Theater News

San Francisco Spotlight: March 2007

War Stories

Philip Kan Gotanda
(© Ryan Montgomery)
Philip Kan Gotanda
(© Ryan Montgomery)

Even in a city like San Francisco, where open-mindedness and acceptance are as emblematic of the city as the Golden Gate Bridge, what it means to be an American is a question that continues to elude any hard and fast definition.

American Conservatory Theatre throws its hat into the perennial debate with the world premiere of After the War (March 22-April 22) by Bay Area playwright Philip Kan Gotanda. Directed by A.C.T.’s artistic director Carey Perloff, this compelling new production (originally commissioned by A.C.T.) is set in the historic Fillmore District in 1948 and gives audiences a rare glimpse into what it was like for some of the more than 100,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. The cast features Hiro Kanagawa, Sala Iwamatsu, Harriett D. Foy, and Francis Jue, and the show includes new original jazz compositions from Anthony Brown.

Over at the Magic Theatre, the venerable theater company’s Hot House 2007 is still underway, where three world premieres are in continual rotation. March sees the opening of playwright C. Michèle Kaplan’s ‘Bot, (March 3-April 1). It’s the story of a teenaged computer genius whose vision is poised to change the world forever.

Speaking of world premieres, writers Jimmy Santiago Baca and Ntozake Shange debut A Place to Stand, a new performance project produced through Intersection for the Arts and its resident theater company, Campo Santo (March 1-26). Directed by Sean San Jose, this new performance project explores concepts of societal, cultural and psychological imprisonment.

On a lighter note, two recent Off-Broadway hits come to the Bay City. The award-winning Altar Boyz comes to the Orpheum Theatre (March 13-April 8). This 90-minute parody musical follows the meteoric rise to fame of an all-boy band devoted to a higher power. Meanwhile, The Center REPertory Company of Walnut Creek brings us Bingo! (March 22-April 21), a musical comedy that focuses on three good friends, Vern, Honey, and Patsy, who brave a terrible storm to make sure they are in attendance for their weekly Bingo match. But the trouble isn’t all outside!

David Pichette and Peter Van Norden star in the San Jose Repertory Theatre’s production of another Off-Broadway success, Russell Lees’ riotous 1996 comedy Nixon’s Nixon (March 24-April 22), in which the fallen president and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger duke it out on the night before the president’s 1974 resignation, obsessing over what this means for their biographies in the history books.

Other highlights of the month include Rupert Holmes’ comedy-thriller Thumbs, at the Broadway West Theatre Company of Fremont (March 16-April 4), which puts two very different women in an isolated cabin in Vermont, where they must come together to escape the deadly motives of a devious killer, and the heart-wrenching autobiographical story of playwright Eugene O’Neill’s lost family and his anguished youth, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, at the Sonoma Repertory Theatre (March 23- April 29).

For family fare, check out the unforgettable children’s fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. (March 3-31), written and composed by Bay Area playwright Ron Lytle, at the East Bay Children’s Theatre. This is a musical retelling of the beloved story of a miller’s daughter who must spin straw into gold in order to impress the king and save her father from embarrassment. She enlists the help of an elf-like man who is able to achieve the impossible task, but the magical elf wants a very special gift.