Ovation Stage's founding Artistic Director Penny Kline is both playwright and director of the world premiere “Dark Meets Light,” based on the concept of the play "No Exit" by Jean-Paul Sartre. This is a surreal and existential drama that exhibits the notion that other people can be our hell. The synopsis is that two women and two men are locked up together for eternity in one bleak room in hell. There are no windows, no mirrors, the lights can never be turned off and there is no exit. The irony of this hell is that its torture is not of the rack and fire, but of the burning humiliation of each soul as it is stripped of its pretenses by the cruel curiosity of the other damned characters. H

A man on the phone doesn’t exactly sound like an entertaining night of theatre. A desperate theatre producer at the end of his rope, using everything in his arsenal to placate everyone involved, get the play produced and attempt to save lives (yes, save lives), all over the phone, makes for a very entertaining night of theatre. In “Mistakes Were Made” at Capital Stage, author Craig Wright delights his audience with this fast-paced, quick-witted comedy about a guy who just wants to put on a show. The 90-minute, one-sided conversation is funny, moving and downright entertaining to watch. Eric Wheeler, a veteran actor of Capital Stage, takes on the role of Felix Artifex, a people-pleasing t

Under the sultry lights of Sacramento State’s Playwrights’ Theatre, seven captivating women took the stage for a beautifully potent rendition of the timeless choreopoem by Ntozake Shange, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” Production director Melinda Wilson Ramey aimed to revisit the piece to emphasize Shange’s original intentions, in hopes of a genuinely authentic execution of the play. Provoking the emotions and demanding empathy, Ramey’s version was by all means incomparable to the unfortunately desecrated film adaptation by Tyler Perry (“For Colored Girls,” 2010). Ramey’s version consisted of a multiethnic group of mesmerizing women who danced coa

You'll find much to cackle about in Ovation Stage's production of The Kitchen Witches by Canadian playwright Caroline Smith, a savory show that's sure to please even the fussiest palate. Isobel Lomax, starring DEBORAH SHALHOUB and Dolly Biddle, starring MICHELE KOEHLER, are two cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years, ever since Larry Biddle dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food! Dolly's long-suffering TV-producer son Stephen tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly's dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel's, it's a

As an event partner for The Sacramento Press, Sacramento365.com provides information on activities happening in the Sacramento community. This week focuses on Theatre. Even though we're into September, it's not quite fall and the weather is still warm. Consider cooling off by heading indoors to see a play! Catch them before they're gone: Red: B Street Theatre; through Sept 23 Tues & Wed 7pm; Thurs 2pm & 7pm; Fri 7pm; Sat 8pm; Sun 1pm Red is a raw and provocative portrait of Mark Rothko, master abstract expressionist, whose artistic ambition and vulnerability clash as he tries to create a definitive work for a historical mural commission in the extraordinary setting of the Four Seasons in

Does garlic ward off werewolves? Or is it holy water? Can you spot a vampire if he doesn’t make a reflection in a mirror? Or is it if he can’t enter a house uninvited? For answers to these questions and more, join the Van Helsing Foundation on August 11th when Generation Next Media presents its family-friendly show, How to Defend Against a Creature of the Night. This hour-long participational presentation features three members of the “Van Helsing Foundation”—Rupert Van Helsing, Phaedra Frankenstein, and Jeffrey Jekyll—who travel around the world educating the public on how to spot and defend against a host of fearsome supernatural creatures. The Van Helsing Foundation members are descend

About $30,000 in high-tech equipment was stolen from the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival’s booths at William Land Park, officials said Thursday. “Tuesday night, some thieves broke into our booth at the top of the hill,” said Lori Ann Delappe-Grondin, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival. “They ripped out a window of one of the booths and busted in doors of two others.” Delappe-Grondin said the stolen equipment included a sound board, a light board, a generator, tools and lighting fixtures. A replacement sound system is being brought in and taken out daily now, and the show start times have been moved back to 6 p.m., since the sun sets late enough to allow the plays to r

Sacramento Shakespeare Festival 2012 presents King Arthur and A Comedy of Errors For its 27th season in William Land Park, the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival 2012 presents King Arthur and A Comedy of Errors. King Arthur is written and directed by Luther Hanson. It is written in the style of William Shakespeare. With Merlin’s guidance, noble King Arthur and the glamorous Guinevere rule Camelot in happiness and prosperity. But peace in the kingdom is soon threatened by a secret affair with Lancelot, the bold claims of Arthur’s nephew Mordred, and the machinations of Arthur’s sister Morgan. The conflict grows until all is in danger of destruction and Arthur must rise to victory. With exciti

Whether you’re aware of it or not, chances are you’ve encountered the work of California Musical Theatre (CMT). The Organization oversees and organizes logistics for the wildly popular Music Circus, Broadway Sacramento, and Cosmopolitan Cabaret seasons. With a full-time staff, and a strong crew of temporary and seasonal staffing as needed, CMT is responsible for overseeing the elements of these three musical theatre seasons, all of which succeed in bringing top-notch musical theatre performances to the Sacramento region. In addition to producing and presenting high-quality theatrical shows, CMT runs educational programs through the California Musical Theatre Academy (CMT Academy). CMT Aca

Cosmopolitan Cabaret’s Triple Espresso is one shot of musical comedy, one shot of slapstick antics, one shot of audience participation—and is hilarious on all accounts. The vaudeville-style show is centered on the reunion of the semi-successful, but ultimately failed, trio act of “Maxwell, Butternut, and Bean.” With the help of the audience (no one is safe from the spotlight here), the three performers recount their downward crawl to fame using magic tricks, “nude” dancing, sing-alongs, and the most impressive shadow puppetry you’ll see this side of kindergarten. Hugh Butternut (Michael Pearce Donley) is the act’s piano man, Bobby Bean (Bob Stromberg) the loveable idiot, and Buzz Maxwell

The cackling cries of Maria Josepha arising from the floorboards were the audience’s first notes of introduction to The House of Bernarda Alba. The howls of Maria Josepha, the old mad mother of title character Bernarda Alba, sets the tone for the rest of the night’s acts: a night defined by desperation for freedom and a madness derived from deprivation and sexual tension. Based on a new adaptation, by Chay Yew, of Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1936 work, The House of Bernarda Alba- directed by Granada Artist-in-Residence Juliette Carrillo- was a well crafted, well performed, presentation of a house forced into mourning by its domineering matriarch, Bernarda Alba. The play centers on the plight

Through March 18, the University of California, Davis Department of Theatre and Dance presents, “The House of Bernarda Alba,” directed by Granada Artist-in-Residence, Juliette Carrillo. Based on the work of Federico Garcia Lorca, “The House of Bernarda Alba,” is the story of five daughters forced into an eight-year mourning period after the death of their mother’s second husband. Confined and isolated, the daughters struggle to find escape from their mother’s domineering rule. Director Juliette Carrillo, whose work on “Lydia” was praised by The New York Times, took the time from a busy schedule to answer a few questions about directing and the elements and themes that shape “The House of

What better way for a creative personality to celebrate the evolution of her personal journey towards spiritual awakening than to write, direct and star in a one-woman comedy show?  “My Spiritual Death,” is the brain child of Katie Rubin, a talented and imaginative thespian who is a graduate of Amherst College with a BA in theatre and Dance and an MFA in Acting from the University of California, Davis. Rubin was the star of two sold out shows this past Friday and Saturday evenings at the Capital Stage located at 2215 J Street in midtown Sacramento. The action of “My Spiritual Death” centers on the first event hosted by a newly created committee of the Alcoholic Anonymous 12 step fellows

When you "Dial M for Murder" you dial a hit. What great fun! Yes, a murder mystery can have suspense and still have laughs. The Sacramento Theatre Company has brought back a well-made play from the 1950s, later to be a Hitchcock film, and one of his best. The big star of this evening of fun and mayhem is Matt K. Miller as an aging tennis player afraid of losing his meal ticket wife. On stage Miller looks nothing like his all-American lobby photo so it’s a surprise to see him as a charming Englishman who is so manipulative and villainous. The overly naive wife, Mrs. Wendice, is played by Jackie Vanderbeck. Poor Jackie is stuck with the simpering, helpless female of the time, but makes the

Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is set to headline 2012’s Music Circus season, the musical theater group announced Monday. This year will mark the first time “The Little Mermaid” will be performed by the Music Circus’ cast, and four additional musicals will be shown, all of which the theater previously performed. Rounding out the season will be performances of “Grease,” “The Music Man,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Crazy for You,” according to the announcement. Traditionally, the Music Circus season has seven shows, but it was reduced to five this year, according to Executive Producer Richard Lewis. “Many of our patrons told us that their busy summer schedules made it difficult for them to

Travel back through time with Broadway Sacramento's Rain, a Beatles tribute show that began as an offshoot of the Broadway production of Beatlemania. Rain ran on Broadway for 300 shows and 8 preview performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in New York City and has also been a hugely successful national tour for years. Together longer than the Beatles, Rain has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary foursome, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance. This multi-media show begins by taking us away to a time when four young men stepped on stage at the Ed Sullivan show and changed music as we knew it. Rain chronicles the journey America took with the Beatles,

The audience booed the villains and cheered the good guys, cued by the piano keys played by Musical Director John Cocuzzi Saturday during Sacra-Melo's production of "It's A Wonderful Life" aboard the Delta King. Sacra-Melo, a combination of the words “Sacramento” and “melodrama,” is a musical parody playhouse, co-founder Gary Winterholler, 46, said. He and his wife, 46-year-old Cammie Pavesic, started it in January. "I have done some work for another theater in town, and I loved it. I went and auditioned for the next show, but they did not cast me, and I said, ‘Let's start our company,’ " Winterholler said. The first musical parody Sacra-Melo performed was the "Phantom of the Opera," wh

Tom Stoppard's 1960s play Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead finishes its run at the UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance tonight through Saturday at the Main Theatre in Wright Hall. Michael Barakiva, Granada Artist-in-Residence at UC Davis, directs the absurdist comedy that elevates two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to central roles. The play features witty fast-paced dialogue and philosophical ponderings that involve meaning, being, and knowing. “There are times when things make sense and there are times when you’re transported from one space to another and reality bends to accommodate desire or fear,” Barakiva notes. “We're using Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Lorca

World-renowned pianist and songwriter Jim Brickman will perform at the Crest Theatre Nov. 4 with musical guests Anne Cochran and Benjamin Utecht. Brickman, who also sings at his concerts, said he will be performing romantic melodies, a few Christmas songs, but no breakup songs – that’s just not his style. "The Gift," "Valentine” and "Love of My Life" are just some of his famous love song compositions. He has collaborated with various musical talents, including Martina McBride, Olivia Newton-John, Michael Bolton and Lady Antebellum. "You have to find your own voice, because if you sound like someone else, then there's nothing unique about you," Brickman said. His distinct style of music

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