SAN DIEGO THEATRE SCENE

"CURTAIN CALLS" #241

By Pat Launer

www.sdtheatrescene.com

05/02/08

Readings and Writings that really amaze;

Shakespeare, Simon and a raft of New Plays.

WELCOMES AND FAREWELLS

THE BALDWIN NEW PLAY FESTIVAL WRAPUP

Once again, the BNPF was a powerful and well-produced Festival. It’s always interesting to see what’s on the minds of young people. Unplanned pregnancies, for starters (one that ends in abortion, one in adoption, both in long-term regret and emotional distress). Unbridled consumerism, environmental collapse and societal racism. The talent at UCSD is extraordinary; the MFA students come into the graduate program with impressive credentials, in regional theaters and in New York, and they hone their skills in San Diego. This year’s writers are concerned about serious issues; some of them turned their apprehensions into dark comedies. It’s exciting to watch their skills, and those of the talented actors, directors and designers, develop over the course of their three-year residency here. The Festival is a great way to monitor their evolution.

The last of the three full productions was The Further Adventures of Suzanne & Monica, by third-year MFA playwright Alex Lewin, who’s already been a finalist for numerous national awards. His provocative submission to last year’s Festival, Near East, will be further developed at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference this summer, after which it will be produced at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. Next year, Alex will be a resident playwright at the New York Theatre Workshop.

His latest creation is quirky and unpredictable. It focuses on two women, one a wealthy, self-possessed movie star who reveals little of her inner life; the other a scattered, frazzled, hyperverbal but fiercely determined younger woman who’s hired to be her body double. They both refer knowingly to Eve Harrington, the scheming and duplicitous snake of the 1950 film classic “All About Eve.” The life-takeover of the movie also happens here, but in a different fashion and with many twists and turns along the way, including an unexpected ending. Years ago, Monica had walked away from her child. Suzanne walks away from her life. Events come around in surprising ways. Lewin has a penchant for creating fascinating characters and giving them thrilling things to say.

The performances were outstanding, under the witty and confident direction of Lori Petermann, also about to graduate. The ingenious scenic design (by second-year MFA student Kristin Ellert) was at peril of becoming intrusive, with its ever-moving, rotating and reconfigured platforms. But the precisely-orchestrated use of five black-clad Men to shift them around kept interest high. The lighting (Stephen Sakowski) and sound (Alyssa Ishii) integrated excellently into the whole. And the cast was terrific. Suzanne, the disenchanted star, was played with class and composure by second-year MFA student Pearl Rhein. Monica, the chatterbox wannabe, was magnificently inhabited by first-year MFA student Jessica Watkins, who morphed into Suzanne with head-spinning precision. Jiehae Park (second year MFA) put in a wonderful performance as the snarky pseudo-journalist, Pepper, as did undergrad Katie Willert as youthful and unmoored Jessica. Satisfying and stimulating work all around.

The two one-act plays were created by first-year MFA students, and both showed enormous promise for bigger things to come. The impressive dramatic efforts were bolstered by appealing and effective design work by local pros: sets by David Weiner, costumes by Paloma Young and lighting by Christian DeAngelis.

A Cure for Pain, by Stephanie Timm, moves back and forth in time, and goes in and outside the brains and bodies of the participants. It’s amusing, thought-provoking and a tad confusing at times. The conceit of having a little stage left/curtain setup for a kind of standup routine performed by various body parts -- The Stomach, Heart, Womb, Brain, Liver, Lungs – is clever at first but wears out its welcome. Still, the director (first-year Tom Dugdale) and actors did a commendable job, and the play has considerable potential. As it moves inexorably to its end, we realize that the subtext all along has been abortion, but the word is never mentioned, and not until we meet the Womb are we sure. Second-year MFA actors Josh Wade and Rebecca Levy seamlessly altered tempo, tone, era and eroticism with aplomb, changing in a mere moment from modern lovers to Victorian doctor and hysterical patient, to all the body parts anyone could even want to encounter. And then some. But the production featured remarkable stagework.

The Strangest Fruit, by Ronald McCants, is a magical melding of past and present, as it simultaneously confronts two lynchings, one historical and the other shockingly recent. The play also concerns what it means to be an African American in this country at this time. There’s more than a touch of August Wilson in McCants’ debut play at UCSD, which blends drama, comedy, tragic consequences and supernatural conjurings. The title, of course, comes from the gut-wrenching ballad made popular by Billie Holiday. McCants hails from Missouri, where the play is set (wonderfully detailed kitchen, part of which converts to a barn for the historical scenes). There was, in fact, a lynching there just a few years ago, though the case, as suggested in the play, was never fully solved, and was chalked up to suicide. Josephine, an aging woman who lives alone, surrounded by African masks, is cooking her famous Easter dinner. She’s a numinous character, especially as played by Marshel Fishan Adams, a first-year MFA student (coached in her chanting by Monique Gaffney). She’s the spiritual catalyst; the conflict (even a convincing fight) is between the well-heeled Agent Michaels (potent Larry Herron, who just graduated with his MFA), a prideful man who’s moving on from matters of race, and FW Chad (Johnny Ray Gill, first-year MFA) who’s steeped in them. Josephine forces them both to see another way of thinking and seeing. Backed by the heart-thumping percussion of Oscar Carranza and the excellent direction of Isis Saratial Misdary (second-year MFA), this production deserves to be seen again, and this play merits a much broader audience. It’s already received Honorable Mention for the Kennedy Center’s 2008 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. McCants is someone to watch. He has a strong voice and a lot to say.

The same may be said for Howard University undergraduate student Maya L. James, whose play, Wading in the Water, won the 2^nd annual Dr. Floyd Gaffney National Playwriting Competition on the African American Experience. The young acting student was moved and inspired by the stories of suffering, struggle and racism she watched on TV in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As the soft-spoken, unaffected young woman put it, “I didn’t choose to write this play, Josette chose me to tell the story of her family’s experience.” Josette is a fabulous character, a crusty, superstitious old woman who’s lived alone in a cabin outside New Orleans. She’s waiting for her son to return. Instead, she gets unexpected visitors: her brother, an old flame and a pregnant younger woman who turns out to be carrying her grandson. Her mystical ways bring acceptance of death, and healing to the hurt. During the very potent reading, the playwright (flown in for the Festival) read the stage directions. As director, faculty member Kim Rubenstein had only four hours rehearsal with the cast, who did a tremendous job. Lorene Chesley was absolutely magical as Josette, and her feisty interactions with her brother Joseph (Irungu Mutu) and the gentle Raphael (Johnny Ray Gill) were energizing, enlightening and heart-rending. We should be hearing more from James over time. Maybe in a few years, she’ll decide to hone her writing skills in the UCSD program. It would serve everyone well.

Simon Says

THE SHOW: Proposals, one of Neil Simon’s lesser-known dramedies, written in 1997. It’s the first play he wrote with a black lead character, and it’s his only play set out-of-doors. (As cynical comic writer Fran Lebowitz, a quintessential New Yorker, puts it, “To me, the outdoors is what you have to pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab”). Set in the Pocono Mountains during the summer of 1961, the play’s focus is a family torn apart. The patriarch, Burt, is recovering from a heart attack, and still hasn’t gotten over his divorce – or his ex-wife. Daughter Josie has just broken off her engagement to Kenny because she’s in love with Kenny’s best friend, Ray. Josie is angry at her mother, who’s coming for what may be a final visit to the cabin. The story is narrated by Clemma, the long-time family housekeeper, dealing with the absence of her estranged husband, who also shows up on this weekend, along with a blonde bimbette and a macho Italiano from Miami. There’s Simon’s typical melding of humor and poignancy, most of it captured fairly well by the mostly-student cast directed by recent Patté Award-winner Eric Bishop at Mira Costa College.

The most impressive performances were by Ashlee Whitehead (as Clemma), a recent high school graduate who does an extremely credible job with a character twice her age. She captures the wisdom and world-weariness of a woman who’s seen all and said little. Marty Weiss, a retired gentleman who’s now a Mira Costa student, is totally endearing as Burt, a dad who listens in on all his daughter’s conversations and handles her with extreme care and affection. He’s an engaging actor playing a charming character. Aleks Awad is amusingly over-the-top as the language-mangling, neologistic Neanderthal, Vinnie, perfectly paired with the ditsy blonde, Sammii, played with comical insouciance by Summer Spiro (a notable stretch from her prior role as Electra). Chuck Adams is natural and unaffected as Clemma’s peripatetic husband, Lewis. The set (designed by Dixon Fish) is outstanding: a two-story cabin nestled among large trees. The lighting (Paul Canaletti Jr.), sound (R.J.Givens) and costumes (Roslyn Lehman) help establish a strong sense of time and place, even if the New York Jewish mentality inherent in the text wasn’t always in evidence. Nice work overall, though.

Mary and Percy and Claire and Byron

You just couldn’t make this stuff up. Mary Shelley (daughter of philosopher/feminist Mary Wollstonecraft), was disparaged and estranged by her father (political philosopher William Godwin) when she ran off with the (married) Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, with her step-sister Claire Clairmont in tow. Then Mary had a child, while Claire fell in love with Percy’s friend, Alfred, Lord Byron. The two men apparently shared more than their philosophies and poetic proclivities; it seems likely that both the profligate proponents of Free Love slept with Claire. Meanwhile, Mary’s older sister, Fanny, commits suicide and Percy’s first wife drowns herself. In 1822, Percy also drowned, in a boating accident.

Is this sitcom, melodrama, or what? For playwright Kirsten Brandt, it’s an obsession. As artistic director of Sledgehammer Theatre, she wrote two versions of a Mary Shelley story (The Frankenstein Project, v.1 and v.2.0, 1999 and 2005). But she hasn’t gotten the woman out of her head. Now the associate artistic director of San Jose Repertory Theatre, Brandt came back to San Diego for a staged reading of her latest work, Waves, a world premiere about Mary, Percy, Claire and Byron. In 2005, 6^th @ Penn Theatre presented a production of Bloody Poetry, by Howard Brenton, another play about the same characters, more historically close to fact, set in the 19^th century.

But Brandt’s fascinating meta-work maintains the names and relationships (and even some of the historical text, including Fanny’s suicide note), and re-sets the piece in the present, where it’s just as credibly outrageous. The language of the play is wonderful, both harsh and lyrical. The relationships, especially the love/hate sister interactions and the fraught marriage, are intoxicating. The modern complexities add layers to the already multi-faceted complications.

Amy Biedel (who gets better with every production) and Jessa Watson (on a most welcome visit from New York) were superb as the sisters, spot-on in their interactions. Mary (Biedel) the more quiet-spoken and restrained, is suffering from jealousy and postpartum depression, just as Claire (Watson) tauntingly flaunts her freedom and sexuality. Still, their relationship is underlain by love. It’s masterful (clearly intended by the playwright) that both men are played by the same actor (a captivating Walter Murray). But Byron, a beguiling character in his own right, could play a larger role. There’s a lot about motherhood (Claire has a baby by the end, and the father remains tantalizingly enigmatic). There’s also a post-mortem appearance by Shelley that has great staging potential. The intricacies and entanglements are delicious.

The play is still a work in progress, and it needs some tightening and clarifying. It takes a while to figure out who’s who at the outset (knowledge of the historical protagonists certainly helped). The script underwent numerous changes during the intensive rehearsal process, under the piquant direction of Ruff Yeager, who hosted the event under the banner of his Vox Nova Theatre Company. It would be great if he could see this play to completion, in the form of a full production. Not only were the participants long-time collaborators, but a remarkable number of Yeager and Brandt’s followers and co-workers were in the audience. It was a bracing evening of theater and post-performance theater talk.

Next up for Vox Nova, which is committed to showcasing brand new work, is Super Nova, a new play festival to be held June 3-8 in the Lyceum Space. Three new works will premiere: The Tutor by Allan Havis, Dance on the Sun by Ruff Yeager and a musical, The Venus Hottentot’s Extreme Makeover, with book and lyrics by Karole Foreman. Look for details here.

Where There’s a Will…

The 3rd ANNUAL STUDENT SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL was hot, hot, hot – in all senses of the word. The weather was scorching, the kids were sweating in their heavy Elizabethan costumes, and the participation was sizzling -- way up from two stages the first year to four this year, with 350 student participants from 28 schools, a significant increase from the first year, when there were 170 students representing 18 schools. The number of scenes presented has expanded from 20 the first year to 37 this year. Very impressive.

It’s always thrilling to see young kids relishing Shakespeare. The youngest group I watched was a kindergarten class that spoke ‘Quotes from Shakespeare’ (all together now: “All… the world’s… a stage!!”). Cuter than cute. Racing from one stage to another, I saw as many presentations as I could (15-20-minutes each), and the standout performances, IMHO, were from: Danny Myers (most honest and compelling performance I saw all day) in High Tech High’s Merchant of Venice; and his sister Becca Myers in Hawthorne Elementary’s Hamlet; Ashley Chang and Tom Preston in The Bishop’s School’s As You Like It (an inventive production), Max Berwald and Maddie McClouskey in Carlsbad High’s Much Ado About Nothing; Thomas Olson in The Nativity Middle School’s Romeo and Juliet; Tucker Lawrence, Ricardo Munoz and Myles Hasnain in Torrey Pines High School’s Julius Caesar Collage (the latter two young men had especially convincing death scenes) and Tyler Reyes in United Scholar Academy’s Taming of the Shrew scene. Of course, I couldn’t see everything, but neither could the judges, each assigned to one stage only. The Best Scenes and Performances were selected for each of the four stages, but here they are, listed by grade level.

The Official Winners

Best Scene: Carlsbad High School, Richard III; The Bishop’s School, As You Like It; Project Vanguard Youth (middle school), A Comedy of Errors; United Learning Academy (elementary school), The Tempest

Best Performances: High School: Rachael Guerrero (Rancho Buena Vista High), Sam Bratt (Mount Carmel High), Marshall Anderson (The Bishop’s School) and Mac Capen (Hilltop High)

Middle School: Erica Malachowski (Project Vanguard Youth) Maddie Fitzgerald (Pacific Ridge School)

Elementary School: Becca Myers (Hawthorne Elementary), Natalie Humiston (United Learning Academy)

Congratulations to ALL! Another great triumph for San Diego! The date is already set for next year (April 25, 2009, close to Willie Boy’s birthday) and the plan is for SIX stages. Pretty soon we’ll be catching up to the Denver Festival that inspired ours… after 23 years, they’re up to 4,000 participating kids! Onward and upward….

Dancing up a storm

… Quite a ride… A Journey of Love is the name of the “dance spectacular” presented by Dancing with the Pros Ballroom Academy, owned and run by my own pro dance-partner, Daniel Vasco. This was the first performance of one of the first Pro-Am Dance Companies in the nation. The professional dancers, including U.S. and international Championship title holders, teamed up with students at various levels of ability and agility, to present a range of dance forms choreographed elaborately by Daniel, a native Colombian who is a spectacular dancer. He and his partner, Russian Yulia Maluta, presented the bulk of the love story: the meeting, romance, conflict, ‘other man,’ affair, fight, breakup and reunion, each segment told in a different dance form: cha cha, rumba, swing, samba, salsa, tango and foxtrot. In between the story segments, the teachers, including Daniel, danced on with students, frequently changing partners (and costumes). Musical interludes were provided by Jocelyn Claya, a “radical classical guitarist” who does, indeed, do some radical things with the instrument, including playing with both hands on top of the neck and using the body as a percussion instrument. Some of the dancing was truly spectacular, and it was great to see the Pros really let loose. This kind of performance would entice anyone to start ballroom classes; the students ranged in age from 14 to seniors. Great fun. www.dancingwiththepros.net

NEWS AND VIEWS ….

…Hot theater news of the week… Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company will become the first local resident theater company at the La Jolla Playhouse. The four year-old Mo’olelo, founded and helmed by powerhouse Seema Sueko, is known for promoting different cultures and voices in socially relevant productions. They beat out eight other local homeless theater groups who applied. This is a groundbreaking initiative, a brainchild of the Playhouse’s new artistic director, Christopher Ashley. Over the next year, Mo’olelo will mount two productions at the Playhouse (rent-free, with promotion in the Playhouse’s season brochure), beginning with Night Sky (opening September 5), Susan Yankowitz’s play about an astronomer struggling with the language loss of aphasia. For its part, Mo’olelo is expected to bring new audiences to the Playhouse; this is something at which the company has been especially adept. An exciting beginning all around.

…Kids at the Globe… The Old Globe is continuing its third year of free student matinees with special morning performances of The Glass Menagerie on May 7 and 14, and Beethoven, As I Knew Him on May 15 and 22. The performances are preceded by free, in-class workshops by Globe Teaching Artists, to prepare the pupils and enhance their theatergoing experience. Study Guides are also provided to all participating teachers. To date, the Globe has donated more than 15,000 tickets to allow San Diego students to see its productions.

… Globe, Olé!… The Old Globe is also presenting its second “Noche bajo las Estrellas” event, an evening for Hispanic theaterlovers, which includes a pre-show reception in the Plaza Garden, and a performance of Hershey Felder’s Beethoven, As I Knew Him. Ironically, the first “Noche bajo las Estrellas” was held in conjunction with Felder’s acclaimed production of George Gershwin Alone in 2006. Thursday, May 29. Info at: events@TheOldGlobe.org

… More Kid Stuff… This weekend is the grand opening of the new Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego (200 West Island Ave.). There will be a Kids’ Parade at 1pm on Sunday, May 4, followed by activities and giveaways, and performances from Eveoke Dance Theatre, Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theatre and the San Diego Youth Symphony. The building looks like fun (a $29 million whimsical, ‘green’ design by Rob Wellington Quigley), and the inside art (not kids’ works!) is reported to be spectacular. Check it out when you can (note that 5000 visitors are expected on opening day). Regular hours are 9-4 daily, closed Wednesdays. Info at: thinkplaycreate.org. Extra bonus: In mid to late May, a one-acre city park will open across Island Avenue from the Children’s Museum. More fun for the little critters.

… Speaking of San Diego kids, check out Ian Brininstool, who’s really dancing with the stars! The 12 year-old sixth grader at Muirlands Middle School is currently taking part in a workshop of a new, Broadway-bound musical, Leap of Faith, based on the 1992 Steve Martin film about a fake faith healer who, along with a band of con-artist assistants, travels the country, bilking credulous people. Music is by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater (who collaborated with Menken on The Little Mermaid). Taylor Hackford (“Ray”) directs, with choreography by Cry-Baby’s Rob Ashford, Ian is the only kid in the workshop cast of 34, which includes Raul Esparza, Kendra Kassebaum, Lilias White and Terrence Mann (a formidable group, indeed). He was chosen from among more than 100 boys, auditioned nationally over the course of a year. The show will give an invitation-only performance in New York May 15 and 16, and will head to San Francisco in December. The hope is for a spring ‘09 bow on Broadway. Hope Ian can be with it all the way through!

…Meanwhile, closer to home, another young actor I’ve been following for several years is moving on and moving up. Almost-18 year-old Kevin Koppman-Gue is about to graduate from Helix Charter High School, but not before he takes the lead in their production of the Willy Russell musical, Blood Brothers, playing through this weekend. He’s headed to SDSU in the fall, but has been asked by the drama director at his high school to return next year as lighting designer for the Highland Players, the Helix Drama theater program and drama club, of which Kevin served as President this past year. He designed the lighting for four out of the school’s last five shows. But acting is still his first love, and Theater Performance is what he’ll pursue at State.

… More New York Award nominations with San Diego connections. Last week, it was the 58^th Outer Critics Circle Awards and this week, the 53^rd Drama Desk Awards. A whopping twelve noms went to A Catered Affair, the new Harvey Fierstein/John Bucchino musical that got its start at the Old Globe. Cry-Baby, which originated at the La Jolla Playhouse, got one nomination, for Rob Ashford’s choreography.

Xanadu, directed by La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley, got six nods, including Outstanding Director for Ashley; the touring production comes to La Jolla in November. Ashley’s up against former San Diegan Bartlett Sher, who directed the revival of South Pacific. This year, a special award will go to Edward Albee, a frequent San Diego visitor, in his 80^th year (he recently celebrated his birthday here). The citation says his “provocative plays, including this season’s Peter and Jerry, enrich the American theater.” More award news as it happens. The Tony Award nominations are announced on May 13; the show is broadcast on June 15. Stay tuned; San Diego is in the national spotlight once again.

… More new voices… The New Perspective Festival, in association with Vantage Theatre, is devoted to showcasing San Diego writers, actors and directors. The Festival is stepping into the space left by the Actors Festival, on hiatus this year. Twenty-four plays have been selected for the new Festival, and grouped into three Programs; each play will be performed twice. The playwrights include familiar names such as Craig Abernethy, David Wiener, Jack Shea, Thelma de Castro, Cuauhtemoc Kish and Michael Thomas Tower, as well as lesser-known writers such as Stephanie Timm (first year UCSD MFA Playwriting student, whose A Cure for Pain was part of the Baldwin New Play Festival, see above), Steve Koppman, Terence Burke, Carol Joy Cabrera and Paola Hornbuckle. Directors include Sally Stockton, Carla Nell, Dori Salois, TJ Johnson, DJ Sullivan, Patricia Elmore Costa, Celeste Innocenti, Nanci Hunter and Kevin Six (also a writer for the Festival), among others. Weekend evenings June 20-29, at Swedenborg Hall in University Heights. wwwperspectivefest.com

THE READING CORNER

… Invite Mom to Invited … The San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre is presenting a Special Mother’s Day performance of their staged reading of Waiting to be Invited, by M. Shepard Massatt, directed by Antonio TJ Johnson., featuring Syliva M’Lafi Thompson, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Monique Gaffney, Veronica Murphy, Veronica Henson-Phillips and Ida Rhem. 7:30pm on Sunday, May 11 at the Malcolm X Library. Proceeds will go toward the next SDBET season. www.sdbet.org

... The Moonlight Cultural Foundation’s Community outreach program, WordWorks, continues its season with a double-header in May. On Monday the 5^th, a reprise of the delightful Moxie Theatre production of Victoria Martin, Math Team Queen, directed by Jennifer Eve Thorn, with the original cast intact (including adorable Luke Markinkovich, winner of the first annual Patté Scholarship, presented in honor of Dr. Floyd Gaffney). High school was never so funny, or painful.

Then, on May 26, it’s Driving Miss Daisy, starring Sandra Ellis-Troy and Antonio TJ Johnson, who first performed the play with the late Katherine Faulconer; the last time they did the show was 1998 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Sandy and TJ should have a field-day with the cantankerous 72 year-old Southern Jewish woman and her chauffeur. Both readings are at 7:30, in the Avo Theatre in Vista.

... Chronos Theatre Group presents a staged reading of The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille, one of the great playwrights of the Golden Age of French theater. Written in 1635, the romantic comedy concerns reality versus artifice, mortality, redemption and lust. And since a reclusive sorcerer takes center stage, it's also about magic. The reading, directed by Marie Miller, will features live music composed by Jason Connors and performed by three musicians. The cast includes Doug Hoehn and George Weinberg-Harter, among others. 7:30pm on Monday, May 5 at the Lyceum Theatre. Audience discussion with cast and director will follow the performance.

…New Village Arts continues its Playreading Series with the William Inge classic, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, directed by Dana Case and featuring Dana Case, Tom Deak, Manny Fernandes, Jonah Gercke, Kristianne Kurner, Amanda Morrow, Alyssa Schindler and Tom Zohar. The Pulitzer Prize-winning 1957 drama is all about jobless men, loose women, oil, love, tolerance and acceptance. Monday, May 5 at 7:30pm at the New Village Arts Theatre.

'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)

Prelude to a Kiss – light and delightful; a modern-day fairy tale, enchantingly executed

New Village Arts, through 5/18

33 Variations – a fascinating conception, stunningly directed; Beethoven’s brilliant “Diabelli Variations” inspired the interweaving of two stories, two centuries, two obsessions

La Jolla Playhouse, through 5/4

Terra Nova – chilling story (based in fact), intense drama, excellent production

Inukshuk Production Company at Compass Theatre (formerly 6^th @ Penn), through 5/11

A Little Night Music – a challenging chamber musical, delightfully executed

Cygnet Theatre at the Old Town Theatre, through 5/11

(For full text of all of Pat’s past reviews, going back to 1990, use the Search engine at www.patteproductions.com)

Raise a glass to Cinco de Mayo and let your chaser be a night at the theater.

Pat

© 2008 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.

For more than 20 years, Pat Launer has been the only regular broadcast theater critic in San Diego. An Emmy Award-winner with a Ph.D. in Communication Arts & Sciences, Pat sees and reviews more than 200 local theater productions every year. For the past decade, she has hosted and produced The Patté Awards for Theatre Excellence, a gala community event that honors local theatermakers (“San Diegans making theater for San Diego”) and celebrates the broad diversity of San Diego theater.