Jeanne Sakata Celebrates an American Hero by Barry David Horwitz In Jeanne Sakata’s moving “Hold These Truths,” the incomparable Jomar Tagatac takes us into Gordon Hirabayashi’s mind when he stood up against FDR’s racist Executive Order 9066—taking his case to the Supreme Court. At S.F. Playhouse, Tagatac also plays judges, police, family, and friends—each…
John Fisher’s Idyllic Bike Trip to Palo Alto Turns Serious by Robert M. Gardner & Barry David Horwitz In “The Farm,” Fisher’s romantic bicycle trip to the sun-drenched Stanford campus reveals a dark side of the famed university. For over a year, John Fisher’s 60+ weekly solo shows have featured his love for local…
Mark St. Germain’s Dr. Ruth: Refugee, Sniper, Sex Guru by Patricia L. Morin Cinnabar Theater introduces us to Dr. Ruth, a lively, four-foot-seven, 69-year-old, matronly immigrant woman who boldly asserts: “People don’t look at the elderly as sexual beings.” Karola Ruth Siegel was born in Germany in 1928, to Orthodox Jewish parents. She faced…
Lisa Ramirez Thrills with a Hundred Years of Disasters by Barry David Horwitz April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. –T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” (1922) In 1922, T.S. Eliot, an American living in exile in…