The predominant story in Bay Area theater for the past year continues to be company closures and the regular announcement of emergency fund raisers to stave off further closures.
No theater company is immune to the financial pressures created by the combination of the increase in costs of doing business and the reduction of income that comes with smaller audiences.
Other than the closure of Sonoma County’s Main Stage West in 2023, North Bay theater companies have managed to survive and even occasionally thrive in this difficult time for the performing arts. While the Mountain Play appears to be financially struggling, most other Marin-based theater companies seem to have reacted to the changing circumstances by shortening their seasons and, in one case, their name.
Marin Theatre (formerly Marin Theatre Company) opens their 2024/25 season in October with the U. S. premiere of Yaga. Written by Canadian playwright Kat Sandler, it was apparently inspired by the Slavik myth of Baba Yaga, an old woman who is alternatively murderous and cannibalistic or helpful and benevolent. Part detective story, part fairy tale, the Barbara Damashek-directed show opens in Mill Valley on Oct. 10.
The company then goes dark until February 2025, when they will present a rarely seen century-old political play. Waste, written in 1906 by Harley Granville-Barker, is a turn-of-the-century play about abortion and politics. Carey Perloff, A.C.T. artistic director emerita, will be making her Marin Theatre debut.
Ross Valley Players open their 95th season with Susan Sandler’s Crossing Delancey. The 1985 play, which inspired a well-received 1988 film adaptation, has been described as the “quintessential Jewish rom-com.” The Barn at the Marin Art & Garden Center hosts the Adrian Elfenbaum-directed show starting Sept. 13.
The company’s season continues in November with a production of the Noël Coward classic, Blithe Spirit.
Nuns will be running amok at the Novato Theater Company playhouse in September, with the umpteenth Bay Area production of Dan Goggin’s Nunsense. Lisa Morse directs the NTC production of the first in the series of popular shows featuring the Little Sisters of Hoboken that originally started as a series of greeting cards. If you haven’t seen it in any of its previous 1,847 incarnations at a theater near you, then you’ll have a chance in Novato starting Sept. 12.
The company has not announced their second production of the season yet, but do plan to host Marin Musical Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret in March 2025.
College of Marin’s Performing Arts Department will be mounting a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in late September. Erin McBride Africa directs the Shakespeare tale of lies, supernatural portents, devious planning, murder, a ghostly sighting, revenge and power struggles in the college’s James Dunn Theatre starting Sept. 28.
Speaking of the Scottish play, the Marin Shakespeare Company’s interesting (if overlong) “echo” of the play, The Untime, continues at their Fourth Street theater through Aug. 25. Their somewhat-more traditional production of The Comedy of Errors runs at the Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University through Sept. 15.
Circumstances have led to a reduction in the amount of live theater available to Marin audiences. You can ensure its availability and its future by attending any of the shows listed above, be it a well-worn musical comedy or something completely new. Just see something.
