photographs by Barry Wisdom /   The B Street Theatre, best known as a new-works playhouse that specializes in staging cozy, serio-comedies of quiet quirkiness, takes an early summer vacation from the subtle in its West Coast premiere of Kate Fodor’s “Rx.” A satire on America’s never-ending quest for pharmaceutical solutions that’ll cure what ails ya, “Rx,” which plays April 29 through June 10, 2012, is a high-energy, medicinal hilarity dispensary that guarantees relief from overwrought, overdone dramas. Buck Busfield directs the farcical, physical, frenetically paced production that is bold and brassy, with comically exaggerated huffing and puffing, punching and puking, hugging and hum

photographs by Barry Wisdom / Go ahead and Google “Hansel and Gretel,” and nearly 200,000 results will pop up – results that feature such headlines as: “a tale of childhood terror”; “maternal cannibalism”; “gruesome fairy tales”; and “a tale dark and Grimm.” Nothing like a soothing, happy-go-lucky story before bedtime. Happily, in adapting Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s 1812 classic about a runaway brother and sister and their wicked encounter with a wand-wielding witch, B Street Theatre Associate Producer-Resident Playwright Jerry R. Montoya (and young son Malachi) have given the two-dimensional story a hilarious and heartfelt makeover. In replacing the Grimms’ original series of nightmare

photographs by Barry Wisdom / There seems to be "an app" for everything. If only the pharmaceutical industry was as quick on the draw to deliver niche narcotics as Apple and its partners have been in creating software that satiates every possible desire. Perhaps it's not the drug companies' fault. Maybe it's that pesky Food and Drug Administration and its obsessive compulsion to ensure the safety of the U.S. population that forces most of us to get through the work day unmedicated and unhappy. Sure, there are illegal alternatives to doctor-prescribed "happy pills," but wouldn't it be so much better not to risk losing one's job and having employer-paid healthcare foot the bill for the m

It may seem like elementary stuff – getting up in front of grade-schoolers to play dancing French dogs, slacker teens who ride a cardboard rocket to Mars, and runaways who end up running from reanimated Egyptian mummies – but the actors who introduce live theater to Northern California youth via the B Street Theatre School Tour are well-trained experts in tomfoolery. Currently touring more than 100 primary and middle schools with “Fantasy Festival XXVI” – a showcase of five award-winning playlets written by area students participating in the B Street’s annual playwriting festival/contest – the troupe will present a public performance of the kid-penned anthology at the B Street Theatre at

New/Hot The very hot “True West” opened to critical acclaim Saturday at Capital Stage. SacPress colleague Barry Wisdom did a great, informative preview with several excellent photos that really capture the show. Grab a ringside seat to some of the funniest, most intense family squabbling ever written and performed. Tickets and More Information Opening/In Previews “Barrymore”    Sacramento Theater Company  Pollock Stage In previews, opens Saturday night. High expectations for a play from William Luce who specialized in one person plays. Luce is best known for “Belle of Amherst” his one woman show originally staring Julie Harris. Broadway veteran Gregory North stars as John Barrymore

Morris Panych’s “In Absentia” is a tough, time-shifting mystery about a man kidnapped by leftist rebels while on a business trip in Colombia, not to be heard from in over a year, and the anguish  and longing of his wife back at home, not knowing if he’s dead or alive, but clinging to hope. It focuses on the stymieing power of grief and the desire to make connections in life -- thoughts to deeds, intentions to outcomes. Colette (Elisabeth Nunziato) is the wife of the missing man, Tom (Kurt Johnson, who appears as either ghost or figment of imagination). She carries on conversations with him, and these dialogues often interrupt or initiate conversations with the other people in her life. Ev

Photographs by Barry Wisdom |   The B Street Theatre continues sharing its passion for the latest and greatest plays by mounting the U.S. premiere of Canadian playwright Morris Panych's "In Absentia," which previews March 3 and 4, 2012, before opening at 7 p.m. March 4 for a six-week run on the Sacramento company's Mainstage. A prolific playwright and accomplished director and actor, Panych's work (if not his name) should be familiar to longtime B Street theatergoers, who flocked to the theater's productions of his plays "Vigil" (1997) and "Lawrence & Holloman" (1998). "In Absentia," which concerns a woman's "attempt to deal with the lengthy absence of her husband, captured by insurg

photographs by Barry Wisdom People around the world may burn the Stars and Stripes, hang our leaders in effigy and protest the U.S. government’s involvement in everything from the assassination of foreign leaders to the selection of Miss Universe finalists, but the United States remains a top destination for those seeking a better life. And whether one is an illegal immigrant from Moldava or Russia, a Green Card holder from the Dominican Republic, or even a divorced good ol’ boy from the Deep South, nothing embodies the American Dream like New York City. It’s a story old as time, a song as old as rhyme, but given a fresh chorus by playwright Saviana Stanescu, herself a Romanian immigran

Photos by Barry Wisdom The magic of the theatre, the theater of magic. While great children’s theatre is a wonderful experience for children and adults any time of the year, it is especially magical during the holiday season. The most recent opening is the B Street Theatre Family Series, “The Snow Queen.” The B Street premier is an adaptation of an 1845 Hans Christian Anderson story, “Sneedronningen,” which originally appeared in Danish. The production is a story of a sister, Gerda, and her brother, Kay, who live with their grandfather. The adaptation was written by longtime B Street Acting Company member David Pierini. This is his fourth adaptation for B Street and follows “Pinocchio,”

Photos by Barry Wisdom “Watching Wynter” is the title of this season’s B Street Theater mainstage production for the holidays. As always, the play is written and directed by B Street producing artistic director Buck Busfield. While Busfield’s shows have some sort of connection to the holidays, however tenuous, with this show the connection is even more minimal than past shows. This year’s production is about how family members relate to each other and to those around them, and how the holiday season can impact those relationships, making them more than a little crazy. As a playwright, Busfield is a master at making family craziness very funny. At the center of the play are Lonny, an onl

Folks can be so civil and polite when they first meet to discuss what could be a thorny issue. “God of Carnage,” the current mainstage production at B Street Theatre through Nov. 6, follows the interactions between two couples and between the husbands and wives, escalating and disintegrating. The result is shocking and hysterically funny. Michael and Veronica Novak invite Alan and Annette Raleigh to their ever-so-tasteful home to discuss an incident in a neighborhood park. Veronica claims the Raleighs’ 11-year-old son “armed” himself with a stick and struck the Novak’s son, breaking two teeth. “Armed” is just the first contention. As with so many issues like this, there is much more goin

Adam is enjoying the Garden of Eden. He loves being in the garden. He is left to his own devices with nothing to do and no one to question his decisions. He finds himself to be quite clever. Another creature rises out of the reflecting pool in the garden. It is unaware of Adam’s presence as it begins to explore the Garden of Eden, its own existence and words. It is another human - a female human. It is Eve. As Adam and Eve continue to explore and discover, they speak to the audience, each making statements just the opposite of one another. Eventually, they do become aware of each other and the first courtship ever begins. Act I ends with the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Yes, Eve

Scholars have trace the original stories of Cinderella back centuries and to nearly every culture. Many children probably think that Walt Disney created Cinderella. What we today recognize as as the basic story traces to 17th century France. There are countless adaptations. Yet B Street Theatre artistic director Buck Busfield has written another wonderful version for the youngest theatre goers. No pumpkin turned into a carriage or mice turned into white horses. The two acts are a good length for shorter attention spans. It is still an entertaining, charming play with lots to entertain the older siblings and even the adults. As in many things written for children there is a lot of double m

B Street Theatre opened its latest mainstage production Sunday night. “Circle Mirror Transformation” is a quirky one-act play by Annie Baker, a fast-rising star in American theater. Once the audience got used to the fractured structure and started to know the characters, they started laughing — a lot. Baker is young (29), award-winning, talented and funny. “Circle Mirror Transformation” amazingly  tied with another Baker-penned play, “The Aliens,” for a 2010 Obie award. The plot is straightforward. James, the director of a small New England town community center, is very excited that the center is offering a six-week creative drama class as one of summer programs. James’ wife, Marty, who

photographs by Barry Wisdom In the B Street Theatre’s current Mainstage production, Annie Baker’s “Circle Mirror Transformation,” Cynthia Zitter plays Lauren, a rebellious 16-year-old seeking an outlet for her ambitions in the footlights. Lauren’s drive to one day nab a Tony lands her in a local community center’s “creative drama” class amidst a ragtag group of once-were and would-be thespians. While the teenager imagined she’d be taking on the role of Maria in a staging of “West Side Story,” or essaying Emily in a mounting of “Our Town,” she finds herself frustratingly forced to participate in a never-ending series of theater “games” designed to reveal hidden truths. Zitter, a 24-year

“The Young Abe Lincoln” by B Street Theatre associate producer Jerry Montoya is premering at the B Street Family Series.   Montoya took the fact that 22-year-old Abraham Lincoln was hired by a New Salem, Ill., businessman to take a flatboat of goods for sale to New Orleans and wrote the historical fiction play for children. Montoya has created a fun play for kids that lets them test what they have learned in school or learn a few new facts about Mr. Lincoln. However, not everything is factual here. It very doubtful that Alice Offut, daughter of businessman Denton Offut (also spelled Offutt), would have stowed away on Lincoln’s flatboat. The historical fiction here speaks to Lincoln’s cha

All photos: Ron Nabity A femme fatale invites herself home for the night. She tells wild stories of spies and military espionage in her heavily accented english. She is dead in the morning with a knife in her back. This sends Richard Hannay in a race across England and Scotland in search of a mysterious man missing a fingertip, figuring out what the 39 Steps are and, hopefully, to clear his name. This is the basic plot of a 1915 spy novel by Scottish writer John Buchan titled “The 39 Steps.” Buchan used the Richard Hannay character in four more action-spy novels. The novel, given its action/thriller qualities, was adapted into several radio plays. The first was by Orson Welles and his M

Two shows opened for two different Sacramento theaters this weekend, set 40 years apart in very different locations and while each has its own unique cast and director, both plays have surprising underlying similarities. Both are essentially two-character plays. Both have a hysterical, unreasonable and totally self-centered female character. And both women become entwined with unsuspecting, clueless men. The Sacramento Theatre Company’s “Owl and the Pussycat” opened Saturday night on their small, intimate Pollock stage. As soon as the curtain rises, the audience finds itself in 1964 San Francisco. When is the last time you heard the word rat fink? “The Owl and the Pussycat” was writer

photographs by Barry Wisdom The lobby full of faux fir trees laying in wait for candy canes and garland is a sure sign that B Street Theatre artistic director and co-founder Buck Busfield is once again playing Kris Kringle for Sacramento-area theatergoers. For 14 of the past 17 years, Busfield the playwright has muffled Marley, scratched Scrooge, kicked the crutch out from under Tiny Tim and canceled Christmas for the children in Wales in favor of stuffing audiences’ stockings with an original holiday-themed play of his own device. Busfield said what has since become something of a yuletide tradition for him and his company – which continues this year with Sunday’s main-stage opening of

 B Street Theatre has opened it’s B3 Series 2010-2011season with “Neat,” a one-woman show written by playwright/actress Charlayne Woodard. B Street Theatre’s B3 Series features more intimate, complex, adult stories in a smaller theater setting. “Neat” perfectly fits the bill for what the B3 Series is about. Charlayne Woodward is a master storyteller. “Neat” is the second of Woodward’s one-woman plays. Like “Pretty Fire” before it, the play centers around her autobiographical character Charlayne and the numerous characters involved in her life. Charlayne Woodard The play opens at her grandparents’ home outside Savanna, Ga, a place she visits with her family as a child. The action move