Phil Bronstein on "Willie Brown & US"

Bert Bruno and Valerie Bell (left) and Heidi Hardin (right), driving forces behind community theater and art in Bayview Hunters Point.

Here's what Phil Bronstein had to say, in the Chron and online, about last week's play by students at the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Academy:

SF Chronicle: Where else would have anyone who is anyone have wanted to have been on last Tuesday night if not with Obama than at the OH for our performance launched by by Mr. Lamar Turner singing the Star Spangled Banner?

Bronstein at Large online: The same night that ushered in the first black man as a presidential nominee from a major party, Willie Lewis Brown Jr., sleight-of-hand master and a pioneer in force-feeding African-American candidates into a hostile political environment, sat in a folding chair at the Bayview Opera House and watched a bunch of kids reenact his life.

This phrase came up a lot: "An eye for the ladies".

The show was "The Life and Times of Willie Brown & Us" put on by the students of the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Academy, the Bayview Opera House's and Pathlight Productions' "Junior Drama Academy, and Think Round's TEEN Theater Arts Program. It was how Willie likes it, and he'd be the first to tell you so: AAW. All About Willie.