Arts And Entertainment

THURSDAY, SEPT. 11 -more-

“C’mon, man. I’m just playin’. I ain’t got no knife!” Yellowjackets, set at Berkeley High, opens on the Berkeley Rep Thrust Stage with two students at their desks, side by side, at the beginning of the school year, with Annie Smart’s set of a frieze of a slave from antiquity, blowing a clarion, and much-tagged murals above a cyclone fence, with lockers to the side. -more-

Walking up the path to Woodminster Amphitheatre, after parking on Joaquin Miller Road, a little bit past Woodminster Village in the Oakland hills—past the jets of the fountain and up along the torrential Cascade, spilling down through pools in Writers Grove along the beautiful man-made watercourse—is part of the enjoyment of going to see the summer musicals staged there, though there is a City of Oakland parking lot at the top available for $4. -more-

Hedging, when I saw that Impact’s new production, Ching Chong Chinaman, was written by Lauren Yee, a San Francisco native, I said to myself, “It isn’t Sarah Silverman, so I guess I can review it.” -more-