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.
Shakespeare’s obscure ‘Timon’ sears at Cutting Ball
Shakespeare completionists surely took note when Cutting Ball Theater announced Timon of Athens as part of their 2017–18 season. It’s a difficult one to...
The Effect‘s side effects: laughter and angst
How can we trust in love if it’s reducible to brain chemistry?
Romance, rap and a road trip for refugees of ‘Vietgone’
Ilana Walder-Biesanz reviews Vietgone, American Conservatory Theater's (A.C.T.) latest production, now playing at The Strand in San Francisco.
Humor is not what you’d expect from...
A nineteenth-century housing crisis at Aurora Theatre
Widowers’ Houses is, by Shaw’s own categorization, a “play unpleasant.”
No one on the stage is remotely likeable. Certainly not Blanche (Megan Trout), the spoiled...
Fighting Windmills at Custom Made Theatre
In Review: Man of La Mancha at Custom Made Theatre Co., San Francisco.
Don Quixote has no shortage of adaptations – cinematic, balletic, theatrical, and...
Fighting fascism at Berkeley Rep: ‘Watch on the Rhine’ (Review)
Lead photo: (front row, l to r) Jonah Horowitz (Bodo Muller), Emma Curtin (Babette Muller), and Elijah Alexander (Kurt Muller); (back row, l to r)...
A campy Christmas at the Custom Made Theatre Company
The Lion in Winter is a family drama with stakes that make Lear look like a petty squabble. It’s 1183, and King Henry II...
A new Irish epic at Magic Theatre
Multi-part epics are always intimidating. They’re a big commitment to make in advance, and there’s a sense of failure if you don’t see them...
A French call to #resist
It’s been less than a year since the U.S. election, and theatergoers are surely already tired of plays that tackle authoritarianism. While Camus’ State...
A very funny rabbi(t) at Berkeley Rep
Have you ever confused a rabbi with a rabbit? Me, neither, but it seems like a plausible mistake in Daniel Handler’s new play Imaginary...