Many stories

I am more and more reminded of the incredible vibrancy of the local arts scene, and how unknown it is to much of this area's population. I saw four different shows this weekend, each wildly different from the last, and most with shocking low audience turnout.

Thursday I went to go see Cassidy Brown in Noises Off, out in Concord. A fun show, and one that I feel close to having been in a very difficult and story laden production back when I was first getting involved in theatre after my long hiatus. They were having an extension of the production, which is always difficult as you've been doing good enough business to warrant it, but it's not announced until late and so the PR is difficult to get out. Still for a Thursday night, it was all right. But then again, it was a Thursday night, and it was in the suburbs, and well known farces do very well out there. This particular company has done the show three times in the last ten years, which is highly unusual and bespeaks how financially safe it is to do what is actually a very difficult and expensive show. Afterwards we went out to what used to be the "King's X" bar in Piedmont, but was recently bought and turned into (of all things) a tiki bar. It was worth the trip, if only for the surrealness of it.

Friday night I met up with Eden Tosh and one of the best loved ladies that you will never see on stage, Peggy Powell. We met up over at Foley's Irish House before bopping over to the Exit Theatre for their annual DivaFest. I had done a few shows with the amazing "Lunatique Fantastique" years before and was eager to see their newest show, "Beauty and the Breast". For those uninitiated, Lun Fan does "found object puppetry." This mean that all the puppets and their props are items you would find around the house. The primary characters were bras. I don't mean that they had bras, they WERE bras. Ordinary bras you would find in any store that sold things like bras. Funny, truthful, and at times very sad (as a show about surviving... or not ... breast cancer should be). Again, a very small turnout for a company that routinely sells out its shows.

It turns out that Sarah Szewczyk was doing lights for the show, but I failed to return to her the stack of lighting gels that have been at my apartment since Manumission closed last October. She's been busy as hell, as talented lighting designers tend to be. I was able to join most of the Lunatique Fantastique crew for drinks at Original Joe's afterwards, prompting Eden's observation that all I do is go see plays and drink afterwards. Peggy, said that this was rather the whole point of theatre but then had to beg off the drinking part. So I traded off one set of lovely drinking partners for another and caught up with Robin Plutchok, who I hadn't really seen for more than a heartbeat since we did Fixed Boundary together two years earlier.

It turned out that there was a cabaret at Original Joe's that night, which was part of DivaFest. Having run into Amanda Ostermeyer (the power behind the throne at the Exit) and Christina Aguello, I felt it would be impolitic not to stay for the show and ended up running into a couple of strays. Kimberly Richards, who has been touring the country with her one-woman show "Late Night Catechism" showed up, as did the brilliantly deranged Thessaly Lerner who vanished Los Angeles-way a few years ago. It appeared to be a homecoming, and we all sat back for a somewhat slapdash (but surprisingly fun) cabaret celebrating San Francisco 06's, starting with the earthquake a century ago. It was one of those affairs that rode on goodwill and fun and enthusiasm more than any particular polish, rehearsal, or whatnot, and managed to succeed wildly on those credentials.

Finally, last night I caught "Money and Run, Episode 4" out at La Val's Pizzeria in Berkeley, which has a theatre downstairs. Impact Theatre is the current resident company, and I had seen the original three episodes of Money and Run two years ago. These are insane, delightful, funny as hell, and completely pointless homages to bad television of the early 80's. The original run was wildly popular and always well attended, so I was surprised to see that the theatre was barely a quarter fill, and it's a very small venue. A funny show with a great cast deserves better than that. Ãœberhot Alexandra Creighton once again is playing bad-girl "Money", and I try never to miss a show of hers if I can help it. We did Comedy of Errors a ways back and she's a rising star that we're going to be losing to So Cal fairly soon. Leon Goertzen and Hector Osario had joined the cast, which completed what Peggy has begun referring to as my requirement for seeing a show... knowing at least three people in the cast and crew.

And afterwards we all got drinks.

I may go back for closing night and the party, as the rest of the cast decided that I should be their groupie, and when a bevy of women makes such a proclamation... who am I to argue?