Departing Berkeley Repertory Theatre Artistic Director
Emily S. MendelEtcBerkeley,
Tony Taccone, Berkeley Rep’s acclaimed Artistic Director for the last 21 years, is about to launch the last production of his last season, before turning over the reins to incoming artistic director Johanna Pfaelzer. During ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
There’s nothing better than a bright and boisterous musical show to enhance one's mood — and boy, do we need a mood-changer these days. “Kiss My Aztec!,” with its book co-written by John Leguizamo (“Latin History for Morons”) and ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
“The Good Book’s” authors, Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, creators of Berkeley Rep’s 2012 “An Iliad,” take on a colossal subject, one that may not be capable of mastery in one evening of theater. The lengthy, chock-filled production creatively ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
“We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.’’ — Oscar Wilde A lot of what passes for entertainment ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
What do Anton Chekhov’s most celebrated play, “The Three Sisters,” written in 1901, and “Saturday Night Live’s” character Debbie Downer have in common? Superficially, not much. But ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
Berkeley Repertory Theatre Why see a play that has no traditional plot or storyline to speak of, in which the performers are silent, accompanied only by occasional music? If the play is “Home,” the answer ...
Michael McDonaghMusicBerkeley,
The Philharmonia has been called one of the best orchestras in the world and its principal conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen may be one of our top living ones, so pairing a master work by the Russian Igor ...
Emily S. MendelArt & ArchitectureBerkeley,
“Hans Hofmann: The Nature of Abstraction,” the exceptional and significant new retrospective by the world-renown and influential abstract artist, Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), presents a fresh ...
Michael McDonaghMusicBerkeley,
Pianists and violinists are the prime donne of classical music so where does that leave Damascus, Syria-born clarinetist Kinan Azmeh who makes his instrument sing with his own breath? One doesn't think of clarinetists as ...
Emily S. MendelTheaterBerkeley,
With vivid and fond remembrances of Berkeley Rep’s extraordinary 1999 production of acclaimed writer and director Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses” (produced at UC’s Zellerbach Playhouse), I wondered whether a re-do could ever live up to ...
