Drama Talk & Drinks: The SpongeBob Musical & We Are Moving to Instagram!

After almost 7 years of Drama Talk and Drinks, we decided it was time to do a bit of a refresh: We’re rebranding to: Making a Scene in SF

And we’re moving to Instagram: Follow us!!! @makingasceneinSF

We’re expanding the type of content and culture we cover: We’ll be reviewing shows, exploring The Bay, getting to know some of the incredible talent that comes through our amazing area, and inviting you in to more of what we’re watching and talking about outside of the theatre. 

Also, WE are Katie Cruz and Lisa Raphael, a couple of former-and-forever theatre nerds and pop culture obsessives.

There will still be drama talk. And there will still be drinks. 100% there will still be drinks.

In the meantime, here is our last post on Mission Mission, to give you a hint of what you can expect to see on @makingasceneinSF. It’s ironic this will be about The SpongeBob Musical… but such is life. 

PHOTO CREDIT: JEREMY DANIEL

HIGHLIGHTS?

Katie: Hmmm…. I would say, it was the creative use of sound effects, costumes, projections and lighting. 

Lisa: On stage, it was the general ENERGY. I loved the look and how they created the cartoon scenes IRL. I loved the sound effects and the guy on stage playing them. Incredible pipes on many in the cast as well. Off stage, the highlight for me was watching SpongeBob STANs react (freak tf out). It was a trip.

LOWLIGHTS?

K: The story…the songs…the realization that this cartoon was indeed turned into a Broadway musical and that there must be no more original ideas. 

L: The plot and some of the songs felt a bit generic (yknow, character skips around his beloved town in a sweeping, scene-setting song to open the show).

FAVORITE SONG?

K: Even with the star power of John Legend and T.I, there were no memorable songs.

L: It’s hard to watch anyone rap onstage after seeing Hamilton multiple times (not to brag) but I did think “When the Going Gets Tough” was really fun to watch. Katie is rolling her eyes rn 😝 Also Squidward’s eventual song, “I’m Not a Loser.” Also the sponge song… 

WHO WOULD YOU BE CAST AS?

K: Squidward, because I’m jaded and bitter. 

L: LOL ^^^ I can’t explain, but that one (sexy?) hamburger stole the show for me. I would want to be that hamburger — er, krabby patty?

WHO WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS SHOW TO?

K: Seven year olds or adults who LOVED SpongeBob as a kid. (You could probably guess I am neither of those demographics) 

L: People who LOVE SpongeBob, this is a damn must. People who LOVE edibles, you will also enjoy this pairing. 

EMOJI VERDICT?

K: 🤨

L: 🥳

The SpongeBob Musical plays at the Golden Gate Theatre through this weekend only. Tickets are still available on the BroadwaySF website. 

Keep in touch with us!

Follow us: @makingasceneinSF

Email us and invite us to your show: makingasceneinsf@gmail.com

Some recent portraits of people hanging out on sidewalks in the Mission

[All photos via Honey Jets]

Drama Talk & Drinks: The Color Purple – “Sing like a dream”

Ever since we saw the 2016 Tony Award performances of The Color Purple cast we’ve wanted to see this show. From the heart wrenching plot, to the big gospel voices, to Oprah’s love, we were excited to see if this revival lived up to all the accolades it had garnered. When we saw the Broadway tour was making its way to SHN’s Orpheum Theatre, we decided to head out for an evening of drama talk and drinks.

Photo by Matthew Murphy.
Adrianna Hicks (Celie) and the North American tour cast of THE COLOR PURPLE.

Brittany: They had such good voices. The first act was depressing. It’s awful how terrible people can be to each other. White people are terrible to people of color. Men are terrible to women. Women are terrible to other women. Basically everyone is just terrible to each other. Then the second act redeems it all. I love the message of – no matter how much shit you go through you can be resilient – that’s pretty amazing.

Katie: Masterful singing for sure. The music didn’t quite meet my expectations though. The majority of the songs sounded so similar to one-another. I can’t remember any of them for the life of me. I enjoyed some of the duets and harmonies, when the songs showed an emotional range, but even those aren’t that memorable.

B: Yeah, the songs weren’t that catchy. That’s part of why I liked the second act better, the songs were more varied. The first act was basically all gospel, which every-single-person in that cast could sing like a dream, but there wasn’t much variety.

K: The show was beautiful and moving, I was entertained, but I wouldn’t need to see it again. For me I saw The Color Purple and I’m good. Also, story-wise it was really fucking sad and then all the sudden it wasn’t. The complicated painful relationships were too easily cleaned up and reconciled, which felt really weird to me.

B: I didn’t understand Celie’s transformation, I don’t get what it was that made her flip from being passive, to suddenly willing to stand-up to her abusive husband. I just didn’t see that transformation happening until it already happened.

K: For me there was something really contrived about this musical. It felt like someone made a musical out of this well known book and movie just to make a musical.

B: This was totally made with the understanding it would probably make a ton of money, which you can kind of tell…I feel like the musicals that are really special, the ones that you can’t get out of your head, are the ones written by people who are hungry and brave and don’t necessarily know that their piece will be successful. With this musical they thought “It’s The Color Purple, people will come.” I still think people should see it though. Everyone in the cast was amazing.

K: Agreed, definitely a show worth seeing.

The Verdict: A sad but beautiful story told by actors with amazing talent, heart, and voices. Go see it!

The Drama Talk: While The Color Purple is neither of our favorite musicals, this is still a great production. The cast has unbelievable voices. Some of the performances are inspiring. In all, it was an engaging and impressive show, like so many of the Broadway tours. While the happy-ending feels a bit far fetched, it’s nice that the show doesn’t leave you in the pit of despair it puts you in during the first act. Although we didn’t leave the theatre humming any of the tunes, it was still a great and memorable night of drama talk and drinks.

The Drinks: After this rollercoaster of a musical we wanted to go to a bar that was chill and loungy. Luckily 2 blocks away in the Twitter building there is Dirty Water, which is often not very busy late night and weekends and is full of couches.

The Color Purple plays through May 27th at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets range from $55-$246 and can be purchased on the SHN website. Right now there are discounted tickets available on Goldstar.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, & III) – “storytelling you have to work for”

After five years of Drama Talk & Drinks, we realized we had never reviewed a show at one of the premiere theaters in SF, A.C.T. It seemed like a good time to start, particularly with opening of Father Comes Home From the Wars, a play new play by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Suzan-Lori Parks. So off we went to A.C.T for a night of drama talk and drinks.

Photo by Joan Marcus. A chorus of enslaved people—Second (Rotimi Agbabiaka), Third (Safiya Fredericks), Leader (Chivas Michael), Homer (Julian Elijah Martinez) and The Oldest Old Man (Steven Anthony Jones).

Brittany: I loved the first two acts. The staging was beautiful and the Greek chorus was cool. The third act, after the intermission, lost some momentum for me. I was weirded out by the talking dog. I think they were going for an Odysseus thing, but it jumped the shark for me. Still very much worth seeing, but be prepared for a bit of a let down at the end.

Katie: There were definitely some cool moments, but I didn’t love the preachy, greek tragedy, lots of monologues format. I was interested in the story and cared about the characters, but it was a 3 hour show…I guess I’m a product of a generation of really short attentions span, but it felt long. I also agree the third act was not as strong as the first two. At first it wasn’t even clear that the Greek chorus was playing different characters, and then when the dog-human ran out it totally took me out of it.

B: I didn’t mind all the monologues because they were performed by really strong actors, but you’re right, it was a long first act.

K: Agreed. The actors were incredible. The set was cool and artistic too.

B: I liked how they used the lighting and the shadows.

K: I appreciate that the play explored some pretty provocative topics too.

B: Definitely some very interesting subject matter. I think that’s why I was okay with the length of the play. Watching the characters explore the legacy of slavery in the United States and the struggle for black Americans to be valued when the dominant white culture only sees value in a black person if they can be owned was some powerful stuff. I think it was a valuable play in that way. I just really wish they didn’t have that dog character.

K: This is for people who love meaningful theater and storytelling you have to work for, but it’s totally worth it. I enjoyed myself.

The Verdict: It’s a long and heavy show, but very well acted, well staged, and well worth seeing.

The Drama Talk: Father Comes Home From the Wars is thought provoking. It’s the kind of a play you’re engaged in while it’s happening, and then when you think about it after the fact you start to realize all the clever things you missed. This is undoubtedly in part due to the extremely good actors who were able to keep the audience with them in the moment. The dramatic yet sparse set and highly contrasted lighting design provided just enough of a canvass to give the scenes shape, while still allowing one’s imagination to fill in the detail. Yes, it’s long, but it’s also smart, and totally worth checking out.

The Drinks: It was late by the time we got out of this 3 hour show, so we wanted somewhere chill where we could discuss what we just saw AND have cocktail and a snack. Luckily Bartlett Hall was open and had all of the above.

Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, & III) plays through May 20th at the ACT’s Geary Theater. Tickets range from $13.50-$115 and can be purchased on their website.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: The Gangster of Love – “Really f*cking long”

When we heard about the world premiere of The Gangster of Love, a new play by award winning author by Jessica Hagedorn, which tells her story of immigration from Manila to the Haight during the 1970s we knew we wanted to see it.  Afterall, we love San Francisco, and this was a San Francisco based story. So off we went to the Magic Theatre for a night of drama talk and drinks.

Photo by Jennifer Reiley.

Brittany: That was really fucking long.

Katie: What the hell was that?

B: I just don’t understand why they tried to cover so much? I get it’s based on a life story, but you don’t need to see every moment over the course of thirty years.They spent so much time showing different scenes they didn’t actually develop any of the subplots. They seemed to change the set every few minutes.

K: Agreed. The only thing I did care about was those awesome projections.

B: Visually this show was cool.

K: But that was it. I just sat there in confusion, thinking there must be something I’m not getting.

B: I didn’t care about anyone in the show. None of the characters were fully human. There were thirty bizarro plot lines that didn’t go anywhere. They introduce you to an interesting character and then that character never appears again. Meanwhile the girl who played the lead, Rocky (Golda Sargento), seemed to just float through the scenes. Despite the fact she was on stage almost the entire show, I still didn’t get a sense of who she was or why I should care about her.

K: The show did nothing for me. If it had just ended after the first act at least it wouldn’t have been as painfully long.

B: What I don’t understand is how it took that long to do nothing.

The Verdict: Despite some cool staging this is a show to skip.

The Drama Talk: Cool projections and San Francisco subject-matter can’t save a bad play. Neither can good actors if the characters they’re playing are poorly developed and disappear from the story with little explanation. Perhaps because the playwright is primarily a novelist, and she’s dealing with subject matter that hits so close to home, she thought the audience would intuitively understand why we should care about this moody young immigrant poet/musician and her life. Unfortunately the character of Rocky was in some ways the least interesting character in the story. Meanwhile the promising characters who appear throughout her life never get enough time to have an arc.

This is the world premiere of this play, so it’s possible it could be fixed by trying to do less. Fewer scene changes, fewer years covered, fewer characters who appear for only long enough for you to get curious before they disappear, less shoehorned in magical Jimi Hendrix angels. As it is, this play tries to do far too much, and in doing so accomplishes nothing.

The Drinks: After this show we wanted to go someplace fun and relaxing so we checked out a new bar in the nearby Marina district called Del Mar. They have swings for seats, so that did the trick.

The Gangster of Love runs through May 6th at the Magic Theatre. Tickets are $30-$60 and can be purchased on their website. Right now there are tickets on Goldstar for $15-$32.50.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Disruption – “you go girl”

A few years ago DT&D interviewed AJ Baker, Artistic Director and Resident Playwright for Three Girls Theatre company (3GT). Despite loving her, and loving the concept behind 3GT (they only produce plays written by female playwrights), it’s been a while since we had seen a 3GT show. So when we heard that AJ’s latest play Disruption was premiering at Z-Below, we knew we had to see it.  So out we went for a ladies night of drama talk and drinks.

 

Sally Dana as Dr. Andrea (Andy) Powell in Disruption at Z Below; Photo by Mario Parnell

Katie: Wow, I’m happy about how the story ended, but feel some whiplash from how quickly the problem was resolved. It seemed like a very complicated legal matter.

Brittany: Yeah, it was really stressful for most of the show and then it just wasn’t. For a script that at times felt like it was fairly slow moving, it wrapped up very fast. I enjoyed it, even though it was a lot of talk and not much action. I was engaged.

K: There were a lot of good things about this show, but the lack of “action” took me out of it sometimes. The blocking felt unnatural, it was like the actors didn’t have anywhere to move. There were moments when I felt overwhelmed by the dialogue too. Also the connection to the #MeToo movement was a little muddled for me. Given the focus of the promos I thought it was going to go deeper into talking about that movement, whereas it felt more like a side note.

B: That’s true, but I still left with a “you go girl” feeling, so it captured some of the ethos even if it didn’t feel like it spoke directly to the #MeToo moment. I like 3 Girls Theatre, and that they produce plays by women with strong female characters. Disruption was clearly written from a woman’s perspective, and it was interesting to see such authentic female characters. All their reactions, and guilt, and anxieties felt genuine.

K: I agree, I felt like a fly on the wall in a real office and there was something cool about that. I think overall it was authentic and it’s female forwardness was refreshing.

The Verdict: While there’s still some new-play clunkiness to the script and the staging, it’s a compelling story that portrays some very authentic strong female characters. We think it’s worth checking out.

The Drama Talk: It’s refreshing to see a show focused on strong female characters dealing with the kinds of challenges and emotions professional women confront in their lives. While the effort to shoehorn in current events like the #MeToo movement at times feels forced, Disruption still covers some important topics such as the ramifications of sexual harassment, gender bias, and the pressure professional women feel when they try to “have-it-all”. The script at times was a bit wordy, and the staging a bit stiff, however the compelling and authentic portrayals of women kept the show engaging.

The Drinks: After this show we felt pretty empowered so we wanted to go to a cocktail bar with powerful drinks and a high powered atmosphere. We checked our True Laurel and it was both of those things along with some delicious small plates.

Disruption runs through April 28th at Z Below. Tickets range from $35-$55 and can be purchased through their website. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar from comp-$27.50.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Saturday Night – “Such a dick”

We’re always up for a Saturday night of musical theater. When we heard local theater company, 42nd Street Moon, was putting on a Stephen Sondheim musical we hadn’t heard of before, called Saturday Night, we decided to check it out for Drama Talk & Drinks.

The Company of Saturday Night. Photo by Ben Krantz Studio

Brittany: I just don’t think Saturday Night is a show that necessarily needs to be done again. I like 42nd Street Moon, and appreciate that they are trying to preserve these lesser known shows from the American musical theater canon, but…

Katie: There’s a reason why some of those shows are lesser know and don’t get produced. They just aren’t good.

B: Exactly! I love Stephen Sondheim and I was surprised that he wrote something this mediocre.

K: So mediocre. If they weren’t so earnest I’d have thought it was a parody making fun of how lame musicals can be.

B: I almost started laughing at the finale when the cops started singing along too. I thought “oh my god, is this a joke”. They had a cool set and good costumes, but you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Not a good show.

K: The story was terrible. I didn’t care about anyone. I mean, the lead character, Gene, was such an asshole.

B: He was such a dick! Why would anyone feel bad for him? He does so many shitty things and virtually shows no remorse. Yet, for some reason all his friends are behind bailing him out because he’s dapper. Gross white male privilege on display.

K: I just don’t get it. The story was terrible.

Verdict: This was a fine production by 42nd Street Moon, it’s just a terrible play. This is one to skip.

The Drama Talk: If you’re also fed up with entitled whiny white men, who feel like they should be allowed to do anything to get what they feel is owed to them, then you too will agree that this is a show that’s better left to be forgotten. While 42nd Street Moon has a noble mission to “celebrate and preserve the art and spirit of the American Musical Theatre” there are some musicals that aren’t worth being celebrated or preserved. The cast of Saturday Night did their best with a dud of a show. As always 42nd Street Moon had impressive production values and held true to a traditional interpretation of a classic musical. However their true-to-the-script interpretation left us with a fairly well done production of a bad show. Not a worthwhile use of a Saturday night.

The Drinks: We needed a strong drink after seeing this show, so we hit up The Barrel Room a few blocks away. Luckily we weren’t disappointed by the cocktails.

Saturday Night runs through April 15th at the Gateway Theater. Tickets are available through the 42nd Street Moon website and are priced $25-$75. There are also some $22 tickets available via Goldstar.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Totes Blessed – “we’re kinda ‘basic bitches'”

It’s good to to be able to laugh at ourselves, especially our #bestlife Instagram personas. Which is what drew us to Totes Blessed the new sketch show by Chardonnay Comedy now playing at PianoFight. The show promised  “a safe space to unpack what being basic even means” which sounded like a pretty hilarious way to spend a night of Drama Talk and Drinks.

Brittany: That was so fun. It’s sketch, so not every bit was a winner, but generally I had a great time.

Katie: I was genuinely entertained. I would have loved a little more diversity in the ladies in the group. I felt like they were making fun of a very white privileged lifestyle. The message of the show was also a little unclear. The first quarter they make fun of being a “basic bitch” and then they say it’s okay to be “basic” because we should empower women to be themselves and not judge them for loving the things the love, like brunch. Then they made fun of being basic some more.

B: Part of me feels like they were just acknowledging the fact that yeah, we’re kinda “basic bitches” and we recognize that. We like “basic bitch” things like pumpkin spice everything, and juice cleanses, and group colonics, and posting inspirational quotes on social media. We know it’s ridiculous, but that’s still just us. I agree it was a mixed message, but I think that’s okay. It’s not a super feminist piece or a very deep show, but it’s still a lot of fun. It’s not going to change the world or the environment…oh that poor polar bear.

K: When it got shot it was really funny though. Also that LA yoga-girl podcast sketch was amazing. I feel like that one also did a good job calling out their whiteness.

B: Yeah, that was hilarious. I also liked the Ivanka and Melania Trump Thanksgiving skit, and the Tilden Swinton on Sesame Street sketch was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

The Verdict: Great for a ladies night out. If you are a white women between the ages of 25-35 you will for sure enjoy this show. Generally if you’re in your 20s or 30s and living in SF you’ll probably think this is pretty funny.

The Drama Talk: The Chardonnay Comedy troupe is a filled with a bunch of very funny Bay Area 20/30 something women, and that is the experience that this show draws from. As Bay Area 30 something cis-women ourselves, we thought it was pretty hilarious, as did our dates (two white Bay Area 30 something cis-men). We don’t think our grandparents would find this show very funny, since they wouldn’t get the references, but that’s part of what makes this show so fun. It holds up a carnival mirror to our culture, and forces us to laugh at ourselves.

The Drinks: PianoFight is awesome because it also has a restaurant and bar, so we got dinner and drinks before the show there (they have a special “Basic Bitch” cocktail on the menu to get you in the mood). While we usually stay and debrief at the PianoFight bar, this time we decided to check out a newer bar on the same block called Biig for our post-show drinks. This is a bar with no menu, limited seating, and music at a volume level that encourages intimate meaningful conversation. It’s very adult, very posh and we loved it.

Chardonnay Comedy’s Totes Blessed runs Friday and Saturday nights through November 18th at PianoFight. Tickets are available through Eventbrite and range from $15-$40.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Disney’s Aladdin – “All flash and no substance.”

A Disney caravan rolled into town this week, with the opening of the Broadway tour of Aladdin at SHN’s Orpheum Theater. It’s a favorite childhood movie for both of your DT&D columnists, so we decided to check it out.

Adam Jacobs (Aladdin) and Anthony Murphy (Genie). Disney’s Aladdin North American Tour Original Cast. ©Disney. Photo Credit: Deen van Meer 

Brittany: It was so shiny and flashy. I guess it’s Disney, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but it had such amazingly high production values. The costumes were gorgeous and there were hundreds of them and the sets were crazy. I mean, fireworks happened on stage multiple times, and they actually rode a flying carpet, that’s nuts.

Katie: Totally, but for me, that’s all this show had going for it. I’m a huge Aladdin fan, and I just don’t think it translated to the stage. It was just super cheesy.  I get that they had to make changes to make it work as a musical, but all the changes were lame. I had hoped they would add value in their re-imagining of the movie for the stage, but they just added a bunch of terrible filler songs. Super disappointing.

B: Agreed the filler songs weren’t great. I also was disappointed that they got rid of the animal sidekicks and added in a bunch of one-dimensional annoying friends for Aladdin and Jasmine instead. In the movie Aladdin and Jasmine don’t have any friends (who are people), which is part of what drives the story.  Given how good they are at spectacle, and how well Disney has done animals on stage for shows like the Lion King, it’s strange they didn’t make some super creative costumes that allowed the play to keep those characters. I wanted Abu and Rajah!

K: This show was just disappointing. The adaptation was lackluster and none of the actors blew me away. Jafar wasn’t scary, Aladdin was too self-confident to be endearing, and I thought all the new characters they added were dumb.

B: The songs “Never Had A Friend Like me” and “Prince Ali”  were damn impressive, and met my expectations in terms of generating wide-eyed excitement, but you’re right, all this show had going for it is spectacle. Big show-stopping numbers with impressive tech.

K: It felt like a money grab to me. All flash and no substance.

The Verdict: This show could be a fun way to introduce a kid to theater since it’s so technically impressive, and they probably won’t mind the lack of depth. But if you are an Aladdin fan we recommend staying in and just re-watching the movie.

The Drama Talk: Aladdin is a valuable Disney francise, and this show is just another way for producers to cash-in on the brand. If all you want is to see some gorgeous costumes, cinematically beautiful sets, and a few big song and dance numbers than you may like this. For us, it fell short of the movie. Jafar wasn’t nearly as scary, Aladdin wasn’t nearly as deep, and Jasmine didn’t feel as strong. It feels like this production is really made for kids who care more about spectacle than storyline.

The Drinks: We’ve been to the Orpheum enough times that we now have official SHN cups that we bring to the theater with us. These cups, which you can also purchase with your drink order, allow you to bring drinks into the theatre to enjoy during the show. This Aladdin is definitely a spectacle better appreciated with some bubbly.

Aladdin runs through January 7th at the Orpheum Theater. Tickets are available on their website for $45-$200. There are $40 in-person rush tickets available.  Goldstar also currently has tickets for $55-$75.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: Role Call – “Am I supposed to be impressed with how actorly you can be?”

We have never seen a show from the company FoolsFURY so we were excited to learn about their new show Role Call, which is comprised of two new one-woman shows by local theater artists. The first piece Sheryl, Hamlet and Me, written and performed by Michelle Haner “explores the costs of ambition in the digital era.” The second piece (dis)Place[d], written and performed by Debórah Eliezer, “tells her story as the child of a first-generation immigrant to America ‘caught between cultures.’” We have also never been NOH Space where the pieces were being performed. So we headed to Potrero Hill for for some new experiences and drama talk and drinks.

Debórah Eliezer, left, and Michelle Haner, right. Photo by Wendy Yalom

Brittany: I wish I could say something positive, because I really want to support female voices, local playwrights and small scale theater. Both of these shows were  just so out of touch with what most people would want to watch, I just don’t think I can recommend it.

Katie: Yeah, I completely agree…I don’t know what else to say right now. I didn’t connect with either piece… at times they almost felt like parodies of one-woman shows. Both scripts were all over the place, they never let me fully connect to the stories they were trying to tell. And a big personal pet peeve, both of the actors did characters that had accents which were inconsistent.

B: Yeah, there were tons of little messy things like that which took me out of both pieces, but I think the biggest challenges with both of these plays is they tried to do too much. The second play (dis)Place[d] had some good moments, and I liked the concept of telling this very personal story about her father’s life to explore her complicated Jewish-Arab identity. However, she tried to play too many characters, and wasn’t able to do them all well, which detracted from the story. Also that bizarre, poetic desert-goddess character really took me out of it.

K: Yeah, I could have definitely done without that, and the weird recorded voice with the echo effect with the over the top movement.  I did love when she (Debórah Eliezer) sang though, she has a beautiful voice. A simpler telling of the same story would have been so much better.

B: Then the first piece, Sheryl, Hamlet, and Me, I didn’t enjoy at all. Sometimes actors take themselves way too seriously, and this play is a perfect example of how out of touch theater can feel when that happens. I studied acting, so I get where the breathing and stylized movement come from, but when taken to this extreme it just feels self indulgent. Am I supposed to be impressed with how actorly you can be? She made a few good points about how is Facebook creepy, but it wasn’t that insightful. It almost felt like she realized she had to make a point that people could connect with, and so she decided to pander to tech hating in the Bay Area since that’s an easy target.

K: Yeah, I don’t really know what she was going for, but I didn’t connect to this piece at all. If you could come for just one of the shows (dis)Place[d] felt like it had potential, but Sheryl, Hamlet and Me I’d definitely skip.

The Verdict: Not a show we would recommend for non-theatergoers. Maybe not even a show we would recommend for frequent theatergoers, although it is always interesting to see new plays by local female playwrights.

The Drama Talk: While it’s clear both of the women who created and performed these shows are talented, we didn’t particularly enjoy either of these plays. They try to do too much, they indulge in overly stylized techniques to the detriment of their stories, and they just weren’t that engaging. With some major edits (dis)Place[d] could be a really lovely piece. While Sheryl, Hamlet and Me tried some interesting techniques with video, the story just wasn’t there. We didn’t care about any of the characters (Sheryl Sandberg, Hamlet or the playwright as herself), and so we didn’t really care about the play.

The Drinks: We checked out Darger Bar, which was once Dear Mom. We liked the reboot. Still a lot of seating and relaxed atmosphere but a better drink and food menu.

Role call plays until October 22nd at NOH Space. Tickets are available on their website for $30. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar for $15.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: The Mineola Twins – “Ridiculously relevant”

Fall theater season is upon us, which means lots of great new shows to see around the Bay Area. Cutting Ball Theater’s first show of their 17/18 season just opened at the Exit Theater on Taylor. The Mineola Twins, by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel, is a “razor sharp satire about domestic upheaval in times of political progress and in the rise of conservatism”. It sounded like a pretty timely topic, so we headed over the the TL for some drama talk and drinks.

Elissa Beth Stebbins as Myra (right), Steve Thomas (left) and Sango Tajima (center) Photo by Liz Olson

Katie: That was so interesting! What a cool story! I wish I went in knowing a little bit more about the script. Usually I like to be surprised, but this was such a smart show, I think may have gotten more out of the first few scenes if I had known more about the story.

Brittany: I really liked it. The woman who played the twins (Elissa Beth Stebbins) was amazing. She played each sister so well I honestly couldn’t tell at first if there were two different but nearly identical looking actors, or just one amazing actor playing both roles. Turns out it was just one incredibly talented person, but her physicality was so good each character was totally distinct.

K: Yes, she was remarkable. It was such an interesting show too. I was constantly curious about where the story was going to go next.  It is ridiculously relevant to what the country is going through now and it’s a play that was written in the 90s. I think it did such a great job at creatively exploring the left versus right, conservative versus liberal.

B:  Yes it’s super timely. It also makes you reflect on your own beliefs, and that feeling of superiority that comes with feeling you have the moral high-ground. It’s great to see a play that reveals so much about the division in our society without hitting the audience over the head with politics too. It was just a compelling story about twins, who while they couldn’t be more different, still are the same.

The Verdict: Go see it! Great actors and a super relevant script make it an enjoyable thought-provoking evening.

The Drama Talk: Even though this play was written in the 90s it couldn’t feel more contemporary and in-tune with the political turmoil happening today. Cutting Ball Theater always does really relevant work, but their artistic director did a great job picking this play for this season. Beyond a great script the lead actor Elissa Beth Stebbins was remarkable. It’s worth going just to see her performance. While there were some nitpicky things that we didn’t love, the show as a whole was so engaging nothing could really detract.

The Drinks: A block from the Exit on Theater, is a chill cocktail bar in the Tilden Hotel called The Douglas Room. It has great cocktails and delicious well priced snacks. We also love that they had plenty of seating the two times we have gone. It was a great place to debrief about this thought provoking show.

The Mineola Twins plays through October 29th the Exit on Taylor. Tickets range are $35 and can be purchased on their website. Right now there are tickets available on Goldstar for $15-$20.

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Drama Talk & Drinks on BFF.fm Roll Over Easy

Yesterday Drama Talk & Drinks sat down for coffee with our friends on the Roll Over Easy show on BFF.fm to talk about the theater scene in SF.

What’s Roll Over Easy you ask?:

Roll Over Easy is a radio show that’s all about starting your day off right. We take you from under the covers to after coffee every Thursday morning, and along the way we’ll give you plenty of good tunes and fun conversation about the City you know and love. 

Our hope is that by the end each show you’ll be a bit more knowledgeable about San Francisco, and hopefully a bit more in love with it too. Our show takes place in a fictional diner and is made from one part us, one part you, and a dash of coffee.

So if you’re waking up next to your babe or if Muni is making you late for the 4th time this week, let Sequoia & The Early Bird serenade you with the sweet sounds of a proper San Francisco good morning. 

If you ever wondered what your DT&D writers sounded like in-person here’s your chance! Our interview begins roughly mid-way through the episode (at the 1:06 mark) – but give the whole show a listen for lots of SF love.

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Drama Talk & Drinks: A Tale of Autumn – “A long philosophy lesson”

Bay Area Obie award-winning playwright Christopher Chen‘s latest work, A Tale of Autumn, just had its’ world premiere at Potrero Stage. One of DT&D favorite theater companies, Crowded Fire Theater, commissioned the work “a psychological rise-to-power fable”, so we knew we wanted to check it out for Drama Talk & Drinks.

Lawrence Radecker as Dave (left) and Shoresh Alaudini as Gil (right)
Photo by Cheshire Isaacs

Katie: What just happened? I was so excited for this show, and that was just…meh.

Brittany: I feel bad. For the first act I was like, “cool, I’m with you”. There were some good actors, a smart script exploring some cool concepts, but I wish it ended at the end of the first act. I mean, I know it didn’t make sense as an ending, but the whole second act felt like a long philosophy lesson. It totally lost momentum.

K: I agree, I just felt like the story could have been more concise. It was like we were being hit over the head with the concept that the ends can’t justify the means. Cool I get it. How is this helping to move the story along? There were a lot of words coming at me and it didn’t help me connect to the characters. A strong story is really important to me, without that I just stop caring.

B:  It wasn’t like the people in it weren’t talented, or the set wasn’t cool, the set was really cool. It was just over written. You can make a point without jamming it down people’s throats.

K: I agree. I don’t think I’ll be telling friends to run out and see this one, but I have for multiple other Crowded Fire shows. This is a piece that seems like it could use some work.

B: Love Crowded Fire though, they always do interesting, innovative work. This one was a bit too much like a lecture.

The Verdict:  If you are a Bay Area theater nerd, you should probably see it. Christopher Chen is a prominent local playwright, and this is the world premiere of his latest work. Otherwise, if you aren’t really into Bay Area theater and having your pulse on the local theater scene, this is probably one you can skip.

The Drama Talk: This is such a promising play, but needs some edits to live up to its potential.  There were lots of cool and smart things A Tale of Autumn explores  –  like what is the line between selfishness and self care, and should we as a society trust “benevolent” companies, but the story gets lost in the philosophizing in the second act. While this show has lots of bright moments, a cool set, and some great actors, it just collapsed under its own weight.

The Drinks: As always after a show at the Potrero Stage, we headed up the hill to Blooms for some drinks with a view.

A Tale of Autumn plays through October 7th at the Potrero Stage. Tickets range from $15-35 and can be purchased on their website. The company also offers the following discounts: Student Tickets are always $15! (Please bring i.d.). Seniors (65+), TBA/TCG Members: $3 off at checkout.Groups of 5 or more receive an automatic 15% savings at checkout

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This facebook post

A night out in the Mission

Local Livejournal user Honey Jets tells us about a busy night out in a 2-block area of the Mission:

Elisa and Jane met me at Jono’s place at about 5:30. I put my shoes on while we watched Jojo’s video on Vimeo, and then we headed toward the Make-Out Room. Jane had to wait in line for a while to get her hand stamp, so Elisa and I walked around trying to figure out where to eat. Elisa didn’t want anything greasy or fried or containing dairy, so Wes Burger was out, Mission Chinese was out, Escape from New York was out, and F.O.B. Kitchen was out. We settled on Mateo’s. Jess met us there. I ran into Amy and a friend on my way to the salsa bar and we talked about meeting at Doc’s Clock after. On our way out of Mateo’s we ran into Omar and a friend, and we caught up for about half a block. At Make-Out Room Jonathan Richman was pretty good, and we ran into Joe. During the break, Joe and I talked outside about how he, me, Jess and Will had all been in Nashville recently. I told my “P.G. band” story, and he told me a cool story about how English people are different from Americans. After the encore, Jess and I headed for the New Mission. At the bar we ran into Mike and chatted for a minute, mostly about how good he is at his job. Upstairs we waved at Dave and Atousa who were in the row in front of us. Wild Beasts was as gnarly as promised, if not gnarlier. Terror Tuesday rules. After the movie we said bye to Mike, and then to Jess who went home to go to sleep. We joined up with Dave’s friend Brendan and went to Doc’s. Kevin was there already and we talked for a minute about how the new Doc’s is pretty good. Dave and company had gotten a table, so I joined them and we talked about the movie, at length. Dave and Atousa bickered a little (in a cute way) about fried chicken, we talked about plans for Friday, and then I strolled home, and ‘grammed an arty photo of the median on Guerrero in the moonlight.

I think it’s supposed to be a throwback to posts like this and this from July 2011, which in turn were I think some kind of homage to our dear departed Janebook.

Read on for a brief epilogue about the following morning. (And do go to all those restaurants, and do check out Amy’s blog about the Mission and Omar’s cookies and Mike’s Terror Tuesday lineup and new Doc’s Clock.)

The Salesforce awakens

Local artist Steve MacDonald aka Ramblin Worker says:

#sanfrancisco is getting so crazy! I look out my window & I really thought it was the #deathstar

[Link]

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Puke plea

[via Doc Pop]

Now please enjoy all these other pleas…

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Cool first page of a book

[via Molly Young]

Drama Talk & Drinks: The Encounter – “like nothing I have ever seen.”

Ever since the Curran’s grand-reopening earlier this year, the theater has been bringing some serious theater game, living up to their mission of “presenting bold, daring work”. Their latest show, The Encounter, promised audiences an “epic journey” through the use of the latest in 3D audio technology. Actor and director Simon McBurney’s one-man-show takes audiences into the Amazon rainforest, following the story of National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre.  We had a feeling that this was going to be something special, so off we went for a night of Drama Talk & Drinks.

Simon McBurney in THE ENCOUNTER (Photo by Gianmarco Bresadola)

Katie: This was like nothing I have ever seen. That in itself was magical. There were moments where I could feel myself making a crazy face and thinking “what’s happening, this is so cool”. I have just never experienced storytelling in that way. He (Simon McBurney) was an amazing actor and storyteller. Then you throw in what he did with sound design and it made it a recipe for awesomeness. It was one man on a very bare stage but I really felt taken away.

Brittany: Yeah, it was mesmerizing. It’s also an interesting juxtaposition. On one hand he’s using the story of encountering this remote tribe in the Amazon to critique the consumerism and technological dependence of modern Western society. At the same time, the way he’s able to transport you on this journey is through the use of this amazing audio technology and lighting. There are a few groups in the environmental movement who are exploring how you can use technology to build deeper empathy and concern for places like the Amazon rainforest. That certainly was one goal of this show. While I don’t know if I came away with a concrete way to change my behavior, aside from shunning bottled water, but it certainly gave me a deeper experience of the rainforest. It was a very innovative way to engage people.

Katie: The show presented a lot of interesting questions and ideas on the environment and generally on life. I appreciated the way it encouraged us to challenge our perceptions about the truthfulness of stories we tell, what it means to be alive, and what we should value.

Brittany: Also major kudos to the Curran. When we were walking out I was thinking how unique it is to see a piece like this in a theater this size. It was amazing to see this on a big scale. One little person on this great big stage and he was able to fill it. I feel like you don’t get the opportunity to do that very often. And it was mesmerizing for the 2 full hours.

Katie: I’d have to say that the Curran is really sticking to their promise to be bold and different. I’ve seen some really cool and innovative theater there. Looking forward to seeing what they do next.

The Verdict: SO cool! A very unique and mesmerizing experience. Go! Go now!

The Drama Talk: Simon McBurney did an incredible job transporting the audience to another place. He gets in your head, or at least your ears, through the use of  3D audio technology that is served directly to each audience member via personal headphones found at each seat. The masterful sound design is at once intimate and immersive. The story takes the audience to the Amazon rainforest and the sound design makes you feel surrounded by the jungle, the river, the mosquitos and the swirling voices of the story being told. Technically speaking it was incredible, but beyond the flashy technology, it also was just great storytelling.

The Drinks: A block away from the theater on Geary we checked out the Pineapple Bistro and Bar in the Alise San Francisco hotel. It was a great choice because is was practically empty with plenty of seating and great service. There were lots of pineapple everything, and Katie’s drink even came in a brass pineapple, which felt appropriately jungle themed after an evening in the Amazon.

The Encounter runs through May 7th at the Curran. Tickets are $49-$185 and can be purchased on the Curran’s website.

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Mission Bicycle’s Bright Idea.

Full disclosure: As the project manager, I may be biased. Feel free to take this post with a grain of salt.

So here’s what’s up. Tomorrow, Mission Bicycle unveils (thanks to Betabrand for the veil) what we’ve been working on for the last 2 years.

• Integrated lights
• GPS tracking

Starting in 2018, all Mission Bicycles will come with theft-proof lighting. Front and rear.

Two lights, one battery, one button. Close to a month’s worth of commutes with one charge of a removable rechargeable battery.

Mission Bicycle is adding a GPS tracking device to help reunite bike owners with their bikes in the event of theft. “The bike industry regularly takes note at what’s happening in the Mission. The suits literally come into our store for ‘inspiration.’ ” gloated Jefferson McCarley, General Manager of Mission Bicycle Co. “I actually hope they rip us off.” McCarley said. “More bikes on the street with GPS tracking will help us move the needle in reducing bike theft. Might take them a couple of years, but I really do hope that more bike companies can figure this out.”

 

An Android and ios app shows Mission owners where the bike is at all times.

Tuesday night at 6:00, Mission Bicycle staff will be on hand to answer questions and demo two prototype bikes in their R&D workshop which is located on the 2nd floor over the 766 Valencia storefront.

If Mission Bicycle Company’s Kickstarter campaign is funded then the LYRA will be available later this year to Kickstarter backers and to the general public in 2018. 

The company is planning to host a Bait Bike project in June as a part of their research and development. We’ll be posting videos of those adventures here.