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.
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Writes in: Art & Architecture, Dance, Destinations, Etc, Features, Film, Television, and Theater.
TheaterSan Francisco,
“Gloria,” a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, starts off on an average day in the culture department of a dysfunctional New York City magazine, where employees spend more time bitching, gossiping, trading quips, and net surfing than they do working. ...
TheaterBerkeley,
“Gatz,” the extraordinarily creative and intelligent combination of an oration and recreation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby,” opened on February 13, 2020, at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater to well-deserved bravos and huzzahs. ...
Etc
It was a pleasure to watch some of my favorite Bay Area artists and director doing their best work at the Aurora Theatre’s West Coast premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Children.” This three-person drama is about the reunion of ...
TheaterBerkeley,
The extraordinary and applauded theatrical production of “Gatz” has played to sold-out theaters in the United States and Europe since 2005, and it is finally coming to Berkeley Rep (February 13–March 1, 2020). This unusually creative and intelligent work ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Two-time Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Hale (Gary on “Veep,” Buster on “Arrested Development”) returned to the stage for the first time in 17 years to star in “Wakey, Wakey,” by Will Eno. And on opening night, Hale did himself ...
TheaterBerkeley,
Berkeley’s Indra's Net Theater is now staging the first American production of the newly revised version (2018) of playwright Michael Frayn’s illustrious, award-winning drama, “Copenhagen,” well-directed by Indra’s Net Artistic Director Bruce Coughran. The celebrated “Copenhagen” is based on ...
TheaterBerkeley,
Sarah Ruhl rules! The MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award winner’s latest play, a world premiere, and her sixth at Berkeley Rep is a thoroughly captivating, charming, and ultimately satisfying quirky comedy that ponders the Salem witch trials and much more. ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Good news for San Francisco’s Harry Potter fans: the most awarded theatrical entertainment in theater history, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” officially opened at the Curran Theater on December 1, 2019, to thunderous applause by its slavish devotees, ...
TheaterBerkeley,
Some stories are so satisfying that they seem to live on and on, sometimes in different modes and renditions. Such a treasure is Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery Medal-winning 2003 book, “The Tale of Despereaux,” a charming chapter book geared for ...
Art & ArchitectureSan Francisco,
Since 1967, the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has honored more than 90 Bay Area emerging or under-recognized artists with its SECA Art Award. The 2019 SECA ...