Given the COVID-19 virus concerns, this review is going to be slightly different then my previous articles. For example, I’ve been here many times over the years. My friends and neighbors love this place. Thus, I wasn’t discovering a new restaurant to enjoy. They’re also a chain restaurant w…
A co-worker, who follows my stories in the Community Voice, asked if I also cover the Penngrove area in my wanderings. Haven’t before as it’s a bit out my stomping grounds, but sure why not. So, she suggested I try JavAmore Café at 10101 Main Street, Suite A. It’s in the back of the little s…
I had a conversation the other day about how much fun it’s been to visit various restaurants and write these stories for the Community Voice. I mentioned how I was amazed at the number of small, family owned restaurants that were good that I was finding in Cotati. And a lot of them, were fou…
A co-worker suggested I try Acme Burger in Cotati since I haven’t ever been there before. I’m glad she did. It was a very pleasant visit. Located at 550 East Cotati Avenue, just a few doors down from Oliver’s Market, Acme Burger is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. serving lunch …
The “coming soon” banners have been replaced by the open now banners. Located at 595 Rohnert Park Expressway, this new addition to the restaurant scene in Rohnert Park has been open just a couple of weeks. You can find them between Chuck E. Cheese and Fundemonium in the Expressway Mall. Plen…
When co-workers and Facebook friends start talking about a great chicken wing place, you must check it out. So, I did. The place is called Wing Man. I’ve heard that name before but thought it was a food truck that did catering for public or private events. I was partially correct. They do st…
Café Mimosa located at 451 Rohnert Park Expressway in Rohnert Park is one of many breakfast and lunch establishments that can be found in Cotati and Rohnert Park. I’ve visited them a few times since they opened in 2019. They are open seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.
I was over by Oliver’s Market the other day when I noticed a small restaurant right on the corner of their building. It is called Saigon Café. I didn’t remember that being there during my previous explorations in the Cotati area. I was right. Thanks to the internet, a quick search on my phon…
Looking to explore new and interesting places to eat in Cotati or Rohnert Park? Whether you are new to the community or a long time resident, it is likely there are many restaurants you haven’t yet tried or perhaps even were unknown to you. Since a friend was aware that I liked to explore br…
Of the many things to love about 6th Street Playhouse’s “The Book Club Play,” three can be found in a message from the director, Jess Headington. She wants to create a situation where the audience can see the world from a different perspective. Through humor people can find, as the main ch…
“Gypsy: a Musical Fable,” by Arthur Laurents with music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim, presented by 6th Street Playhouse beginning Sep. 20, features Broadway character actress Kathy Fitzgerald starring as Mama Rose. Expect this show to sell out quickly; make plans now to att…
6th Street Playhouse
Musical comedy in a flower shop introduces a bizarre plant and a strange, socially challenged clerk named Seymour. Finding an unusual plant following a solar eclipse, he and his fellow workers see an opportunity to draw customers into their failing store by promoting this Venus Flytrap like…
What could be more timely and appropriate than to open the Spreckels show season with a play about a charter school at a time when more and more Americans are opting for alternative education for their children and school has just begun? “Eureka Day,” directed by Elizabeth Craven, makes its…
Avalon Players
Good and not so good news from Leslie McCauley, Chair and Artistic Director of Santa Rosa Junior College’s Theatre and Fashion Department. And the not so good news is not so bad.
Just when the documentary television show “Hard Knocks” chooses to focus on the Oakland Raiders, 6th Street Playhouse opens its 2019-2020 season with a literary version of the same format. “The Book Club Play” puts the spotlight on a highly functional book club that has five very different …
Avalon Players presents William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” performed outdoors in the beautiful fountain courtyard at the historic Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma. Patio and picnic seating.
Kate Kennedy, former lead actress for the San Francisco Shakespeare Company, who has presented Shakespeare plays for 38 years in Sonoma, brings one of Shakespeare’s three best comedies for a run at the historic Buena Vista Winery. Her Avalon Players present “As You Like It” at the beautiful…
In the past two weeks, we discussed over forty shows that will be presented by six local companies during the 2019-2020 theater season that begins in Aug. and runs through June of 2020. Theater is alive and doing well in Sonoma County.
“Peace, Love & Free Admission” promises the Healdsburg Raven Players’ program for William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” This play, complete with 1967 dress styles and music, opened Thurs., July 25, in West Plaza Park and will run through Aug. 10.
Last week we presented 34 shows that will appear in the 2019-2020 for five theater groups: Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park, Main Stage West in Sebastopol, Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, and 6th Street Playhouse and Santa Rosa Junior College’s Theatre Arts in Santa Rosa. Thi…
Live Theater for the Week of August 2 through August 10
We love live theater wherever we can find it. Selecting dates and plays for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, our annual ritual, is nearly as exciting as attending the shows. We are blessed with fine theater in San Francisco and have been fortunate to see Shakespeare in Stratford-Upon-Avon …
Is it a musical quest? Is it a dancing circus? Is it a love story? Is it a philosophical discovery? Summer Repertory’s fifth and final show, “Pippin,” offers all of the above and more.
Summer Rep Theatre Festival
Summer Repertory’s fourth production, “Sylvia,” caused some uproarious laughter as it opened at the Newman Auditorium on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus on Tue., July 9. A. R. Gurney’s 1995 comic masterpiece, reprised by SRT, has lost little in a quarter of a century with its humor and…
6th Street Playhouse revealed its ten-show season on Tue. July 9. Musicals, thrillers, comedies, classics, modern comedy and drama, a bio-rock to match last year’s “Million Dollar Quartet,” the macabre and nostalgic flower power all offered at the Playhouse’s two venues, the Monroe Stage an…
Summer Rep Theatre Festival
Three fun productions open this week, two in Santa Rosa and one in Sonoma. Summer Repertory Theatre Festival continues by opening its fourth and fifth shows, “Sylvia” and “Pippin.” Sonoma Arts Live presents “My Fair Lady” beginning this weekend.
“Bonnie and Clyde” the musical seems like it must be a spoof about two of America’s most notorious criminals. One pictures the two infamous robbers exchanging love ballads to the rhythm of staccato racket of machine guns. Summer Rep’s show passes on the sensationalistic opportunity to exam…
Summer Rep Theatre Festival
The Movement Lab returned to Spreckels with its latest production, “Just Dance.” And once again moved to the beat of Artistic Director Bernadette Alverio-Tonks’ philosophy, “Dance is for every ‘body.’” Inclusive, not exclusive, Movement Lab shows involve people of all ages, shapes, and abi…
Summer Rep’s director of “The 39 Steps,” Shad Willingham laid out the literary and historical background for the play and then immediately said, “None of which you need to know to enjoy Summer Repertory Theatre Festival’s “The 39 Steps.” No need to study World War I or the rise of the dicta…
Summer Repertory Theatre returned Fri., June 21, from a year’s hiatus with an unforgettable show, “Mamma Mia!” staged in Summer Rep Pavilion. The perfect celebratory production filled with familiar songs from ABBA, exuberant dancing and a bizarre but plausible storyline search for a father …
A big three weeks for the Summer Rep Festival at Santa Rosa Junior College kicked off last Fri. with “Mamma Mia!” (Read our review.) “The 39 Steps” opened Tue., June 25 at the Newman Auditorium. (Read the full review in our July 5 edition.) John Buchan’s famous mystery novel made into a …
Summer Rep returns this week to Santa Rosa Junior College after missing last season due to the $28m renovation of the Burbank Auditorium. “Mamma Mia!!” featuring well-known hits by ABBA opens Fri., June 21, at 8 p.m. in Haehl Pavilion, recently built to hold three summer musicals. This pop…
“An Evening with the Riccardi’s” brings Sandy and Richard Riccardi’s witty, satirical brilliance to Cotati Sat., July 13 at 7:30 p.m. in a benefit performance for Congregation Ner Shalom in its building at 85 LaPlaza, formerly the home of the Cotati Cabaret.
“Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!” Maybe all of what most of us have known about opera since childhood. This comes early in Cinnabar Theater’s “The Barber of Seville.” Now we must wait for two and a half hours for, as Yogi Berra may have so aptly coined the end of most productions, a baseball seas…
Dancing at Spreckels, a light opera at Cinnabar and a famous fifties musical at 6th Street Playhouse. Shows to cool off with while the temperature climbs in Sonoma County. Catch outdoor markets and movies in the park. Did Cotati show “Goonies” in the park last Friday? Look for much more …
Both 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa and Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma put a musical cap on their 2018-2019 seasons, one with a well-known Broadway musical, “West Side Story” and the other with light opera, “The Barber of Seville.” Both shows open Fri., June 7.
“Well, This is Awkward,” a play of 12 parts written, directed and acted by Rancho Cotate students, inaugurated drama in the new theater of the TAG building on May 14. Led by drama teacher Sara Ghazikhanian, the students presented twelve skits linked by stories of awkward situations to usher…
6th Street Playhouse’s “Faceless” opened Fri., May 17 evoking many stock phrases often used to describe a new and original work of art. Timeless, relevant, compelling and perplexing, dealing with age-old themes of identity and self-discovery, “Faceless” integrates modern technology and curr…
Mikey Carrillo, a sophomore, at Rancho Cotate High School, rehearses his scene with his friend, Carl, in the “Well this is Ackward,” play written, directed and performed by students in the RCHS drama class. Dress rehearsal was held in the theater of the new TAG Building on Mon, May 13 and t…
“You have something to believe in, yourself!” exclaims the Fairy Godmother to Ella in Spreckels Theatre Company’s presentation of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” This optimistic message underscores the two-thousand-year old fairy tale set whirling to music with colorful dancing, som…
As seasons wind down for theater groups in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Petaluma, many opportunities exist for some fine viewing of final productions. 6th Street Playhouse’s fine showing of “To Kill a Mockingbird” ends Sun., May 19. “Faceless” opens Fri., May 17. And “West Side Story” wil…
While the play season ends soon for local theater companies in Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Petaluma, the quality of performance and the level of interest remain high. Two musicals, one opera and one new play cap very successful years for Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 6th Street Playhou…
Finally, getting behind the scenes in the Spreckels Performing Arts Center at eight o’clock on a Monday morning. Jennifer Griego, Advertising/Marketing Coordinator for the Spreckels Theatre Company, gave me an hour and a half tour of the Performing Arts Center. This journey took me back si…
Last week we previewed 6th Street Playhouse’s production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a “must see” show. Our interview focused on the main adult character, Atticus Finch, played by actor Jeff Cote`. He did not disappoint, but he also kept a few secrets. The grown up version of Jean Louis…
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Department’s rock concert musical, made Good Friday a great Friday. Dancing, singing, acting all were superbly choreographed. The music, beginning with Guitarist Ian Scherer’s kick off piece, electrified Maria Carrillo’s scho…
Most of us met the ideal single father in the film version of “To Kill a Mockingbird” nearly sixty years ago. Gregory Peck made an indelible stamp on the character of Atticus. We can all hear him declare softly, sternly but with a father’s love, “Go home, Jem. Take Scout and Dill home,” a…
