Inside Bay Area (Website), January 6, 2005

Uncategorizable highlights as 2004 reaches final curtain

-- Chad Jones

THEATER in the Bay Area is many things — occasionally thrilling, frequently quirky, almost always original and very rarely dull.

Herewith some "achievements" that don't fall neatly into a Top 10 list. Best new venue — Berkeley's Shotgun Players have been gypsies for too long. In spite of some less-than-stunning venues and a frustrating quest for a home of its own, Shotgun finally settled into The Ashby Stage, formerly the Transparent Theatre. If the first production in the space — Tom Stoppard's "Travesties" — is any indication, the marriage of Shotgun and its new home will yield some great theater.

----

...Best Stoppard — The Bay Area just can't seem to get enough of British playwright Tom Stoppard. Among his plays produced in these parts during the year, TheatreWorks' "Arcadia" and Shotgun Players' "Travesties" were the best. ACT's "The Real Thing" was surprisingly inert.