Ilana Walder-Biesanz
Ilana is an Associate Product Manager at Yahoo! and a freelance theater and opera critic. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College and an M.Phil. in European Literature from the University of Cambridge. She currently reviews for Stark Insider, Bachtrack, and San Francisco Classical Voice.
‘Come From Away’: A musical gift to SF audiences
I don’t usually cry throughout a show. At the climactic tragic moment perhaps, but not all the way through. Watching Come From Away (SHN...
Ibsen, with a side of local groupthink
Is truth more important than democracy?
In Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, a doctor discovers that a spa town’s water source is polluted. He...
Blood, ‘Sweat’ and Tears at the ACT
The world of Lynn Nottage’s Sweat (American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco) is unfamiliar to many coastal theater-goers (certainly to me). It’s a steel town...
Murder should be more fun: ‘Richard III’ at the African-American Shakespeare Company
Shakespeare’s Richard III is sometimes classified as a history, sometimes as a tragedy. The political subject matter is historical. The plot is tragedy-like in...
The progressive dream of ‘Soft Power’
On November 29, 2015, the “most famous American Chinese playwright” was stabbed in the neck. That’s David Henry Hwang the real, award-winning playwright, and...
Don Quixote rides (a tricycle) again at Cal Shakes
His quest is pointless, and often destructive. But he is fiercely loved by his family, neighbors, former students, and squire. May we all be so blessed.
Tap and Tomfoolery: Me and My Girl
It’s funny how two people can discover the same thing at once. Calculus. Oxygen. A neglected musical. Me and My Girl, hardly a household...
Star power makes The Color Purple bright
The women of The Color Purple have unimaginably hard lives. They’re subject to an unrelenting series of rape, abuse, and racism. The musical (currently...
Searching for freedom with Father Comes Home from the Wars
Midway through Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3, at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater in San Francisco), a Confederate colonel sets...