KRCB-FM: Second Row Center

The plight of the vanishing New England WASP is the subject matter of A. R. Gurney’s The Dining Room, running now at Sonoma Arts Live. No, it’s not a science lecture on the more annoying cousin of the honeybee but a look at the cultural transformation of a specific component of 20th century America – the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Gurney, whose other works include Love Letters and Sylvia, uses 18 vignettes and about 50 characters to chart the rise and decline of upper middle-class America. The scenes all occur in the titular location around a stately dining table. The table, which was once the center point of family life and special occasions, in time has been reduced to a place on which to fold laundry. Wafting through the room over its two-hour running time are generations of unrelated characters, ages four to ninety, all played by a company of six talented actors - Isabelle Grimm, Kit Grimm, Rhonda Guaraglia, Len Handeland, Trevor Hoffman, and Jill K. Wagoner. One actor goes from playing a stern, tu