As Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s 2010 festival season draws near, Obie Award-winner Pam MacKinnon is overseeing the repertory company’s production of Othello (Aug. 3-29). Santa Cruz is the latest stop in this young director’s career, which has taken her all around the country, from New York to Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company to Hartford Stage in Connecticut and many others. A frequent collaborator with playwright Edward Albee, she has directed several of his plays, including the world premieres of At Home at the Zoo and Occupant.
Articles by Sean Conwell
Santa Cruz Gets ‘The Goat’
What are society’s limits? What is acceptable, what is not, and why? These are questions posed by Mountain Community Theater’s production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, a play which provoked both laughter and groans of disgust from its audience when it opened last Friday.
Santa Cruz Strummers Flock to Pubs Contest
The Britannia Arms is an authentic English pub, complete with fish n’ chips and waitresses that call you “love,” and is a popular drinking spot in Aptos. However, on the evening of Tuesday, May 11, the area around the bar was nearly empty. Everyone was crowded instead into the upstairs area where the Singer-Songwriter Showcase was about to begin. When the MC/Judge appeared at the microphone in the corner of the room, she thanked the sponsors and directed the room’s attention to a guitar on the wall, which was to be raffled off later. She mentioned, ominously, that although this event was free, nobody would be allowed out of the building without a raffle ticket.
Santa Cruz Author Reimagines Holmes’ World
There exist a vast number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches, from Mark Twain’s Double Barrelled Detective Story to the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century. Even so, it’s safe to say that local author Laurie R. King’s novels featuring Mary Russell, protégé and wife of Sherlock Holmes, are among the very finest of these stories.
New Face of America
She may be a young activist dealing with some of today’s most pressing issues, but Erica Williams is setting her sights on the future—mid-century, to be exact. By that time, the Census Bureau predicts that racial minorities will make up most of the United States’ population, with no one group holding an overwhelming racial majority. As the Center for American Progress’ new Deputy Director for Progress 2050 (as in the year 2050), Williams is taking steps to ensure that progressive policy reflects this forecasted diversity.
