Shows to See in Sacramento, Jerry Montoya Edition

January is like theatre's "in like a lamb, out like a lion" month, as everyone recovers from they heyday of December holiday shows and many theatres go dark.  By then end of the month, all the stages are full again with new productions. 

I'm calling this the "Jerry Montoya Edition" because Jerry, B Street Theatre's Associate Producer, has a new show opening this weekend for B Street's Family Series, The Conductor: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. He also wrote Nostros, La Gente which is one of eight plays by Sacramento playwrights in City Theatre's Old City Cemetary Plays, a festival of new works all set in Sacramento's Old City Cemetary.  I saw one evening of this show last week (each performance is a four-play set "A" or "B" of the eight plays in the project).  It's a really cool project, well produced by City Theatre who should be applauded for the efforts to produce new, local work in town.

Jerry must be one of the most prolific playwrights in the region, having written many scripts for B Street's Family Series (his Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorites).  He has scripts published by Playscripts including an adaptation of Secret Garden that is pretty widely produced and was the first children's show playing at B Street when I started there.  With Nostros, La Gente he now has two shorter works that he may develop into full length plays, the other being A Murder of Crowe (pictured left) which was a ten-minute play detailing some of the stories behind the Charles Manson murders.  Catch one of Jerry's shows (details below) while they're running, and you can catch Jerry online at JerryRMontoya.com and on twitter @jermontoya.

Shows to see:

• OPENING: The Conductor: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad by Jerry R. Montoya at B Street Theatre, part of the Family Series.  Opens January 29, with shows every Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 4pm.
• CONTINUING THROUGH 2/7: Old City Cemetary Plays at City Theatre.  Marcus Crowder's write up in the Bee has play descriptions and show times.
• THROUGH 2/13: The excellent Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at B Street, I blogged about it here.
• COMING SOON: New Helvetia Theatre's tick, tick... Boom! opens February 3, coinciding with the Broadway tour of Rent coming to Sacramento.
• ONGOING: Graham Sobelman's Graham-A-Rama Cabaret is every Sunday night, and this weekend is a special one year anniversary show.  And don't miss the February 21 show featuring Peter Story.