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Apr 12 2026
Love0

Alvin Ailey dance company fans can’t wait for 10-part signature piece, ‘Revelations’

By Joe Cillo, Woody Weingarten No Comments

 

“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.

Apr 12 2026
Love0

Meet the Novato ‘Wonderlady’ who turns manuscripts into books — no magic required

By Joe Cillo, Woody Weingarten No Comments

Peter Engler and The Wonderlady, Ruth Schwartz, chat in the Belvedere Tiburon library on April 2, 2026, with his books in the background. (Jennifer Bloom via Bay City News, software enhancement from low-resolution image)

 

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.”

At his Tiburin home on April 4, 2026, Eric C Wentworth enjoys dipping into “A Mindful Career,” a book co-authored by his wife, Carol Ann. Ruth Schwartz helped get it published. (Carol Ann Wentworth via Bay City News)

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.

Susan Kirsch, in Ruth Schwartz’s Novato office, looks at her book, “Simply Go*d,” on April 6, 2026. (Ruth Schwartz via Bay City News)

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.”

A book by Ruth Schwartz, The Wonderlady, and her husband, Curt Kinkead. Photo taken in Novato Monday, April 6, 2026. (Ruth Schwartz via Bay City News)

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.

Apr 05 2026
Love0

Ross Valley Players offer baseball morality dramedy about people and steroids

By Woody Weingarten

Chip Fuller (played by Woody Harper, left) and Dan Drake (David Kudler) whoop it up as sports radio talk show hosts. Photo by Robin Jackson.

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

A new play with an enigmatic title, Value Over Replacement, features sometimes confusing flashback and dream sequences. But it’s the specter of famed but un-hall of famer Barry Bonds, star homer hitter and alleged steroid user, that hovers over everything.

The dramedy by San Rafael resident Ruben Grijalva is a morality play that makes sure to sprinkle in enough laugh-guaranteeing lines to lighten the heaviness.

Many questions are posed but answers never become available — even by pondering long after the seven-member cast has taken its collective bows.

That said, Oscar “Woody” Harper is superlative as Ed “Chip” Fuller, a Triple-A minor leaguer who’s convinced he can still permanently make it to The Show, the major leagues, despite being short on talent, comparatively long in the tooth, and the long-time bearer of a bad knee.

Harper’s face projects a gamut of emotions as Chip goes through a series of introspections and causes a publicity surge by belatedly copping to injecting himself with Human Growth Hormone and other illegal substances.

The playwright — comments director Ken Sonkin in the program guide — “maps…one man’s tortured pursuit of a boyhood dream. [The play] doesn’t ask that you exonerate him, only that you hear him out.”

Sonkin’s encapsulation, not incidentally, links to Chip asking, “How many years would you be willing to trade to be exactly what you wanted to be when you were ten years old?”

David Kudler believably portrays Chronicle writer Dan Drake, Chip’s nemesis/friend/radio sports talk co-host on fictional San Francisco station KSFP, who cunningly prods him into a high-ratings moment — a confession.

By being onstage, Kudler, an Equity performer, ends a self-imposed theatrical absence of 19 years. And makes the audience hope the gap is forever closed.

Erik Forst, sitting in the bleachers, contemplates being a seasoned ballplayer. Photo by Robin Jackson.

Schoolgirl Amelia Stafford artfully switches genders as Alex, the Fuller’s son, especially agonized in a scene where he’s abused by his baseball-obsessed dad, and schoolboy Erik Forst is wordless but potent in dual bit parts as a young fan and young Chip.

Rachel Ka’iulani Kennealy (as Chip’s wife), Jennifer Reimer (as the mother of a boy who committed suicide after taking steroids), and David Schiller (as Jack Fuller, Chip’s late father, and as Mike Clawson, Chip’s drug supplier) fill out the cast. Effectively, all.

Value Over Replacement, a Ross Valley Players community theater production that’s part of its annual RVP New Works series, doesn’t depend on a deep knowledge of baseball to enjoy it — it’s a play about people, after all, not the math of statistics — but it might help if a theatergoer comes in knowing something about Bonds, the archetype for the never-seen character, Ken Hobbes.

Chip, meanwhile, is in effect a stand-in for all 27 players that allegedly received performance-enhancing drugs from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO).

The wonderfully familiar crack of a bat hitting a baseball is skillfully provided by sound designer Bruce Vieira, who never misses a beat when Chip’s father endlessly practices with his son.

Benicia Martinez merits praise for the striking, spare set that includes bleachers and a corner that serves as a fill-in-the-blank area ranging from a spot where the autistic Alex incessantly practices slamming a ball against a wall to a spot where multiple characters testify before Congress.

The title, usually shortened in real-life to VORP, stems from an obscure sports stat that supposedly can evaluate a player’s contribution when compared with a real or imagined player of the same level and position. There’s but one reference in two acts and two hours to the statistic, though, so a new title could be more informative to a potential theatergoer.

Grijalva has written a first act that drags with excessive exposition and choppiness and a second that sprints and is sprightly, a first that borders on boring and a second that’s jammed with enough emotion to fill two acts. A bald senior in the first row could be heard at the end of an opening weekend matinee suggesting, correctly, that a sharp editor might cut it down to a more compelling one-act show.

Chip Fuller (Woody Harper) consoles his wife, Emily (Rachel Ka’iulani Kennealy). Photo by Robin Jackson.

The playwright nevertheless needs to be lauded for inserting lots of Bay Area references and such thought-provoking lines as, “If heart were a thing, there would be a stat for it already” and the Death of a Salesman-like “Steroids never killed anybody — disappointment, that’s the thing that kills everybody.”

He deserves kudos, too for a lengthy, uproarious, lowbrow segment on farting, almost as funny as Mel Brooks’ notorious cinematic scene in Blazing Saddles.

Grijalva has written that his “theatrical worlds are full of abstract hopes colliding with concrete frailties. The resulting debris can be beautiful, grotesque, and often — thank God — hilarious.”

That, indeed, does sum up the best of Value Over Replacement.

Stylishly.

Value Over Replacement, part of the Ross Valley Players RVP New Works, will run at the Barn Theater at the Ross Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross, through April 12. Tickets: $30 to $45. Info: 415-456-9555 or www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

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.

Mar 24 2026
Love0

‘Jagged Little Pill’ stays relevant in 21st century jukebox musical

By Woody Weingarten

L-R, Susan Zelinsky and Morgan Olson appear in Marin Theatre Company and Novato Theater’s co-production of “Jagged Little Pill: The Musical” onstage in Novato. (Katie Wickes via Bay City News)

By WOODY WEINGARTEN, Bay City News

When is a jukebox musical more than just that? When its story covers issues from the 1990s that remain problems today, like fentanyl addiction, rape and gender and racial identity.

Canadian alt-rock singer Alanis Morissette’s smash 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill” is the inspiration for the 2018 musical onstage in a Novato Theater and Marin Musical Theatre co-production through April 12. It reveals how a seemingly picture-perfect white suburban Connecticut family—mom, dad, son and adopted Black daughter with hidden plights—is truly dysfunctional. It takes place over one year, beginning with the mother writing a sanitized Christmas letter, followed by a darker one the next.

This community production, co-directed and choreographed by Katie Wickes and Jenny Boynton, is exciting from its loud start to its unexpected, haunting finish.

Susan Zelinsky, as Mary Jane Healy, the pill-popping supermom, carries much of the show on her slim shoulders. But Evvy Carlstrom-March, who portrays Jo, the lesbian lover of Frankie, the Healy daughter who’s unsure of her sexuality, has the cleanest vocal chops. Imri M. Tate as the rebellious teen Frankie, is easily the most animated.

L-R, Evvy Carlstrom-March and Imri M. Tate are among the excellent cast of Marin Theatre Company and Novato Theater’s co-production of “Jagged Little Pill: The Musical.” (Katie Wickes via Bay City News)

Sean O’Brien as Steve, the frustrated dad who’s heavily into internet porn because his addicted wife has lost her libido, also has a strong voice.

Morgan Olson doesn’t need to sing. As a symbolic dancing shadow of Mary Jane, she’s graceful and eye-catching, whether twirling or flying from one mark to another on her toes or stone-facedly caressing MJ’s face and handing her opioids.

Music director Megan Schoenbohm and top-notch musicians keep the sound at a level that mostly doesn’t drown Morissette’s lyrics, which are potent, honest, biting, coarse, caustic and humorous. Occasionally, the chorus sounds mushy and the words are hard to discern; it’s the lone sour note in the passionate 2½-hour show.

Among the show’s many high points are Morissette’s classic tunes “All I Really Want,” “Hand in My Pocket,” “Ironic” and “You Oughta Know,” as well as “So Unsexy,” “Forgiven,” “Unprodigal Daughter,” “Predator” and “No.”

This examination of female introspection and angst boasts a book by Diablo Cody, who won a Tony Award. Glen Ballard composed some of the music with Morissette.

“Jagged Little Pill: The Musical” opened on Broadway in 2019 but closed soon after during pandemic shutdowns in 2020. Happily, it came back successfully.

Marin Musical Theatre’s Wickes and Boynton follow with another winner after their electrifying “Cabaret” last year featuring Carlstrom-March as Sally Bowles. This show, too, is worth a trip to Novato. It’s likely to make an impact on theatergoers coming from myriad places, both geographically and emotionally.

“Jagged Little Pill: The Musical,” a co-production of the Marin Musical Theatre Company, runs at Novato Theater Company, 5420 Nave Drive, Novato, through April 12. Tickets are $37 to $50 at novatotheatercompany.org.

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.

Mar 09 2026
Love1

Sondheim’s ‘Company’ scrutinizes marriage — via youth ensemble at 142 Throckmorton

By Woody Weingarten

Five couples whose lives are examined in ‘Company’ are framed and ready for their closeups. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden.

 

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim enjoyed turning concepts on their heads in his lyrics, and writing music that likewise broke an oeuvre of rules. When he finished a Broadway show, or a single song, he’d often find himself at a destination difficult for many theatergoers to fully comprehend.

Company is less problematic. Sondheim’s 1970 breakthrough musical comedy slyly — despite little deep diving — deconstructs the institution of marriage and its equally troubled partner, singlehood by focusing on paradoxical relationships and obstacles to commitment.

Via lots of humor. With several touches of pathos.

Sophistication might be Sondheim’s middle name. Too much for high school-age actors to fathom, much less stage? Nope!

The Throckmorton Theatre Youth Performers is producing an extraordinary version of the show through March 22 in Mill Valley. Opening weekend, the actors had almost as much fun as the screeching/hooting/clapping audience that clearly was crowded with friends and families.

Bobby (Parker Hall, in foreground) and Amy (Sam Garfinkel) both contemplate marriage — in very different ways. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden.

In that production, which spotlighted one of two large ensemble casts, Parker Hall portrayed Bobby, a well-liked perma-bachelor whose friends had planned a non-surprise 35th birthday party. They long ago launched a nag-nag-nag campaign aimed at convincing him to get a wife.

Hall is masterful as he solos on “Someone Is Waiting,” performs a duet with April (Anya Lamb) on “Barcelona,” and gracefully leads the entire ensemble on “The Little Things You Do Together.”

Five couples find themselves at various levels of disintegration. One is divorcing, another’s lived together for years but is imperiled by the female’s fear of getting married, a third pictures a woman experiencing momentary freedom by inhaling pot even though she doesn’t really want it, yet another contains a male partner constantly demeaned by his thrice-married wife, and the last spotlights two quasi-addicts, one a recovering drunk and the other a practicing ultra-foodie.

Each couple literally gets its time in the limelight by singing behind a large wooden frame that’s the most striking part of a marvelous atmosphere created by set designers Steve Coleman and Jean-Paul LaRosee.

The complex but superb show — whose book was written by George Furth, and which was nominated after its debut for a record-breaking 14 Tony awards, winning six — is peppered with simply wonderful songs.

The biggest laugh-evoking, show-stopping tune, “Getting Married Today,” is exquisitely performed — over-the-top both physically and musically — by Sam Garfinkel in the role of Amy, the reluctant bride. It’s impossible not to laugh when she, at great length, sings with the frenetic speed of an auctioneer or horse race caller.

Sarah (Madison Bishop) shows that her yoga lessons have paid off. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden

Poignant but mocking tones are interjected by Joanne (fleshed out perfectly by Noa Weis) in “The Ladies Who Lunch,” and in “Sorry/Grateful,” which features three guys (Harry, David, and Larry, portrayed, respectively, by Beckett Hepp, Lucas Cedolin, and Morgan Hunt).

That one shows how marriage simultaneously changes everything and nothing.

Plaudits are also especially deserved by co-directors Erin Gentry and Adam Maggio for keeping the two-plus-hour musical snug. Gentry’s playful choreography, not incidentally, draws smiles and appreciation.

To be sure, not everything works perfectly in the 142 Throckmorton production. Choruses occasionally muffle lyrics, and excessively loud music by a seven-piece adult band at the foot of the stage drowns out some others.

Not surprisingly, since Sondheim was gay, the show includes passing references to homosexual relationships. Also predictable is that the inherent sexuality in Company is played down in this production.

Sondheim musically painted the multiple vignettes of Company, which began as 11 separate one-act plays, so cleverly he was able to successfully observe marriage in such universal ways they’re just as recognizable today as when first staged more than half a century ago.

Company will run at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, through March 22. Tickets: $30 to $38. Info: 415-383-9600 or throckmortontheatre.org.

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

Feb 20 2026
Love0

One bird at a time: Marin Audubon’s monthly nature walks mix birding, banter, education

By Woody Weingarten
by WOODY WEINGARTEN, BAY CITY NEWS
Birders observe a pair of mute swans during a field trip to The Ponds at Las Gallinas Sanitary District in San Rafael. The monthly nature walks are organized by the Marin Audubon Society and are open to the public. (Rosina Wilson via Bay City News)

WORLD-FAMOUS FAIRFAX WRITER Anne Lamott turned “bird by bird” into a stylish phrase 32 years ago. Metaphorically, it suggested that folks should tackle major issues one step at a time.

Nowadays, that’s precisely how bird watchers handle the Marin Audubon Society’s monthly field trips at The Ponds at the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District in San Rafael. One step at a time; one bird at a time.

First, imagine the birders identifying a duck through their binoculars, then a Cedar Waxwing, then a hawk. Before long, they’ve found 45 to 50 species in a morning’s trek, including many migrants — birds that “don’t really belong there.”

Mark Clark leads birders on a walk at The Ponds on Sept. 4, 2025. The Novato retiree started bird watching 18 years ago and has been leading the nature excursions each first Thursday of the month since September 2024. (John Dahl via Bay City News)

That picture comes from Mark Clark, Novato retiree who started bird watching 18 years ago and has been leading the walks at The Ponds each first Thursday of the month since September 2024.

He specializes in making the trips educational, convivial, and fun. “It’s really a mix of ornithology and the banter of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland,” he says.

“We’re learning how birds get by on a daily basis, and we’re carrying on the tradition of the Audubon Society of counting birds instead of a century ago when people shot them,” he carries on.

“We usually introduce a topic, such as breeding behaviors, set up scopes in the first pond, the nature pond, and see what’s there. I always bring a scope, and there’s always one or two more. We then move on to the second viewing point. There are usually one or two other experts who chime in and are good about finding birds.”

Good for beginners

The Las Gallinas walks interlock with the overall mission of the Audubon Society, which, according to its website, is to “conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for benefit of humanity and the Earth’s biological diversity.”

Alison Pence, a Corte Madera resident and a Marin Audubon board member who’s enjoyed the walk multiple times, reports that Clark is particularly “good with beginners. He’s friendly and tells good jokes.” When informed how she’s described him, he quips, “I am friendly — and handsome.”

Clark retired three years ago after working in hospice for a decade. Before that, he taught theater at Marin Community College and elsewhere, which helps bring “a theatrical flair” to the walks.

The list “for The Ponds is 254 species,” he says, “and I believe I’ve seen them all.”

Some of the more than 250 species of birds that can be found at The Ponds at Las Gallinas Sanitary District in San Rafael. Top: A snowy egret, with “golden slippers” on Feb. 17, 2024. Bottom: A red-tailed hawk perches on a tree branch, April 28, 2016. (Rosina Wilson via Bay City News)

The Las Gallinas walks draw as many as 25 participants monthly, about half of them beginners, including many elderly. “It’s a terrific walk for beginners,” Clark explains, “because it’s flat and the birds are easy to see. After Point Reyes, it’s the second richest birding area in Marin County and certainly easier to access.”

Rosina Wilson, who lives in Marinwood, not far from what she says was once called The Bird Ponds, is part of the ever-growing senior tsunami in Marin County. “Most of us seniors walk slowly,” she points out. “Many of us use canes or walking sticks. I use a pair of trekking poles, which help me keep my balance and give me upper-body exercise and allow me to walk faster.”

“We don’t walk very fast, don’t rush,” Clark elaborates. “People who come late can catch up.”

A workout for the ages

Wilson contends that “this type of activity is a great brain-training tool. Learning the names of birds … plus their field marks (how you recognize them and differentiate them from similar species) can really give the mind an active workout while the body is enjoying the physical workout.”

Rosina Wilson, a Marinwood senior, takes part in a Feb. 5, 2026, walk at The Ponds. Every visit is different, she says, with a different cast of characters each time the seasons change. (Christina Gerber via Bay City News)

In truth, the age range is quite wide, she says. Though she’s walked with many folks in their 80s, she’s also viewed “a two-year-old walking, a little boy who even had his own binoculars. He was adorable.”

Wilson’s been a participant for years and, in fact, often walks there “on my own and with friends.” Every visit, whether expert-led or solo, she indicates, “is different, and there’s a different cast of characters each time the seasons change. In the winter, there’s a huge number of species of migrants, especially ducks, and we see many types of raptors, including hawks, falcons, and the occasional eagle.”

She’s also spotted other wildlife — “whole families of otters, muskrats, deer, coyotes and foxes.”

Pence, meanwhile, also enjoys Marin Audubon’s other regular field trip, at the Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands, with leaders William Legge and David Wiechers. Those outings, unlike the ones at The Ponds, are not recommended for beginners, are limited to 15 hikers, and require registration (which opens 10 days before any given walk). Field trips at either location are free to Audubon members and the public, but donations are appreciated.

Asked to pick one highlight from walks she’s been on, Pence cites a trek at Las Gallinas where she “saw a rail, a shy bird that came out of hiding. It was foraging. You don’t get to see them very often.”

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, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

Feb 16 2026
Love0

‘Hardbody’ musical in Rohnert Park extremely likeable despite heavy theme

By Woody Weingarten

Cast of Hands on a Hardbody appear with Nissan pickup truck that’s the focus of the Rohnert Park show. Photo by Jeff Thomas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

Hands on a Hardbody, which plays in Rohnert Park through March 1, virtually demands that audience members root for their favorite character.

The country-rock musical pits each of 10 needy Texans against the other nine in a cruel endurance contest that screws with participants bodies and minds. The stated goal: To be the last man/woman standing in a competition to determine who can keep one hand on a hardbody pickup truck longer than the rest.

The storyline, by Doug Wright, is based on the real-life saga of a Longview auto dealer’s annual promotion in excessive summer heat from 1992 to 2005. The competition — which actually ended because of a contestant’s suicide — shallow dives into the inner life of those snagged on the underbelly of society, part of the working class that’s often crushed by big corporations and incompetent, uncaring politicians.

Serena Elize Flores, playing Norma, is the show-stopper. Looking on as she sings is Malik Charles D. Wade I (Ronald). Photo by Lauren Heney.

Theatergoers get a batch of characters to root for. They can sympathize, for instance, with Norma, a fervent Christian who apparently has multiple church congregations praying for her to win. She’s portrayed by Serena Elize Flores, who stops the show with a booming gospel tune, “Joy of the Lord,” showing off what’s easily the best voice on stage. The cast — 16 actors of different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and vocal abilities —makes the number even better by rhythmically pounding on the truck with white cotton gloves they’re ordered to wear.

But maybe a viewer can better relate to Chris (played by Jake Druzgala), an ex-Marine with survivor guilt who poignantly sings “Stronger,” a melody about needing to be macho while in the service but being vulnerable afterwards. He’s clearly now in a war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Or perhaps sensitive observers might feel sorry for one half of a couple, J.D. Drew (Larry Williams), who’s the oldest participant, a dude forced to retire without a pension by an injury he got falling off an oil rig, or his wife, Virginia (Julianne Bretan), who J.D.’s taken for granted despite her taking care of him. They add another emotional moment in “Alone with Me.”

Mark Bradbury (Mike) puts the moves on Katie Kelley (Heather). Photo by Jeff Thomas.

Compassion might also be given Ronald (Malik Charles D. Wade I), a big, black guy who thinks devouring candy bars will somehow be a winning strategy; Jesus (Maick Poroj), a veterinary student who quietly rails against prejudice and wants to sell the truck so he can pay his tuition; or Heather (Katie Kelly), who gulps down speed pills given her by the somewhat lecherous dealership manager to ensure a fixed victory.

Direction by Sheri Lee Miller makes sure the 2½-hour run-time moves swiftly, and that person after person’s self-explorations are tight and the whole enchilada isn’t choppy. She also underscores the humor that’s sprinkled throughout, keeping the show from descending into sentimental tragedy.

A shiny cherry red Nissan truck on a center-stage turntable might itself by the way be considered a character. It swirls and moves forward and backward and symbolizes a chance for the winner to make a 180-degree life change from down-on-your-luck to light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel.

The playwright, 63-year-old Doug Wright, may well believe his tale is more relevant today than when it arrived on Broadway in 2013 since he has contended that “our economic tumult has brought age-old fissures of race, class, and income inequality to the fore.”

Hands on a Hardbody certainly offers plenty to chew on. It covers, if superficially, the major disappearance of the American dream, the destruction of the U.S. healthcare system, and the hardship of the blue-collar class in general.

But every now and then, the text spits out a distracting behind-the-times reference. Such as when it refers to Desert Storm in current terms, or it lists the then-spanking new truck at only $22,000.

The basically plotless show — reminiscent of A Chorus Line or Sondheim — features southern rock, gospel, country, and Delta blues. It is, according to music director Lucas Sherman, who’s onstage at Spreckels on keyboards, backed by a violinist, guitarist, bass-player and drummer — “gritty at times and beautiful the rest of the time.” Gritty, of course, wins more often.

Trey Anastasio, lead guitarist of the rock band Phish, co-wrote the music with Amanda Green, who also did the lyrics.

Everyone involved worked on making sure that Hands on a Hardbody, in effect stuck in place by the musical’s arc, doesn’t remain static. They break the story’s theme by having contestants leave the truck to move upstage and sing (without being thrown out of the contest). Characters constantly and gracefully slip ‘n’ slide in front of and behind each other while still touching the hardbody. And Karen Miles’ choreography is wonderfully silly in spite of having most of her dance creations needing to be limited — one-handed.

It’s a show that sounds vastly heavier in a review than it is. It’s extremely likable. And the more a theatergoer thinks about it after leaving, the more that person’s apt to like it even more.

Hands on a Hardbody will play in the Nellie W. Codding Theater of the Spreckels Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park, through March 1. Tickets: $16 to $44. Info: www.spreckelsonline.com or 707-588-3400.

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

Feb 12 2026
Love0

Masquers Playhouse’s ‘Improbable Fiction’ hits funny bone hard

By Woody Weingarten

Conrad Cady, Tyler Null, Alicia von Kugelgen and Simon Patton are excellent in Masquers Playhouse’s production of Improbable Fiction.” (Mike Padua via Bay City News) 

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

Arnold, a disoriented wannabe writer, suddenly finds several hunters in his living room trolling for aliens from outer space in Masquers Playhouse’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s “Improbable Fiction” onstage in Point Richmond.

Played deftly by C. Conrad Cady, Arnold’s jumpy, overheated befuddlement hit the audience’s collective funny-bone so hard and long, their laughter drowned out more than a few of the next lines.

The first act of this farce — about a do-it-yourself writer’s group whose members talk more about writing than doing it — starts slowly. While audiences may momentarily worry about reacting well to the British humor, they should watch out: the pace quickly becomes frenetic. Then, Act 2 incites laughter immediately. With physical and verbal slapstick antics and quick-change costuming, it demands out-loud laughs as Arnold finds himself in the middle of a collaborative story.

Also very funny are Simon Patton as Brevis, who writes the book for musicals and whose comic crabbiness is so inflated it surpasses Lewis Black’s nasty/funny attitude; Tyler Null as Clem, who garbles one word after another, concocts conspiracy stories and adopts a noir detective persona as an alter ego; and Anna Kosiarek as Vivvi, a horny woman whose hangdog expressions are reminiscent of Stan Laurel.

None of the members, however, have a greater burning desire to finish their projects than Grace (played by Alicia von Kugelgen), who for years has been futilely trying to write a kids’ book about Doblin the Goblin to accompany her drawings.

Indeed, only Arnold has completed anything, and that’s been in the form of instruction manuals.

Masquers Playhouse, an amazing intimate community theater, consistently stages musicals and plays like this 2 ¼-quarter hour comedy that’s so tightly directed by Angela Mason. Here, the actors are superb, even when being intentionally hammy.

Equally excellent are the light and sound design by Michael O’Brien and dazzling, imaginative costumes by Ava Byrd.

Sir Alan Ayckbourn improbably has written and produced more than 90 plays, 10 of which have landed on Broadway, but he spends the bulk of his time directing. At a Masquers opening-week matinee, his delightful “Improbable Fiction” received an almost unanimous standing ovation. It was merited.

“Improbable Fiction” continues through March 1 at Masquers’ Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15 to $35 at masquers.org.

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, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

Feb 08 2026
Love0

‘The Cherry Orchard’ at Marin Theater reveals top acting, directing, costumes, and set

By Woody Weingarten

A zoned-out servant, Firs, clutches 100-year-old bookcase to show it off to cast of The Cherry Orchard. Photo by David Allen.

 

 

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

Nina Ball’s classy set for Marin Theatre’s The Cherry Orchard is exceptional, fully capturing the sense of an aristocratic, past-its-sell-date Russian estate.

Lydia Tanji’s costumes for the almost three-hour modern-language comedy are delightful, some comic, some gorgeously reinforcing the sense of powerless, turn-of-the-20th-century characters all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Superlative is the direction of the two-act classic Anton Chekhov play by Carey Perloff, who helmed the American Conservatory Theatre for 26 years, carefully extracting both comic and tragic emotions from an energetic, top-notch cast that’s mercurial yet predictable.

Bay Area actors with familiar faces — Howard Swain, Liz Sklar, Anthony Fusco, and Lance Gardner, for example — are inspiring, often briskly moving the 1904 modern-language play along with subtle eye or mouth movements or silences that brilliantly flesh out a fading upper-crust. For pure theatrical pleasure, check out Swain as Firs, an aged butler who’s ultimately abandoned after being in everyone’s face; Sklar as Liubóv, a frivolous, ineffectual “loose woman” who’s clueless about how to overcome a debilitating family debt; and Fusco as Gáyev, Liubóv’s brother, who revels in prattling but is often shut down.

Lopákhin (right) excitedly holds attention of cast in The Cherry Orchard. Photo by David Allen.

Tour de force becomes the appropriate label for Gardner, the theater company’s executive artistic director who cloaks himself in the persona of status- and money-hungry Lopákhin, who thinks the orchard, which “is mentioned in the encyclopedia,” should be cut down and developed as vacation housing. Gardner’s verbal pauses demand attention. So do his statements like “I’m rich. I’ve got lots of money,” contrasted with his unrelenting belief that he’s still just a poor schnook from the country. The actor, in fact, quietly draws scrutiny even before the play opens as he sleeps center-stage on a divan with an open book on his chest.

For those looking for comedy, The Cherry Orchard provides plenty of over-the-top clowning and pratfalls, as well as sly verbal humor and running gags, not to mention mock-violence that might have been lifted right out of a zany Three Stooges playbook or a Road Runner cartoon.

For those seeking drama, the production delivers sufficient riveting themes — such as grieving over a child, multiple references to slavery, and class differences at a time when society’s underpinnings are shaky and the Russian Revolution waits in the wings. Illicit relationships cause ripples, and cherry blossoms and a 100-year-old bookcase and a slew of broken dolls, all symbolic, help create a thought-provoking atmosphere.

Descriptive phrases are common. One character, for example, accuses another of being “like an animal that eats everything in its path.”

Oddly juxtaposed are a female, dressed as if she stepped out of a Nickelodeon telecast, who does card tricks and a guy who does ventriloquy.

One downside is that the farce starts off frenzied while introducing too many characters at once. It’s parallel to many Russian novels where, despite accompanying graphics of family trees, it takes a while to unravel who’s related to whom.

Once you figure out who’s connected to whom, however, the play’s easy to relate to, especially its political undercurrents that resemble today’s, including obsessions with a new world order and either begging for or stockpiling money.

Compassion was Chekhov’s hallmark, according to dramaturg Michael Paller.  “He never judged his characters one way or the other.” But we can.

Perloff, a press release reports, says the play, which she’d commissioned Paul Schmidt to translate, is “about why change is crucial and why we always resist it. It’s…full of narcissistic characters who are sure they’re the star of their own story, but fail to realize the damage they’re causing to the people around them.”

Know anybody like that?

The Cherry Orchard will play at the Marin Theater, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through Feb. 22. Tickets: $15 to $89 (plus $6 handling fee per order). Info: 415-388-5200 or www.marintheatre.org

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.

 

Feb 06 2026
Love0

WWI phone operators light up Ross Valley Players’ ‘Hello Girls’

By Woody Weingarten

Ross Valley Players production of “The Hello Girls” features, L-R, Monica Rose Slater, Jacqueline Lee, Abigail Wissink, Grace Margaret Craig and Malia Abayon. (Robin Jackson/Ross Valley Players via Bay City News)

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

Women’s roles in wartime rarely have been so smartly and poignantly portrayed as in “The Hello Girls.”

Ross Valley Players are staging the 2018 musical drama co-written by Peter C. Mills and Cara Reichel, which starts in World War I as U.S. servicemen are fighting in France. Dispatches were being screwed up because male American telephone switchboard operators couldn’t speak French, and their French counterparts lacked English.

Enter the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit.

“The Hello Girls” tracks the misogyny French-speaking females suffered at the hands of their peers and superiors, all the way “up the chain” to stalwart Gen. John “Blackjack” Pershing, played by Joseph Walters with appropriate gruffness.

The feel-good story focuses on Grace Banker, the women’s leader, and four other bilingual operators. Monica Rose Slater adroitly portrays Banker, who is often stone-faced, a countenance befitting keeping her underlings in line—until she starts singing and smiling, often with wide-eyed mugging. She clearly has the most resonant voice of the 10-member cast. Grace Margaret Craig displays comic chops as sharp mouthed operator Suzanne Prevot.

Monica Rose Slater plays Grace Banker, leader of the telephone operator corps in Ross Valley Players’ “The Hello Girls.” (Robin Jackson/Ross Valley Players via Bay City News)

Mills composed the sometimes-similar jazz and ragtime songs in the two-act, two-and-half-hour show. The dense lyrics are geared to move the story along, but the tunes lack memorable riffs. However, some numbers are pleasant: the opener “Answer the Call”; the bouncy title tune “Hello Girls”; the first-act finale “Lives on the Line”; the second-act opener “The Front” and “Making History,” which details what happened after the time period of the show, as the “girls” fought to be recognized as soldiers for decades.

Only a few numbers near the schmaltzy ending—such as “The Lost Battalion,” a solo by promoted Capt. Riser (Nelson Brown) that’s a study in poignancy—deal with the horrors of war.

None of Mills’ melodies are as exciting as snippets of standards such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” that are included. And those morsels aren’t nearly as good as the upbeat choruses of signature tunes from each U.S. military branch, belted by the full cast in a patriotic medley.

The actors playfully display their abilities on myriad instruments — keyboard, drums, double-bass, cello, violin, flute and accordion. While they’re probably not either Juilliard or San Francisco Symphony material, they play well enough to create an illusion of mastery.

Director Maeve Smith ensures that the performers’ singing and dancing are in sync, and that their facial expressions and body language convey precisely the right mood.

Ron Krempetz’s set is marvelous and eye-catching; cross-hatched wires and bright lights reveal how critical phone messages were to the war effort.

Grace Margaret Craig displays comic chops and proficiency on accordion in “The Hello Girls.” (Robin Jackson/Ross Valley Players via Bay City News)

Costumes by Valera Coble providing an accurate sense of the era range from blue military outfits with high necklines, puffy sleeves and long skirts, and contrasting colorful civilian garb, for the women, and olive drab uniforms and army helmets and ammo belts for the men. All that, plus heavy boots!

Jonathan Blue’s choreography, predominantly cutesy, can’t help but evoke smiles.

Props are few, and the switchboard is invisible. However, the actors make it real by simulating plug-in motions and serving up perfect harmony, musically and in demeanor.

While it was difficult to watch how the women were rebuffed in their efforts to be in the middle of the action “at the front,” the show’s comedy goes down easier, such as the scene where the women are learning ever-changing secret phone system codes that force them to be trilingual, to know French, English and gibberish.

Ross Valley Players’ “The Hello Girls” runs through March 1 in the Barn Theatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Blvd., Ross. Tickets are $30-$45 at rossvalleyplayers.com.

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

 

Find Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books at voodee@sbcglobal.net, woodyweingarten.com or vitalitypress.com.