There is a new generation of young Sacramento actors and actresses being trained by Sacramento native Liorah Singerman, artistic director of the Young Actors Stage Theater group.  The Mainstage show, "Annie Jr." opens this Friday night March 1st and stars the talented Jillie Kate Randle in the title role.  Mrs. Singerman grew up on the Sacramento stage performing with companies including Sacramento Theater Company and Davis Musical Theater Company.  She then went on to hone her theater skills in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and spent 10 years performing in New York.  In 2009, Liorah moved back to her home town and founded the Young Actors Stage Theater group, bringing live

Playwright Michael Rubenfeld, a Toronto-based writer, director, actor, producer says that My Fellow Creatures is “an exploration on the nature of love and relationship.” But it becomes quickly obvious that he is not referring to a typical hearts and roses love and relationship. If you believe that theater is at its best when it presents controversial material that forces us to acknowledge a perspective other than our own, do not miss the EMH Production of My Fellow Creatures. The play, currently running at The Wilkerson Theater (in the R25 / California Stage complex), lets you glimpse the mind of Arthur, an incarcerated pedophile, skillfully portrayed by Lonon Smith. He is joined by Sean

A lot has happened for me in the last 20 years - I got married, moved (from England) to Sacramento, had three (count-em!) kids and changed jobs. Enough to make my life interesting and full. One thing I left behind in 'Blighty' was my love of acting. Before coming to America, I had trod the boards in various roles, none of them remunerative sadly but all of them stimulating and fun. Fast Forward 20 years and things seem to have settled down a little. The kids are all at school, my commute is three miles each way and my circle of acquaintances has never been larger. Time then, to branch out again..... My two oldest children have been in several 'pay to play' theatrical shows, mainly at the

Big Idea Theatre’s production of “The Pillowman” opened Thursday night and led its viewers through a dark and sometimes painful statement about the importance of storytelling and art. The play, directed by Kirk Blackinton, is an adaptation of the 2005 Broadway hit by the same name. Set in a totalitarian police state, the dark play chronicles the interrogation of Katurian Katurian, a brilliant writer with a tortured past. He and his older brother, Michal, who suffers from a form of mental retardation, are being held on charge of the murder of several young children. The two cops, Tupolski and Ariel, are attempting to tie Katurian’s stories to the killings. Many of his stories portray grue

Q: I am interested in a guy I work with and I know he is interested in me too, but I am nervous about getting involved with someone I work with. I really like (and need) my job, and if it didn't work out it would be so awkward. However, I really think we would be great together, and I don't want to miss and opportunity to find love just because we are coworkers. Should I follow traditional workplace romance guidelines or throw caution to the wind? A: Tough question. I have seen many relationships and marriages made in the workplace, and I have seen many relationships create endless drama in the workplace. I think the outcome depends on a few factors:  What kind of job do you work in?

The third night of the 12 annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival brings a solid lineup of three narrative feature films to the Crest historic main screen.  The first of these, "Face to Face," is an Australian drama that can only be seen at film festivals and which isn't even scheduled to open theatrically in Australia until next month.  "Face to Face" is reminiscent of the classic film "12 Angry Men," with the action moved from a jury room to a mediation session.  Ten people and a mediator meet to discuss an employment dispute, but it soon becomes apparent that there is far more at stake and more shared history than one young man's rash actions.  The screenplay was adapted from a stage p

After being out of town and unplugged from social communication for over a week, I have decided to use this week’s column as a little op-ed piece regarding a very touchy relationship subject: the ever-so-awkward public breakup scene. The only reason this is so fresh in my mind is that, during my vacation last week, I was caught in the tornado of one of the worst public breakup fiascoes I have ever seen. No, I was not breaking up, but my tablemates were. What started out as a pleasurable evening of watching UFC at a local pub in Long Beach turned into a horrible display of awkward, loud, hateful (and drunken) insults spoken by Miss to her Mister. My party of four had been seated with this

A liberal dramatic license was taken by director Luther Hanson in the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival production of “Othello.” Set in Venice of the late 1920s, the jazz music and dance numbers from that era are incorporated into the costumes and include women in flapper outfits and men wearing knickers, suits and straw Panama hats reminiscent of the styles of that period. The military uniforms of Iago, Cassio and Othello appear as if they had been raided from the closets of Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington after they completed the filming of the movie “Glory.” The final surprise was the glittering outfit of the duchess ironically named “The Duke.” The principal players included G

The people of Rocklin and its surrounding communities have picked up again this year where the City left off.  Celebrate America took the place of the Rocklin Jubilee last year when the City of Rocklin cut the funding for the decades-running event.  But never fear - the private sector is here!  With the help of K-Love/Air-1 and dozens of other sponsoring businesses and donating individuals, Sunset Christian Center is hosting the 2nd Annual Celebrate America event at the Twin Oaks Park in Rocklin tonight.  Gates open at 4PM, and the patriotic musical extravaganza begins at 8PM and ends with an aerial fireworks show.  This free family-friendly event will be a treat for young and old, and be

Just how passionate can love be? Russian opera depicts love as a crucial and deadly matter when it comes to affairs of the heart. The Sacramento Opera’s “A Russian Affair” showed audience members two dramatic tales of intrigue, seduction, unrequited love and murder Friday night. All of these characteristics are the elements of the classic novels “Eugene Onegin” and “The Queen Of Spades,” written by Russian author and poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. Actor Andrei Cordrescu made his debut performance narrating as Pushkin. The narrations by Pushkin connect the scenes and duets from the two operas. Sacramento Opera Music Director and Conductor Timm Rolek is responsible for the operas’ co

Emotions ran high on stage keeping the audience at the edge of their seats during the dramatic showing of Suddenly, Last Summer, a play by Tennessee Williams, which opened Oct. 2 at the Lambda Players new theater home on 21st Street. As the audience entered the newly designed, intimate theater space, which seats approximately 40 patrons, a social experiment ensued. The seats, which have yet to be properly numbered and ordered, left patrons roaming through the four aisles trying to figure out an order or pattern to the seating chart. Eventually the groups would simply situate themselves in an open section. However, those who had already figured out the disorder were entertained by the new

If you had to sleep with one of the Three Stooges, which would it be? And what would your answer reveal about you? Sacramento's own Lambda Players graciously provide the answer in their production of Douglas Carter Beane's As Bees in Honey Drown. Alexa Vere de Vere (played here by Kristen Wagner), a glamorous and mysterious woman with a seemingly inexhaustible Rolodex, poses the aforementioned Larry-Curly-Moe conundrum early in the play to Evan Wyler (Matthew Abergel), a writer newly “discovered” by New York's literary elite. Vere de Vere contracts Wyler to write a screenplay based on her terribly exciting and exotic life, and drama ensues. Wagner's Vere de Vere is an affected, just-bare

Do certain members of our society purposefully set out to destroy others, or are certain people hardwired for self destruction? That’s a question director Stephanie Gularte leaves tantalizingly open in Capital Stages’ stunning new production of ‘The Scene’ by Theresa Rebeck. In Rebeck’s play, a recent transplant from Ohio, Clea, has come to New York to seek her fortune and hit ‘the scene’; a round of parties given and attended by celebrities, the well-to-do, and everyone who’s anyone. Clea, played with enthusiastic glee by Elena Wright, meets up with out of work actor Charlie, played by Scott Coopwood, and sets him and those he’s closest to on a path that will forever change their lives.