Best 2014-2015 College Productions In The Bay Area
Pigott Theatre (credit: stanford.edu)
We head into another season following the great college productions of last year with productions out of the Theatre of the Absurd from the pens of three great mid-century playwrights: Ionesco, Albee and Stoppard. In the spring of 2015, two more productions shine a light on early- to mid-20th century America.
(credit: tdps.berkeley.edu/)
"Rhinoceros"
UC Berkeley
Zellerbach Hall
101 Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 642-9988
www.tdps.berkeley.edu
Dates: Nov. 14-23, 2014
Capitulation or resistance when everyone in your village turns into a rhinoceros? Carry on with another humorous classic from the Theatre of the Absurd barnyard with 1959 Eugène Ionesco's indictment of authority. Do the political undercurrents still ring true today? Decide for yourself with this play presented by the UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies.
College of Marin
James Dunn Theatre, Performing Arts Building
835 College Ave.
Kentfield, CA 94904
(415) 485-9385
www.marin.edu
Date: Nov. 20 to Dec. 7, 2014
Celebrating 50 years onstage, the Drama Department examines the Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd via the pairing of two early one-act plays written by Edward Albee in 1961 and 1959, respectively. The first is a satire on family life and the vacuous values of post-war America, and the second explores social disparity and its chilling affect in a commercialized world. Albee is a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
Stanford University
Piggott Theatre
450 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
(650) 723-2576
www.taps.stanford.edu
Dates: Feb. 19-22, 2015
Stanford's Department of Theater & Performance Studies presents the 1966 Tom Stoppard play categorized as a "absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy." Inspired by two minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," they ponder the meaning of their existence along the road to Elsinore Castle. Audiences can immerse themselves in the material at the department's staging of "Hamlet" on March 5-8, 2015.
City College of San Francisco
The Diego Rivera Theatre
50 Phelan Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94112
(415) 239-3000
www.ccsf.edu
Dates: November, 2014, specific dates TBA. Check the website for updates.
Susan Jackson directs in the historically significant Diego Rivera Theatre. "Heaven Can Wait" was re-made into a popular film with Warren Beatty in 1978. The story relates to the working man ethics of America in the1940s via the character Joe Pendleton, a boxer taken out of his body 60 years too early by an over-zealous angel. The show produces smiles while it examines love, destiny and free will.
University of San Francisco
The College Players
2130 Fulton St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 422-5555
www.usfca.edu
Dates: Spring 2015 (dates to be announced)
The College Players of USF celebrate their 151st anniversary. Founded in 1863, the oldest student-run college group west of the Mississippi presents Broadway's third longest-running American musical of "Chicago." Its story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice. In addition, the annual spring production of "The Vagina Monologues" distributes all proceeds to Bay Area women's charities. Follow them on Facebook at The College Players.
