Rachel Bublitz

Writer

Shows to See

Oy vey! I have been as sick as a dog, and since I was just better from the flu, I don’t know if I trust this year…. But there’s a lot of awesome theatre going on this month, so there’s hope. If you’re looking to see some fun shows, check out my list…

Custom Made Theatre Co. extended Why Torture Is Wrong, and The People Who Love Them by Christopher Durang directed by Claire Rice. Running now until February 17th at Gough Street Playhouse.

“Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them tells the story of a young woman in crisis: Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Is her father’s hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Does her mother go to the theater frequently to seek mental escape, or is she just insane? Add in a minister who directs porno, and a ladylike operative whose underwear just won’t stay up, and this black comedy will make us laugh all the way to the waterboarding room.”

San Francisco Theater Pub brings us The Heart Plays on Monday February 18th at Cafe Royale. Show is at 8pm. And seriously, if you haven’t made it out to see SF Theater Pub’s shows yet they never disappoint. It’s a group of artists making theatre because they love it, and it shows.

“Eight creative teams of actors and directors interpret, re-interpret, and totally mis-interpret seminal postmodern playwright Heiner Müller’s 10-line play, HEART PLAY. There will be music, there will be dancing, there will be fake guts, and there will be many, many brick hearts. By the end of the night, you’ll know the text so well, you can perform it yourself!”

Wily West ProductionsThe Showdown.

8 Playwrights. 4 Topics. 6 Days. Cowboys. Outlaws.

Come experience a new play competition right before your eyes as eight outstanding local playwrights try to win your vote for best play.

We give two playwrights a phrase or topic to write about, 6 days to write a short play or monologue, and then come together to hear the work performed by an ensemble of actors. But that’s not all. This is a competition. The playwrights have been divided into Team Cowboy and Team Outlaw and it will be your choice to decide which playwright wrote the better piece: the Cowboy or the Outlaw? We will combine the votes of the audience together and by end of the night we will have a winning team!

The fun starts this Thursday, February 7th! Awesome local playwrights include: Patricia Milton, Kirk Shimano, Charles Lewis III, Bridgette Dutta Portman, Susan Jackson, Marissa Skudlarek, Ignacio Zulueta, and Jaene Leonard.

New Conservatory Theatre Center presents: Hot Mess: Now It’s Getting Awkward. Runs February 7th – 16th.

It’s been a whole year since we gave birth to San Francisco’s biggest sketch comedy train wreck, and we are thrilled that NCTC invited us back for two hot weekends of shows…especially after the mess we made the last time.

Inferno Theatre presents My Recollect Time by local playwright Jamie Greenblatt.

Opens 2/22 at 9pm, runs until March 3rd.

South Berkeley Community Church 1802 Fairview Street, at Ellis Berkeley, CA 94703

Jamie Greenblatt’s play tells the inspiring story of the historical figure Mary Fields, a former slave, and the transformations she undergoes as she struggles to live a free and authentic life after Emancipation. Her life journey takes her from Tennessee to Montana via the Mississippi as a riverman (she passed as a man) and includes her close friendship with the charismatic Ursuline nun, Mother Amadeus.

DIVAfest has DIVA or Die Burlesque on February 16th at The Exit Cafe.

Come strip away your inhibitions in this intimate little theater. Get your tickets in advance, as they sell out quickly! I mean it!

Now you have the info, go out and get your theatre on. Oh, and just to be on the safe side, take some vitamin C, you don’t want to get sick…. Trust me.