of transforming gruesome Victorian potboilers into new forms of entertainment, two of the best tales from this era are currently running at two different Sonoma County theaters. Baskerville—running for one more weekend at Spreckels Performing Arts Center—is Ken Ludwig’s ultra-spoofy take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles, one of Sherlock Holmes most popular adventures. Directed by David Yen, who demonstrates an obvious affection for Monty Python and the Airplane films, Baskerville follows Holmes and Watson—played by Stephen Cannon and Chris Schloemp, respectively—as they take on the case of a wealthy man killed on the moors by a mysterious beast. As written by Ludwig, the play is jam-packed with pratfalls, outrageous accents, crazy characters, and silly walks. Yen stages such stuff brilliantly, and adds a number of wacky bits of his own, including a massive cloud of machine-made fog that seems to have a mind of its own. Trust me, if you sit in the front row, you’re gonna get fogged. The cast of five is mostly excellent. Though Cannon’s ultra-dry delivery as Holmes reads as lifeless and unfunny much of the time, the rest of the cast is a brisk and bouncy delight. Especially Larry Williams, excelling in an array of wildly over-the-top roles. Watching him tumble down stairs is a hilarious hoot. Kim Williams and Zane Walters do exceptional work as well, playing numerous potential murderers and/or victims. The best performance in the show, though—thanks to Williams’ utter commitment to the moment—is from the floppy stuffed-animal appearing as the mysterious Hound itself. Rarely has an inanimate object been funnier. If only “Sweeney Todd,” now p;aying at the Raven Theater in Healdsburg, had had same level of energy. Though featuring one of the best orchestras I’ve ever heard in the North Bay—with expert musical direction from Lucas Sherman—Stephen Sodheim’s spirited, darkly fun tale of murder and cannibalism feels disappointingly stiff and dour. Directed by Carl Hamilton—who delivered one of 2015’s best shows in All My Sons—this Sweeney is dealt a mortal blow by stiff and constricted, overly presentational staging that, despite several nice visual touches—I loved the falling red fabric when key characters die—often feels flat and frozen. A bit more melodramatic vitality and dynamism is called for in this kind of show. IT might be dark and bloody, but it should also be larger-than-life, over the top, melodramatic … and maybe even fun. As Todd, Matt Witthaus cuts a fine figure, and reveals a powerful singing voice—put this man in more musicals—but the dark intensity of presence for which Witthaus has become known is rarely capitalized on in this production. Far more lively and on-the-mark is Tika Moon as the pie-making Mrs. Lovett, balancing her characters’ dark humor and comic tragedy with masterful ingenuity. The Raven’s Sweeney Todd certainly has its moments. Too bad it doesn’t have more of them. 'Sweeney Todd’ runs Friday–Sunday through October 9 at the Raven Performing Arts Center. www.raventheater.org ‘Baskerville’ runs Thursday–Sunday through October 4 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. www.spreckelsonline.com

Jack London. One cannot grow up in Sonoma County, or even visit here for very long, without gaining at least some awareness of who Jack London was. Few local school-kids can’t tell you that London wrote books about wolves and dogs, and some might even be able to name ‘White Fang’ and ‘Call of the Wild.’ Anyone whose done a bit of wine tasting in the Valley of the Moon probably knows that London’s home is now a State park a mere 30-minute drive from Santa Rosa. And of course, this year, the world marks the centennial of London’s death in 1916, with numerous events taking place all over the county. Interest should be high, therefore, for Cecilia Tichi’s passionate, fact-filled, over-long but generally well-performed world premiere, The House that Jack Built, running now in the Studio at 6th Street playhouse. Directed with resourceful tenacity by Craig Miller, the play appears alongside Charlie Bethel’s acclaimed one-man telling of the aforementioned sled-dog adventure, Call of the Wild, also in the Studio. Propelled by a first-rate performance by Ed McCloud as Jack London, ‘The House That Jack Built’ is set in August of 1913, three years before his death, just as London was completing construction on Wolf House, the vast rock-and-redwood residence he’d sunk his dwindling fortune into building for himself and his wife Charmian, played nicely by Elizabeth Henry. It is one of the clever pleasures of Tichi’s script that the house of the play’s title extends not just to the literal Wolf House, but also to the wide world London spent so much time exploring, and the future of which we clearly worried about, and often covered in his progressively political writings. If only the script had focused a little more tightly on that one theme, or any one theme, even just being willing to explore this one pivotal moment in London’s life, instead of trying to tell the entirety of London’s life in the series of long monologues and flimsily constructed conversations that make up the first act. Few Sonoma County residents don’t know the eventual fiery fate of Wolf House, but that something bad is going to happen to it is easy to guess from all of the first-act foreshadowing about insurance and creditors. The act is anchored by a long barroom conversation between London and three old associates —boyhood pal Frank Atherton (Lito Briano,) newspaper reporter Cloudesley Johns (James Rowan,) and photographer—and one-time South Sea shipmate—Frank Atherton (Matthew Cadigan.) The actors do what they can with the material. As bar-owner Johnny Heinold, Ben Harper is delightfully natural, all watchfulness and easy grace. But the whole first act is little more than a vigorous recitation of well-researched historical details that the playwright – a scholar at Vanderbilt University – felt lovingly compelled to squeeze in. The second act—highlighted by an unexpected boxing match and the climactic event that altered the course of London’s life—is far livelier, but still feels less like a play than an interpretive docudrama presented to visiting tourists. If this were Disneyland, it would be performed by animatronic robots. The House That Jack Built—for all its charms and local significance—strains under the weight of being so aggressively “educational.” That said, it’s never boring, and it has moments that are genuinely and deeply moving, due mainly to McCloud’s muscular, fully engaged performance—and, of course, to the wild, wooly excitement of London’s truly extraordinary life. 'The House That Jack Built’ runs Thursday–Sunday through September 25 at 6th Street Playhouse. 6thstreetplayhouse.org

Hooray for Captain Spalding. And hooray for the weird, wonderful, creatively imitative assemblage of actors who are currently bringing the Marx Brothers ‘Animal Crackers’ to retro-ridiculous life at the 6th Street Playhouse. Originally a long-running play on Broadway, ‘Animal Crackers’ is best known for the 1930 movie version, considered by many to be the finest example of the pun-filled, language-assaulting, physically offbeat comedy that the Brothers Marx made a career of. The play, with songs by George S. Kaufman, also gave the Brothers Marx a tune they would become inextricably associated with: the aforementioned, Hooray for Captain Spaulding, a goofy prog-pop extravaganza containing one of Groucho’s indelible signature lines, ‘Hello, I must be going.’ The 6th Street production uses the Broadway script, so if you know the movie well, prepare for a bunch of bits and songs that were cut from the show when it was adapted for the screen. As Captain Spalding, played famously by Groucho, Jeff Coté gives an uncanny impersonation, from the painted mustache and active eyebrows to Groucho’s joyously twisty-turny dance moves. As the larcenous musician Emanuel Rivelli, aka Chico Marx, David Yen is delightful, blending mischievous enthusiasm with a confidently trouble-making underpinning of potential danger. Watching Yen and Coté toss famously outrageous one-liners back and forth is one of the show’s chief pleasures. “That’s a-not a flash, that’s a fish!” Well, that’s in the show. Also, expect a slightly sinister Harpo Marx, who, in the inventive, elastic-faced hands of actor Erik Weiss, is less an imitation of Harpo than a free interpretation of the goofily creepy Professor character he played in ‘Animal Crackers.’ Don’t expect Weiss to play the harp, though. In a conspicuously desperate and clunky homage to Harpo’s musicianship, director Craig Miller — who otherwise brings a parade of inventive ideas and cleverly inspired bits to the show – basically throws the brakes on the show as we in the audience watch Weiss, as Harpo, hanging out watching a movie of the real Harpo playing a tune. That probably should have been cut. On the other hand, Craig introduces a brilliant second act bit in which John Rathjen – absolutely superb in two supporting roles – steps out in his underwear to sing ‘Keep Your Undershirt On’ while putting on the costume of the marvelously droll butler Hives, nicely dueting with a similarly negligeed Jacinta Gorringe, as the marriage-minded matron Mrs. Rittenhouse. Also excellent, in duel supporting roles, is Abbey Lee, quick-swapping outfits and wigs as Mrs. Rittenhouse’s hot-to-trot daughter Arrabella and as the scheming neighbor Mrs. Whitehead. Lee, along with the aforementioned Rathjen, commands some of the show’s best musical moments, supported by a fine onstage orchestra under the direction of Justin Pyne, and some nice choreography by Joey Favalora. Unfortunately, many of the other voices in the cast often fail to soar or blend, unless, of course, one of the faux Mark Brothers is involved. To Tell the Truth, it’s hard to know whether Coté and Yen are singing well or not, because they sound so much like Groucho and Chico, and – like the rest of this overlong but frequently hilarious, beautifully and affectionately nostalgic show - are so stitch-in-the-side funny, nothing else really matters. ‘Animal Crackers’ runs Thursday-Sunday through September 18 at 6th Street Playhouse, 6thstreetplayhouse.com.

It's Episode 93 with Susannah Rose Woods, Artistic Director of Island Shakespeare Festival, Whidbey Island's "Pay What You Will" outdoor Shakespeare Festival, hosted by Olena Hodges. We talk about the beginnings of ISF all the way through the 2016 season, and all the exciting things in store. We also discuss Susannah Rose's work as a director and as a writer, and how Shakespeare has been a through line in her career. Island Shakespeare Festival's 2016 opens with As You Like It on July 11, followed by Jane Eyre (adapted and directed by Julie Beckman) on July 9, and Julius Caesar (directed by Corey D. McDaniel) on July 14. Performances run in rotating repertory, beginning at 6:00 pm, Thursday-Sunday through September 11. For more info: www.islandshakespearefest.org.

“Battle of the sexes.” That phrase dates back to at least 1914, when the notorious filmmaker D.W. Griffith (he of “Birth of a Nation”) released a blatantly sexist film with that title. “Battle of the Sexes.” Over the years, what that phrase means and how that particular battle is fought, has vastly evolved. Consider, for example, the enormous differences between Lerner and Lowe’s beloved 1956 musical “My Fair Lady,” and David Ives’ spicy 2011 comedy-drama “Venus in Fur.” We begin with that last one. Currently running at San Rafael’s Belrose Theater, directed by Carl Jordan and presented by Marin Onstage, ‘Venus in Fur’ is a two-person examination of sex, power and the pleasures of pain. There is a bit of light sadomasochism. There is leather and a dog collar. And it’s hilarious. When an off Broadway audition is crashed, late, by a scattered, goofy mess of an actress—excellently played by Melissa Claire, who plays the character as alternately ditzy, sexy and scary—she convinces the frustrated playwright-director—Tyler McKenna, quite good in a tough role—to let her audition. At first she seems totally unprepared. But she seems to know the play by heart, even though the script has not yet been distributed. And she seems to know quite a bit about the 1870 novel on which the new play is based, a novel written by the man for whom the term “masochism” was named. What follows is a series of escalating power trips and challenges and sexual intimidation, in which the rules, and the roles, change several times. Very adult, very funny, and full of surprises, this is a play designed, in part, to make you rethink how women are traditionally portrayed in theater and literature. Which brings us to ‘My Fair Lady,’ now playing at 6th Street Playhouse. Much tamer, compared to “Venus in Fur,” and clearly the product of an early era, the beloved musical ‘My Fair Lady’ was itself a taming-down of G.B. Shaw’s furious social critique ‘Pygmalion.’ It features some of the best songs ever written for the stage—‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly,’ ‘With a Little bit of Luck,’ ‘I Could Have Danced All Night,’ ‘The Street Where You Live,’ ‘I’m getting Married in the Morning.’ Impressively sung by a strong-voiced cast—who are somewhat poorly supported by a spotty orchestra. The production’s pleasures include a marvelous Norman Hall singing two of the show’s most famous songs, and some delightful costuming by Tracy Hinman. The play is directed with obvious affection by Craig Miller, who employs some impressive touches—crumpled poetry, a well-timed tear, but despite the cleverness of these inventions, it can’t quite make this dated, deeply tired show seem less like the out-of-touch dinosaur it is. As the self-impressed professor of linguistics Henry Higgins, David Yen is thoroughly entertaining, though not very likable, gleefully aiming a barrage of insults at Eliza Doolittle, an unhappy flower girl who asks him to teach her proper English enunciation. As Eliza, Denise Elia sings the part beautifully, effectively underplaying the character’s usual fire, thus emphasizing Eliza’s fear and uncertainty—making Higgins even less likable in the process. That, it must be said, has always been the primary failure of ‘My Fair Lady’—a Battle of the Sexes” love story in which the last thing we want is for main characters to fall in love. ‘Venus in Fur’ runs Fridays and Saturdays through May 21 at Belrose Theater, Visit marinonstage.org. ‘My Fair Lady’ runs Thursday–Sunday, through June 6 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

The writings of San Francisco playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb have always been a balance of the weird, the wondrous, the sensitive, and the cynical. Nachtrieb likes to test artistic and cultural boundaries, daring his audience to surrender its expectations. He likes happy endings, but he also likes to subvert them and stand them on their heads. In many ways 'BOB: A Life in Five Acts' is the quintessential Peter Sinn-Nachtrieb play, combining all of the idiosyncrasies and struggles and odd artistic impulses we've come to expect from one of his stories. And in the currently running production of 'BOB' at Main Stage West, in Sebastopol, all of these wildly consorting contradictions are given the perfect playground on which to cavort and cartwheel and freely express themselves. A bit of a dream project for director Sheri Lee Miller, 'BOB' is, in many ways, the perfect undertaking for her particular talents, requiring a high degree of artistic collaboration with her cast (one of Miller's strong suits), while also demanding a strong artistic eye. Miller accomplishes this, allowing the whole mechanism to feel as if it might go off the rails at any minute, brilliantly enhancing the sense of dangerous improvisation that is etched into the script. In other words, 'BOB' is a wild ride. Born in the restroom of a White Castle in the American South, Bob — played from birth to old age by Mark Bradbury — is promptly abandoned by his mother, then unofficially adopted by a waitress at the restaurant. In the first of five eventful acts, Bob names himself, travels to country with his adopted mom, grows into adolescence, learns a pop-cultural encyclopedia of random historical and sociological facts, and sets his sights on the goal that will determine the course of his life: to somehow become a "great man." As Bob grows up, essentially homeless, but driven by an optimism so pure it can be tasted in his kisses, he encounters and reencounters a bizarre parade of American stereotypes—good, bad, and otherwise. Bob’s epic, cross-country, decade-hopping life story is illustrated and narrated by a chorus of actors played with jaw-dropping elasticity by Laura Levin, Gina Alvarado, Sam Coughlin and Nick Sholley. Frequently beginning with the line, "It is said, that . . ." the storytellers work wonders, together and apart, roaming the pleasingly spare blank-canvass of a stage as they change voices, postures and costumes to become the numerous outrageous characters—and a number of animals and inanimate objects as well—whom Bob encounters as he pursues his dream, suffers a broken heart, loses his way, and finds it again in the most unexpected of places. Between each act, one member of the chorus performs a dance, exploring different themes such as hardship, hope, love, and luck. To reveal more would be to spoil an array of offbeat surprises. There is, to say the least, a lot going on in ‘BOB,’ much of which rests on the shoulders of Bradbury, who perfectly embodies the character’s boyish openness. Not everything in Nachtrieb’s ambitious script works, and though it happens rarely, some of the cast’s choices seem to treat certain revelations as punchlines rather than life-altering discoveries. But on the whole, ‘Bob’ is a thing of loose-limbed wonder and beauty, a wacky journey across a surreal landscape that will leave you with plenty to ponder and respond to, long after Bob finally learns what it really means to be great. Bob: A Life in Five Acts, runs Thursday-Sunday through May 22 at Main Stage West. www.mainstagewest.com.

Two plays based on real happenings from the first half of the twentieth century have recently opened in the North Bay. One is new, the work of an up-and-coming young playwright from San Francisco. The other is an American classic. Each production is worthy of attention. At 6th Street Playhouse, in Santa Rosa, Lauren Gunderson’s enthralling and lovely Silent Sky tells the story of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a pioneering astronomer whose passion for the stars put her at odds with her devout sister and the male-dominated scientific community within which she worked at Harvard University. Henrietta Leavitt lived from the mid 1800’s to the early 1920s. The play focuses on her years at Harvard. As a “computer” – the name given to female clerks responsible for charting the skies— Leavitt initially bristles to learn that the male professors will get credit for any discoveries made by her and the other “computers.” Eventually, despite the confusing attentions of her male supervisor, Leavitt defies authority in studying a star pattern that might actually contain a clue to the size and scope of the universe. As Henrietta, Jessica Headington is wonderful, a blend of the smart and the sweet. Juliet Noonan plays her sister Margaret, and an effectively stiff and quirky Devin McConnell plays Peter. As the two other “computers,” Willamina and Annie, Laura J. Davies and Maureen Studer are a hoot. Directed with affection and humor by Lennie Dean, Gunderson’s prose is lean, inventive, and captivating, turning the language of science into the stuff of pure poetry. An impressive light design by April George adds to the magic, from the dangling antique light bulbs that stand in for stars, up to the stunning final effect that puts the audience at the center of the universe. The play is not without a few flaws. Its pace slacks in act two, and there are a few moments throughout when the emotion feels forced rather than natural, but on the whole, Silent Sky is a thing of beauty as luminous as the stars its heroine longed so deeply to understand. Moving on to Healdsburg, and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, the legendary playwright’s his first critical hit. It’s not an easy show to pull off, but Miller’s ingeniously unfolding post-WWII drama gets a solid, emotionally truthful production courtesy of director Carl Hamilton and the Raven Players. The story is based on an actual event that took place during and after the war. Aging manufacturer Joe Keller (played quite well by Steve Thorpe) lost his youngest son, Larry, in the war. But because the body was never recovered, his wife Kate (an appealingly raw Rebecca Allington) still believes he’s alive. When Joe’s other son Chris (Jeremy Boucher, who is excellent) reveals that he plans to marry Ann (Angela Squire), who was once engaged to Larry, the stage is set for a family conflict with far more at stake than anyone knows. The drama builds as layers of secret and lies are gradually peeled back, exposing wounds and deceptions that threaten to tear the family apart. Though less popular than Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘The Crucible,’ ‘All My Sons’ stands as one of the playwright’s most accessible and affecting stories. The Raven Production is flawed, slightly, by casting that puts certain actors in roles too old or too young for them. But with Hamilton’s fine direction, an impressive set by Darius Hamilton and some equally impressive light design by Robin DeLuca, along with the generally outstanding acting of the cast, this adds up to a rich and deeply powerful experience, with an emotional impact that does not soon fade away. 'Silent Sky’ runs Thursday–Sunday through April 17 in the Studio at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com. All My Sons’ runs Friday–Sunday through April 24 in the Studio at the Raven Performing Arts Center. www.raventheater.org

In author-playwright Mary Spletter’s world premiere, Arches, Balance and Light, the East Bay playwright takes on a difficult, if not impossible, task—telling the personal behind-the-scenes life story of the legendary Julia Morgan, California’s first license female architect. Why is that so impossible? Well, though much is known of Morgan’s professional career and long list of accomplishments—including the design of Hearst Castle and over 700 others—almost nothing is known of Morgan’s real personal life. She stands amongst history’s most notoriously secretive and private people. It hasn’t stopped others from trying. A few years ago, playwright Belinda Taylor brought out her own attempt, the well-received “Becoming Julia Morgan,” which managed to stitch the bare facts of Morgan’s life into a captivating adventure tale, while avoiding speculation on its subject’s private life, loves and rumored secret scandals. Spletter takes a very different approach. In her somewhat convoluted play-within-a-play-within-a-play, now running at Ross Valley Players, Spletter has blended snippets of solid, historical reality with a kind of juicy, fanciful “fan fiction,” making up from whole cloth a series of possible explanations for Morgan’s deeply private demeanor, all of which results in an entertaining if somewhat shaggy-doggish fantasy romance that is rich with emotion, but absent the kind of ‘Wow! I-Never-Knew-That’ kick that comes from watching actual, fact-driven biography. That said, what Spletter and director Joe Manley have created, with the contributions of a charming cast, is a delightfully well-constructed bit of theatrical misdirection, though perhaps saddled with a few too many bits of clichéd humor, as in the moment a young Julia Morgan loses her temper and angrily shouts that she never loses her temper. The rest of the script is too clever to deserve moments so hackneyed and silly. Also, and this may just be a matter of taste, I’d suggest the play is perhaps encumbered by one too many “framing devices.” As the show begins, Julia Morgan’s somewhat prickly spirit—played by an excellent Ellen Brooks—appears on stage alongside a chorus of ghosts, addressing the audience with a quick summary of her life, followed by the “memory” of a visit from an elegant young Parisian named Marguerite, played with watchful intensity by Anastasia Bonaccorso. The visitor, we quickly learn, is intent on determining whether or not Julia is her mother. In response, Julia—aided by those spirits—describes her early days as a young student in Paris in the late 1800s, her younger self played with plucky charm, and considerable guts, by Zoe Swenson Graham, who stepped into the role just three days before opening. Initially denied entrance to a prestigious French architecture school, the determined Julia finds an enemy in the old-fashioned University director played with austere harumphery by John Simpson), while finding a friend and mentor in Victor, the amiable middle-aged teacher who sees Julia’s potential as a designer, and possibly a bit more. Victor is played with openhearted charm by Robin Schild. Revealing anything else that happens would spoil the surprises, of which there are many. As already stated, it is unlikely that any of what unfolds actually happened, of course. But around the edges of Spletter’s pleasantly quirky drama—basically a love story, wrapped in a mystery, disguised as a memory—the writer’s obvious admiration for Julia Morgan’s remarkable legacy is brought to vivid, infectious life. ‘Arches, Balance and Light’ runs Thursday–Sunday through March 6 at Ross Valley Players. www.rossvalleyplayers.com

Last year, Spreckels Theater Company staged an unconventional revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘Carousel,’ a play many have heard of but few have ever actually seen. Eschewing complex sets, shoreline scenery—and, you know, an actual carousel—director Gene Abravaya inverted the whole concept, hauling the orchestra up from the pit, and letting the show unfold in front and around the musicians, in what was advertised as a “staged concert.” The production was a solid success, though—it being described as a concert—there were some audience members who showed up expecting actors in suits standing before microphones, singing the show from sheet music propped up on metal music stands. They did not expect a fully staged musical, presented with costumes and characters and choreography and even actual, if somewhat minimal, sets. Stripped down as it was, the result was intimate, satisfying and strangely magical. This year, Abravaya is trying to make similar magic, with another “staged concert” of a little known musical, this time taking on the rarely-performed, Arabian-tale-themed 1953 romance ‘Kismet.’ Set in ancient Bagdad during the time of poet Omar Kayam—he of the ‘Rubiyat,” the “moving finger writing,” and the “jug of wine, loaf of bread and thou”—‘Kismet’ blends original songs by Robert Wright and George Forest with reworked pieces by the 19th century Russian composer Alexander Borodin. The composer’s 1890 opera Prince Igor has been resurrected, and largely rewritten for ‘Kismet,’ with a new story and wholly original lyrics layered atop Borodin’s sweeping melodies. Kismet’s shaggy-doggish story, based on a non-musical stage play of the same name from 1911, follows a poor poet played by Tim Setzer with charming, spot-on perfection. Seeking a few coins with which to buy a meal, the poet arrives in Bagdad with his daughter Marsinah—an electrifyingly good Carmen Mitchell—accidentally timing their visit just as the royal Caliph—a somewhat stiff but gorgeously voiced Jacob Bronson—is reluctantly shopping for a princess, the various candidates arriving from surrounding kingdoms by the score. The poet, almost immediately arrested for a petty crime, attempts to save himself from a harsh punishment by passing himself off as a wizard to Bagdad’s stern, law-enforcing Wazir, played by Harry Duke, in a hilarious and richly entertaining performance that is simultaneously wacky and unsettling. At the same time, the poet launches a reckless affair with the Wazir’s primary wife LaLume, played by Brenda Reed, managing to be both sexy and a little bit scary all at once. Meanwhile, Marsinah, the poet’s daughter, accidentally meets the Caliph, who, for various reasons, assumes she’s a visiting princess, while she assumes that he’s a gardener. They fall in love to the aching strains of the show’s most recognizable tune, Stranger in Paradise, setting up a series of events that become frequently tangled, and quite a bit silly, right up until the story’s slightly shocking climax. There’s a lot going on, but ultimately, Kismet still turns out to be not much of a play, with a dated premise, thin characters and a preposterous plot, plus some outrageously nonsensical dialogue. Still, the cast is uniformly splendid—and as directed by Abravaya with sweet simplicity and an emphasis on the lovely but rarely memorable music—there is a bit of welcome sorcery on display at all times, bringing this lost artifact from the Golden Days of Broadway back to life with plenty of warmth, color, contagious enthusiasm and genuine love. 'Kismet' runs Thursday–Sunday through February 28 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. www.spreckelsonline.com

The Nobel-prize winning novelist Edith Wharton once wrote, “There are two ways of spreading light—to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Mirrors—and candles, too—are both the set dressing and driving metaphor in two recently opened plays, stories in which indelible women stand center-stage to take a good hard look at their world, their choices, and their own naked souls. One was written in the 1970s in South Africa, the other just a few years ago in New York City. Beyond the shows’ mutual use of mirrors, and the fact that the central characters are women, they have little in common, other than this: if you get a chance, you should really try to see them both. The first, set in a tiny South African community in 1974, is Athol Fugard’s three-actor drama The Road to Mecca—now running at Main Stage West. The play was inspired by the life of artist Helen Martins, though Fugard’s script takes fictional flights of fancy as mystical and inventive as the cement sculptures of owls and camels and elongated wisemen that Martins fashioned and surrounded her tiny rural house with. Martins, played with bone-weary specificity by Laura Jorgenson, is a lapsed Christian, once driven by the need to create, now trapped in a difficult space, intensely feeling the encroaching darkness she once fought by filling her yard with strangely beautiful creatures. She crams the interior of her house with mirrors, mosaics and hundreds of candles. Frail and uncertain, Helen seriously considers leaving her house and moving to a church-run retirement home, a move that is strongly supported by her one-time minister, Marius, played by John Craven. Marius has secretly loved Helen for years, despite her frightening displays of pagan art making, and worries for her safety as she grows older, also worrying deeply about the state of her soul. Opposing her move from the house is Martin’s schoolteacher friend Elsa, Ilana Niernberger, a strong supporter of Martin and a fierce opponent of the church. Elsa has just arrived from the city in a state of deep sadness and barely controlled rage and heartbreak, the reasons for which take most of the play to reveal themselves. The resulting three-way showdown comes in gradually building waves leading to an affecting, fiercely hard-won moment of awareness and self-resolution. The set, with it’s mirrors, mosaics and suggestions of sculptures, was designed by director Elizabeth Craven and David Lear, and it’s a marvel, as much a character as everyone else in this powerful play, a marvelous, thoughtful, deeply complex and human examination of the power of light, outside and in. Mirrors are equally prominent in Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman comedy-drama Bad Dates, now running at Cinnabar Theater. Starring Jennifer King, and directed by Molly Noble, this is a ferociously funny rollercoaster of a show, about a hard-working New York restaurant manager and single-mother named Hayley, who tells her story as she prepares herself for a series of dates, few of which turn out the way she hopes. Observing her reflection as she tries on an array of outfits, King’s marvelously performed “long-night of the soul” includes hilarious descriptions of each date-gone-wrong, and much more. As Hayley tells the story—which in the second act takes us to some truly surprising and unexpected places—she gradually realizes that finding a person to love won’t happen until she finally figures out what she really wants, and who she really is. ‘Road to Mecca’ runs Thursday–Sunday, through February 21 at Main Stage West. Mainstagewest.com. ‘Bad Dates’ runs through February 21 at Cinnabar Theater, cinnabartheater.org

Short plays aren’t easy. Like a haiku, you have to say a lot with a little. Because of that, it’s easy for a short play to come off less like a full play in miniature, and more like a campfire skit at summer camp. Still, because they are condensed, when they are done well, the emotions they convey can be they can be impressively rich, like the thick sweet jam left from a kettle of fruit, intense and delicious and a little bit bigger-than-usual. So when the short play is a comedy, the result, in a well-written, well-acted, well-directed short play, can be absolutely hilarious. With Valentine’s Day looming, two local theater companies are offering separate showcases of quick, comedic plays, fast and furious, all written in the loopy language of love. In the intimate Studio Theater at 6th Street Playhouse, From Russia With Love is a high-spirited assemblage of shorts by Russian author Anton Chekhov, better known for his tragic plays ‘The Cherry Orchard and ‘Uncle Vanya.’ Anchored by two classics of the short-form comic romance—‘The Bear’ and ‘The Marriage Proposal’—the show elegantly intertwines the text of real love letters from Chekhov—played with humor and cagey coy flirtation by Adam Palafox—to his distant wife Olga (Yelena Segal). The letters add an unexpected dose of tender, heart-warming emotion to the whole show. The Bear, directed by Eyan Dean, gives us a grief-stricken widow (Taylor Differnderfer) who swears she’ll never leave her house again, and whose self-indulgent mourning period is rudely interrupted by the intrusion of a gruff, blustery businessman (Ryan Severt), who arrives to collect a debt and ends up falling in love—with disastrous and rather funny results, that include a duel by pistols. In The Marriage Proposal, directed by Palafox, a wildly hypochondriac landowner (Matt Cadigan) attempts to propose to Natalia (Segal), the daughter of his affable neighbor Stepan (Clark Miller). But before he can manage to propose, he is drawn into a series of petty escalating arguments with his still-unaware intended, who might actually be interested if he’d stop disagreeing with her and propose. Feisty, physical and farcical in the extreme, these two laugh-inducing bon mots are delivered in a 90-minute package that might make you rethink everything you believed about Chekhov. Evidently, he was a very funny guy, and . . . he sure had a way with a love letter. SO that’s ‘From Russia With Love.’ Then there’s ‘In Love with the 8X10,’ presented by Lucky Penny Productions, in Napa. Eight ten-minute shorts culled from over 100 submissions from around the country, these unevenly acted but generally well-written shorts include the twisty tales of a two nerds on a very rocky date (which includes actual rocks), a pair of Labradors discussing the complex etiquette of doggie mating, and a lawyer who brings his fiancée to a shrink to learn small talk, and gets a lesson in true love himself. Directed by Delia Bisconer, Charles Jaeger, and Tony Kelly, the plays run the gamut from gentle and humorous to flat-out over-the-top scandalous wackiness. Think of it as the stage equivalent of those tiny candy conversation hearts—though with a bit more bite beneath all the sugary sweetness. 'From Russia With Love’ runs Thursday–Sunday through Feb. 14 in The Studio at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com. ‘In Love With the 8x10’ runs Thursday–Sunday through February 13 at The Lucky Penny Community Arts Center, www.luckypennynapa.com

Four-and-a-half years ago, Richard Bean’s comedy play ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ appeared out of nowhere, making a mad, merry pratfall onto the stage of public awareness—first in London on the West End, then in New York City on Broadway, and most recently in Berkeley, where last year ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ played to ecstatic sold out houses for months. “You’re a strange planet,” one character tells another early on in the show, and it’s a phrase that could also describe the play itself: a strange planet populated by wildly funny characters. ‘One Man, Two Guvnor’ is a preposterously British, 1960s-set update of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century Italian farce ‘A Servant of Two Masters.’ This Pythonesque adaptation has already become a modern comedy classic, scooping up awards on both sides of the Atlantic, making an international star of its original leading man James Cordon, and landing on the performance-rights Wish Lists of college and community theaters across the Western world. Now, under the supremely playful direction of Carl Jordan—who last year directed 6th Street Playhouse’s award-winning ‘Clybourne Park’—this aggressively silly enterprise finally gets its North Bay premiere, also at 6th Street, where it is quite possibly the funniest play the company has presented since its staging of the similarly over-the-top ‘The 39 Steps,’ in 2012. Crowned by a truly masterful performance by 6th Street’s Artistic Director Craig Miller, this production—though still a bit wobbly and uneven on opening night—transcends its somewhat shaky opening, and deserves to be seen by anyone who relishes the savory tang of laughter, lewdness and blatant, unashamed spectacle. The story—which alternates with pleasantly scruffy songs delivered by a combo of laid-back musicians—follows a day in the life of professional servant Francis Henshaw—that would be Miller—who’s just arrived in the seaside town of Brighton to deliver a message from his boss, the petty criminal Roscoe Crabbe, who was reportedly recently killed by the wealthy and slightly-psychotic gangster Stanley Stubbers—a magnificent Ben Stowe. Much to everyone’s surprise, Roscoe isn’t dead after all. Well, he is, but he’s just shown up in town anyway, impersonated, just barely, by his own sister Rachel (Rose Roberts), who’s arrived with Francis in search of a big score before eloping to Australia with her psychotic boyfriend, who happens to be Stanley Stubbers. Are you following this? Doesn’t matter. Either is Francis. Easily confused—and ravenously hungry—Francis ultimately accepts a second job working for Stubbers, who’s also arrived in town, looking for his missing fiancé. A large cast of crazy characters constantly swirls about, as Francis gamely attempts to solve all of the problems he accidentally causes. The constant action is carried along on a wave of physical comedy and some outrageously over-the-top dialogue. There are even moments of “audience participation,” so don’t be surprised if you end up on stage holding a pot of plastic fish. There are, it should be pointed out, a few problems here and there with the production, as presented on opening night. Certain actors’ accents border on the indecipherable, a closing song by the cast is woefully tone-challenged, and some of the gags—and a great deal of the second act—lag a tad in energy and invention. Still, furiously driven as it is by the joyous mayhem of Craig Miller’s masterly skills and jaw-dropping comic presence, this ridiculous exercise in comedic fervor is as satisfying as a good sandwich at the end of a long day. ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ runs Thursday–Sunday, through February 7 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Magic isn’t easy. And sometimes, it takes a village to make something truly magical—and that even goes for fairy tale villages perched on the edge of a mysterious forest. With leads us to Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Into the Woods,’ now playing at Spreckels Performing Arts Center for one more weekend. Featuring a strong ensemble of North Bay performers, the show is bolstered by uniformly fine singing voices. Those voices are the primary magic ingredient in the show, presented by Theater-at-Large, in an encore production of Stephen Sondheim’s crafty musical homage to—and reinvention of—the classic Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale. The show played to full houses and rave reviews last autumn in Novato, and now it gets a reprise run at Spreckels. It’s not a perfect transformation—but there is much to recommend this second look at Sondheim’s delightfully dark masterpiece. First of all, there’s the jaw-dropping beauty of the music — spun as if from a magic loom by a chamber orchestra directed by Debra Chambliss—and the fine singing and playful presence of the cast. It’s plenty enough to make audiences glad they came, even if the woefully straightforward staging and a few clumsy moments of transition do come off as less than inspired. What might have seemed cozy and warm at the much smaller Novato Theater Company space, struggles to fill out the massive Spreckels stage, often swallowing the best efforts of the first-rate cast. About that cast… I do not have space or time to list them all, which is a shame, because like a village working together, each performer plays an important part. As the sweet but conflicted Cinderella, Julianne Thompson Bretan gives one of many standout performances, and Krista Joy Serpa, as a fierce and funny Little Red Riding Hood, is a song-belting hoot. Also exceptional are Sean O’Brien and Allison Peltz as the show’s childless protagonists, the Baker and his wife, who launch the action with a scavenger hunt for magical items to reverse a witch’s curse and give them a baby. Playing Cinderella’s ‘Prince Charming’ with a swashbuckling grin and a smarmy swagger, Anthony Martinez is wonderful, as is Johnny DeBernard, bringing a comforting presence—and supremely clear diction—as the mysterious narrator. And, as The Witch—the unexpected moral authority of this fractured fairy tale—Daniela Innocenti Beem is a force of nature, taking chances with the first part of the story, playing the witch for laughs rather than the usual menace, then morphing into a powerhouse of emotional strength and sheer vocal dynamite. I only wish they’d used some of that brilliance in figuring out to stage to the show, especially the scenes where a giant invades the land and causes murderous mayhem. Use a projection for the giant, a big puppet, a shadow, whatever. Anything would have been better than simply having people point up at the imaginary giant coming at them from the audience, then run off stage and scream, only to have other people point off stage and say, “Oh no! They’re dead.” Wow! And then there’s the moment when one character is magically transformed. A flash of lighting or something to add some magic to the moment would have been nice. But to watch that actor run off stage, change their look, then run back on . . . um, really? Sorry. It’s just not magical. And it’s not fair, when the performers are doing such a good job, to not to support them with matching effort in the staging of their scenes. That criticism aside, I do recommend this show. Yes, some of the effects may leave you underwhelmed, but there’s no escaping the forceful enchantment of this fine ensemble of actors, making merry magic with their mighty voices. 'Into the Woods' runs Thursday–Sunday through January 17 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. www.Spereckelsonline.com

“I wear the chains I forged in life!” This ghostly report from the doomed spirit of Jacob Marley is amongst the most famous supernatural utterances in English literature. It’s also a fair metaphor for the heavy weight of responsibility carried by any theater company brave enough to stage Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This unstoppably popular story has been around for better than 170 years, and along the way it’s forged a long, weighty chain of expectations, adorations, misinterpretations, criticisms, dismissals and the weird, unkind backlashes that spring from any legendary story’s overfamiliarity in the public eye. Amongst the many reasons that 6th Street’s current production of A Christmas Carol can claim to be called one of the best surprises of 2015, is that it both embraces what’s made the tale so enduring, while also blazing new trails, finding fresh, entertaining possibilities in what has, in some adaptor’s hands, become stale and predictable. With a strong, adaptable cast, an inventively clever script by Michael Wilson, sprightly, emotion-focused direction from Craig Miller, and a delightfully steam-punk production-design, this incarnation of the Dickens classic also makes maximum use of actor Charles Siebert as Ebeneezer Scrooge. Performing rarely on local stages, Siebert’s North Bay appearances are always occasions to celebrate (6th Street’s Red, Cinnabar’s The Price). As Scrooge—the miserly skinflint whose Christmas Eve haunting takes him backwards and forwards through his own history—Siebert is fancifully mesmerizing and terrifically, touchingly real, maintaining a remarkable level of creative generosity toward all others with whom he shares the stage. As Marley—materializing to deliver a dire warning to his former business partner Scrooge—Alan Kaplan is a wickedly, wackily menacing and also heartbreakingly earnest. As the various spirits of Christmas—past, present, and future—Miller has assembled a trio of comic actors (Jessica Headington, Nick Christenson, and Ryan Severt) who deliver delightfully spectral comedy while consistently landing sharp emotional punches when necessary—in one case, while towering over the stage on stilts. The large, multi-age cast—with notably strong and/or hilarious performances by Jeff Coté as Bob Cratchit, Harry Duke as Fezziwig, and Crystal Carpenter as Belle—work incredibly well as a shape-shifting, character-changing, scenery-moving ensemble. And particular praise must be given to Miller’s technical team, whose clock-work set (Jesse Dreikosen), mood-making lights (Steven Piechocki), and otherworldly sound-design (Miller, with John Gromada) are some of the best seen at 6th Street in many a Christmas. Meanwhile, over at Spreckels Arts Center, another beloved novel leaps to life on stage in ‘Little Women: The Musical.’ With a spectacular performance by Rebekah Pearson in the lead role of Jo March, with crisp, lively direction by Thomas Chapman, and a beautifully spare musical direction Jim Coleman, Louisa May Alcott’s enduring story of love, family and individual determination is gorgeously and cleverly transformed. The story has been rearranged a bit, with the bulk of the familiar tale of the March sisters a flashback in Jo’s grown-up memory, as she strives to make a go of it as a writer in New York City, far from the home she loves. IT works, taking elements of the book that happened earlier, and easing them later into the story, where they become the emotional peak of the play. The entire cast is excellent, the sing is stellar, and the remarkably accessible storytelling aims straight for the heart, without forgetting that ‘Little Women’ the novel, is also delightfully, humanly hilarious. Taken together these two season favorites are must-sees for this holiday season. A Christmas Carol’ runs Thursday–Sunday through December 20 at 6th Street Playhouse. 6thstreetplayhouse.com. Little Women: The Musical runs Friday - Sunday until December 20. Speckelsonline.com

Invisibility. It’s not just something that happens in fantasy books and science fiction movies. In the real world, there are invisible people, folks who, because of their social status or lifestyle, or just because they keep their secret pains and problems to themselves, remain essentially unseen, unnoticed, unappreciated, unprotected—invisible. In two highly recommended North Bay plays, we are invited inside the lives of people who—in theater, as in real life—are rarely ever given a voice. In a near-balletic new production at Marin Theater Company, in Mill Valley, ‘My Mañana Comes’ follows four hard-working “busboys” at an upscale restaurant in New York City. The play is set entirely on the prep side of the bustling kitchen. We never see a single wait-person, and only the occasional hand and arm sliding dishes into view from the chef’s side. It’s a brilliantly detailed, realistic and lived-in set, by Sean Fanning, is like a character unto itself. Irwin’s brilliant script pulls us in immediately, and director Kirsten Brandt keeps things hopping as a quartet of actors bus dishes, prep plates of food, slice fruit and vegetables—using real knives—and rush in and out of swinging doors, with a grace and energy that would be impressive even if the actors weren’t also giving deep, fleshed out, fully engaging performances. Peter—played by Shaun Patrick Tubbs—and Jorge—Eric Avilés—have worked in the restaurant the longest, and each one tries in their own way to school the two newer bussers: Whalid—Caleb Carera— and Pepe—Carlos Jose Gonzales Morales. A bit of competition is natural, but when the restaurant’s management cuts the busser’s pay, everything changes. It’s here that the play kicks into high gear, showing us the way that privilege bring power, even amongst those who are living paycheck to paycheck, and in a hidden world where undocumented workers make up a huge part of the work force, it’s possible to lose everything—job, money, and the American dream—in an instant. In Sharr White’s The Other Place, now playing at Main Stage West, following an earlier run with much of the same cast at 6th Street Playhouse, Jacquelyn Wells steps into the lead, and gives a heartbreaking, emotionally scorching performance as Julianna, a brilliant scientist and expert on a rare form of dementia, who refuses to accept she’s showing signs of the same devastating illness. Deftly directed by David Lear—who keeps clear the playwright’s various flashbacks and narrative asides—the play unfolds as a bit of mystery, as Julianna recounts an event involving a girl in a yellow string bikini who appears in the audience during a lecture on brain function. There are other mysteries to be revealed in the lives of Julianna and her baffled husband Ian as well, all adding up to a show that is part family drama and part mediation on the meaning of memory. There is nice work by actor Clark Miller as Ian, with skillful performances from Angella Martin and John Browning in multiple roles. Sam Coughlin takes over for Browning in the show’s final week, and the show deserves an audience as it wraps up its run. Ultimately, Though heartbreaking and challenging, The Other Place finds a surprisingly sweet and lovely resolution, a reminder that the ones we have loved and lost are more than mere memories—they are what we have when nothing else is left. 'The Other Place’ runs Thursday–Sunday through November 15 at Main Stage West. www.mainstagewest.com ‘My Mañana Comes’ runs Tuesday–Sunday through November 22 at Marin Theatre Company. www.marintheatre.org

Halloween is upon us, and to get us in the mood, two infamous supernatural sex-comedies are currently haunting 6th Street Playhouse. Both plays are crammed with witty retorts and sexual innuendo, both feature ghostly visitations and eye-popping fashions—but only one has the Time Warp and a guy dressed in fishnet stockings. Let’s start there. Richard K. O’Brien’s infamous musical The Rocky Horror Show—playing at 6th Street for its third consecutive year—manages the impressive magic trick of transcending its own quirky script deficiencies. Under the direction of Craig Miller, the production employs a kind of theatrical misdirection, distracting audiences from the fact that the story of Rocky Horror is a bit of a mess, by turning the whole show into one joyously raucous, sex-positive “event,” complete with cross-dressing costume contests at the intermission, and a rowdy post-show dance break in which the audience is invited to Time Warp with the cast. Assisted by musical director Justin Pyne, whose magnificent rock band is spot-on perfect, this is a Rocky Horror that brings enough high-spirited fun to outweigh the loony flaws of the story, and additional credit for that should definitely go to the fearless commitment of its cheerfully extroverted cast. As Dr. Frankenfurter—the not-so-sweet transvestite from outer space—Rob Broadhurst unleashes a torrent of high-heeled, pelvis-thrusting glee, and Zach Howard rocks hard as the duplicitous butler Riff Raff. Mark Bradbury and Abbey Lee, as the virginal visitors Brad and Janet, do fearless, first-rate work in the show’s trickiest roles. And nice supporting performances are given by Rose Roberts as the conflicted groupie Columbia, a delightful Zac Schuman in the dual roles of delivery boy Eddie and his government agent uncle Dr. Scott, and Amanda Morando as Riff Raff’s dry-witted sister Magenta. Though haphazardly paced, and plagued with some opening night technical issues, this Rocky Horror succeeds, big time, by brazenly showing it’s true colors—From beginning to end, this is one big dark-humored dance party disguised as a play. After three years, all I can say is, Let’s do the time warp again. On to Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, a drawing comedy that was the Rocky Horror of its time, the story of a milquetoast writer haunted by the ghost of his manipulative first wife while struggling with the passive-aggressive machinations of his second. Directed by Meghan C. Hakes, the 6th Street version delivers visually—with a great set and some very entertaining ghost effects—but it totally misses the mark in terms of its tone and rhythm. Hurt by its tentative pace and some wildly uneven . . . often unintelligible . . . English accents, the show takes what might have been a bracingly tasty martini and turns it into a rather diluted cocktail of clashing, but still slightly fizzy, soft drinks. Despite fine, engaging performances by David Yen as optimistic author Charles, Gina Alvarado as the ghostly femme fatale Elvira, and Lennie Dean as the well-meaning medium Madam Arcati, the production woefully miscalculates the underlying point of the play—which can’t be described without spoiling key second-act surprises—resulting in an ending is a strangely disappointing clash of contrasting ending, on that’s visually magical and the other that is suddenly, unexpectedly un-fun. 'Blithe Spirit' and ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ run Thursday–Sunday through November 8 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Oh, the glory of the human voice. And the power of the human mind to hear one’s own voice, and somehow experience it as beautiful when to other’s it’s . . . not. Not Beautiful. Not even good. Which brings us to Florence Foster Jenkins. That’s her we are listening to now, from a recording she made in 1944. Jenkins was, in her time, a famous singer. She once sold out Carnegie Hall, packing the place with people eager to find out if the wacky socialite from Manhatten was really as bad as everyone said she was. The wild thing was, Jenkins was one of the only people who had no idea what she actually sounded like. Was she mistaken, mislead perhaps, mentally ill, or just really, really in love with the idea of being a singer? Those are the questions that are raised in the play Glorious! by Peter Quilter, running through October 18 at Ross Valley Players in Ross, in Marin County. It’s a little ironic that in creating a script that celebrates Florence Foster Jenkins, the playwright has created something as eccentric and strange and unexpectedly sweet as Jenkin’s herself . . . and just as mediocre. In all fairness, there isn’t really much about the Jenkins life from which to build a full story, and this ultra slight, plot-thin comedic farce avoids some of the more interesting things. The result is, well, kind of a one-joke story with no real story. And the running joke about a really old dog does not count as plot. There is charm in the story, certainly. But is charm enough? Glorious! suffers from the same malady that Jenkins did—a woeful insensitivity to tone, pitch, and pacing. And though it makes a herculean effort at turning Jenkins into some kind of self-actualized heroine, it can’t escape the uncomfortable truth that her popularity was, in many way, a deeply cruel joke. In the Ross Valley Players staging—unevenly orchestrated by the usually excellent director Billie Cox—the best thing about the show is the charming, infectiously upbeat performance of Ellen Brooks as Jenkins. She’s delightful. There is also fine additional support by Mitchell Field as Jenkins’ roguish common-law husband St. Clair, a frequently unemployed, alcoholic actor, who depended on his paramour’s money, but seemed genuinely devoted to her and her singing efforts. Also, good, if a little one-note, is Dan Morgan as the accompanist McMoon, whose transition from grudging employee to affectionate friend provides what little there is in the way of plot. As Maria—Jenken’s cranky Mexican maid, Maureen O’Donoghue does a lot with a slight role, but as an affronted music fan attempting to burst Jenkin’s bubble, Jackie Blue is allowed to do far too much with far too little. Apparently intended as the antagonist of the play, she’s far too ridiculous and cartoonish to be taken seriously, even as comic relief. As Jenkins friend supporter Dorothy, Ellen Fisher creates a goofy but affectionate caricature of a devoted friend, who might be even crazier than Jenkins. Through it all, there is an authentic sweetness to the proceedings, but the play is ultimately as lacking in substance and depth as was the infamous singing voice of its hapless subject. Glorious! is diverting and amusing and sometimes funny, but funny in a sad way. Just like Jenkins. ‘Glorious!’ runs Thursday–Sunday through Oct. 18 at Ross Valley Players. Rossvalleyplayers.com

A story is an illusion, a series of events that are not really taking place, presented in a way that fools its audience into believing, for a moment, that it is all really happening. Telling that story in a book or movie is a certain kind of trick, with its own rules and traditions, and telling the same story on the stage is quite another. But transferring a story from one medium to another—say, from the screen to the stage—that may be the hardest trick of all. Which brings us to ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Amélie.’ Two beloved stories, one a classic book and the other a beloved modern masterpiece of cinema, have both landed on stage in the Bay Area, and each carries its own unique kind of cross-media magic. At Spreckels Performing Arts Center, in Rohnert Park, Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic pirate adventure ‘Treasure Island’ hits the stage in a compact, robust adaptation by Ken Ludwig. Someone give me an Arrrrrrr? Directed with humor and charm by David Yen, staged in the intimate studio theater with exhilarating in-your-face inventiveness and plenty of robust, swashbuckling energy, the crafty condensation of Stevenson’s classic works surprisingly well. The story, though stripped down a bit, is quite faithful to the book, with the exception of a few lady pirates thrown in here and there—something that might have shocked Robert Louis Stevenson and possibly some of the pirates. The strong, versatile cast is led by a grounded, impressively non-cartoonish John Rathjen as Long John Silver, often played a bit too over the top, but not here. In this production, the whole cast slips gracefully in and out of dozens of characters. Animated projections combine with cleverly adaptable set pieces to turn the stage into a ship’s decking with rolling waves over the stern, to an island jungle filled with waving foliage. The effects works well, and if some of the book’s detail and depth of character are swept overboard in the process of translation, the loss is more than made up for in sense of rollicking, high-spirited, double-crossing, sword-clashing fun the able-bodied cast and crew bring to the stage. Translating the beloved 2001 French comedy Amélie to the stage is a different kind of trick altogether, and turning it into a musical only makes the challenge harder. But with a book by Craig Lucas—he wrote the play Prelude to a Kiss—and with lovely, ethereal tunes by Daniel Messé and Nathan Tysen, this supremely satisfying adaptation—directed with immense creativity by Tony-winner Pam MacKinnon—is a sweet, sneaky surprise of a show. As Amélie, the café worker who sets out to make the world a happier place, Samantha Barks is everything an Amélie should be—beautiful, sweet, a little wacky, and thoroughly beguiling. There is a marvelously whimsical sense of innocence in the play, even when incorporating such things as sex shops and orgasms, and the story’s transformation into a musical—rather than proving distracting or cluttered—is so deftly done you might think that the story of Amelie and her bumpy road to finding her own true happiness, was always meant to become a musical. If anything, it’s become better this way. And that’s not an easy trick to pull off. ‘Treasure Island’ runs Thursday–Sunday through October 4 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, www.spreckelsonline.com 'Amelie’ runs Tuesday–Sunday through October 11 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, www.berkeleyrep.org

Guest JP Ponce talks life, dance, and musicals. JP is one of the stars of the upcoming production of Hairspray, opening July 10 and with performances every Thursday - Sunday through August 15. 

Guest JP Ponce talks life, dance, and musicals. JP is one of the stars of the upcoming production of Hairspray, opening July 10 and with performances every Thursday - Sunday through August 15. 

Making an audience laugh is not an easy task for any playwright, or for the actors indebted with bringing the author’s words to life on stage. Humor is primarily a matter of taste. Where one of might think a joke about geometry is hilarious, another prefers to watch an actor plummet headlong into a birthday cake. Expecting an entire audience to snort and guffaw at any one gag or line of dialogue is as optimistic as thinking that every patron in a restaurant will start salivating at the same single entree on the menu. Unless, of course, it’s one very special entrée. Which brings us to two brilliant-but-unconventional plays currently running in the North Bay. In Sarah Ruhl’s 2004 "The Clean House," a Brazilian comedian-turned-house cleaner, Matilde - played by Livia Demarchi - confesses in her opening monologue that cleaning houses depresses her. Unfortunately, her over-stressed employer Lane - an excellent Sylvia Burboeck - is a surgeon who likes things clean. Meanwhile, Lane’s sister Virginia - Tamar Cohn, also wonderful - just isn’t happy unless she’s cleaning something, so a secret arrangement is made between Virginia and Maitilde wherein the former sneaks in to clean cleans Lane’s house every day while Matilde lies on the couch trying to think up the perfect joke - a joke, she says, that will be “somewhere between an angel and a fart.” When Lane’s cancer surgeon husband Charles announces he’s fallen in love with a much older woman on whom he’s just performed a double mastectomy, life suddenly takes on a series of twists and turns for everyone, proving that, as tidy as we might like our lives to be, sometimes things just get messy. Directed with energy and sensitivity by JoAnne Winter, "The Clean House" is packed with surprises, and is as funny as it is genuinely, authentically moving. Jason Wells’ "The North Plan," on the other hand is both broader and darker. Directed with a taste for farce and a furious sense of wicked glee by Rick Eldridge, "The North Plan" finds humor in the disconcerting not-too-distant future, a future made possible by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s pronouncement that torture isn’t torture if it’s applied not as punishment but as interrogation. Ready to laugh? Believe it or not, I think you will. A mysterious shadow government has taken over the White House and declared martial law, and Carlton, a fugitive government employee has stolen a secret list of “government enemies.” Carlton is played by Sam Coughlin with a manic intensity reminiscent of Woody Allen, only more believable. When Carlton winds up in a rural Missouri jail awaiting the arrival of two scary government agents - John Browning and Jared Wright - he has no choice but to try and enlist the help of his jailers, the patient police chief Swenson, John Craven, and bored administrator Shonda, played by Miranda D. Lawson. When he strikes out there, he has no choice but to try and get through to his agitated, foul-mouthed fellow prisoner Tanya - played by Sharia Pierce, who is a hoot). Sharia is an unhinged local motor-mouth whose just turned herself in for drunk driving, and what happens next shouldn’t be funny, but in this cleverly crafted fable of fermenting revolution, the end of the world miraculously becomes wildly, inspiringly - and a bit frighteningly - hilarious. "The North Plan" runs Thursday–Sunday through June 21 at Main Stage West. www.mainstagewest.com "The Clean House" runs Thursday–Sunday through June 14 at Ross Valley Players. www.rossvalleyplayers.com I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB.

Theater is all about transformation, and transformation is never easy. But transforming one of the best-loved movies of all time into a stage musical? That’s a huge challenge, because the expectations are always so remarkably high. So it takes guts, creativity, and a whole lot of daring-do, all of which are on vivid display in the splendid new production of "Mary Poppins," presented by Spreckels Theater Company in Rohnert Park. Adapted, in part, from the Walt Disney film with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, "Mary Poppins," the play, is a fascinating fusion of the expected and the unexpected. Writer Julian Fellowes, the guy behind Downton Abbey, pulls off the trick by rewriting the lighthearted movie’s plot to make it a bit more faithful to the darker, scarier books by P.L. Travers, while still retaining most of the movie’s songs and several of its best moments. The magic carpet bag? It’s there, as is the smarty-pants tape measure that tells more about you than just your height. Gone, though, are the dancing penguins and the tea party on the ceiling. In their place are dancing statues and a trip to a magical shop where letters and words can be purchased like candy. The big question is, does Mary Poppins still fly? Yes she does, spectacularly. And as played by the delightful Heather Buck, she shows a lot more strength, edge and power than in the film, sweet when she needs to be, but tough too, and even a little bit dangerous. The unruly siblings Jane and Michael Banks are causing friction between their parents, the skittish but blustery Mr. Banks, played by Garet Waterhouse, and the strong-willed Mrs. Banks, played wonderfully by Sandy Riccardi. Right on cue, the mysterious Mary Poppins arrives with her bag of tricks and a plan to put things right with the amiable assistance of her best friend Bert, played with energy and charm by Dominic Williams. There’s a dark-humored subplot involving the terrifying Miss Andrews - a stellar Mary Gannon Graham - who shows up to battle Mary Poppins for the family’s future - and perhaps a bit of its soul. Under the direction of Gene Abravaya, who handles the shifts in tone from light to dark and back with grace and ease, the entire show is packed with wonder and rich with emotion. Give this man the Facing-a-Challenge and exceeding-all-expectations award. The effects are cleverly done, the dancing and music are eye-popping and ear pleasing, and the bittersweet ending is effectively lovely. True to form, when Mary Poppins shows up, she brings out the best in everyone she meets. Meanwhile, at 6th Street Playhouse, the Lemons-into-Lemonade Award of the month goes to director Craig Miller, who has cleverly surmounted a number of imposing challenges in creating a highly entertaining new production of the 1992 musical "Crazy for You." The Tony-winning show by Ken Ludwig is built from old standard songs by George and Ira Gershwin - "I’ve got Rhythm," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Slap that Bass" - inventing a plot about a dusty western town invaded by show-people from New York. It works, due to strong lead performances and some clever invention from Miller, whose written a new opening scene that sets things up and solves an array of issues, including the fact that Miller’s cast has far more women than men. His solution to the problem is not just clever. It makes the show funnier. With spectacular choreography by lead actor Joseph Favalora, and a winning performance by Abbey Lee as a love-struck cowgirl, "Crazy for You" is not exactly deep theater, but its funny, sweet, and driven by an infectious love of the theater. If you like musicals, especially if you love Gershwin, you should check it out. "Crazy for You" runs Thursday–Sunday through March 15 at 6th Street Playhouse. www.6thstreetplayhouse.com. "Mary Poppins" runs Friday–Sunday, through May 23 at Spreckels Performing Arts Center. www.spreckelsonline.com I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB.

Something kinky has been taking place lately in the world of mainstream entertainment. Sadism and masochism are now to romantic comedy what romance and comedy use to be to romantic comedy. From the 2002 movie Secretary to 2011’s three-novel series 50 Shades of Grey (released as a movie earlier this year), many of our favorite new “love stories” are disturbingly, conspicuously twisted. Standing somewhere between those two examples is David Ives’ Tony-winning 2010 stage play "Venus in Fur," now running at Main Stage West in Sebastopol. Winner of the Tony for Best Play and Best Actress, Venus in Fur stands as a career high-water-mark for Ives, who’s best known for work like All in the Timing and Lives of the Saints, both collections of short one-acts. Ives’ work, by and large, has tended to sacrifice plot in the service of playing with language. Few playwrights are as masterful and entertaining with words and sentences as is Ives. But as an inventor of compelling stories, he’s always been a little lacking. Perhaps that’s the reason he’s chosen to adapt so many classic tales by other people when tackling full-length plays, works like Piere Corneille’s "The Liar" and Moliere’s "The Misanthrope." With "Venus in Fur," Ives fuses his best instincts into one show, fashioning a language-rich play about a playwright-director who’s just completed an adaption of the 1870 novel Venus in Furs, by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. And here’s where it gets kinky. Sacher-Masoch is the gentlemen for whom the term “masochism” was named, and Venus in Furs is the novel that brought the concept of sadomasochism into public awareness. At Main Stage West, Anthony Abate plays Thomas the playwright, who has been auditioning actresses for the part of Vanda, an aristocratic woman who spontaneously takes a sex-slave and learns to mistreat him in degrading ways. As Thomas is about to leave his New York office, with the role of Vanda still uncast, in walks an actress whose name is also Vanda (mysterious!), played by Rose Roberts, who’s pretty much astonishing from start to finish. Vanda is a hot mess of an actress, dropping F-bombs left and right, desperate to audition though she’s three hours late, clutching a bag of props and costumes and a copy of the script she’s somehow gotten her hands on - despite the fact that almost no one has read it but Thomas and his producers. It is difficult to describe what happens next without spoiling the delicate series of revelations and red-herrings Ives incorporates into his gradually intensifying - and frequently hilarious - if not exactly plot-heavy story. The audition quickly turns into a battle of wits, sexuality, and gender assumptions. Thomas is surprised when that Vanda seems to have memorized the entire script, and as the audition commences, he reluctantly reads the role of the sex-slave to Vanda’s dominatrix. Sacher-Masoch’s soft-porn story-within-the-story - which Vanda eventually eviscerates with her dead-on critical analysis - eventually overlaps onto the intensifying power-play taking place between director and actress. There’s a bit of smoke-and-mirrors going on in Ives’ script, which would have little story at all were it not for the story within the story, but Ives’ work the smoke and mirrors well enough that few will notice that not much actually happens. But then, what does happen is extremely entertaining and even a little thought-provoking, thanks largely to director David Lear, who adds a few bold additions to Ives’ original vision. Ultimately, this uneven but highly intelligent play has lots to say about what men and women think about men and women. Funny, thoughtful, and painfully to-the-point, Venus in Fur is so good it hurts. "Venus in Fur" runs Thursday–Sunday through April 25 at Main Stage West. Mainstagewest.org. I’m David Templeton, Second Row Center, for KRCB.

The thing about death is, it’s not negotiable. Sooner or later, we all have to face it. Till then, it’s hanging out there, somewhere, waiting for us. And one way we deal with that is by experiencing books, movies, songs, poetry and plays about the inevitability of death. Somehow, when glimpsing the grim reaper through the arts, we feel a little better because, I don’t know, maybe watching other people deal with the specter of mortality makes it all seem more normal. Or something. If that’s your take, then a pair of just-opened plays make be just your cup of tea, since the inevitability of death hangs over both of them like an ax dangling above a doorway in a condemned cabin in the middle of an earthquake. First, there’s Conor McPherson’s evocative drama "Shining City," now playing at Main Stage West, in Sebastopol. In this sly, slippery, deceptively unassuming play, the author of "The Weir" and "The Seafarer" has crafted a ghost story, of sorts, in which a troubled Dublin therapist named Ian, played with marvelous intensity and fragile humanity by Nick Sholley, gains a new client: an anxious insomniac named John, played brilliantly by John Craven. Poor old John. A steady-minded businessman, he is shaken by the fact that he keeps seeing the ghost of his recently deceased wife. And she doesn’t seem happy. Unable to sleep, afraid to enter his own house, John believes he’s being haunted for certain unspoken sins. Ian, convinced his new client is simply struggling with feelings of grief and unresolved guilt, gently coaxes the old man toward facing his fears, all the while carrying his own soul-crushing battle with shame and despair. With carefully crafted delicacy, the playwright takes us through Ian’s increasingly powerful therapy sessions with John, scenes that play out against a pair of shattering close encounters Ian has with the fierce-but-frail Neassa (Ilana Niernberger) the mother of Ian’s child, and with Laurence (John Browning) a sensitive street hustler who brings Ian an unexpected understanding of how the world works. Elegantly staged by director Beth Craven, beautifully acted by the entire ensemble - with special kudos to Craven for the astonishing twenty-minute monologue that comes mid-way through the show - this rich, emotionally powerfully story is more than just a chilling ghost story. In the end, "Shining City" - glowing with intelligence, humor and humanity - reveals itself as a lyrical, lush look at the conversations we have, and the choices we all make, to feel alive in a world haunted by the ghosts of our past decisions. Next up, "Bonnie and Clyde: the musical." It is widely known that the notorious Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows died violently in a hail of gunfire. In a car. In Texas. In composer Frank Wildhorn’s musical reworking of the bank robbers’ lives, the legendary tale begins at the end, the sound of gunfire, the flash of light, and famous fugitives’ bloody bodies dead in their car. Ivan Menchell’s clever script then jumps back in time to Bonnie and Clyde’s childhoods, gradually working the story’s way back to where it began. It’s an effective choice. As the title characters, Taylor Bartolucci and James Bock have some killer chemistry, thick enough to spread on a baguette, and they are matched in poise and presence by Scottie Woodard and Heather Buck as Clyde’s brother Buck and sister-in-law Blanche. Barry Martin, as a local preacher, brings some impressive southern gospel charm. The somewhat uneven musical score does have a few strong moments, mostly when emphasizing the tragic love story at the heart of the play. On Jesse Dreikosen’s first-rate set of jagged wooden slats, director Craig Miller keeps the tension building and building and building, right to end. And that’s no small feat, considering the fact that, hey, everyone knows the ending. "Bonnie & Clyde" runs Thursday–Sunday through March 15 at 6th Street Playhouse. 6thstreetplayhouse.com. "Shining City" runs Thursday–Sunday through March 15 at Main Stage West. Maistagewest.com.

One need not have ever seen Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun to appreciate the setup - or laugh at the jokes - in Bruce Norris’s brilliant 2012 Pulitzer-and-Tony-winning comedy-drama "Clybourne Park." Taking place immediately following the events of the original, Clybourne - running through January 25 at 6th Street Playhouse - is a smart, insightful, baldy frank and frequently hilarious examination of the racial divide in America. Hansberry’s play - which gave many theater-going white folks their first glimpses into the lives of Africa-American families - takes place in a poor, Southside neighborhood of Chicago in 1959, where the African-American Younger family is preparing to move to a house they’ve just purchased in the all-white neighborhood of Clybourne Park. At the end of that play, Karl - a nervous, white representative of Clybourne Park - visits the Youngers, attempting to bully, cajole or outright bribe them into selling the house back - something they ultimately refuse to do. In "Clybourne Park," directed with expert comic timing, gripping intensity and escalating drama by Carl Jordan, the action now takes place in the Clybourne Park house the Youngers have purchased. The place is half-empty, its contents mostly packed into cardboard boxes standing here and there on the nicely detailed set by Ronald Krempetz, as its white residents Bev and Russ prepare to move out of the area. When Karl, the white guy from Raisin in the Sun, appears - having just come from failing to bribe the Youngers - Russ stubbornly digs in his heels at the suggestion he should assist the neighborhood in keeping the black family out. It turns out Russ has some grudges against his neighbors, in part for the way they treated his son after the Korean War. The escalating conflict, which pulls in the young minister Jim and Karl’s deaf, very-pregnant wife Betsy, takes place in the presence of Russ and Bev’s longsuffering black housecleaner Lena and her husband Albert, who gradually insert their own opinions about the callous racism they are witnessing. Decisions are made. Words are exchanged. Lives are changed. Then, in the play’s boldest move, the story suddenly leaps fifty years ahead. In Act 2, the Younger’s home is now a condemned wreck covered in graffiti, the property about to be demolished following years of drug-enhanced neglect in the once depressed, all-black but now mixed-race and rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The same, supremely strong flexible cast appears again, this time as contemporary characters, gathering at the house to discuss the details of what kind of structure can be built on the same spot. IT being a historically valuable neighborhood, there are rules how big, and how tacky, the new owners are allowed to make any new building. The witty dialogue is riveting, raw, and real, as the marvelous cast shows us the prejudices still lurking below the surface, demonstrating with humor and candid transparency that the more things change, the more they remain the same. "Clybourne Park" runs Thursday–Sunday through Jan. 25 at 6th Street Playhouse. 6thstreetplayhouse.com

Sculpted Bodies - An Evening of Dance is Thursday-Sunday at Orlando Repertory Theatre, presented by UCF Theatre. Brian Vernon runs the department's dance program. Performances are at 8pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 2pm on Sunday; the opening on Thursday includes the presentation of the Central Florida Dance Award. Other UCF Events: Exhibit by BFA students at the UCF Art Gallery - closes 4/24 UCF Guitar Night & Wind Ensemble Film Department's Home Movie Day and a Reading by students in the MFA Creative Writing Program on Thursday, 4/23 at 6pm at the UCF Campus Bookstore