Santa Rosa Junior College opens new theater season on the road
If You Go
What: “The Good Doctor”
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 4-5 and Oct. 10-12; 2 p.m. Oct. 6 and Oct. 12-13
Where: Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College
Admission: $10-$25
Information: 707-527-4307, theatrearts.santarosa.edu
2019-2020 Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Season
Nov. 22-Dec. 8 — “The Sound of Music,” Evert B. Person Theatre, Sonoma State University
March 6-15 — “The Cripple Of Inishmaan,” Burbank Studio Theater, Santa Rosa Junior College
April 17-May 3 — “The Wedding Singer,” Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College
May 8-10 — “Spring Dance Concert 2020,” Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College
If there’s one thing that theater people know, it’s how to adapt to all the unexpected little surprises that can arise while they’re trying to put a live stage show.
So, while 2019-2020 season to be presented by the Theatre Arts Department at Santa Rosa Junior College won’t look like exactly like what its planners had in mind, the shows definitely will go on, starting with the opening of the first of five productions, “The Good Doctor,” on Friday, Oct. 4.
The thespians have had to deal with some changes in venue, because the $30 million renovation of the college’s Burbank Auditorium, under way for 19 months and originally scheduled for completion last May, has met with construction delays and won’t be complete until next spring.
“We took a lot of time choosing our season, expecting to be in the Burbank Auditorium building,” said Leslie McCauley, chairperson and artistic director of the college’s theater and fashion department. “We start the selection process a year in advance.”
But now, “The Good Doctor,” originally intended for the new studio theater being built next to Burbank Auditorium, will open in the Newman Auditorium, a lecture hall that the drama program has used for small productions over the past 18 years.
The show is a series of 10 vignettes, adapted by Neil Simon, consummate comedic playwright and master of the one-liner, from stories and scenes created by Russian writer Anton Chekhov, and set during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“We don’t think of Chekhov as a humorist, but he was. Of course, he thought ‘Uncle Vanya’ and ‘The Cherry Orchard’ were humorous and they seem pretty serious to us,” McCauley joked. “The scenes in this show range from farcical to twinkling to bittersweet to melancholy.”
Since the room is needed for morning classes, the set will have to be dismantled after evening performances, which requires fairly simple scenery, but McCauley said “lush period costumes” by designer Caitlyn Clark should give the show a rich visual presence.
“This student is going to go far,” McCauley said. “She can do pretty much everything.”
The production also will include some Russian dancing by the cast, and live Russian music on violin and mandolin by professional musician Gus Garelick.
“The Good Doctor,” directed by Wendy Wisely, features a dozen actors, most of them in multiple roles. Riley Craig plays “The Writer,” the show’s version of Chekhov himself.
Two of the most famous segments in “The Good Doctor” are “The Sneeze,” in which a government clerk is mortified after sneezing on a general during a night at the opera, and “The Audition,” in which an aspiring actress plays all of the siblings in Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters.”
“When I was in high school in Lafayette, I saw a touring group from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival perform ‘The Audition’ at my school,” McCauley recalled. “That’s what convinced me I wanted a life in theater.”
The next show in the Santa Rosa Junior College season will be “The Sound of Music,” originally meant to open in the redone 400-seat Burbank Auditorium, but now set to open Nov. 22 in the Evert B. Person Theatre at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, in what has become a collaboration between the theater departments at both schools.
If You Go
What: “The Good Doctor”
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 4-5 and Oct. 10-12; 2 p.m. Oct. 6 and Oct. 12-13
Where: Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College
Admission: $10-$25
Information: 707-527-4307, theatrearts.santarosa.edu
2019-2020 Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts Season
Nov. 22-Dec. 8 — “The Sound of Music,” Evert B. Person Theatre, Sonoma State University
March 6-15 — “The Cripple Of Inishmaan,” Burbank Studio Theater, Santa Rosa Junior College
April 17-May 3 — “The Wedding Singer,” Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College
May 8-10 — “Spring Dance Concert 2020,” Burbank Auditorium, Santa Rosa Junior College