Page 3 | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Star Power: Sebastiani Theatre Fundraiser in Sonoma

Apr 7, 2026

Star Power: Sebastiani Theatre Fundraiser in Sonoma

There are fundraisers, and then there are evenings that resurrect an entire era. On Saturday, April 11, the Sebastiani Theatre makes a play for the latter.

Billed as “The Golden Age of Hollywood,” the Sebastiani Theatre Foundation’s annual gala leans into the venue’s natural advantage: It already looks like a place where something glamorous ought to happen. The trick, of course, is filling that space with enough energy to justify the architecture. This year’s answer is a hybrid of concert, costume party and civic ritual, all in service of keeping one of Sonoma’s most storied cultural institutions thriving.

At the center of the evening is SUSU, the New York rock outfit fronted by Liza Colby and Kia Warren, who will expand into an eight-piece big band for the occasion. Colby and Warren will also serve as hosts, guiding the night’s proceedings alongside music director Tony Bruno, whose resume includes work with Rihanna and Enrique Iglesias. Backing it all is the Neil Fontano Band, providing a local anchor to the otherwise cosmopolitan swirl.

The Sebastiani isn’t just presenting a show; it’s staging a case for itself. Historic theaters have a way of becoming either mausoleums or miracles, depending on whether a community decides to keep showing up.

Jocelyn Simone Rhude, the theater’s director of marketing and social media, frames the stakes in generational terms. “I work in marketing at the Sebastiani Theatre, a purposeful choice made due to a deep personal connection. My grandmother, my mother and I have all performed on that stage, a shared experience that makes the theater truly feel like part of my family,” says Rhude.

After returning from New York, Rhude decided to devote her time to helping the theater grow and flourish as a vital community hub.

“Preserving historic theaters like this, while planning for the future, is so important. They serve generations of our community, and they give us a place to gather, to laugh, be enriched by artistic programming and to pause for a moment in a world that’s moving so fast,” she says. “One day, I hope that when I have kids, they’ll get to grow up here too, going to camps, watching movies and experiencing live music at the Sebastiani Theatre just like I did.”

That sense of continuity—past bleeding into present, present angling toward future—is the quiet theme beneath the evening’s overt spectacle.

Local musician Tanner Walle of Little Worth captures the feeling from the stage-facing side of the footlights. “As a songwriter and performer in Sonoma, I’ve never felt more inspired than when I step into the theater—on stage or in a red seat,” says Walle, who credits music director Bruno’s talent for programming the venue as an indicator of the coming evening’s success. “It’s a rare privilege to create within a place that holds so much memory.”

The evening features a live auction led by Ellen Toscano, Sonoma’s “Singing Auctioneer,” with more than $100,000 in offerings: a Vail getaway, a four-night stay in Scottsdale, private flights over the Bay Area, rare magnums of wine and much more.

Throughout, there will be wine, canapés and photographers documenting the evening (guests are requested to be attired in black and gold, which will look marvelous against the red carpet).

Doors open at 5:30pm, Saturday, April 11, with the event beginning at 6pm at the Sebastiani Theatre, 476 1st St. E, Sonoma. Tickets range from $150 general admission to $250 VIP, available at sebastianitheatre.org.

Becoming a Regular: Don’t Judge a Bar by its Cover

Jeff Burkhart

Apr 7, 2026

Becoming a Regular: Don’t Judge a Bar by its Cover

I pulled up and parked along what passed for a curb. Really it was just a pile of asphalt, which certainly didn’t give it any air of edging permeance at all.

Surely, this couldn’t be the place. My friend pulled up behind me.

“Is this the place?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said.

“You’re sure?” said I.

“I’m sure,” he said.

The mostly plywood front door opened outward, and the faded live band flyers stapled to it flapped in the breeze created exclusively by its movement.

They say to never judge a book by its cover, and the same could be said of bars. Or more correctly not their covers, but rather by their front doors. I know of at least two bar/restaurants that have amazing newly remodeled facades. Unfortunately, the interiors are still the same tired old ones.

But once inside this out of the way spot, those bright lights lit up pool tables, video games and the bar. Much brighter than one would have expected from the other side of that plywood.

“Hello, fellas,” said the bartender, who could have been straight out of mixology central casting. Suspenders, scruffy beard, craft beer T-shirt and a black baseball cap. It’s not really a uniform, but it sure could be.

And he also seemed genuinely glad to see us.

“Table or bar?” he asked.

“Table?” we answered.

“Here’s some menus,” he said, handing them to us. “I’ll be over in a minute.”

He bopped in and out from behind the bar. Making drinks for the people scattered about the room and then delivering them. He was a picture of efficiency. His hands were never empty. Dirty plates gave way to full drinks which gave way to plates of food. In between there was plenty of hand washing, hands which he dutifully dried on the white towel slung over his shoulder.

One can get an immediate sense of a bar within the first 30 seconds of meeting the bartender. And this bartender worked like a well-oiled machine. It didn’t matter if the customers were at the bar or at a table. Everyone was attended to. There are some bartenders who won’t ever wait on tables, and there are some bartenders who get miffy about what cocktails are ordered. Mr. Central Casting was neither of them.

I’ve worked with many bartenders in many different establishments all over California, and this young man, in the most out of the way place imaginable, might have been one of the best that I have ever seen. He certainly understood the job, and he understood his role, and he intertwined both in the most fluid way possible.

There weren’t going to be any lectures on whiskey, or eye rolls about one’s choice of beer. I knew he was just as comfortable making a Cosmo as he was an espresso martini, because I watched him make both, in between serving pitchers of beer and plates of chicken wings. And everybody seemed happier for it, including both me and my friend.

“See you guys next time,” he said, waving to us, on our way out the door.

“Absolutely,” I said. I believed he meant what he said. And surprisingly, so did I.

Leaving me with these thoughts:

• “No matter where you go, there you are,” said actor Peter Weller as the lead character in the 1984 film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

• Just because your Manhattan costs $20 doesn’t mean that it’s worth $20.

• If you only treat your customers like customers, then they can never be your friends.

• Sometimes the worst bar is situated in the best part of town, and ironically, sometimes it is exactly the other way around.

Jeff Burkhart hosts ‘The Barfly Podcast.’ More at jeffburkhart.net.

Renegade Orchestra, Doc Film Fest and Poet Ada Limón

Crush

Weeklys Staff

Apr 7, 2026

Petaluma

Renegade Orchestra

If a symphony loosened its tie, cranked the amps and invited the audience to have a good time, it might look something like Renegade Orchestra. The Bay Area ensemble—helmed by conductor Jason Eckl and cellist Rebecca Roudman—has built a reputation for turning rock classics into full-bodied orchestral experiences, where strings meet rhythm section and “sit quietly” is replaced with “move and groove.” Expect a set that blurs the line between concert hall and rock show, with symphonic takes on familiar material delivered at full volume and without pretense. It’s less about reverence and more about release—the beauty of a symphony with the soul of a rock band, as the tagline goes. 7pm, Saturday, April 11, The Hall of the Above,199 Petaluma Blvd N., Petaluma. Tickets and info at renegadeorchestra.com.

Sebastopol

Documentary Fest

Nonfiction takes center stage when the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival returns with four days of films, filmmakers and reality refracted through the cinematic lens. Now an Oscar-qualifying festival for short-form documentaries, SDFF brings 55 films to screens at Sebastopol Center for the Arts and Rialto Cinemas, with more than 50 filmmakers on hand for Q&As and conversations that extend the experience beyond the frame. Known for its progressive programming, the festival leans into social justice, journalism and competing perspectives—often presenting multiple takes on the same story. In a moment when “what’s real” feels increasingly slippery, SDFF makes a compelling case for documentary as both art form and cultural record. Highlights include portraits of boundary-pushing figures and deep dives into stories that refuse easy answers. April 9–12, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 282 S. High St., and Rialto Cinemas, 6868 McKinley St., Sebastopol. Single tickets $15; passes available at sebastopolfilmfestival.org.

Kentfield

Masterworks 3

The Marin Symphony leans into contrast for Masterworks 3, a program that pairs lyrical introspection with rhythmic fire under music director Fawzi Haimor. Concertmaster Ani Bukujian takes the spotlight in Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Ernest Chausson’s Poème, while the rest of the evening ranges from the electronic pulse of Mason Bates’ Mothership to the galloping energy of Alberto Ginastera and the theatrical flair of Manuel de Falla. Consider it a well-traveled night of orchestral storytelling. 3 and 7:30pm, Saturday, April 11; 3pm, Sunday, April 12, James Dunn Theatre, 15 Laurel Ave., Kentfield. $47 and up; youth $24. marinsymphony.org.

Corte Madera

Ada Limón

Poetry gets a midday revival courtesy of Ada Limón, the 24th poet laureate of the United States, who arrives at Book Passage with Against Breaking. Limón’s work frames poetry as a living force—capable of healing, stirring action and reminding readers of their better, messier, more human selves. Those drawn to the nature-infused lyricism of Robin Wall Kimmerer or the contemporary introspection of Jesmyn Ward will find familiar terrain here, though Limón’s voice remains distinctly her own: clear-eyed, tender and quietly galvanizing. Consider it an invitation to recalibrate, one line at a time. 1pm, Saturday, April 11, Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. Free. bookpassage.com.

Singing Waiter: Surviving a Life that’s Arts-Adjacent

Daedalus Howell

Apr 7, 2026

Singing Waiter: Surviving a Life that’s Arts-Adjacent

A friend of mine called me a “singing waiter.” This was new slang to me, and I didn’t want to throw a good glass of pinot noir at him until I knew the deal.

“Your career is bifurcated between making art and making media,” he explained.

I blinked until he explained what “bifurcated” meant too.

I replied that I was making a living.

After he stopped laughing, he said that’s why I’m a singing waiter—I’m sublimating my art into the day job.

I made a case for being a practitioner of the “fine art of media,” which convinced neither of us.

A fancy business newsletter I read encourages brands to identify tensions in our culture and market their resolution. The go-to example is usually some do-gooder company that helps high-end consumers assuage their guilty participation in an inherently exploitative capitalist system by leveraging part of their purchase into the service of a cause. These companies proliferated in the aughts and teens.

Now, a tension I perceive amongst my cohort is this singing waiter issue my pal sees in me: Creative people have arts-adjacent careers but aren’t necessarily working artists. We live in Wine Country, but few can afford the Wine Country lifestyle sold to tourists. It proliferates from here—into housing, into time, into the quiet erosion of the hours one might otherwise spend making something strange and possibly great.

Sure, there has never been a true meritocracy in the arts, but there also has never been an algorithm that can make some gibberish on TikTok the font of a sustainable career as a “creator.” Yay, more tension to resolve. I don’t have the word count for that here, but suffice it to say: Live your legend now. Flip the script on arts-adjacency. Be like the raver in the ’90s who asked me what I do “on the side”—as if a career was merely a means of supporting a primary occupation as a raver. There’s wisdom in that inversion.

If you’re a singing waiter, like me, sing louder—sing weird, profane ballads about the life you’re actually living. Let them curl out into the room, into the margins, into the in-between spaces where your aesthetic DNA has already taken root like tendrils in the imaginations of others. That’s the work. Not someday—now, between shifts.

Who knows who will hear it? One of the earliest known singing waiters was Izzy Baline at a hotel bar in 1905. He later changed his name to Irving Berlin and wrote “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”

Super-duper.

Daedalus Howell is editor of this paper, host of ‘The Drive’ on 95.5 FM, and sings loud as the director of ‘Werewolf Serenade’ and a newsletterist at dhowell.com.

Message From Earth: Xochitl of Coyote Creates

Locals

Cincinnatus Hibbard

Apr 7, 2026

Message From Earth: Xochitl of Coyote Creates

We met at the entrance to the Sonoma Community Center. Just inside, two volunteers were set to raise two chandeliers strung with tiger-striped fabric scraps—as if to open the Trashion Fashion season upon our entrance.

Xochitl, the mononomic, multi-hyphenate head of Coyote Creates, was dressed to the teeth—in her own words—in the style of an evil Pokemon gym leader. Her look—a preview of her upcycled trash fashion collection—cut a nostalgic Pokemon comforter together with a black blanket into a comfy-cozy two piece ensemble with the sharp lines of streetwear (for a living picture of this look, watch her walk in Sonoma’s 16th annual Trashion Fashion Runway Show; details at end).

She completed her look with a pair of black, bad girl Doc Martens, and a wide bag she had made from a man’s blue collar work shirt.

This collection will be Xochitl’s first presentation on the Trashion Fashion runway, but she aims to make a splash by entering an entire collection of five thematic looks (into a show of mostly single look entries). Her favorite piece from the collection is made from Star Wars sheets recut to resemble a dress worn by Queen Amadala (iykyk). After visiting her folkloric-styled entries in Trashion’s mini couture Barbie show, we found a leafy outside spot by a big wicker elephant for a brisk chat.

Cincinnatus Hibbard: Xochitl, you live in Napa. Throw off a few locations in Xochitl’s Napa.

Xochitl: CP Thrift, Napa Library and the Sunshine Cafe.

You have a lot of projects under the umbrella of Coyote Creates. Tell me about what ties it all together.

In describing the brand, I usually say, “Escaping the matrix through creation.” That’s my tagline.

Your main medium and money maker within your Coyote Creates brand is music—typically voice, self-accompanied by guitar. But with your upcoming album, Alien Nation, you’re taking your belated pop turn.

My last albums have been “sad girl music”—which is great—but I really want to show my fun side. Sonically, my inspirations for this album have been a lot of the pop of the 2010s. Lady Gaga, Kesha, Katie Perry—our leading ladies were really pop pop popping then. But I am trying to throw in some ’80s [hair] metal that I love so much—these big choruses, five people singing all at once unnecessarily, big reverb drums.

I saw the BTS from your promotional shoot for Alien Nation—your hair was teased up like a vixen from a White Snake video… An alien visiting Earth is also the premise of the children’s book that you self-illustrated. What message do you have for earthlings?

A lot of adults lose playtime. We’re scared to play—we’re scared to not be good at something. And we are scared to have a hobby that doesn’t make us money. But I’m telling you right now—as someone who is a full-time artist—that play time is crucial to our being. Whether it’s just playing with Legos or a paint night with your friends. Pick up that old paintbrush. The world would be a much happier place if you did. Creation is so important to us; we are part of the universe—and the universe creates.

Learn more: Connect with Xochitl through her instagram, @coyotecreates, or her glossy website, coyotecreates.com (which opens on a finely filmed self-statement). Her collection upcycled from nostalgic old bedspreads can be witnessed at Sonoma’s 16th annual Trashion Fashion Runway Show, April 18, at Sonoma’s Veterans Memorial Hall, 126 1st St. W., Sonoma. Tickets start at $20 for the 1:30 and 5pm seatings.

Let It Rise: Melissa Yanc Kneads On

Food & Drink

Amber Turpin

Apr 7, 2026

Melissa Yanc is co-founder of Quail & Condor Bakery and Troubadour Bread & Bistro, both of which have become celebrated establishments in Healdsburg since their inception.

Yanc’s culinary path actually began at her grandmother’s side, learning her way around a kitchen since childhood. Over 16 years in the hospitality industry, she honed her craft through pastry school before opening her first bakery in Denver at the young age of 23. Since then, she has led acclaimed pastry programs, including at Bien Cuit in New York (which she sold her Denver bakery to work at) and Gjusta in Los Angeles.

That move ultimately brought her here to Sonoma County, where she served as hotel pastry chef at SingleThread, also where her husband, chef Sean McGaughey, had landed.

Yanc’s entrepreneurial spirit has only grown from there. Alongside chef McGaughey, she began baking independently for farmers markets, hotels and wineries in 2018. Then in 2019, Yanc brought her talents to a giant audience, taking home the title on Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship.

In 2020, the couple opened Quail & Condor, quickly growing a devout following for their excellent naturally leavened breads, laminated pastries and seasonal scones. Their Troubadour Bread & Bistro opened in 2022, just down the street, as a place to showcase sandwiches by day and French-inspired tasting menus by night.

Most recently, in December 2025, they partnered with longtime friend Matthew Vawter to open Threefold, a new bakery in Breckenridge, Colorado. They also celebrated the announcement of the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards as semifinalists for Outstanding Bakery. So if one sees Yanc around town, perhaps they can congratulate her with a Campari Spritz… She likes them a lot.

Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?

Melissa Yanc: That’s a long answer, but really my career found me. I grew up with women who really know how to cook.

Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.

Sort of… I’m a terrible mixologist, but when I had a great vodka martini I understood good quality vodka and balance.

What is your favorite thing to drink at home?

Campari Spritz.

Where do you like to go out for a drink?

Bravas on a rainy Wednesday.

If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you want to be drinking (besides fresh water)?

Campari Spritz (always).Quail & Condor, 44 Mill St., Unit J, Healdsburg, 707.473.8254, quailandcondor.com.

Sisterhood: Latine Production at Mercury Theater

Theater

Caitlin Strom-Martin

Apr 7, 2026

Sisterhood: Latine Production at Mercury Theater

Demonstrating their dedication to diverse, unique plays, Mercury Theater is presenting an all-female cast and crew production of Enfrascada, a dark comedy that blends humor, folk magic and sisterhood. Directed by frequent Bohemian contributor Beulah Vega, the play opens April 24 and runs through May 10 at Mercury Theater in Petaluma.

Vega had been eyeing the Tanya Saracho play for years and relished the opportunity to present a story featuring, as she says, “women of the global majority.” Indeed, the story is about Latina/Latine women and their bonding over the use of Brujería, hoodoo and Santería magic in order to help Alicia (Reilly Milton) win back her boyfriend.

Lexus Fletcher, who plays Yesenia, emphasizes that Enfrascada is unique because it features “a full cast of women of color who get to express themselves in not only English but Spanish. I believe it is important to show female friendship through the lens of women of color, which is something you don’t see often in this county.”

On the script being non-Eurocentric, Vega notes that the show “doesn’t ask for allyship. It’s a play about four women who are friends and are Latine. To me, the simple act of allowing us to tell a story about just existing in the world without having to apologize for it is an act of resistance.” Vega says that the story appeals because it is “literally like hanging out with a group of your female friends, including cookies, tequila and killer stilettos.”

Vega is particularly proud of the all-female representation among the crew, stating: “Recently, I was sent a press release for a show marketed as ‘all female,’ but the design team was all men. Ours is an all-female play, so I did what I always strive to do with an all-female play: All my designers are women or female-identifying. I don’t think that should be newsworthy.”

She continues: “My hope is that all theaters … have taken a long, hard look at whose story is being told and why… I hope that the mindset of every one of my colleagues is “People of color are allowed to exist on stage without asking for white approval.”

This awareness makes Enfrascada a notable addition to the socially and politically relevant programming that Mercury produces. Art is especially potent when it meets the moment, and Enfrascada, with its emphasis on the female experience of women of color, builds upon that mission.

Mercury Theater presents ‘Enfrascada’ April 24–May 10 at 3333 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. Thur–Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $20–$35. 707.658.9019. mercurytheater.org.