Arts And Entertainment
A Guide to Bay Area Holiday Events
By Ken Bullock
Friday December 21, 2007
As Advent draws to a close, the holiday events in the Bay Area roll on, unabated, with something nearly every day for the believer, the enthusiast, the festive, the funseeker—as well as the Grinch and the Scrooge.
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Holiday Gift Ideas: A Few of the Best DVD Releases of the Year
By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 21, 2007
There must be a gazillion DVDs released every month, and most of it is just filler, nothing worthy of adding to a serious or even semi-serious film collection. But 2007 saw a number of significant releases as well, though they may not get much display space at your local big box retailer. Below are just a handful of the best DVD releases of the year.
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The Theater: ‘The Shaker Chair’ at Ashby Stage
By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 18, 2007
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.
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Akademie Ensemble Presents Bach, Beethoven, Strauss
By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 18, 2007
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.”
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Sidney Howard: From Berkeley to Broadway and Hollywood
By Phil McArdle, Special to the Planet
Tuesday December 18, 2007
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.
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