Actors love the Bay Area

By Chad Jones - STAFF WRITER

Article Created: 05/23/2006 02:28:46 PM PDT

Actors love this region, which has reputation as one of the country's theater hot spots. Professional and community theaters abound, and the creative types who ply their wares on local stages are often loathe to go elsewhere.

Evan Pappas, a Daly City native, got his big break with San Mateo's Peninsula Civic Light Opera, which has since become Broadway by the Bay. He went on to star in Broadway shows and comes back every few years to direct on his home turf.

``I'm partial to the Bay Area because I grew up here and love the beauty, the climate, and especially the culture,'' Pappas says. ``When it comes to the arts I have always felt that this area and the artists in it were more willing to try new things and grow with their craft. I also find the acting community incredibly supportive of each other.

In a time when jobs and paychecks for actors are scarce there is still a love for what we do and a sense of daring to create and to not be afraid to have an opinion.''

There's never a shortage of variety in Bay Area theater. If your taste runs from Greek tragedy to irreverent musical comedies, chances are you'll find what you need and everything in between.

That's one of the reasons Lee Foster, artistic director of Foster City's Hillbarn Theatre, enjoys being a theater lover in this part of the world.

``The diversity of theater here is extraordinary, and by here I mean the East Bay, San Francisco and the Peninsula,'' Foster says. ``You've

got your big, knock 'em-sock 'em shows alongside the small, intimate dramas and the excitement of new work. There's so much creativity here. I know that's not exclusive to the Bay Area, but it's amazing that people stay in the arts in spite of rising costs of living here. It's really a tribute to how important the arts are to our lives. They're literally something we have to have.''

San Francisco native and California Shakespeare Theater artistic director Jonathan Moscone says he has a hard time thinking of a better culture than the Bay Area in which to make theater.

``The Bay Area is progressive, diverse, and gets genuinely excited when exciting theater happens,'' Moscone says. ``It's a palpable relationship between artist and community here, one that allows you to hear and feel the response, and to talk to directly to your audiences.''

Rita Moreno, who is one of those rare performers who has an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy on her crowded awards shelf, moved to the Bay Area a few years ago and has forged a relationship with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where she recently performed in ``The Glass Menagerie.''

One of the things she likes best about her new home is the quality of Bay Area audiences.

``People are real and in touch,'' Moreno says. ``One night my husband was driving me to a rehearsal, and traffic was tied up by a parade that turned out to be two open cars with police blocking off all the traffic. This is exactly why I love where I live. You look at that and say, `Isn't that bizarre? Isn't that great?' ''

That spirit, Moreno continues, spills into local theaters.

``A company like Berkeley Rep takes some huge chances,'' she says. ``Isn't that what theater is all about? I'm so proud to be a part of it. One of these days I'm going to be such an old broad they'll have to bring me to rehearsal on a gurney. I love what I do, and it shows.''

Les Waters, who directed Moreno in ``Glass Menagerie,'' grew up in England and lived in San Diego before moving to the Bay Area a few years ago.

He likes the Bay Area because, as he puts it, ``it's not Southern California,'' a reason you're likely to hear from many folks.

Waters also likes the audiences.

``People here are very smart, well-educated and geeky,'' he says. ``The Bay Area doesn't have a fake veneer of sophistication. It has its own BS, but not like other places where you're drowning in it.''

The intelligence of local audiences comes up a lot when you ask theater folks why they like performing here.

Before she became the toast of Broadway this year with her one-woman show ``Bridge & Tunnel,'' writer and performer Sarah Jones tried out her particular brand of genius on Bay Area audiences through Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

``Working in the Bay Area is a little like getting to create and perform in a gigantic, open-air (and open-minded) theater lab,'' Jones says. ``I have had the great fortune to play a range of spaces from Berkeley Rep to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to various other theaters, universities, schools and community venues. No matter the size or the setting, there is always a feeling of intimacy, a level of engagement and a commitment to challenging art on the part of the audience that is unlike anything I've experienced outside the Bay.''

Brian Copeland, whose solo show ``Not a Genuine Black Man'' became the longest-running one-man show in San Francisco history, ended a two-year run at The Marsh so he could take his show to New York.

His overwhelming success with a show about growing up black in a very white San Leandro of the late '60s and early '70s has spawned a book to be published this summer and an HBO series in the near future.

Copeland says he doesn't think his show could have become so successful if it had begun its life anywhere else. ``People in the Bay Area have a mind set that encourages creativity and experimentation in theater,'' Copeland says.

``Audiences are open to new things without the jaded cynicism of some of the other major metropolitan areas in the country.''

Christa Noel Hunter, an Oakland native now in her fifth year with the long-running San Francisco revue ``Beach Blanket Babylon,'' has been around the world and says she's always happy to come back home.

``The Bay Area is the most vibrant place I know for theater,'' Hunter says. ``We have an eclectic mix of playwrights, singers, dancers, actors and directors. It's such a rich soil for artistic expression here. The most exciting thing to me is that it's changing and evolving. You can see anything any night of the week, Monday to Sunday. It's just great and such a wide variety of things.''

Need to Know

American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco; (415) 749-2228; http://www.act-sf.org.

Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley; (510) 843-4822; http://www.auroratheatre.org.

"Beach Blanket Babylon," San Francisco; (415) 421-4222; http://www.beachblanketbabylon.com.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley; (888) 427-8849; http://www.berkeleyrep.org.

Best of Broadway, San Francisco; (415) 512-7770; http://www.shnsf.com.

Broadway by the Bay, San Mateo; (650) 579-5565; http://www.bbbay.org.

California Conservatory Theatre, San Leandro; (510) 632-8850; http://www.cct-sl.org.

California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley/Orinda; (510) 548-9666; http://www.calshakes.org.

Center Repertory Company, Walnut Creek; (925) 295-1422; http://www.dlrca.org.

Hillbarn Theatre, Foster City; (650) 349-6411; http://www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Magic Theatre, San Francisco; (415) 441-8822; http://www.magictheatre.org.