August Wilson’s Twenties Saga Traces ‘Race’ Records by Barry David Horwitz “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” burns with suppressed Jazz Age anger: “How to deal with the white man?” Accomplished singer Susie Butler plays real-life 1920s Ma Rainey, the “Mother of the Blues.” Butler showing us how a powerful Black singer could exert power over…
Millennial Notes S.F. Mime Troupe Sets Sail for Affordable Housing by Fritz Mad’Laine Anyone living in the Bay Area today can tell you that we are in the midst of a housing crisis. Class divisions are at an all-time high as the price of living skyrockets, while wages remain pitifully low. With tech tycoons…
Molly Smith Metzler Demystifies Motherhood’s Demands by Jennifer Ann Charron Molly Smith Metzler dishes up a plate of delicious social class issues, and director Molly Aaronson-Gelb, delivers the flavors. In a simple backyard, complete with fence and redwood chips, two new moms have a hilarious coffee klatch, limited by the ranges of their baby…
James Ijames Captures Black Lives in Limbo by Jesse Marley and Barry David Horwitz Walking into Ashby Stage, we are confronted by Celeste Martore’s magnificent, stark white set, an abstract amalgam of skate park, sewer pipes, and slave ship. In this mysterious after-world, “Kill Move Paradise” by James Ijames grapples with the sudden, unjust…