TUESDAY, DEC. 18 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Martin Luther King, Arrowhead Marsh. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class on Planning Healthy Meals at 8:30 a.m. at Fruitvale Elementary School, 3200 Boston Ave., Oakland. To register call 595-6445. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Tai Chi for Peace at 1:30 p.m. in front of the Marine Recruiting Station, Shattuck Square. Open Sidewalk Studios at 3 p.m. 524-2776. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. . 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19 

War and Peace Book Group meets to discuss “Saturday” by Ian McEwan at 7 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class on Planning Healthy Meals at 8:30 a.m. at Cesar Chavez, 2825 international Blvd., Oakland. To register call 595-6445. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

Eay Does It Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 Univestiy Ave. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART station. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, DEC. 20 

Winter Solstice Celebration Bring stories, poetry and music to share, and join a short walk to learn the solstice’s cultural history, at 4 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 6 and up. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 21 

Iraq Moratorium Vigil to Protest the War from 2 to 4 p.m. at the corners of University and Acton. Sponsored by the Streawberry Creek Lodge Tenants Assoc and the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Winter Solstice Labyrinth Walk by Candlelight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Free. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

Teen Playreaders meets to read “Hamlet” and other plays based on the classic, at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6121. 

“Women’s Hormone Balance” Covering PMS, infertiltiy and menopause at 6:30 p.m. at The Redwood Clinic, 3021 Telegraph Ave. Reservations required. 849-1176. 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 22 

Nature Theater Sing-Along “Wintertime at Little Farm” a puppet show for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Working with Wool Watch the spinning wheel turn wool into yarn, try a drop spindle and make a felt ornament to take home at 1:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Family Workshop: Winter Ornaments from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mocha, Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Cost is $7. 465-8770.  

Winter Solstice Gathering at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina, from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. Alan Gould, Lawrence Hall of Science, will lead a mini-workshop on the seasons. Dress warmly. www.solarcalendar.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Crafts Fair at Civic Center Park with live music from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and handmade gifts by local craftspeople. 548-3333 . 

Berkeley High Crew 40th Anniversary Celebration from 8 a.m. to noon at the Jack London Aquatic Center. All alumni welcome. www.berkeleyhighcrew.org  

Sunset Walk in El Cerrito Meet the end of Rydin St. at 3:30 p.m. for an hour walk along the bay, on paved trail at Pt. Isabel. Bring binoculars and bird book to help identify hundreds of shore birds. Rain cancels. 234-8949. 

Plant Native Seedlings in partnership with East Bay Regional Park District from 9 a.m. to noon at Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. 452-9261, ext. 119. www.savesfbay.org 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, DEC. 23 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Bike Trip in Arrowhead Marsh Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Fruitvale BART. Bicycle helmet required. Bring lunch and dress in layers. 547-1233. 

Berkeley Hiking Club Hike on Mt. Tamalpais Meet at 9 a.m. at Berkeley Way and Shattuck for an 8 mile, moderately paced hike. Bring lunch and liquids. Heavy rain cancels. 649-9787. 

Toddler Nature Walk We’ll splash in puddles and poke in holes. Especially for 2-3 year oldsat 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

A Seasonal Family Celebration Come make greeting cards and simple gifts from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Materials fee is $5-$7. 525-2233. 

Family Workshop: Candy Cottages from 1 to 4 p.m. at Mocha, Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Cost is $7. 465-8770.  

“Mrs Santa Claus” In person and on film at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

MONDAY, DEC. 24 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss favorite tearjerkers at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6121. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class on Planning Healthy Meals at 8:30 a.m. at Jefferson Elementary, 2035 40th Ave., Oakland. To register call 595-6445. 

Juggling for Peace Learn juggling and plate spinning at 11:30 a.m. in front of the Marine Recruiting Station, Shattuck Square. 524-2776. 

Simplicity Forum meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. jcecil@chw.edu  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza. 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Dec. 18, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., Dec. 19, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5427.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Dec. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

The Shoe Pavilion in downtown Berkeley “isn’t going anywhere,” said Jill Seiler, operations manager for the Shoe Pavilion. The Daily Planet incorrectly reported that the store is closing in a story on Tuesday.

TUESDAY, DEC. 18 

CHILDREN 

Arlington Children’s Choir Holiday Concert, suitable for ages 3 and up, at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale. www.juiamorgan.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Christmas Jug Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Brian Wood Ensemble at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave.. 548-5198.  

African Roots of Jazz, with E.W. Wainwright & Friends at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19 

CHILDREN 

“Alice in Wonderland” puppet show at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., off Grand Ave., Oakland. Cost is $6. 452-2259. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“A Christmas Carol” read by Martin Harris as Charles Dickens at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland City Center Holiday Concert with West African Highlife Band at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble Debut performance under direction of Kent Nagano and Stuart Canin at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Tickets are $60. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Fiveplay at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ben Graves Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Charlie Hunter at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, DEC. 20 

CHILDREN 

Music with Bonnie Lockhart for ages 3 to 7 at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Public Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. 

Patrick O’Kiersey “Selected Paintings and Drawings” Artist talk at 7 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, Atrium, State of California Office Bldg. 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Lutsinga Musical Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Greenbridge, Celtic trio, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Anna Estrada & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Triskela at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Matthew Charles Heulitt Project, The Japonize Elephants at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Dietsnakes at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 21 

THEATER 

“Amahl and the Night Visitors” at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Tickets at the door are $12-$15.  

Aurora Theatre Company “Sex” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 23. Tickets are $28-$50. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Rep “After the Quake” at the Trust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Dec. 21. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Encore Theatre Company & Shotgun Players “The Shaker Chair” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan. 27. Tickets are $20-$30. 841-6500.  

Impact Theatre “A Very Special Money & Run Winter Season Holiday Special” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 22. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

Kids Take the Stage “Footloose” at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 527-1138.  

“A Christmas Carol” with Martin Harris at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-7800. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group “The Hard Nut” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$60. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Oakland Ballet “Nutcracker” at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. at Oakland Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$50. www.ticketmaster.com 

The Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble “From the Rising of the Sun” Music for the Christmas season at 8 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $5-$15. www.wavewomen.org  

Holiday Caroling with Terrence Kelly & Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Albany Artists Collective featuring The Matresses and Cody Green in a benefit for the Albany Music Fund at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mario “Weary Boys” Matteoli at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

In Harmony’s Way “Mid-Winter Sing” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Lalin St. Juste and Connie Lim at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Starry Plough Bluegrass Session with Jacob Groopman, Ben Bernstein, Erik Yates and others at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Charlie Hunter at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Machina Sol at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 22 

CHILDREN  

“Wintertime at Little Farm” a puppet show for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Stuart Little” the movie at 10 a.m. and noon, Sun. at noon at Elmwood Theater, 2966 College Ave. at Ashby. Benefit for local PTAs. 433-9730. 

THEATER 

Kids Take the Stage “Footloose” at 2 and 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 527-1138. www.kidstakethestage.com  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

West Coast Live with Michael Chabon, Will Durst at 10 a.m. at Freight and Salvage. Tickets are $13-$18. 415-664-9500. www.WCL.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“From the Darkness...Solace” a Winter Solstice Concert at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Donation $10-$20. 228-3207. 

Mark Morris Dance Group “The Hard Nut” at 2 and 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$60. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Oakland Ballet “Nutcracker” at 2 and 8 p.m. at Oakland Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$50. www.ticketmaster.com 

Nicolas Bearde Holiday Blues Fest at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Hot Hot Hot Caribbean Nights with Winston Soso and David Reid Caribbean band at 9:05 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Michael Grandi at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Holiday Revue, bluegrass and acoustic with Lauries Lewis, host, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bayonics, The Unsmokables at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $9. 841-2082.  

Mitch Marcus Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Thomas Lynch performs the Truman Capote classic, “A Christmas Memory” at 3 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets sliding scale $10-$30. 665-5565. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland Ballet “Nutcracker” at 2 p.m. at Oakland Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$50. www.ticketmaster.com 

Redwing at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Trumpet Supergroup Holiday Concert with Dave Scott, Mark Inouye, Mario Guarneri, Mike Olmos, and Erik Jekabson at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

MONDAY, DEC. 24 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Musica ha Disconnesso traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Obie winner Adam Bock’s new play, The Shaker Chair, at Ashby Stage in a joint production of the Shotgun Players with Encore Theatre Co., opens with one woman sitting on the title piece, expostulating with another woman, who’s curled up in another kind of chair crying over a book.  

The first woman goes on about Shakers, and their admirable work ethic, which is why their chair isn’t so great for sitting. A third enters the stark, light-filled room and takes the other two to task—the first for “being asleep,” the second for crying and doing nothing about it. 

All of this is fleshed out with witty, skewed dialogue, sometimes overlapping or simultaneous, with occasional silences, awkward and otherwise.  

The lines and repeated words and phrases that are batted back and forth like a shuttlecock don’t always directly refer to the matter (or matters) at hand, so by inference, the audience is in on the conversation, a little like a latecomer or eavesdropper. 

This continues throughout the play, though pretty quickly the story’s clear, clearer than the humorously tangled conversations it’s inferred from: Marion (a sometimes ebullient, sometimes diffident Frances Lee McCain) is putting up her sister Dolly (Nancy Shelby), who is upset with her husband, Frank (Will Marchetti). Marion’s old friend Jean (Scarlett Hepworth) is an environmental activist, endeavoring to involve Marion (or at least her car) in a nighttime raid on a nearby farm that’s spilling sewage. Meanwhile, Jean tries to coach—or boss—Dolly about men, romance and what’s passé about it all. Dolly doesn’t appreciate it. 

The gradually accruing plot works itself out through offhanded, even loopy dialogue as the various characters express themselves. A pair of watchcap-bonneted co-conspirators (Andrew Calabrese and Marissa Keltie) show up with Marion and Jean, back from a night’s mischief on the farm.  

Frank shows up at Marion’s to reel Dolly back in, and later to contend with Marion, all the while gushing about her lawn. There’s a lot of goofy reasoning and trick explanations. It finally does end up with some change—or resolution—but only through personal tragedy, while the rest apparently slips back to normal. 

The comic dialogue is Bock’s strong suit, and all cast members (as directed by Tracy Ward)are well up to their marks, displaying excellent timing and characterization. Word for Word’s Nancy Shelby is particularly adept at presenting a character who could appear as just a flakey ditz, making her laughable yet sympathetic, a real part of the ensemble of various types and their self-stated concerns. She’s also good at the pauses, the silences which offset the loopiness with a kind of existential eloquence. 

Of the two other sides of the triangle, as it were, McCain takes the lead with much gusto, tempered with a stern, sometimes sorrowful reflectiveness, while Hepworth is appropriately severe, brusque even, yet surprisingly soft around the edges whenever the edges are showing.  

The design of the interior of Marion’s severe country house (James Faerron’s set), which provides the stage for this little agon—or passion—is fine on all levels, the lighting (Heather Basarab) indirect by day and night, and the sounds (Sara Huddleston) veer from crickets to claxon alarms, bucolic to industrial, adding texture to the sense of light and darkness on this stark palette. 

(Shotgun’s productions continue to explore what’s becoming something of a house style in look and feel, a pleasing, ongoing trend.) 

The difficulty with the play is that not enough is really worked through, except the humorous banality and occasional indirection of the dialogue. The plot’s pretty pat, though it does go from screwball sitcom of a very professional order, through a quick upsurge of melodrama, into a kind of morality play denouement. The torquing or melding of forms is at least as old as Euripides’ Alcestis, but here it doesn’t run interference for—or cover—a somewhat bland plot which processes the story, like the factory farm Jean’s protesting. more than shape it as it moves through slightly hackneyed complications and resolution. 

There is, by the way, an uncredited pig in the cast; even the playwright seemed hesitant about mentioning it, but word got around before opening. “Bratty” (short for Bratwurst, the diminuative monicker apparently pinned on diplomatically by Shotgun artistic director Pat Dooley, who took the boar in), in a porcine cameo, appropriately hogs the stage for a moment, not once uttering a clever line. 

THE SHAKER CHAIR 

8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday through Jan. 27 at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $20-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org. 

Photograph: Frances Lee McCain in The Shaker Chair. 

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble, Berkeley Symphony’s new program jointly directed by conductor Kent Nagano and violinist Stuart Canin to present music in “a multifaceted structure,” a tradition of Akademies which “trace their origin all the way back to what one might call the democratization of music,” will perform their debut concert 8 p.m. Wednesday at the First Congregational Church with renditions of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue and Richard Strauss’ “Metamorphosen.”  

The Berkeley Symphony musicians will be joined by six string players, guest artists from the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, in a first-time partnership. 

“The Akademies were founded to share music with the community at large ... around the time of Beethoven,” said Nagano. “[It] had primarily been reserved for the aristocracy ... They had an enormous following ... very much music of the times and for people of the times. That was the spirit in which we wanted to launch the Akademie here in Berkeley.” 

Some pieces on the Akademie program will be performed as chamber music, some led by concertmaster Canin, others conducted by Nagano.  

“The hope is to try to blur those lines,” Nagano said, “so that what we share with the audience is simply music making. The template we are using is really very close to those original concerts presented by Peter von Winter 200 years ago.” 

With a first season emphasis on detailed string ensembles, the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 features three groups of three string instruments each, with support from a basso continou group; Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue—meant originally as a finale for one of his later string quartets—is performed by string orchestra; and Strauss’ “Metamorphosen” is subtitled “A Study for 23 Solo Strings.” 

An early sketch of Strauss’ piece was titled “Mourning for Munich,” written the day the Munich Court Theater was bombed in 1943. 

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, which will conclude the debut concert, will feature Canin, violin; Emma Moon, flute; Laura Griffiths, oboe and DavidWashburn, piccolo trumpet.  

The Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, from which the six guest string players come, was founded in 1974, drawing its musicians from top conservatory students in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  

“Germany’s great youth orchestra,” Nagano called them, “which represents tomorrow’s talent, already performing at a high professional level today.” 

Nagano—who as general music director of the Bavarian State Opera presides over von Winter’s Akademie concert tradition since 1811, one of the oldest—will continue as co-artistic director of Berkeley Akademie with his departure as Berkeley Symphony’s music director following the 2008-09 season.  

Canin, his co-director, has served as concert master of the San Francisco Symphony and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, which he co-founded as a conductorless orchestra. In 2001, Nagano appointed him concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera, a position he continues to hold. 

BERKELEY AKADEMIE ENSEMBLE 

8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19 at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Durant Avene and Dana Street. $60. 

841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org.

Everyone who knew Sidney Howard (1891-1939) testified to his exuberant vitality. Barrett Clark said he had an “irrepressible youthfulness, a tremendous enthusiasm for life.” He was admired for his generosity to other writers, and his own plays were described as “among the best ever written in America.” He was one of the first important Broadway playwrights to go to Hollywood. 

English 106 

Born in Oakland, Sidney Howard came to Berkeley as a student in 1911. His undergraduate poems and stories appeared in Occident, and he wrote two pageants which were performed on campus. He also took Leonard Bacon’s English 106, probably the first seminar in creative writing ever offered at Cal. Under Bacon’s guidance he wrote a blank verse tragedy which used the Black Death at Avignon as a background for the love story of Petrarch and Laura. After considerable revision the tragedy became a pageant, The Sons of Spain, and was produced in 1914 by The Forest Theater Society at Carmel. The scene was changed from Avignon to Monterey; Laura and Petrarch became mission Indians, Tiga and Raphael, protected by Fr. Serra from the lecherous Gov. Fages. The pageant’s success spurred Howard’s desire to become a playwright. 

World War I 

But in June, 1916, he put aside thoughts of Broadway and joined an American volunteer ambulance unit with the British army in Greece. Later he served on the Western Front and became a pilot in the French air force, transferring to the U.S. Army in 1917. 

Initially he loved flying. “It’s sport,” he wrote to his sister, Jean McDuffie, “and, by God, it’s poetry.” But he soon learned differently. Once, after he was shot down and managed somehow to land safely, he found his co-pilot dead in the seat behind him. Elizabeth Sergeant left us a glimpse of him on active service in 1918: “Moving heavily instead of with his usual light ease ... he cannot eat in the restaurants he visited with his dead friends. It seems that he does nothing but look up [their] families—or write to them.” 

Howard received two citations for gallantry in action and a Silver Star. After the armistice he returned to Berkeley to pick up the threads of his life, worked as a journalist in New York, and resumed writing plays. For the next 15 years he wrote nothing about the war. 

Broadway 

Swords, Howard’s first Broadway play, was a melodrama in verse. It opened in September 1921, and closed in October. He set it in Italy, “during the struggle between the Popes and the Emperors, a little after the height of the Crusades, a little before the revival of learning.” Femmina, the protagonist, is “an altogether human empress, devoted to her servants, none too scrupulous, temperamental, exacting, very feminine, wholly glorious.” She is the first of many strong female characters in Howard’s work. 

Femmina’s story seems an odd subject for a soldier home from the wars, but a natural one for a student of Leonard Bacon’s. Howard dismissed its failure, saying it was “instructive;” he never again wrote verse for the stage. What redeemed Swords for him was its star, Clare Eames, a tall, slender actress with a regal presence. She became famous for playing fearless modern women as well as historical figures like Femmina. (In 1923 she played Queen Elizabeth in Mary Pickford’s Dorothy Vernon of Hadden Hall.) “The real purpose of the play,” Howard said, “was to marry us.” They were “gloriously happy” for several years. 

His next play, S.S. Tenacity, opened in January 1922, and ran twice as long as Swords. A comedy about two young Frenchmen waiting for a ship to take them to Canada, it tells how one meets a girl and decides to stay at home, while the other sails away. The setting is contemporary and the behavior of the characters, simple and direct. From then on Howard wrote as a realist. 

‘They Knew What They Wanted’ 

In 1920 playwrights who respected Victorian conventions still dominated the American stage. Their work was swept away so completely by the rebellious younger generation—Howard, O’Neill, Barry and others—that their plays have almost totally disappeared. The only one still performed is David Belasco’s Madame Butterfly—in Puccini’s operatic version. A few others survive on DVD as “picturized” silent movies, like The Squaw Man and D. W. Griffith’s amazing Way Down East. 

In their plays, as one Victorian wrote, “The wife who has once taken the step from purity to impurity can never reinstate herself in the world of art this side of the grave.” Sidney Howard demolished this dogma in his first mature work, They Knew What They Wanted. Within hours of her marriage, the heroine commits adultery and emerges at play’s end not only alive, but with her marriage intact. Material the Victorians could only handle as tragedy, he treats as comedy. 

The Knew What They Wanted is based on a story Howard found in Dante. He made it “a treatise on the obsessions which make the world go round. The woman’s obsession for security—the man’s for a dynasty.” Brooks Atkinson described the play as a “romantic and savory story of love and magnanimity in a California vineyard.” And, Atkinson added, Howard “presented with warmth and sympathy some of the best characters he ever created.” This rich comedy ran for over a year, was filmed three times and returned to Broadway in the 1950s as a musical, The Most Happy Fella. 

Hollywood 

When his marriage to Clare Eames ended in 1928, Howard returned to Berkeley, residing for two years at his sister’s home on Roble Road in the Claremont area. He endured a period of despondency and said his heart had gone out of writing for the stage. By an unforeseen chance, this made him available for Hollywood just as movies began to talk. In April, 1929, he signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, who promised to make him a millionaire, and he became the best paid screenwriter of the 1930s. 

For the rest of his life Howard alternated between writing films in Hollywood, plays in New York, and living on his farm in Massachusetts. He made a happy marriage with Polly Damrosch in 1931, and arranged his life so that he could spend large amounts of time at home with her and their children. 

Howard’s screenplays for Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith and Dodsworth won Academy Awards. Dodsworth also became Howard’s biggest Broadway hit. While they were collaborating on a screenplay for Lewis’s anti-fascist It Can’t Happen Here, they received a request from the Reich Theater Chamber in Berlin for permission to produce Dodsworth, provided they supplied “evidence of Aryan descent.” They replied, “Who knows what ancestors we may have had in the last few hundred years? We really are as ignorant of them as even Hitler is of his. In answering please use our proper legal names: Sidney Howrowitz, and Sinclair Levy.” 

Howard’s only work explicitly on World War I, an adaptation of Humphrey Cobb’s Paths of Glory, failed on Broadway in 1935. A ghastly tale of suffering and injustice, he dramatized it cinematically in scenes so harsh that they alienated the audience. S. H. White believes the play’s energy came from Howard’s own military experience. Urging that the novel be filmed, Howard wrote, “It seems to me that our motion picture industry must feel something of a sacred obligation to make the picture.” Least his motives be misunderstood, he added, “I am not involved in the picture rights for this book.” 

‘GWTW’ 

In the winter of 1936 Howard wrote the screenplay for a widely loved, widely reviled and wildly romantic novel of the Old South, Gone With the Wind. In the preliminary treatment he wrote, “For screen purposes it is, I think, well to think of the book as Scarlett’s story, and of Scarlett herself as a character whose actions are consistently motivated by what she conceives to be the tragedy of an unrealized love.” In five months he reduced the densely printed 1,000-page novel to a typewritten script of only 240 pages. His choices as to what to omit, what to keep, and how to present the material had a decisive impact on the film. For example, he decided (echoing, perhaps, Paths of Glory) to give GWTW the sobriety of its unflinching look at the horrors of war. 

David O. Selznick, the film’s producer, tinkered with the script compulsively, ultimately hiring 10 other writers to revise it. Some softened the story, removing such astringencies as the sight of masses of wounded soldiers, while others suggested strange changes in the plot line. (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s contribution consisted mostly of restoring Howard’s and Margaret Mitchell’s original words, and justifying them to the anxious producer. Ben Hecht helped to shorten the script.) In a moment of self-indulgence after GWTW was completed, Selznick claimed to have written it all himself, but later decided Howard should get credit for the script. According to Andrew Sinclair, who edited and published Howard’s original screenplay, a comparison of Howard’s original text and the actual film, shows that GWTW is 85 percent Howard’s work. 

Sidney Howard’s life came to a sudden, shocking end in August, 1939, when he died in an accident. GWTW had its premiere in Atlanta four months later. At the February 1940, Academy Awards, Sinclair Lewis presented Howard’s posthumous Academy Award for the GWTW screenplay.