Saturday Matinee

All photos © Erik Tomasson

Lorena Feijoo and Joan Boada in Possohkov’s Fusion. © Erik Tomasson

After too long of a hiatus, I finally got a chance to see my beloved San Francisco Ballet on their American Tour in Orange County this weekend. After hearing all the rave reviews in the other stops on their tour, I was curious to see how the company looked after the summer. It was fun to see many of the men sporting spiffy new haircuts, and even though it’s late in the tour with only one more stop after Orange County, the company showed no signs of wear or tear and looked absolutely phenomenal.

I had previously seen Possohkov’s Fusion and Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour at the opening night of their world premiere back in April, and in the few months that have passed, the pieces looked like completely new pieces. For both dances, the choreography had seeped more into the dancers’ pores, where the movements looked more instinctual and were performed with more of a natural flair compared to opening night. In Fusion, resident choreographer Possohkov has his finger on the pulse of the company, where the dancers looked like they were born to dance this piece. Despite some structural issues I still have with this piece with the two groups of opposing dancers (the whirling dervishes and the contemporary costumed dancers) integrating cohesively into one dance, with every whirling turn to every sensuous hip wiggle, each movement was sold to the eager and captivated audience. The overall effect was hauntingly mystical, yet complexly modern.

Yuan Yuan Tan and Benjamin Stewart in Fusion

Vanessa Zahorian in Fusion

Bathed in a warm glow, Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour was especially breathtaking. You can almost hear Wheeldon working the steps, trying new things, and reinventing movements and poses. But rather than spiralling into an esoteric multilayered analytical mess, Wheeldon as a master sculptor shapes the steps into something more than the sum of its parts. There’s delight at every corner. Lilting quirks punctuate the gently nimble music by Vivaldi and Ezio Bosso. Wheeldon’s invention worked especially well in the ensemble dancing, where different groups are set up against each other, each group quickly melting into the next and culminating in a triumph with the dancers swirling around each other in a circle. There’s a pas de deux with the lead couple, danced by Katita Waldo and Damian Smith that tripped along charmingly, with Waldo’s leggy glamour and Smith’s unwavering strength. A recurring motif with two male dancers, Garen Scribner and Martyn Garside, burst with lithe agility and vivid sensuality. Scribner was his usual self with his clean lines and striking stage presence. I had to look up Garside, a dancer I didn’t initially recognize, as he stepped up to match Scribner’s presence with his eye-catching dramatic authority and fiery abandon. Some of the pas de deux (what is plural of pas de deux?) especially in the slower ones had the drawn out feeling of a measured awakening that evolved over time but never resolved, still maintaining Wheeldon’s inventiveness. The overall effect was a joyful and richly layered enchanting journey of a sunny, warm world that was winningly the audience favorite of the night.

Maria Kochetkova and Joan Boada in Within the Golden Hour

The program ended with an about face with Balanchine’s Four Temperaments. Set in a stark setting with severe black leotards and simple background, the atonal pulsing music by Paul Hindemith propelled the physicality and the sharp angles of this piece. The overall effect is cool, detached, and a “better than you” distance that makes this piece in my personal opinion, a piece to be respected and admired but difficult to love. There’s lots to think about however, as the evening’s theme of invention continues. The Four Temperaments which premiered in 1946 is so forward thinking that one could easily guess that this piece was made this year. Loosely based on a theme and variations with each variation based on the four humors of the body (black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile whatever that is), these associations with the human body are hard to visualize. A group of four girls (representing the four temperaments?) repeatedly make an appearance as an aloof and unrelentless army of Fembots in leotards, pushing forward with razor sharp pointed feet. My favorite variation was Phlegmatic, with Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in the foreground of these four girls, carving out his presence in space and time with his long sinuous limbs. Pascal Molat flew as the soloist in the Melancholic variation, and Lorena Feijoo and Tiit Helimets created a whirlwind of energy in the Sanguinic variation. In terms of audience response, this 180 degree turn in the mood seemed to catch everyone off guard as the ready applause died down a bit, but perhaps everyone was deep in thought rather than on reflex emotional response. The evening ended with an overwhelming presence of the entire ensemble dancing with hard edged precision, led by the polished Sofiane Sylve.

San Francisco Ballet with Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments.

In all, this was a very long way of saying that San Francisco Ballet overwhelmingly succeeded in showing the audience that ballet is not merely a showcase of tricks, but a complete intellectual and emotional experience that is as diverse as it is deep. It was in a series of Pascal Molat’s entrechats near the end of the night that I realized that I hadn’t seen a fouette or the usual ballet applause-generators, but all the steps were seamlessly incorporated artistically into generating a mood, an emotion, a thought. This is a huge testament to the skill of the company and their ability to completely transport the audience into worlds unseen, and I can’t remember the last time that I found a ballet performance so complete and thrillingly satisfying. It’s also to San Francisco Ballet’s credit that they seem to send their best dancers out on tour, which is a different approach from some ballet companies, leaving a trail of obsessive fans in its wake. The dancers have never looked better; there was a moment in the Wheeldon piece where Damian Smith, Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, and Joan Boada were merely standing in a line in an easy fourth position. There was something about their similar build and jaw-dropping stage presence that was simply awe-inspiring. I’m also sure that pride in my hometown ballet company and the long hiatus added to my enjoyment as well. What a perfect way to officially end San Francisco Ballet’s 75th anniversary with a national tour that sets its stamp on the dance world as a pioneer and leader in the world of contemporary ballet.

San Francisco Ballet stops in Washington D.C. next, November 25-30 as the last stop of their American Tour. Be sure to catch their Giselle!! Here’s my review of SFB’s Giselle.

Other reviews:

• LA Times

UPDATE: In the spirit of innovation and as a result of a conversation I had with a friend, I decided to write up reviews for Fusion and Within the Golden Hour in haiku (in the loosest syllable definition of the word). For what it’s worth, enjoy.

For Fusion:
Shadowy mystique
A sharp breath caught in midair
Surrendering blur

For Within the Golden Hour:
Mercurial flow
Trusting hands, we melt as one
Gently lilting waltz

Everyone knows that I hate talking about politics on this blog but in this instance, I really can’t keep my mouth shut on this one. My friend who’s a Sacramento news anchor just called me to see if I knew anyone who she could quote on the evening news tonight, and I did some research. The artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento has donated $1000 in support of Proposition 8. I find this highly ironic/confusing/depressing, considering the current production that is playing there includes a lesbian love storyline in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.

Read more here and here from one of the writers of Avenue Q who spoke with the artistic director himself, which will be playing at the CMT this spring.

UPDATE: Scott Eckern quits! A bit of a shocking turn of events. I attended The Color Purple last night at the California Musical Theatre, and not only was it a really full house, but there was a small group of protesters almost a block away after the performance with “No on Prop. 8″ signs. I went not to support the artistic director’s actions, but to support the theater community as I always do.

Promoting conversation between science and the arts
Dance Your PhD
My first choreographic effort

It’s so great to start with an idea, and to actually devote a lot of time, energy, money, a lot of hoping and crossing fingers to get a studio, to ultimately see the project come to completion. I stumbled across this event “Choreograping Your PhD” earlier this year, and just thought it was hilarious as well as very fitting – science and dance is a novel yet symbiotic relationship that could lead to a greater understanding of both fields. After all, science has been a subject of dance for a while now, from Balanchine’s Four Temperaments (based on the subject of physiology) to the more recent work of Wayne McGregor’s groundbreaking work in artificial intelligence, cloning, and the heart. Add to that the quirkiness of scientists on display doing something out of the ordinary, and you end up with NY Times coverage.

So here I present my soul to the world, my first choreographic effort as someone clearly out of my own element. Bottom line – choreographing is SUPER HARD, and my respect for ALL choreographers just skyrocketed. Forget about any body issues that I have; I can’t even think about that without cringing. And I definitely need to go to ballet class more; I really need to work on keeping my torso upright (my technique seems to get worse every time I watch the video). But I’m forcing myself to get over it because after all this work, and I can’t not upload it now. Remember as you watch it that normally I am a geeky sedentary scientist and not a trained dancer by any means. My ultimate goal is to be able to choreograph as well as Balanchine or Wheeldon can do molecular biology.

The Stats: for the five of us in the studio filming this video:

• Collective education (earned and ongoing): one Masters in Computer Science, two PhD’s in Neuroscience, one PhD in Nutrition, one medical (MD) degree, one veterinary (DVM) degree.
• Collective dance experience: 17 years and three months of ballet, one quarter of Renaissance dance, a smattering of swing experience.

The Science:

How does a developing nervous system form connections (synapses)? It’s directed by a series of molecular cues, which is the basis for my PhD dissertation. Our lab studies synaptogenesis and the molecular cues involved in synapse formation and differentiation that is essential for the developing nervous system. Specifically, our lab studies agrin, a heparan sulfate proteoglycan that has been widely studied for its synaptogenic effects at the neuromuscular junction. My project studies agrin’s function in synaptogenesis in the peripheral nervous system.

The Dance:

I represent a motile growth cone, an immature neuron searching for its postsynaptic partner to form a synapse. It starts out as a slow awakening, as I explore my environment. I liked the breathing quality of the awakening process, waxing and waning, breathing with the music. The other dancers represent potential postsynaptic partners, where I dance with them to see if they have the correct synaptogenic cues that dictates my final destination. I ultimately find my final postsynaptic partner (who also happens to be the only one strong enough to hold me in a dip ) and synapse with it.

I was disappointed that the resolution of the video wasn’t good enough to capture my leotard. It’s nude colored to represent an unmyelinated neuron – with myelin, I would have worn white, but without myelin, I’m basically membrane colored. I also drew on these open geometric circles to represent presynaptic synaptic vesicles, which unfortunately you can’t see.

The Experience:

Everyone learned everything within the span of two and a half hours – teaching it and communicating what I wanted was harder than I thought, but everyone picked it up really quickly. I loved that I did this together with my friends; we’re definitely not the best dancers in the world, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way, all but one of them graduate students themselves. It was also amazing to be back in a dance studio for a few hours. Many special thanks to the UC Davis Theatre and Dance Department who were so welcome in letting me use the studio on a rainy Saturday on such short notice; Professor David Grenke (former principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, founding member of Armitage Ballet) couldn’t have been nicer nor more encouraging.

Some photos we took for fun -

In short: It was a great time! Thanks to everyone who made my vision possible, including my friends who helped bounce ideas around. It definitely wouldn’t happened without everyone’s support. So with great humility, I hereby present to you my final product. Be sure to watch through til the end.

Check out the other entries, as well as last year’s (live) contest, here. Please submit a video, especially if you are a post doc or a professor, because there aren’t too many videos in those categories. The deadline is Nov 16.

P.S. Speaking of science and the arts, who’s excited for the next four years?? I am!

Updated: Very special and very kind blog endorsements! Thanks to everyone -

• Cocktail Party Physics
• Reverberate Hills
• Swan Lake Samba Girl
• Oberon’s Grove
• Thomasina’s Last Waltz
• Art.Cult at WNYC

A sick pumpkin

Happy Halloween! Did this week fly by really fast for anyone else besides me? Friday really snuck up on me this week – I’m going out to buy candy and a pumpkin really quickly after work, and then pass out candy until going to the theater where I’ll be dressed up as a dance critic, holding pen and press kit. Should I add an uptight expression and a target on my back? Enjoy the picture of my pumpkin from a few years ago, this is what happens when you get a bunch of medical students together to decorate pumpkins – things become medical. Is anyone dressing up?

Things have been pretty quiet around here with most of my blog-like talk going on in behind-the-scenes email conversations with NY bloggers about San Francisco Ballet’s stop in New York. Anyways, recent turn of events have gotten me thinking about the economy which seems to be the hot topic right now. Being in the academia bubble, it hasn’t affected me much (except for the high gas prices, but thankfully they’ve been going down a bit now) but more than the actual money in my bank account, it feels like the economy has set a mood in this country that’s affecting my spending. This includes spending on performances, which has decreased a bit for me in the past few weeks. It’s funny that it’s not necessarily that I don’t have the money to go, but the economy has affected me somehow to stop spending money for it. I’m hoping this will pass soon.

Anyways, I recently asked a question to an avid theater goer, “What was the worst Broadway show ever?” and surprisingly stumped this person, which intrigued me. So I’m posing the question to blog readers – what’s the worst show (Broadway or otherwise) that you’ve ever seen? Post your answer in a comment below.

My hands down winner would be Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind. It’s a British version of what the deep South is like, where kids are named “Po’ Baby” with an awkward moment of an almost-kiss between an older convict and a young teen thrown in. It was a parade of one stereotype after another, with odd Phantom-like music in the scene changes amongst a score of banjo twanging. Horrible. It was even worse because I saw it around the same time when The Color Purple was on tour, and the authenticity of emotion between the two shows was basically polar opposite. I hope it never makes it to Broadway, but if it does, it’d better be vastly changed from the show that I saw.

Or, How NOT to Open a Newly Renovated Museum

I braved the crowds at the opening of the renovated Academy of Sciences museum this weekend at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to try to get a peek inside at the one day of free admission of a museum that will normally be charging a steep $25 for entry. Unfortunately when a friend of mine got to the museum at 10:30 AM, I found out that tickets for the entire day had sold out hours before. In the two sources that I had seen online (the SF Chronicle and the Academy of Sciences website), there were no warnings of a possibility of passes selling out so I naively assumed that we may have to wait a while but at least would get a chance at getting in. It almost felt like a scam in that I had been duped into coming at the promise that I would see the new museum, with no hint at the caveats. In addition about half a mile away there was a line for people who were lucky enough to get an entry pass, but the line to get in was over four hours long. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones who didn’t get an entry pass and didn’t have to wait all day. The good thing was, I was surrounded by friends, and it was a day well spent in the gorgeous weather outside.

Another big plus was the performance by the San Francisco Ballet training program/school in a series of outdoor performances highlighting different San Francisco institutions in celebration of the big opening. It was refreshing to see ballet in a unique context, with a very familiar contemporary sensibility that mirrors the style of the company. They put on a surprisingly well rounded program, starting with a ballet set to gloriously soaring classical music and finishing off with more contemporary pieces that fit the park audience. The worst part by far was the crowd – rude people blocking the view by standing front and center especially camera people who refused to sit down even after several warnings, with completely useless security who were absolutely futile in doing anything about controlling the situation. It made me realize that maybe I’m not the best audience member for such a public outdoor performances; I’ve been too spoiled by years of unobstructed views, lack of audience profanity, and civil manners in the people around me.

The ballet was a moment of respite in a day that included a series of odd events. On the way to the park, I saw a woman sitting across the aisle from me vomit on BART, then later I walked by two other spots of vomit around Golden Gate Park, and capped off my day when I actually stepped in vomit on my way home which was really the cherry on top of the sundae. Another odd moment occurred when we first got to the museum and was trying to find information on entry passes, when a stranger tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could take a photo with me. At first I thought he wanted me to take a photo of him, but no, he wanted to take one with me. The last time I checked, I am not a character at Disneyland. I still don’t understand what his angle was – if anyone would like to enlighten me by explaining to me what goes on inside a guy’s mind, please feel free to comment. But the day definitely got better as we shared some fun in the sun.

Here are some photos of the ballet performance. One of the best photos was the first one during their onstage warmup; it really helped that it was the least obstructed by people at this point. I wasn’t able to get a lot of names. Click on the image to enlarge.

Koto Ishihara and Dylan Ward

Pretty feet

Photo credit: Andy Kuo. All photos © http://www.saturdaymatineeblog.com

Random musings about summer, looking ahead to fall, and blogging

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend – I had a total of 12 people in the space of 3 days stay long enough to take showers at my place so it kept this weekend really hoppin’.

The cutest houseguest – four month old Olivia, like the children’s book character

It’s hard to believe that summer is over – theater (and this blog) has been a little slow, but I really took this time to put in a lot of time at work and my non blogging life. It’s slowly but surely starting to pay off, and theater withdrawals weren’t too bad. It’s been a really productive summer overall, and now I’m ready to slack off again and get sidetracked with my favorite hobby! Now currently looking forward to all the exciting things coming up ahead. Even though it feels like the San Francisco Symphony summer season just ended, it’s picking right back up again with a really outrageous gala (as all galas should be) on Wednesday September 3, with a powerhouse program. I’m looking forward to a substantial program, especially after the summer which tends to be SFS Lite. Like a summer cologne or an eau fraiche, it’s simply refreshing for the summer months (even though it stays in the 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit in downtown SF), but I’m itching for a change to go with the change of season. And, it’s my first real gala! I’ll be moblogging from the event taking pictures where I can, assuming everything works properly, from inside the reception in the green room to the post-concert party inside of City Hall.

A few words about an event that I’ve been meaning to blog about – as I’ve mentioned before, I was kindly asked by the San Francisco Symphony to be on a panel at the Association of California Symphony Orchestra conference in Walnut Creek about a month ago on a panel titled, “Changing Media Lanscapes” (I blogged about it, here). It was a great opportunity for me to talk about blogging, and even more fascinating to hear about it from the administration’s point of view. Before my panel, I got to sit in on a presentation by a marketing group who was doing a presentation on using nontraditional media for marketing purposes for symphony orchestras. I felt like an enemy infiltrate eavesdropping in the back, especially when the speaker encouraged everyone to utilize bloggers, because “they will be your best resource” in getting the word out. It struck me how I don’t specifically have a practical purpose for my blog, yet administrations such as symphonies can utilize my blog for their purpose. He also mentioned not to be afraid of negative PR, which I quickly realized is the fear of many arts organizations, because people do read blogs with a grain of salt that one person’s view is not the same as another, which is true.

During the panel that I was on, it was fascinating to see that there is a lot of resistance in the way that things are moving in the PR field, which is moving out of traditional media outlets (in particular, paper newspapers) to nontraditional outlets (online newspapers, blogs, discussion/message boards). Granted, many people in the room were of a different generation than mine, but it almost became antagonistic as audience members (made up mostly of people who work for symphony orchestras) questioned me on why they should try to get a blogger to come to their shows, rather than a classical music critic. In a way though, I didn’t feel like I had to defend myself because it’s so obvious that things are moving more to online sources, with paper newspaper readerships dropping precipitously and arts critics being fired left and right. Newspapers are incorporating blogs in their online newspapers, and even the critics are blogging. Change is always hard to accept, especially in a world that is as foreign as the internet to some people. I expected a certain level of puzzlement over the world of blogging, yet it was still more than I expected. I think the view looks very different from inside an arts organization, than from the outside. From the inside, even I understand that things have improved, a lot! Younger people are coming to concerts, and new music is being made, while still keeping the classics. Yet from the outside, the world of classical music can look as accessible as the top of Mount Everest, especially in the viewpoint of some of my friends that I’ve taken to the theater. Some even have a desire to go about to see them, but feel like it is an exclusive club where they’re not welcome. There is a disconnect that needs to be addressed, a translator perhaps, to demystify and to introduce the worlds of classical music and blogging/internet to each other.

Another thing – some audience members were highly concerned about negative PR. There is a fear of inappropriate chatter that becomes an “uncontrollable fire hydrant”. But my point is, let’s get people talking about classical music, which is better than no discussion at all. We should be able to talk about classical music (or ballet, or theater) as we talk about pop culture – it’s not this sacred object on a pedestal that can’t be touched nor accessed, but it can be observed, analyzed, even criticized, which gets people involved in thinking about music. It engages people, which gets people to come out to buy tickets.

Anyways, it was very enlightening, and it had me excited about the future. Great works are still being made, and there’s lots to read about online in regards to these works, thanks to really great vigilant bloggers and experts like the critics. A fun moment for me was to meet Joshua Kosman, classical music critic at the SF Chronicle, and to talk about his, um, preferences. I was amused that a good few minutes of the panel discussion was spent where the PR people in the audience were grilling him on how they could get him to come to more of their concerts.

Is anyone else going to the SF Symphony gala??

San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala

Foggia PR - links regarding the ACSO Conference

No, I’m not talking about the underage Chinese gymnasts being declared as over 16… Chalk it up to an early morning, but I was amused by the campiness of this segment with the only North American qualifier for the rhythmic gymnastics event, Alexandra Orlando.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been swept up in family things and a surprising but nice breakthrough at work on an experiment I’ve been working on for the past seven months. You know the quote, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” by Albert Einstein? That was my work life, literally doing this finicky week-long experiment hundreds of times until yesterday. Just wanted to share the good news with you all, I hope this streak continues!

Enjoy the vid! Reviews coming on ABT’s Etudes and Tharp’s R&R, Drowsy Chaperone (speaking of campy charm), and I still wanted to blog about the ACSO conference.

“Why don’t I just do javelin catching?”

In two days, I’m heading to Walnut Creek for the 40th annual conference for the Association of California Symphony Orchestras! I’ll be on a panel alongside SF Chronicle classical music critic Joshua Kosman, Lyla Foggia of Foggia PR (representing the Festival Opera of Walnut Creek), and possibly a Contra Costa Times person – the panel as it stood as of two weeks ago, at least. I’ll be speaking as a card-carrying member of the plebs blogerati in a panel titled “Charting New Territories: The Changing Media Landscape” moderated by Gary Ginstling, director of communications at the San Francisco Symphony on Friday afternoon. It’ll be interesting to see what issues that people are really interested in, and where discussion will go.

The description for our discussion:

“Given the shifting balance between print and online media, how do arts organizations get the word out? Where should we focus our human and financial resources in this world of bloggers, wikis and social networkers? A panel of media, marketing and PR professionals help us explore these vexing issues that face all arts organizations, large and small.”

I’ll post a summary of this discussion afterwards; it’s an issue that’s near and dear to my heart – promoting theater by talking about it and demystifying a subject that’s inaccessible and exclusive to a lot of people. On the flip side, it’s fascinating for me to approach it from the arts organization’s point of view and to see what purposes blogs serve to them.

And then immediately afterwards, I will be jetting off to SoCal for some coffee and Cuban sandwiches and good company in Silver Lake, in addition to some ABT and Hollywood Bowl goodness. My summer vacation is only two days off of work, but I’m really looking forward to it!! It’s going to be a fun weekend.

My usual blogging view

It’s officially the one year anniversary of this blog! What a crazy ride it’s been, with lots of fun and unexpected surprises thrown in. It’s amazing how much it’s taken off, way more than I ever expected. It’s a nice time to take a look back and see what fun the past year has been since I officially started a “theater blog”. I’ve experienced an incredible amount of theater with the added pressure to go see shows so I’d have more to write about (not that I’m complaining), with the amazing 75th anniversary at the San Francisco Ballet to the elegant San Francisco Symphony to the progressive theater-with-a-purpose Berkeley Repertory Theatre. More specific highlights include this blog being mentioned in the NY Times (thanks Claudia!), actively supporting the arts through my blog and calling in on NPR, and the numerous interesting discussions I’ve had here and on email with like minded people. There haven’t been very many low-lights, but only a handful that includes a run in on a copyright violation, and a rather tacky personal attack from a highly acclaimed actor that I blogged about. I chalk it up to the idea that the arts world is still trying to figure out ways to deal with blogs and copyright on information on the internet, and more than anything, it reminded me of how visible my blog is, and how blogs are becoming more relevant in a world that is slowly eliminating the arts from its newspapers and its priorities.

The biggest thing is I feel so honored to have been a small part of an online community that is very enthusiastic and passionate about the arts. My favorite part about keeping this blog is its tight-knit community and the conversations that I’ve had with the people that I’ve met in person and online. It’s also been exciting (and a personal mission of mine) promoting art’s relevance in the modern world and to new generations who haven’t yet experienced the arts either through its aura of intimidation or inaccessibility. It hit me recently when a friend of mine asked me, literally days ago, if he should rent a tux to go see the San Francisco Symphony. After I told him not to forget his top hat, cane, and to be sure to grow a debonaire mustache, I was appalled yet not surprised that this very intelligent fellow Stanford graduate friend of mine was asking such questions about a topic that was shrouded in mystery to him, as well as a lot of people in my generation. The internet is a great tool to shine light into the mystery of the traditional arts and to make it more accessible to new audiences.

Even when I don’t blog often and the readership continues to grow, I wonder who is reading my blog. Nonetheless, there is an audience out there for information and discussion, and it’s been an honor to be a part of it.

Special thanks go out to the regular commenters on this blog who always keep discussion lively and interesting and the amazing arts organizations in the Bay Area for their continued commitment to excellence in an increasingly hostile environment without whom I would have nothing to write about. A heartfelt thank you to a random and noncomprehensive list of people who have made this year on my blog particularly memorable, in no particular order: Mike S., Matt, Tonya, Sid, Doug, Art, Philip, Katrina, Louisa, and Meredith. And my biggest thanks go out to YOU, the readers without whom this blog would not be possible.

I’m looking forward to this upcoming year, it’s going to be a good one! I want to encourage you to keep reading, to keep discussing, and to continue to support the arts. I’ll see you at the theater?