Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

  The ensemble of Cal Shakes and Word for Word’s The Pastures of Heaven, an adaptation of the John Steinbeck book by Octavio Solis. Photos by Kevin Berne   Spectacular things are happening at the Bruns Amphitheater – on stage and off. At long last, California Shakespeare Theater is getting a performance venue worthy of [...]

Patty Gallagher is a gun-toting Winnie in the Cal Shakes production of Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Kevin Berne In the world of live theater, you never know from where the drama will come. For California Shakespeare Theater artistic director Jonathan Moscone and his production of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, there was already [...]

Opened May 30, 2009 at the Bruns Amphitheater Alex Morf and Sarah Nealis are the star-crossed young lovers in the California Shakespeare Theater’s season-opening production of Romeo and Juliet. Photos by Kevin Berne Youthful passion, ancient hate heat up Cal Shakes’ `R&J’««« ½ An explosion of color, violence and surprising beauty, the giant splash of [...]

The National Endowment for the Arts – did you know that even existed anymore? – has handed out some $20,000 grants as part of a new NEA New Play Development Program. And one of the recipients was Berkeley-based California Shakespeare Theater, which will spend 20 grand on early play development activities — read-throughs, public readings [...]

  Alex Morf (left) is Viola disguised as Cesario and Stephen Barker Turner is Count Orsino in the California Shakespeare Theater’s season-ending production of Twelfth Night. Photos by Kevin Berne   Director’s vision weighs heavily on Cal Shakes’ `Twelfth Night’««   It’s not often you leave a Shakespeare play and feel like you need to [...]

As the California Shakespeare Theater heads into its final show of the season (Twelfth Night), artistic director Jonathan Moscone has announced next summer’s line-up. The season will mark Moscone’s 10th anniversary heading Cal Shakes, and he will direct Romeo and Juliet and Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days starring Marsha Mason(right) in her Cal Shakes debut. Mark [...]

Word from the California Shakespeare Theater is that artistic director Jonathan Moscone’s production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde has become the company’s biggest box-office hit in its 35-year history. This breaks the previous record held by Moscone’s production of Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw last summer. Says Cal Shakes’ outgoing managing [...]

Opened July 5, Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, Orinda Julie Eccles is Gertrude Chiltern and Stacy Ross is Laura Chevely in California Shakespeare Theater’s production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Photos by Kevin Berne   Ferocity marries wit in Cal Shakes’ lively `Husband’«««« Nothing ages like happiness, or so Oscar Wilde tells us in An [...]

  Elijah Alexander starred as Jack Tanner in California Shakespeare Theater’s Man and Superman last summer. This year he’s starring in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. Photo by Kevin Berne He’s right on time for his interview – early even – and he’s in character. “Oscar Wilde said that punctuality is a thief of time, [...]

Last week I spent four glorious days in Ashland, Ore., covering the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the San Francisco Chronicle. The first few stories are online now, and conveniently, I provide the links. For a news story involving Jonathan Moscone and Tony Taccone collaborating on an OSF-commissioned show about Moscone’s father, slain San Francisco Mayor [...]