California History Theatre 2002
This Festival of Plays was performed at Sonora’s Stage 3 Theatre from May – July 2002.
Gunpowder Man
A memorable hit at Sonora’s Stage 3, Gunpowder Man tells the story of Little Tiger. Her incredible journey begins when she and her twin brother are born at the start of the Taiping Rebellion. Her mother dies in the revolution. When the Taiping are defeated, the twins flee their doomed village. They reach California just in time to find work on the Central Pacific Railroad. Disguised as a boy, Little Tiger faces her deepest fears.
The Union Democrat called Gunpowder Man “a magnificent tale of hope and betrayal on two continents.” The Modesto Bee wrote: “It documents a single life, sketches many lives, and it deserves to be heard.”
Wicked Dick Three Eyes
It’s 1851 and a band of actors staggers into Sonora. They’re broke, beat, and coming apart at the seams. Suddenly a rich patron appears.
Theater-lover Stanley Starbottle has just struck his bonanza. He’ll gladly bail the thespians out. All they have to do is let him act the arch villain in Shakespeare’s Richard III, in Sonora’s makeshift theater. The problem is, the mild and kindly Stanley has never been on stage. And his grandiose conception of the part horrifies the actors.
Money talks, but can it overcome the screams of Shakespeare’s ghost?
CAST (in order of appearance):
Don Bilotti, Thomas F. Maguire, Gary Holman, Van Gordon, Terry Richardson, Taylor Swaty, David Wagner, Rick Foster, Jeff Cooper, Rex LeFevre, Daniel Acree, Victor Belprez, Bev Woodland, Taylor Jordan
DIRECTED by Maryann Curmi
Inventing the West
A barely-known reporter moves from Virginia City, Nevada, to San Francisco. His pen name is “Mark Twain.” He’s helped by a young magazine editor called Bret Harte. These two will do more than anyone to create the popular picture of the Old West.
Soon, Harte is America’s best-paid writer and Twain is on the road to even bigger celebrity. Together they will write a comedy whose failure dooms their friendship.
In this new drama, Thomas F. Maguire plays Harte and Randy Maple expands on his well-known characterization of Twain.