Bay Area Theatre: Shotgun Players' The Forest Wars

I love posting about friends' projects! Kevin Clarke emailed about the Shotgun Players' production of The Forest Wars, a play written and directed by Mark Jackson (Lisa Drostova of San Francisco Magazine wrote that Johnson's 2003 The Death of Mayerhold was "one of the best new plays to come out of the Bay Area in years"). Kevin is performing in the play, which opens at The Ashby Stage in Berkeley tonight and runs through to 14 January 2007.

Photo Credit: Jessica Palopoli

Featured: (L-R) Thu Tran, Drew Anderson, Kevin Clarke, Erin Stuart, Reid Davis

THE FOREST WAR

Local phenomenon Mark Jackson, creator of the critically acclaimed The Death of Meyerhold

returns to Shotgun Players with a new work that is finely tuned and stunningly staged.

The Forest War is high theatrical tragedy, with lovers torn apart, cruel villains, political intrigue,

and a sense of melodramatic fun keeping pace with the drama. Though it takes an ancient form,

the debate over violence, politics, and personal opinion is one that we're all facing daily in

newspaper headlines, television broadcasts and around our dinner tables.

Previews: Wednesday, November 29 and Thursday, November 30
Opening: Friday, December 1
Runs: Thursday - Sunday through January 14, 2007
All performances at 8PM

SPECIAL NEW YEAR'S EVE PERFORMANCE AND POST SHOW CELEBRATION

NO PERFORMANCES THE WEEK OF DEC 18-24

TICKETS / INFO / DIRECTIONS

www.shotgunplayers.org

+1 510-841-6500

San Francisco: The Clift, Matthew Barney and Postrio

Spent last weekend in cool, breezy San Francisco. I checked into The Clift, because I wanted to see if the place had lost any of the Schrager beauty & buzz since the the hotels became Morgans Hotel Group and went public. I have to say, I was most disappointed by the bathroom. I checked into a Deluxe Double (has two, double beds) at a rate of US$255++ per night. The bathroom had only one wash basin and the rest of the bathroom looked like a moderate, non-designer hotel bathroom. The shower head was one of those typical shower heads you might find in a mid-range chain hotel. The bathroom was utterly uninspiring, bordering on offensively boring. But the wi-fi worked (at US$10/day, it should work). The room was a decent size for 2 people. However, most shocking was that they charge for a sewing kit (which is free in most decent hotels) and even for the first-aid kit! Fortunately, when I did somehow cut myself, I went down to breakfast and the waitress brought me anti-septic spray, a band-aid and some tissues for free. When it came to evening, in typical club/hotel fashion, we were asked to show our hotel key when returning from dinner. It seems that the Clift's Redwood Room is still quite a scene in San Francisco. A & C, who were also staying at the hotel, recounted how they had sat down for a drink on checking-in around midnight. A young Korean sat down with them and started chatting. The young Korean guy started asking their opinion on how he should spend the US$1 million that his father had given him as a present having successfully just graduated from Stanford. Will be checking into Ian Schrager's new Gramery Park Hotel on 23 August, wonder what characters I'll run into on the rooftop.




A must-see at the SF MoMA until 17 September 2006, is the Matthew Barney show. In fact, they are doing daily (except Wednesdays) free screenings at 2pm of his Drawing Restraint 9, the film he stars in with Björk. I first came into contact with Barney's work back in 1992 when I was interning at Barbara Gladstone Gallery. Gladstone had just signed him on, and he was doing exercise-equipment inspired sculptures in petroleum jelly. He was coming from his experience has a footballer (American football, not the World Cup kind) and wrestling; athletic bodies are created and built by working muscles to the point where the fibres breakdown. His Drawing Restraint series were often about how exploring the creative process that comes out of physical restraint. I find Barney's work very relevant and inspiring, because his work really speaks to what we all deal with day-to-day in life; we all strive to create something out of a certain set of constraints and we are always trying to explore the limits and even break beyond those limits, whether they are physical, social, mental, cultural, economic etc. In Drawing Restraint 14, a work Barney created at SFMOMA, he crossed the skylight's bridge by hooking himself to carabeners. He then drew on the wall at the other end of the bridge. I didn't manage to catch the Drawing Restraint 9 screening (I got there half an hour late and they weren't letting people in after 2:15pm), but from the stills and the trailer (can be viewed online), it's a visually stunning film (a bit reminiscent of Peter Greenaway). Though at 145 minutes long, it may require a bit of patience. It's set on a huge Japanese whaling ship with beautiful images of Japanese pageantry, tea ceremonies, Shinto wedding costumes etc.



Had a great dinner at Postrio. CS had tried to book Town Hall, but it was full, so ended up going to Postrio. I have to admit that I didn't hold high expectations for Postrio since Wolfgang Puck Expresses are popping up in places like Denver Airport. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it would be a bad meal, but I didn't think it would be exceptionally good either. We were all very pleasantly surprised. I ended up ordering three appetizers -- Chioggia Beet Salad, Duck Confit Raviolo and one of their market specials (it was a fish prepared two ways -- seared and sashimi). I also "tasted" nearly half of L's Hamachi Carpaccio. My favourite was the beet salad, but they were all delicious. AD raved about his plate of chacuterie. Likewise, dessert was a difficult choice was all. I opted for the Chocolate Espresso Roulade. My one major disappointment is the decor, which looks like it hasn't been touched since it opened. Fortunately, I heard from DN at Kimpton Hotels that Postrio will get an interiors update soon.

I was having dinner with CT and gang and a very interesting conversation came up about Burning Man. Previously, Peter Guy, the editor of ESCAPE, had mentioned this festival in the hot, Nevada desert, where people camp for a week. At the time, it did not sound very appealing. But KS and KC were raving about it. KC will be going for the 6th time and KS for the second this year. Imagine, a whole city (nearly 40,000 people go now), Black Rock City, gets built and destroyed, without a trace left (not even a speck of glitter), within a span of a week! What I found most fascinating and intriguing about the event though, was the lengths to which people go to create interesting camp concepts and installations, especially given that the event is entirely non-commercial, everything operates on the gift/barter system and that everything has to be destroyed by the time the week ends. KC recounted how one installation was a gigantic chandelier (at least a couple storeys tall) from heaven that had fallen to earth and came complete with a piece of the ceiling/sky. Imagine bringing all that out to the desert knowing that you have to dispose of every last piece! Anyway, I can't wait to hear all about their experiences this year!