Davisville

Many public statues are being defaced, toppled or removed this summer, and names taken off buildings, as more of America comes to terms with the ingrained racism in the United States that oppresses African-Americans. Statues of Confederate war heroes or slaveholders are particular targets. But this fight over symbols is not new, nor is it external to Davis; this city has had conflicts over symbols like the statue to Gandhi in Central Park (pictured), and over naming a street for Edward Teller, co-inventor of the hydrogen bomb.

The Palms Playhouse, with no clear end to the pandemic in sight, has gone on indefinite hiatus and isn’t renewing its lease for the location in downtown Winters it has called home since moving from Davis in 2002. However, co-owners Nora Cary and Andrew Fridae are keeping the Palms going as an organization. On today’s Davisville we talk with Cary about the pandemic, the last concert they held on March 7, running a for-profit business with no profit, the magic of a good performance, some favorite moments since she and Fridae bought the Palms in 2016, and what might come next.

If 2020 had been normal, my plan was to talk about Frankenstein, which the Davis Shakespeare Festival was going to present this fall until the pandemic killed off in-person performances. Rob Salas, co-artistic director and co-founder of the festival, is my guest today, and we still talk about the play by Nick Dear, which is based on the book by Mary Shelley and presents a creature very different than the “green skin and neckbolts” image of the monster in the 1930s movie.

Even though the pandemic has closed theaters in Davis for most of 2020, we’re still presenting our annual movie show with Davis film critic Derrick Bang—even if only to learn what has survived the dislocations of the year. Derrick writes reviews for the Davis Enterprise and his blog, Derrick Bang on Film. We talk about how the pandemic has affected movie-making and his job as a critic, the films still coming out at what would normally be a big time of the year and films he’s looking forward to.