A lot has happened for me in the last 20 years - I got married, moved (from England) to Sacramento, had three (count-em!) kids and changed jobs. Enough to make my life interesting and full. One thing I left behind in 'Blighty' was my love of acting. Before coming to America, I had trod the boards in various roles, none of them remunerative sadly but all of them stimulating and fun. Fast Forward 20 years and things seem to have settled down a little. The kids are all at school, my commute is three miles each way and my circle of acquaintances has never been larger. Time then, to branch out again..... My two oldest children have been in several 'pay to play' theatrical shows, mainly at the

Add The Sacramento Theatre Company to your list of holiday activities this year: “A Christmas Carol,” which runs through Dec. 24 at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, captures the magic and joy of Christmas. The Dickens classic, adapted by Richard Hellesen, is the most consistently produced Christmas show that STC runs and has been a part of the holiday programs on and off for the last 24 years. For more than150 years Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” has been a classically loved and widely acclaimed story of the evolution of a Ebenezer Scrooge from a selfish and sour man to a generous and hospitable fellow. This heart-warming tale of redemption is a Christmas production that has reminded audie

If you are thinking about seeing B Street Theatre’s “Collapse” this summer, have high expectations. Within the first 10 minutes on opening night Sunday, the audience was already in an uproar of laughter. The play takes place around February 2009 and opens with an extremely comical scene between Hannah and David, a married couple trying to have their first child. Though Hannah is the one who is lying over her husband’s lap about to have a hormone shot injected into her left butt cheek, she is the one pep-talking an uneasy and uptight David. Their relationship becomes more and more strained and hilarious as Hannah's off-the-wall sister, Susan, unexpectedly stops in for a long-term stay wit

Good theatre truly touches the soul, it taps into something deeper inside of us than our everyday hum drum lives have to offer. Antigone accomplishes this beautifully. A timeless telling of a classic story. The actors are dressed in a time neutral fashion, the set simple, and there are almost no props- leaving our actors nothing to hide behind. Bold and brazen they bare their hearts and their stories for the audience. This is the story of Antigone, daughter of Odepius, is masterfully narrated by an enchanting Greek Chorus who lays out the events of Antigone as she attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother Polyneices, even though he is considered a traitor to Thebes.  The la

A theater troupe that has made its home in a docked paddlewheel boat wants to trade its Sacramento River location for one in the heart of Midtown. Capital Stage Company got its start in 2005 in a 115-seat theatre inside the Delta King, which is now a floating hotel and restaurant in Old Sacramento. The group opened its newest show, "Reasons To Be Pretty," there last Friday. Now in their sixth season, the professional theater troupe's founders hope to increase the company's visibility and street presence by moving to busy J Street, a main artery through downtown and Midtown, co-founder and Producing Director Jonathan Williams said Thursday. "I can't tell you how many times we've been cal

Kirk Blackinton and Liz Tachella Bowman gave hilariously snide performances Friday night in Big Idea Theatre's rendition of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." The story revolves around two pairs of lovers whose paths toward and away from love run into unforeseen circumstances. The puppy love of Claudio and Hero hits a tragic roadblock, while the love-hate relationship of Benedick (Blackinton) and Beatrice (Bowman), by the design of their conniving friends, becomes more loving and less hateful. Directed by BIT company member Katie Chapman, the production has been a project of hers for the past decade. Set in the years between the World Wars, giant propaganda posters sit in th

The play Othello is about a black officer whose marriage to a white woman ends very tragically due to the ingenious scheming of an "honest" friend of Othello. I love the storyline of Othello. I had seen the movie Othello starring Laurence Fishbourne about 10 years ago and again about 1 month ago. I read the play, also about 1 month ago, and even read another book, "Othello - Shakespeare Made Easy" so that I would be able to better interpret the language in the play. I had even seen a very contemporary version of the play in a movie called "O" starring Mekhi Phifer and Julia Stiles. So it seemed fitting that the only thing left for me to see was a live performance of the play that I love s

Master Barber Shop was established in 1958 and was acquired by Earlie D. and Mary Brown in December of 1974. During that time, the shop was located on Stockton Blvd. and 7th Ave. Since those early days, Master Barber & Beauty Shop, has had several locations. Each location being better than the last. In 1989, sons Rodney and Marichal, joined the family business. The late owner and master barber, Earlie D. Brown, established business in the hair industry in the mid 1940's with Brown's Barber Shop (two locations, San Francisco and Marin City). What started out as nothing more than a dream and a dime and a nail in his pocket has turned into a family business. He died in February 1998. Mary Br

 B Street Theatre's new production, "The Conductor: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad," is a great experience. The play, which is part of B Street Theatre's Family Series, made its debut in time for Black History Month. It tells the story of Harriet Tubman as she helps a slave, Jeremiah, escape to freedom in 1850s America. Jerry Montoya authored this B Street Theatre original production. "The Conductor" was written with children in mind, but that doesn't mean it is dumbed down. Instead, it portrays the struggles of being a slave in a way that is easy to understand and accessible for young viewers but is harrowing and intense enough that the experience is not diminished. This m

You might have heard of Sacramento's dinner theaters: Suspects Dinner Theatre aboard the Delta King, Tommy T's Comedy and Dinner Theatre and the recently closed Garbeau's Dinner Theatre. So after attending dinner theater, why not stop by Sacramento's only dessert theater? "As far as I know, we're the only one in the world," said Thomas Kelly, Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre owner, founder and artistic director. Kelly, now a retired copy/printshop owner, was a playwright for about 20 years before he opened the theater in 1996. In 1992, he and his wife Eleanor Lediard purchased the 1894 Victorian, 1901 P St., where the theatre is housed. "It had been a drug house before we got it, totally tr

It was a solemn scene with chains and bars accompanied only by candlelight. A spotlight and a single pirouette performed flawlessly by one of the male troupe members accompanied by a Spanish song set the mood of the Music Circus sensation The Man of La Mancha. The setting was that of a prison where Miguel de Cervantes, also known as Don Quixote, played by Walter Charles, told his story of love and never giving up on your dreams as a defense in a mock trial held by the prisoners, to save his beloved manuscript from destruction. The first act was full of witty puns and adult humor describing Quixote, a wise man who is a little mad, accompanied by his loyal servant Sancho, played by Kevin

Swiss explorer John Sutter named portions of Sacramento including Sutter's Fort "Nueva Helvetia" in the year 1840. As of January 2009, Sacramento has a new "New Helvetia" -- only this one is a theater company designed to provide Sacramento with a unique and intimate theater experience and an opportunity to revisit a classic American Musicals. Its mission: to rediscover hidden gems of musical theater, and to be a birthplace for new musicals and plays. In addition, the theater staff wants to have the educational outreach to build a new generation of theater-goers. Nonprofit status still pending approval, the group was founded by a young NYU graduate Connor Mikiewicz, who studied musical th

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'

     CSUS will be presenting the “Vagina Monologues” in the University Union on Feb. 19, 20 and 21st. This is the 8th year the monologues will be performed.      Eve Ensler, a playwright and feminist, wrote The Vagina Monologues. The monologues are a compilation of interviews with hundreds of women on their views of sex, relationships, and violence. The monologues cover issues that range from child birth to the lost women of Juarez, Mexico. The Vagina Monologues are the heart of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.      The monologues are only performed between Feb. 1st and March 31st and the proceeds go to programs that work to end violence against women and g