Emily S. Mendel, a writer and photographer, has been a regular contributor to culturevulture.net since 2006, where she reviews theater, art, film, television and destinations. Ending her 30-year law practice has given Ms. Mendel the time to indulge in her love of travel and the arts, and to serve as the theater reviewer for berkeleyside.com.
Meta
Writes in: Art & Architecture, Dance, Destinations, Etc, Features, Film, Television, and Theater.
TheaterSan Francisco,
A cross between a musical profile and a rock and roll show, Randy Johnson’s “A Night with Janis Joplin” is undoubtedly entertaining. The best aspect of the evening is Kacee Clanton, who does a fabulous Janis. She has the deep ...
TheaterBerkeley,
From Mira Nair’s Golden Globe-nominated 2001 movie comes her world premiere musical version of “Monsoon Wedding,’ a big-hearted earnest extravaganza of a four-day Punjabi Indian wedding, with all the emotion, color and drama that goes with it. Just as “Fiddler ...
TheaterBerkeley,
The aftermath of a horrifying mass shooting is not the cheeriest subject for the theater, although these days, it is unfortunately a necessary one. “The Events,” written by David Grieg in response to the shocking shooting by a ...
Art & ArchitectureBerkeley,
Since I wanted to learn more about Dorothea Lange, Berkeley resident Elizabeth Partridge, Lange’s goddaughter and the granddaughter of photographer Imogen Cunningham, graciously agreed to meet with me. Since Partridge’s father, Rondal, had been Lange’s assistant, Partridge grew up as ...
Art & ArchitectureOakland,
“Five years earlier, I would have thought it enough to take a picture of a man, no more. But now, I wanted to take a picture of a man as he stood in his world.” — Dorothea Lange
...
TheaterSan Francisco,
“Battlefield,” prodigious director Peter Brook’s unusual new offering, presents a small portion of the “Mahabharata," the ancient Sanskrit epic poem about the disastrous war between two branches of a large ruling family.
In 1987, Brook famously ...
TheaterBerkeley,
“Temple,” a U.S. premiere production at the Aurora Theatre, is a powerful exposition on how the religious officials of London’s St. Paul Cathedral reacted to the Occupy movement’s 2011 encampment outside Sir Christopher Wren’s renowned church. Artfully directed by Aurora ...
TheaterBerkeley,
“Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” is one in a series of one-man musical biographies written and performed by Hershey Felder. Berkeley Rep theater goers and critics, myself included, have already sung the praises of Felder, the gifted concert pianist, composer ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Robert Lepage’s 1991 creative drama of transatlantic love, loss and foreign complications intersperses tales of American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1981) (outstanding Wellesley Robertson III) and French writer, playwright and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau (1889 –1963) (marvelous Olivier Normand) with a ...
TheaterBerkeley,
“Leni,” a powerful two-person high wire act, examines the controversial Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), the 1930s extraordinary filmmaker and vilified Hitler propagandist. “Leni” is part exposition, part cross-examination and part psychoanalysis. This intermissionless 80-minute production explores, but of course, cannot ...
