ARTS Pick: The Haunting of Hill House

Ghost writing: When Shirley Jackson decided to write a ghost story, she took inspiration from a real-life 19th-century scientific investigation, and created The Haunting of Hill House. Jackson said it was important to believe in ghosts in order to write the novel, and the result was a definitive horror classic, a finalist for the National […]

ARTS Pick: GTP Summer Shorts

Short break: Gorilla Theater Productions continues its commitment to diversifying theater with Summer Shorts, an opportunity for five local playwrights to get their work produced and performed. The unique series of plays gets a boost from five of GTP’s experienced directors, who draw from a group of 13 actors to bring the stories to life. […]

ARTS Pick: Hedda Gabler

In Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen crafted a painfully real representation of the 19th-century angel in the house. Stripped of her individuality, Hedda is repressed by her roles as daughter and wife. The production channels themes of subtle misogyny through love, rage, and a gripping sense of cruelty that leaves Hedda and those around her to […]

ARTS Pick: The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?

When Martin, a 50-year-old husband and father, confesses his love for a goat, it sets off a wild chain of events in the architect’s successful and seemingly perfect family life. Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? reflects on moral judgment, crisis management, and sexual psychology, in an absurdly harrowing story that is subtitled […]

ARTS Pick: Shakespeare sets the stage for family dysfunction

Aging does not come gracefully in William Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear, in which familial power struggles, corruption and a descent into madness mark the unraveling of a king and his kingdom. Sean Prunka takes on the juicy lead role, one that’s coveted by actors around the world, in Gorilla Theater Production’s staging of original family […]

ARTS Pick: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Three actors, 37 plays and an hour and a half to perform The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Andy Davis, Jack Rakes and Kendall Stewart rip through plots and costumes at a blistering pace, navigating shortcuts with tactics such as turning Othello into a rap and replacing the comedies with an improv Mad Libs […]

ARTS Pick: St. Nicholas

Michael McGee stars in Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas, a one-man show about a jaded theater critic who’s obsession with an actress leads him into the cold, soulless world of vampires who challenge his selfish ways. The Los Angeles Times says McGee, who initally performed the play on the West Coast, uses “perfectly inflected cadences [to] […]

ARTS Pick: Spring Awakening

Taking on the topic of sexual oppression at the turn of the 19th century, Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening drives straight through the soul of puberty. Gorilla Theater Productions’ contemporary approach to the coming-of-age story confronts themes of reproduction, rape and suicide so incisively it’s subtitled A Children’s Tragedy. Through May 14. $10-15, times vary. Gorilla […]

Gorilla Theater puts a final twist on the holidays

Last year was exhausting, right? No wonder people pushed themselves to have the merriest holiday of their lives in 2016. Online sales hit the highest mark ever during Black Friday weekend. Consumers wanted, more than ever, to escape real life and celebrate in tinsel wonderlands. Now that you’ve digested plenty of fa-la-las and other family […]