Down to Business

Novato Theater Company Looks for a New Home

Lease is set to expire on Pacheco Plaza location. Also, the Pacifics baseball team caravan makes a stop on Grant Avenue and a shred event comes to Ignacio.

The Novato Theater Company is looking for a new home as its lease at Pacheco Plaza shopping center creeps toward its June 30 expiration. The company will finish out its 2011-12 season with Noises Off and a search is on for a new space to start the 2012-13 season as planned in the fall. Pacheco Plaza management has worked with the company so it can complete all of its scheduled performances and is also renting them temporary storage and rehearsal space in the former Westamerica Bank building in the shopping center. According to Sandi Rubay-Turner, the new president of the company's board of directors, the departure from the 87-seat theater will make way for new retail next door to the Subway deli. “We’re still looking for performance space …

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Satire on Fire: Will Durst Crash Landing in Novato

Bay Area's political comic genius to dish out dollops of snark Thursday at Rolling Hills Club.

Twisting a cliche, listening to Will Durst fire off jabs during election season is like a watching a fourth-grader run loose at Powell's Sweet Shoppe with a $100 gift certificate. Durst has been called the modern-day Will Rogers, the 21st Century Mort Sahl and, as the New York Times labeled him, "Quite possibly the best political satirist working in the country today." You want to laugh at our government? A burst of Durst is all you need. You can get a close-up dose at 8 p.m. Thursday in Novato; Durst, with support from Kellen Erskine, will hold court at Rolling Hills Club. Click here to score $20 tickets. Novato Patch caught up with Durst on the phone last week. Are we on an up trend or a down trend with political humor in terms of public…

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Tom Walsh

3:43 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012

"... like trying to glue Jello to a sponge." Classic.   more ›

Actress Takes Break from Film Work to Appear on Local Stage

Heather Gordon, a Novato native and Harvard grad, plays a familar role for Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma later this month.

Fans of the stage might not get another chance to see Novato-bred actress Heather Gordon perform up close much longer. She's squeezing in an almost-hometown performance between film and TV work mostly because she's been cast in a role she has already mastered. Gordon re-steps into the iconic role of Billie Dawn in the comedy, Born Yesterday, playing at Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma from May 25 to June 10. She originally played the role in a 2006 production presented at the College of Marin. With her recent theater education and training, film experiences and the opportunity to play the role on stage again for family and friends, Gordon says she couldn't resist. Since graduating from Harvard with a masters degree in acting, Gordon has landed…

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Tickets on Sale for Rotary's Annual Memorial Weekend Circus

Big Top to be erected at St. Vincent's School property in Marinwood to support Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise's public service projects.

The Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise is not just clowning around again. The members really want to see you at the circus Memorial Day weekend for the club's largest fundraiser of the year. The club is bringing the American Crown Circus back to the St. Vincent School property in Marinwood May 25-28 to raise funds to support local school projects including literacy, essay contests, dictionary donations for third-graders, the Fishing in the City event, the North Bay Children’s Center, St. Vincent’s School for Boys and local Boy Scouts of America units. Money also goes to support the club’s smoke alarm project, in partnership with the Novato Fire District, to ensure that each mobile home in Novato has a working smoke detector.  The club also …

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Novato High Students Earn Prestigious Awards

Chuxi Pan is headed first alternate for a national science camp, and Laila Smith is one of 20 kids nationwide to be named Presidential Scholar of the Arts.

Chuxi Pan and Laila Smith are among the students doing Novato High School proud — as well as our entire city. The California Department of Education announced this week that Pan has been selected as the first alternate to attend the prestigious 2012 National Youth Science Camp, a residential program that honors and challenges two graduating high school students from each state. The CDE selected four California students, two as delegates and two as alternates. The alternates serve if the delegates are unable to participate. All four students were selected because of their superior academic proficiency in math and the sciences, leadership abilities, and social maturity. Smith, a jazz singer at the Marin School of the Arts, was among 141 high…

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Patty Maher

1:29 pm on Friday, May 11, 2012

Congratulations to both of these young women! They are definitely doing Novato High proud.   more ›

Celebrating Diversity at Multicultural Festival

Hundreds gather at Miwok Park in Novato to experience tastes, sounds and sights.

Organizers of the eighth annual Multicultural Festival at Novato's Miwok Park were graced with perfect weather Saturday, and upwards of 500 visitors enjoyed a variety of cool displays, games and performances. Event co-founder Kim Tsuchimoto said lots of young families stopped by to experience everything from singing, dancing, acrobatics, martial arts, a police dog demonstration, a tour of a fire truck and informational booths. Multicultural foods and drinks were available as well as good old-fashioned American hamburgers. Among the honored guests were Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, Novato City Council members Madeline Kellner and Pat Eklund and Novato police Lt. Keith Heiden. The smaller visitors had their faces painted, tried out a …

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Sponsor a Young Performer in Marin Summer Theater

Many of the kids who sign up for the nonprofit troupe can't afford the modest tuition, and now there's an urgent deadline to fund scholarships.

Marin Summer Theater, a four-year-old nonprofit company of high school- and college-age performing artists, is appealing to the public to help cover scholarships for young applicants who don't have the funds to participate. Pat Nims, co-founder and director of the summer theater, said he faces a May 1 deadline to raise $2,500 in order to provide scholarships worth $3,500 to handle all the funding requests. Auditions are completed and MST has selected its company of actors, singers, dancers, musicians and techs for performances that begin in July. The lineup is the musical Spring Awakening (July 5-8 at Novato Theater Company playhouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (July 12-15, San Marin High's Emily Gates Student Center) and the musical…

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Miwok Park Set to Host Multicultural Day

Hundreds will convene to showcase Novato's diversity on Saturday.

Novato's diversity will be celebrated in full color Saturday at the seventh annual Novato Multicultural Day at Miwok Park. "We have a pretty dedicated following, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger," said event chair Kim Tsuchimoto, chief financial officer at Novato-based Raptor Pharmaceutical. The free event features music, art,  food and drink and all sorts of exhibits that showcases our cultures. Featured performers include Middle Eastern bellydancers, Native American hoop dancers, Chinese lion dancers and young martial artists. Tsuchimoto and fellow members of the Novato Multicultural Advisory Commission came up with the idea of an annual event about eight years ago but had more of a speaking panel in mind. She remembers seeking …

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