Welcome Ilana Walder-Biesanz! You may have noticed a new voice on Stark Insider. Ilana spent the last year on a Fullbright Scholarship in Germany watching and writing about theater and opera, and I am so pleased that she opted to contribute her talents to this web site upon returning to San Francisco. (Ilana's...

Armen Ohanian was clearly a fascinating person whose story deserves to be told. A genderqueer Armenian over a century ago, she began life as an "honest woman" in an upper-class family but pursued a career as an artist. She danced on tour in Europe, wrote poetry, and composed Orientalized...

Arrow’s got RFK’s pointed elbow jabs, along with hair that falls like Kennedy hair when pushed aside, and a Boston accent that takes me back to Dorchester Ave. where “war” still requires two syllables.

Are you married to a Squid Mother? Then, what are you waiting for, you could have a star in the making! All it takes is some polyurethane, a filmmaking partner based in San Mateo, and dreams of Hollywood. Such is the fate of creature feature filmmaker Checkers Rosario (Sean San José). He's been...

Fred's Diner is kind of a quirky joint. That's my initial gut reaction after spending time at one of San Francsico's newest eateries. The vibe is distinctly 1950's Americana. A jukebox at one end tees up no shortage of Elvis, and Buddy Holly. And the wait staff -- entirely good...

"The ugliest girl wins the dough for the guy who brought her." On their last night before deployment, six Marines make a bet—a dogfight. The tough-talking Eddie Birdlace finds a waitress for his entry, but he quickly discovers himself falling for her in spite of her appearance. As produced by...

This seductive dreaminess even penetrates the second movement, but dreamy woodwinds yield to more assertive sounds, and the dancers (starting with a group of four men and a woman) respond in kind.

Suicide is never too far from anyone’s mind in Silicon Valley, especially here in Palo Alto where most of us are either nursing scar tissue or harboring a worrisome suspicion that we’ve created a coal mine for so many canaries.

Kenneth Lonergan’s This is Our Youth is about rich, bored, high kids in the Upper West Side of New York City in the Reagan era with a bundle of cash and a good drug dealer network. This goes about as well as you’d expect. Kicked out of his house...

Some of the best experiences I've had covering the San Francisco Bay Area theater scene over the years share a common characteristic: that of the unexpected. Perhaps it's a new, never-before-scene work. Or a play that pushes the envelope. Or, maybe, something that challenges your perspectives, and stomps all over your comfort...