California Stage opened its 20th Anniversary season with Kevin King’s Ovation Award winning play "The Idea Man.” King’s freshman play hits on a lot of great notes, some hysterically funny, some a realistic look about how large corporations use and, yes, abuse their human resources. California Sage has also done a great job in the casting of King’s characters. Right off, Loren Taylor gives a fascinating performance as Al Carson the man at the bottom of the rung in a manufacturing company. Carson is smart enough to figure out a way to reduce manufacturing costs by the millions. He is also smart enough to know that if he plays his card’s right he will get more than he is being offered, but

photographs by Barry Wisdom   Playwright Kevin King's career has had more moving parts than the Orwellian tool factory in which his award-winning dramedy "The Idea Man" is set. After earning a philosophy degree from the University of Michigan, King aborted plans for a master's degree ("I decided academia wasn't for me.") in favor of ricochet romances with journalism (he founded a pair of Detroit-based entertainment magazines, wrote film reviews, and freelanced features for a variety of publications, including The Sacramento Bee), documentary filmmaking ("Baker's and The Bird"), software engineering and tool-and-die mold-making. And all of this before penning "The Idea Man," which plays

Bob Stanley, Poet Laureate, and the Brubeck Jazz Institute have been refining Saturday, November 19 evening's, performance at California Stage (25th and R streets).  The Wonder Of This Moment, Jazz and Poetry Live featuring James Humphrey's poetry with Bob Stanley, Norma Humphrey and son, Saroyan, Eve West Bessier, Lawrence Dinkins, and Mary Zeppa.  Beginning at 7 p.m., there will be wine and food tastings, a raffle with 17 prizes, the sale of the poet's books.  It will be an intense show with music composed for nearly all the poetry.  Quoting a prominent poet, Bob Stanley, "This is going to be quite an event!"  A donation of $25  for Stanford Home for Children is requested.  Call (916) 24

Throughout his 50 years as a poet, James Humphrey (1939-2006), twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, commited himself to the one thing he could do, write about his challenging babyhood, youth and teen years to teach elementary through college-aged individuals how to overcome their abuse.  It was a rich legacy of works, both words and abstract art, "too rich to leave behind", his widow of 43 years, said.  Fellow poet, Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) wrote: "Humphrey's poems--believe them.  He's lived them.  He knows that pain and suffering bloom like eternal flowers.  He knows that trying is the one thing we have left." A retired librarian from NY, Mrs. Humphrey moved to Sacrame

A condition of being human is the ability for deep, contemplative, private thoughts and emotions. We've developed ways of communication to express the thoughts that are rattling around in these big heads of ours- but these words we've created only work when and how we use them. There is no true way to ever really know what is going on inside someone else's head, no matter how close we are to them. I find this to be the theme behind Neil LaBute's play, In A Dark Dark House. An intense tale of the relationship between two 30 something year old brothers who are in two very different places in their lives. A tale where one man sets out to chase down the demons that have been haunting his brot

Starring Deni Scofield as Luba, a three time veteran of love lost. Lady and the Clarinet is an evening of self reflection done through comedic banter with a hired clarinet player (Christopher Cook), who is to set the mood for the evening with a new mystery man. It isn't long until he finds himself professionally and politely trapped in the corner of a house with a woman spiraling down the vortexes and rabbit holes of her past loves. I found all three of the leading men who were played by David Chernyavsky, Mark Ettensohn, Dennis Ray to be charming and lovable in unique and different ways. There were plenty of opportunities for an honest laugh and it was easy to see why each man was cast i

California Stage’s premiere of playwright Steve Lyons’ “Mystery Spot” production was full of optical illusions, science and wonder Saturday night. Directed and produced by Ray Tatar, the comedic play is set in Santa Cruz and revolves around young UC Santa Cruz student Dingo and his wacky experiences working as a Mystery Spot tour guide. Dingo, a women’s studies major, is all for “feminisms” as long as it gets him a college woman. When he meets Liz, a fellow Intro to Feminisms classmate, he goes on a quest to become worthy of her affections. Dingo gets a job at Mystery Spot, where he meets Liz’s mother, the owner of the tourist attraction. Actor Nick Koehler, who plays Dingo, brings out

Santa Cruz’s Mystery Spot is a place where the laws of physics don’t appear to apply, and California Stage is looking to recreate some of the illusions in its original play, “Mystery Spot,” which opens March 12. “I thought it would really be fun to have a play based around the Mystery Spot and thought it would be kind of fun to recreate the optical illusions,” said Playwright Steve Lyons, who graduated from San Juan High School and attended Sacramento State. In the play, main character Dingo is an Oroville native who moves to Santa Cruz and majors in women’s studies so he can pick up college girls. To fund his womanizing, he gets a job at the Mystery Spot. Several of the optical illusio

When Brian Hillebert was 7 years old, he was hit by a car and left in a coma. His awakening was considered a miracle, but doctors said he would never walk again. Today, the 40-year-old not only walks, but is a lead actor for a local theater company. The Sacramento-based Short Center Repertory is a theater company working mostly with disabled actors, and Hillebert – whose mobility on his right side remains impaired – is one of the stars in “Extensions,” which runs through Jan. 30. “I originally wanted to be a professional wrestler, but that was too much,” Hillebert said. “I got started in stand-up comedy, but I got tired of the rotten tomatoes, so I started acting.” He attributes acting

The best of local theater talent was recognized last Sunday night at the Elly Awards. After presenting the young people’s awards, there was an intermission, and then the adult awards were presented. Selected musicians from the Runaway Stage Productions’ Resident Orchestra played the audience back into the Crest Theatre’s main auditorium. The orchestra had been provided transitional music, played the winners on to the stage and had accompanied the live musical performances all evening. “Dreigroschen Finale,” performed by the California Stage cast, started the Elly adult theater portion of the evening. The performance showcased the Elly Award-winning costuming by Angelina Reaux. All the m

It’s not surprising only dedicated musical theater fans know of “Urinetown: The Musical.” Though it was nominated for a whopping 10 2002 Tony Awards, including Best Musical (winning for book, score and director), its title alone keeps many mainstream-oriented theater companies from considering it for their conservative audiences. Thank the Lord the Elk Grove-based Flying Monkey Productions isn’t one of those companies. Blessed with a solid musical quintet, lively choreography and detailed-oriented direction, FMP’s mounting of “Urinetown” at California Stage is a dark chocolate-coated confection that boasts outstanding lead voices among its youthful cast. Continuing through July 31, it’s a

Artistic Differences theater company opened a monthlong run of the hit musical "Reefer Madness" Friday evening. According to director Christine Nicholson, the company's largest cast ever is putting on this Capitol Stage musical production about a 1936 murder trial. "The subject is also especially worth exploring, considering the upcoming California ballot," she added. The story is based on the original musical appeared Off-Broadway in 2001, which in turn was based on the B-movie cult classic. Nicholson said she thinks this is the area's first performance of "Reefer Madness." The musical features many of the same characters as the film: Mae, Sally, Ralph and Jack. Mary Lane and Jimmy are

Bad acting has never been so good. The Wilkerson Theater (formerly California Stage) hosted the hilariously chaotic comedy The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Fernadale Castle on Friday. The play, about putting on a play with novice actors, was engaging as the five-woman cast stumbled around the stage in mismatched shoes, Afro wigs and pin-up dresses. They clumsily told the story of a haunted castle that a teenage couple came upon on a stormy night, only to find that the girl who had been an orphan was the daughter of the castle's psychotic owner. It was unclear when the play began or when intermission had started because the cast remained in character and interactive

Chuck Pelletier (lyrics and music) & C. Stephen Foster (book) will attend The Green Room - the College Musical on Saturday August 8th at The California Stage (formerly The Space).  There will be a Question & Answer session Chuck & Stephen following the performance.  The Green Room - the College Musical stars Courtney Parks, Jacob Montoya, Jessica Goldman & Lafras le Roux.  Directed by Kevin Caravalho with music direction by Jane Veimiester and choreography by Terri Taylor, this fresh, edgy musical is sure to be  a hit with Sacramento audiences. View the web promotion for The Green Room at: www.youtube.com/watch More information and tickets available at: www.fodproductions.com Chuck P

On Friday night, the stage came to life with "Children of Light," a Greek drama about Elektra (Brittaleigha Baskerville), the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra (Janis Stevens, who also directed). The play is writer Rick Foster's somewhat modernized take on Elektra's story of love, power and murder and he has injected just enough modern wit and sarcasm so that the audience can connect with the play, which is set in ancient Greece. The story of Elektra and her family has been told by the Greeks for centuries and it is Euripides' version that most interested Foster. He explores her loyalty to her father as she plots the murder of her mother (the Queen), who murdered Elektra'