For the seven characters of August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” emotions flare up and burn through the night like hot riffs from a blues guitar. Written as part of Wilson’s Century Cycle — 10 plays exploring African-American experience, one for each decade of the 20th century — “Guitars” dramatizes a few fateful days in the life of a bluesman in the Hill District of the playwright’s native Pittsburgh. Kent Gash’s insightful production for the Marin Theatre Company makes those days an incendiary portrait of dreams deferred during the post-World War II, pre-civil rights era. Read More

Santa Cruz isn’t just for surfers. Each summer, Shakespeare Santa Cruz makes it a premier destination for theatergoers as well.  With three productions — Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” and “Henry IV, Part I” and Alexander Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers” — up and running through Aug. 28, all’s well at the festival under artistic director Marco Barricelli, now celebrating its 30th season on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Read More

In the first moments of “Metamorphosis,” someone says that Gregor Samsa “is not himself today.” That’s putting it mildly. Poor Gregor has been transformed overnight, for no reason and utterly without warning, into a human-sized insect.The new Aurora Theatre production brings Franz Kafka’s revolutionary masterpiece to the stage with a decidedly different twist. Director Mark Jackson, using an adaptation by David Farr and Gisli Orn Gardarsson, gives the 1915 story an updated setting in 1950s suburban America. Read More

In “Titus Andronicus,” revenge doesn’t just mean an eye for an eye. Tongues, hands, heads and lives are sacrificed in Shakespeare’s grisly tragedy set during the final days of the Roman Empire. Theater companies never seem sure what to do with the play, written early in Shakespeare’s career as a run-up to great tragedies such as “Macbeth,” “Othello” and “King Lear.” Some camp it up. Most don’t do it at all. But it gets a rare and surprisingly potent staging in the new California Shakespeare Theater production. Read More

It’s been nearly 20 years since Anna Deavere Smith brought her first incendiary one-woman show to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The acclaimed playwright-performer has returned with a new work, “Let Me Down Easy,” and it’s clear she’s lost none of her fire or theatrical flair.Smith has always done her best work exploring hot-button issues. Her earlier shows — “Fires in the Mirror,” about the Crown Heights race riots, and “Twilight: Los Angeles,” on the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict — turned those issues into riveting theater. Read More

The timing couldn’t have been better. The folks at San Francisco Playhouse may not have planned it that way, but giving “Reborning” its world premiere on the eve of Mother’s Day seemed to add an extra layer of resonance to Zayd Dohrn’s compelling dark comedy.Not that Dohrn’s play needs shoring up. In Josh Costello’s tightly staged 80-minute production, the show delves into a fascinating range of issues from procreation and genetic inheritance to inspiration, madness and the uses of art. Read More