Michael Ray Wisely News Today

Center Rep's production of "The Great Leap" at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts follows a University of San Francisco men’s basketball team traveling to Beijing for an exhibition game in 1989, a time with escalating student protests as the communist country struggles with the post-Cultural Revolution.

Center Rep's production of "A Christmas Carol" at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center is annual tradition that sees many of the cast return year after year for to play their iconic characters.

With its borrowed brand name and broad physical comedy, "Clue" seems to be gunning for the stupefying success of "The Play That Goes Wrong," but instead unintentionally fumbles along the way.

With its borrowed brand name and broad physical comedy, "Clue" seems to be gunning for the stupefying success of "The Play That Goes Wrong," but instead unintentionally fumbles along the way.

Some pieces of pop-cultural output get loved to death, repeated and revisited so often they become like worn-out records — still playable, but no longer as vivid as they once were.

Sci-fi, an updated classic and a musical farce among the offerings

Sci-fi, an updated classic and a musical farce among the offerings

“August: Osage County” brilliantly explores themes of addiction, love and generational trauma through the extended Weston family.