Joe Cillo

Julianne Bretan, center, and an exuberant chorus appear in Novato Theater Company’s “Mamma Mia!” at the Novato Playhouse. (Jere Torkelsen/Novato Theater Company via Bay City News)

by Woody Weingarten, Bay City News

Novato Theater Company’s Marilyn Izdebski’s choreography and lighting design increase in excellence with each musical she works on. She’s been at it for 50 years, and critics are simply running out of words for “incomparable.”

Her light-hearted choreography in “Mamma Mia!” onstage in the Novato Playhouse through June 7 guarantees smiles. She once again has turned community theater thespians of all shapes and sizes into a cohesive chorus. Her choreography is the star of the show; she’s nicely assisted by conductor-keyboardist Nick Brown.

Izdebski — president of Novato Theater Company and a recent winner of the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle’s Gene Price Award “for embodying superlative professionalism and passion for Bay Area theater” — dares patrons not to tap their toes to ABBA’s 1970s hits.

In addition, her smooth lighting design nicely parallels the range of moods in playwright Catherine Johnson’s flimsy and illogical storyline.

Marilyn Izdebski, choreographer extraordinaire, works her magic in Novato Theater Company’s “Mamma Mia!” onstage through June 7. (San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle via Bay City News)

Gia Mirra is excellent as Sophie, who switches emotions on a dime from joyous to confused; as are Lauren Sutton-Beattie and Jane Harrington as Rosie and Tanya, Donna’s oldest and best friends. The same goes for the dads: Lorenzo Alviso as Sam, Cordell Wesselink as Bill and David Cole as Harry.

The minimal set and props provide plenty of room for the large cast, who seem to be having as much fun as the audience. All members of the company are wearing mikes, so the song lyrics are clear, even when the chorus is dancing; that can’t be said of many local theaters.

Huda al Jamal’s terrific costumes range from sparkly for chorus lines to pure black for a nightmarish fantasy. And director Lisa Morse does a great job making the show’s bizarre action feel natural (except when the hoofing is appropriately extra-silly).

Notable numbers range from the flirting in “Take a Chance on Me to the bouncy “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and the especially poignant “Our Last Summer.”

The crowd, however, saved up its noisiest enthusiasm for chartbusters like “I Have a Dream,” “S.O.S.,” and “The Winner Takes All,” and kept up the spirit after the bows to sway and clap along to “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia.”

In the lobby after, one elderly man couldn’t wait to tell a friend, “This show could pull you out of a depression.”

“Mamma Mia!” runs through June 7 at Novato Theater Company, 5420 Nave Drive, Novato. Tickets are $25 to $37 at novatotheatercompany.org. 

Reach Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net, https://woodyweingarten.com or https://vitalitypress.com.

Woody Weingarten

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Kristen Gregoriev with a crowd pleaser at Hall Middle School in Larkspur during an eco garden tour on Saturday, May 9, 2026. Gregoriev, a retiree, volunteers with nonprofit Refugia Marin, helping to replace invasive plant species with native plants to cultivate havens for local pollinators. (John Waters via Bay City News)

Kristen Gregoriev may have erred leaving her San Anselmo home accessible to birds and beasts. She walked into her living room a while ago “to find a mama deer had left a fawn the size of a large Chihuahua there, wedged between two flowerpots.”

The “mama had gone off to graze,” she remembers, “but the baby woke up and started screaming. Mama came bounding down the hill and immediately retrieved her.”

Gregoriev swiftly got out of the way, knowing not to interfere with a beast and its offspring, and just let the “rescue” happen.

The incident, she says, was probably the most surprising thing that’s happened in her late-in-life life as an environmentalist.

Gregoriev, retired since 2016, is now immersed in gardening at home as well as varied public sites of Refugia Marin, where she helps replace “invasive plant species” with native plants, and “cultivates a haven for local pollinators.”

She loves it.

The “spiritual nature of gardens can be really soothing in this time of chaos,” she says.

But she doesn’t love it all the time.

 “Gardening is a real leap of faith that something’s going to work, that critters aren’t going to get to it, that there isn’t going to be a lethal heat spell no matter how much you’ve watered.

 “Nature’s a bitch. Something you’ve been nurturing gets eaten. Something’s always dying.”

It wasn’t long after Gregoriev joined Refugia Marin in 2023, she says, that “they pounced” because of her 40-plus years in nature-centric small businesses. So she’s become the nonprofit’s treasurer, putting in about 30 volunteer hours a month working with gardens and numbers.

(Brian B. Beard via Bay City News)

The nonprofit was founded in 2021 in Corte Madera’s Town Park by its then-and-now executive director, Dana Swisher, an award-winning, longtime second-grade teacher at the Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera.

“She kept looking on the other side of a fence and seeing a fallow strip of weeds,” explains Gregoriev, who knew her through the Marin Monarch Working Group. So, Swisher finally stopped thinking about it and instead spent the requisite time — with the ultimate help of about eight board members and about 80 volunteers — to transform the strip into a thriving native plant habitat.

Refugia Marin’s purpose now, according to its website —www.refugiamarin.org — “extends beyond conservation; we strive to educate the community about the myriad benefits of native plants while creating thriving wildlife habitats.

“By forging strong partnerships with schools, community leaders, and like-minded organizations, we work together towards our shared goal of enhancing the natural beauty of our community and creating spaces for people to enjoy.”

Refugia (a plural word that means safe havens) is a volunteer organization except for three paid employees whose public spaces include the Pollinator Garden at the Dominican University of California in San Rafael and the People’s Garden in Cove Park, Corte Madera.

Its latest project is Habitat Garden, behind the new Larkspur Library, that’s intended, according to the website, to “serve as a visible demonstration of climate-resilient planting and local biodiversity.”

Gregoria has gardened at all the sites except the library and Hall Middle School’s outdoor classroom in Larkspur. “I’ve done a lot of weeding, lots of pruning, planted a couple of trees, planted seeds, and weed-whacked with a new, lighter electric machine,” she says. “It’s very rewarding to see an area that you’ve tended.”

The Refugia Marin Habitat Garden blooms in Corte Madera Town Park in Corte Madera on Saturday, May 9, 2026. (Kristen Gregoriev via Bay City News)

She’s also “done outreach, staffed tables set up at events like May 9’s Eco-Friendly Garden Tour and other community events.”

She’s been engrossed, too, in Refugia Marin’s highly successful April 28 fund-raiser, An Evening in Conversation at the Lark Theater with best-selling journalist and CNN series host Kara Swisher, Dana Swisher’s sister-in-law, and acclaimed Fairfax author Anne Lamott.

Gregoriev maintains that she’s “super-fortunate” to be able to work with the organization’s volunteer nature enthusiasts, a “wonderful group of people — bright, funny, smart, diligent. I’m the Old One, going to be 70 in September; everyone’s younger than me, the youngest in the mid-30s.”

Though happy, she regrets coming “pretty much late to the party. I was a passive environmentalist who only became active after I retired (although I’d designed environmental T-shirts that kids would want to wear).”

She says it’s “nice to work in areas other than my own because I have too many deer here.” But she still revels in changing her backyard into a pollinator paradise.

Gregoriev prefers working with plants native to California “because they’re more suited to our climate and they’re more beneficial to the pollinators — bees and butterflies — because they’ve evolved over time to have a beneficial relationship with each other.”

Her favorite public site is “the original town park, because I’ve seen the most evolution, watching one-gallon plants really take off and become more beautiful.”

Her favorite plants? “The Ceanothus, a shrub with  beautiful purple flowers that butterflies really go for; the Pitcher Sage, another shrub that smells unbelievably good to me, that has beautiful bell-like delicate pink flowers, and, as for a tree, the California buckeye, which supports all the caterpillars which in turn support the songbirds, the small birds that snatch the caterpillars to feed their babies.”

The gardening she’s doing, she says, brings her “delights and quiet satisfaction. I’ve done this kind of gardening since I was in college at U.C. Davis.”

As for toiling behind her own place, she says, “When we first moved in, we tried to plant anything that the deer wouldn’t eat. Now, I’m really trying to plant native, and I am finding some things the deer are not so fond of.”

Asked what the favorite plants in her yard are, first she answers flippantly, “Anything that grows,” then more seriously adds, “I have a lot of Milkweed for the Monarch butterflies.”

Gardening, she muses with obvious joy, “is a dialogue. You do something and then it does something. It’s not a one-way thing.”

Woody Weingarten

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“Pilgrim of Sorrow” portion of Zellerbach Hall concert in Berkeley features familiar stance of Alvin Ailey dance troupe.

 By WOODY WEINGARTEN

The 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley was packed for Saturday’s matinee. The crowd blended nicely with the 7 or 8 folks in the audience who’d never before seen the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

For many, it’s been too long, their first reprise since the beginning of the pandemic.

Despite two Bay Area premieres being on the bill, no one apparently wanted to wait for the forever favorite, “Revelations,” the troupe’s signature piece, sometimes labeled the most-seen modern dance in the world.

When it happened, after the second intermission, the entire place seemed to go bonkers — as if a stadium of high schoolers were rooting for a local championship football team.

The final section of the 10-part gospel-based composition, “Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” was a presentation so rousing that the throng stood like an army in a unified, predictable standing ovation, clapping rhythmically and weaving and dancing in front of its seats.

It was awesome how so many folks were led into their happy place all at once, and no one even left “to beat the crowd” in a rush to get out of a parking lot.

“Revelations,” of course, featured the stylized, instantly recognizable hand, head, and body movements that have delineated Alvin Ailey’s choreography since the piece debuted in 1960, two years after he founded the company.

It all holds up today. Exquisitely. With grace and fervor.

Virtually every component of the composition amped up the volume and pace, forcing concertgoers’ excitement to rise accordingly until a roar shook the walls of the hall. It all fit perfectly, somehow, like a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Early parts used no props or backdrops, allowing the audience to focus solely on the skill of the multi-racial company. Then, when the movements became as pure as the all-white costumes, “Wade in the Water” spotlighted a long fabric that transformed into lovely, nearly believable waves.

“Sinner Man” provided a hellish backdrop of flames and a trio of male dancers — Xavier Logan, Jessie Obremski, and Mason Evans — whose frenetic energy was exhausting just to witness. Without a zombie in sight.

The middle section of the concert, “Embrace,” featured five low tables that, when turned on their sides, allowed dancers to slither onto them. It also displayed exciting, emotional choreography by Frederick Earl Mosley to recorded melodies by Pink, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, and Kate Bush.

A rising and falling moon that showcased glistening craters and changing colors hung from semi-invisible wires.

The program said that “Embrace” examined “the ups and downs of human connections — messy, beautiful, and everything in between.”

In “Jazz Island,” a Caribbean folk character, Erzulie, Afro-Haitian goddess of love, takes over the stage — and the story.

True. It depicted 5 or 6 — maybe, 50 — shades of love, including an unsatisfying gay relationship whose raw emotion was best depicted when each half of the almost-couple is sitting on opposite sides of stage with his back to the audience.

“Jazz Island,” the concert’s opener, was based on a Caribbean folk tale and choreographed by Maija Garcia, a Cuban American whose history has included stage productions. The problem was that the piece’s narrative —adapted from Black Gods, Green Islands by Geoffrey Holder — was excessive, leaving nothing to the imagination, leaving little to be fascinated by.

Costuming by Carlton Jones, however, did stand out, particularly the outfit of two main characters, Erzulie, an Afro-Haitian goddess of love, and Baron Samedi, guardian of the dead.

The main plotline revolved around an arranged marriage between Bashiba, a flower girl, and a stereotypical wealthy guy despite her having fallen in love with a traveler, Jean-Claude Louis.

The Ailey troupe is now under the leadership of Alicia Graf Mack, a former star dancer with the company. She’s its fourth artistic director — and obviously has an ultra-high bar to replicate or surpass.

Highlights of what’s coming up soon at Zellerbach Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances include the Joffrey Ballet’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” April 17-19, and a May 3 recital with soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Inon Barnatan.

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites,https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitalitypress.com.

Woody Weingarten

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By WOODY WEINGARTEN, Bay City News

IF RUTH SCHWARTZ GETS STUCK while midwifing a client’s manuscript on its way to becoming a book, she climbs into an alternate persona — The Wonderlady.

Before long, problem solved.

Playfully.

“But the real Wonderlady persona,” notes the smiling Novato resident, isn’t some creature with superpowers or a magic wand, it’s “the power of intention.” Her intention is to always find a solution to any publishing problem.

“If there’s something really off, I sit with it until I understand it … My overall philosophy is that everything is perfect just the way it is, but subject to … new possibilities, with the idea of making it even better.”

Her husband, Curt Kinkead, birthed the whimsical Wonderlady concept in 1992, after she’d found herself “embarrassed, frankly, to tell my parents about my not being able to pay my bills.” The next day, in the mail, she miraculously found a check from her father for the exact amount of money she was short. He, a real estate broker, had decided — apparently without knowing about her financial peril — to share a commission.

From that moment on,” she says, “Curt insisted that I had created money out of nothing, and if I could do that, I was clearly The Wonderlady. So, when ‘magical’ things happen, he says (they’re) due to The Wonderlady Effect.”

When polishing, detailing, or formatting a book that’ll be published and sell independently on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and countless other sites, Schwartz prefers instead of magic to lean on a pair of reliable, grounded wingmen: decades-long expertise and a nose to the proverbial grindstone.

She nonetheless enjoys being mischievous. “Whenever I’ve pulled some rabbit out of a hat and clients say, ‘How did you do that?’ sometimes I tell them, sometimes I don’t.”

Working her wonders

The Wonderlady frequently smiles. In the flesh and on Zoom. Even when no one can see it. She’ll turn 81 in June. “At my age,” she says, “If it’s not fun, I don’t want to do it.”

Potential clients who check out her website are apt to soon lift her onto a book-shepherding or consulting pedestal. Susan Kirsch of Mill Valley is an example. Her new book, “Simply Go*d,” is to be the first of six. “I think Ruth is a Wonderlady,” she says, “because of her extensive knowledge of the publishing industry and because she’s a wonder for her clients. She’s a wonder for me by quickly having changed my thinking from writing one book to writing an entire series.”

All of it happens within the confines of a one-woman cottage industry with a little help from her friends, a stable of designers.

Now, because she’s so busy she’s had to turn away clients, she’s also started an advisory service, where she can “tell people how they can do things by themselves.” That, she says, will let her handle more clients simultaneously — and permanently shelve any plans to retire.

Generally, Schwartz’s clients are seniors, drawn to her because “both sides are older.” Some of her clients are “in their 90s. The youngest is in their 50s. People who are self-published are older because they have time and money.”

Word of mouth is her best sales tool. She contends that “95% are referrals or repeats, people who come back to me with multiple books.”

The Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, where she’s vice president and the person who regularly gives the most answers to questions and shares the most information during monthly Zoom meetings, is her biggest source of clients.

Peter G. Engler, who lives in Belvedere, was one of her first clients, when he was a novice author. His praise is glowing: “She was instrumental in my completing my novel, ‘The Unselling of a President,’ and we also worked together on my short-story book, my job seekers’ manual, and several table-top legacy books. She’s terrific to work with, very energetic, very knowledgeable.”

“If there’s something really off, I sit with it until I understand it … My overall philosophy is that everything is perfect just the way it is, but subject to … new possibilities, with the idea of making it even better.”
Ruth Schwartz, The Wonderlady

Much of Schwartz’s work is done via email. Because she can. And because it’s way less stressful.

Many her clients live in Marin, but she’s also finished assignments from all over the Bay Area, Chicago, Florida, Montana, and a smattering of other places.

Hungering to help others

Shepherding manuscripts is only a part of Schwartz’s busy life. Along with Kinkead, she founded Respecting Our Elders, a rescue food service she says has delivered to seniors and others of limited means “500 pounds of quality, edible food every day since the organization began in 2005, for a total of almost four million pounds.”

Hoping to spread their concept, they just finished an 82-page book that details their “different kind of model from food banks or other fresh food rescue organizations” — “The Best Solution to Hunger in America: How to Set Up and Run an All-Volunteer Community Food Rescue Organization.”

Kinkead, meanwhile, has taken about a quarter of a million people out to cruise boats to watch whales, paddled a canoe around the world, and published “Secrets and Pleasures,” which Schwartz describes as “an erotic novel with lots of sensual information to help people have better sex lives.”

Schwartz’s first job in the publishing industry was with the University of California Press, from ’68 to ’74. She later worked for Design Vectors, a graphic design and marketing firm that dealt with major corporations like Bank of America, PG&E, and Pacific Telephone. She didn’t consider becoming a book midwife until print-on-demand — through which an author can have a book published one copy at a time — came onto the scene and she thought it perfect for her as a freelancer.

Clearly, she was right. She’s absolutely loved “taking a lot of words and turning them into a finished book.” The first one she shepherded, in 2014 for Robert W. Bone, was a memoir about being canned — “Fire Bone!” Her current workload covers a wide berth: a memoir, young adult fiction, nonfiction, and spy novels.

Schwartz has enjoyed having enough clients to let her reject some potentials. “I had one who came to me with a diatribe,” she recalls. “He was so angry that it came out on every page … I told him that I just couldn’t work on his book, that this was not a good fit for me.”

Usually, however, the idea of helping authors through, and educating them about, the self-publishing process is sufficient. “It fulfills a passion for me,” she says.

Still, she wouldn’t turn down a real-life magic wand if somebody handed it to her, says the book midwife, admitting there are times “when I’ve said I wish I had one.” 

 

This article was first published on LocalNewsMatters.org, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundation http://www.baycitynews.org/contact/. 

 

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, woodyweingarten.com and vitalitypress.com.

Woody Weingarten

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Energy is the operative word at Peace, a concert at Zellerbach Hall on Sunday. Photo by Stefan Meekers.

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

It was hard to believe that 16 singers from South Africa could sustain the amount of energy they expended Sunday.

Their arms kept flailing, their legs kept pumping, and their butts kept shaking in the first half of a concert titled Peace at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Solo voices reverberated with gusto as the rest of the all-black, three-time Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir harmonized behind them, their bright, colorful costumes undulating and rolling to rhythms so complex and fast they sometimes impeded audience toe-tapping.=

The packed crowd was nevertheless drawn into the songs, clapping and singing along and shouting approval, as well as offering an almost universal standing ovation at the end of the 95-minute concert. Support seemed loudest when freedom songs became political and angry and reminiscent of anti-apartheid struggles and rallies — and the choreography was highlighted by outstretched arms with fists.=

It was amazing that just two men — a keyboard artist and a percussionist — could supply sufficient musical sound to be a booming but flawless foundation for the vocals, which ranged from the melancholy sweetness of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to screeching like birds and animals.

Colorful backdrop complements costumes of Soweto Gospel Choir. Photo by Stefan Meekers.

The second half of the pre-Christmas concert was a contrast — soft, spiritual, and spunky — featuring gospel standards, snippets of four carols, and then ending with the rousing Leonard Cohen classic, “Hallelujah.”

Being present for the 23 musical numbers, which are sung in six African languages plus English, meant having a vibrant experience that dragged a listener emotionally back to the heyday of Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King. It also became impossible to ignore the fact that Donald J. Trump is currently allowing only whites to emigrate from South Africa.

Members of Soweto Gospel Choir are in sync. Photo by Stefan Meekers.

The choir, which was formed in 2002 “to celebrate the unique and inspirational power of African gospel music,” stands, in effect, as a tribute, to Soweto township, a suburb of the city of Johannesburg. The area became world famous in June of 1976 with the Soweto rebellion, when up to 20,000 school children protested the government’s policy supporting education in Afrikaans, “the language of the oppressor,” rather than the native tongue. Police opened fire on the students.

In a sense, the Soweto Gospel Choir is a living monument to those who were killed.

Upcoming vocal performances at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley include the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus in a holiday spectacular Saturday, Dec. 20 and An Evening with Kelli O’Hara on Saturday, Jan. 31. 

Woody Weingarten

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6th Street Playhouse’s “A Chorus Line” continues through Sept. 28 in Santa Rosa. (Photo by Eric Chazankin via Bay City News)

By Woody Weingarten, Bay City News

If you think the half-century-old dramatic musical “A Chorus Line” might be a little stale by now, think again.

The current 6th Street Playhouse production proves that the show, which goes behind the scenes at intense auditions for a musical, is as effervescent, touching and funny today as it was in its 1975 debut and record-breaking 8,137 Broadway performances that followed.

Bottom line: The Santa Rosa show, onstage through Sept. 28, is good entertainment for geezers and Gen-Zers alike.

Yes, parts of the storyline don’t have the same impact now, including some “big reveal” moments by characters whose backstories involve coming out of the closet or suffering abuse as a child.

But the classic tunes by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban (the songs ar bouncy and/or heartbreaking) could fit the voices of Audra McDonald or Taylor Swift.

The large multi-ethnic cast of performers with varied body types does better than OK with vigorous unison singing and synchronized dancing. Choreographer Hannah Woolfenden nicely coordinates the diverse group.

Director Lorenzo Alviso makes sure the timing is near-perfect, emulating original triple-threat director Michael Bennett, who conceived and choreographed the Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Obie-winning show.

The two-hour show begins with the company messing up requisite dance steps for laughs and voicing anxiety about making the cut in “I Hope I Get It.” It’s quickly followed by “I Can Do That,” a tricky novelty number by Mike (Diego Rodriguez), who displays great dancing chops.

Tracy Hinman’s eye-catching costumes and Noah Hewitt’s mood-changing lighting choices are notable. The seven-piece band in the pit under the direction of Ginger Beavers successfully captures the characters’ moods, only occasionally playing a bit loud, muffling a vocal or two.

Monique Borses plays Cassie in 6th Street Playhouse’s “A Chorus Line.” (Photo by Eric Chazankin via Bay City News)

Special solos include “The Music and the Mirror” sung poignantly by Cassie (Monique Barses); “What I Did for Love” and “Nothing” by Diana (Reilly Milton); and the angst-filled “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three by Val (Anna Vorperian).

Kudos also go to Sashas Holton, an understudy, as Sheila.

Tajai Jaxon Britten is consistent as Zach, the troubled director who must select four males and four females, from twice that number who are trying out.

If there’s a flaw in the production, it’s that it’s difficult to keep track of the numerous characters, a carryover from the original book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante.

Imperfections, however, shouldn’t keep patrons from thoroughly enjoying this classic show. It has the trademark tall, movable mirrors at the back of the stage; slapstick bits like the wannabe who relates his childhood difficulties hiding frequent erections; and, of course, the delightful tap, ballet and jazzy dancing that characterize every chorus line.

6th Street Playhouse’s “A Chorus Line” runs through Sept. 28 at 52 W. 6th St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $33 to $55.95 at 6thstreetplayhouse.com. 

Woody Weingarten

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