Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:14:00 PM

THURSDAY, JUNE 11 -more-


‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ at Masquers

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:15:00 PM

A handkerchief, given to a lady by her soldier husband, then stolen, turns romance into senseless tragedy in Othello. In Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, the innocuous accessory of the title, a gift by a wealthy lord to his young wife, turns romantic melodrama into wry comedy, as Wilde’s refracted view of manners and society takes a turn on the boards of Point Richmond’s venerable Masquers Playhouse. -more-


Summer Brenner’s ‘I-5’

By Estelle Jelinek Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:16:00 PM

Summer Brenner regularly swims long distances in Berkeley’s public pools. She is also an accomplished author who writes as gracefully as she swims. -more-


Hill, Brenner Read at Moe’s

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:17:00 PM

Owen Hill, longtime bookseller at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue, will read from his new humorous detective novel about the Berkeley adventures of Clay Blackburn, book scout and private eye, The Incredible Double (P.M. Press), for the reading series he established and continues to run at Moe’s. Summer Brenner will also read from her latest, I-5: A Novel of Crime, Transport, and Sex. -more-


‘Inferno’: New Opera Premieres at Live Oak Theater

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:18:00 PM

“Say you come across someone in the street, a street person who tells you a story. Later, you hear them tell the same story to someone else, and you feel a little betrayed, like they’re on a loop.” -more-


Islands in the Park: A Celebration of Caribbean American Culture

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:19:00 PM

Celebrating the Rich Cultural Heritage of the Caribbean through Music, with Third World Reggae Band from Jamaica, Calypso monarch The Mighty Sparrow from Trinidad and Tobago, Sheila Hylton (reggae from Jamaica, London and New York), Collie Buddz (reggae and dancehall from Bermuda) and the New Kingston Band appearing 7 p. m. Sunday evening at Woodminster Amphitheatre in Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park, with awards presented to celebrate and honor the contributions of Caribbean Americans. -more-


Cal Shakes’ Contemporary ‘Romeo and Juliet’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:18:00 PM

Under the Orinda sky, the stage at the Bruns Amphitheatre is dominated by a bed, a crowned statue of the Virgin with child on a plinth, and a stairway adorned with bright tagging, as if it were an Expressionist sunset. Through these urban markers, old and new, the action of Cal Shakes’ production of Romeo and Juliet will pour, interrupted by its famous tableaux of balcony, bedroom and tomb, young love and death. -more-


Dance for Parkinson’s Disease Comes to the Bay Area

By Jaime Robles Special to the Planet
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:20:00 PM

In a studio with mirrored walls and ballet barres, dancers are learning a series of steps from “Gorgeous tragedy,” a solo variation from Mark Morris’ L’allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato. They cup their hands as if they were holding water and throw their arms backward, tossing that water over their shoulder; at the same time, they kick a foot outward. They bring their arms and hands together before their face, part their hands, and lean forward, arms dropped toward the floor and dangling, with the smallest suggestion of a pendulum swinging. The dancers finish the combination of movement by tracing a serpentine curve with their fingers in the air in front of them. -more-


Around the East Bay: Fury Factory Fest

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:21:00 PM

foolsFURY, the innovative theater company that’s co-produced with Shotgun, hosts their annual Fury Factory festival of experimental and movement-based performers and theater companies from all over North America and as far off as Liverpool and Afghanistan, playing in different venues almost every evening. In the Berkeley-Oakland area, Ragged Wing Ensemble performs So Many Ways to Kill a Man; Just Theater presents Take Me to the Bridge; Sara Zimmerman performs in Aphasia; Deborah Eliezer and Silvia Girardi in Run If You Care About Dying; David Szlasa with Gadget; and from Hercules, Ochlos Theatre Workshop with Medea3. foolsFURY performs Port Out, Starboard; cohost Theatre of Yugen stages the classic Japanese Kyogen comedy Shuron and Erik Ehn’s Pretty—all at NohSpace and Traveling Jewish Theatre in the San Francisco’s Project Artaud, now through June 27. $12–$15. (800) 838-3006. foolsfury.org. -more-


Around the East Bay: Art House Gallery

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:23:00 PM

The brand-new Art House Gallery and Cultural Center, housed in what was once a blacksmith’s shop, opens on Saturday with a celebration fom noon till 10 p. m. featuring an art exhibit, “Visionary Surrealism, Fantasy and Psychedelic Art,” with work by a score of artists; music by more than a dozen players and singers (including Naomi Ruth Eisenberg of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks fame); poets Al Young, Luis Garcia, Harold Adler, Richard Krech and others; theatrical performance by Fella-Fem and psychedelic lightshow by LSD Visuals; with a potluck. $5–$10 donation. 2905 Shattuck Ave. (near Ashby, across from Berkeley Bowl). 472-3170. berkeleyarthouse.wordpress.com. -more-


Around the East Bay: Berkeley Bloomsday

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:22:00 PM

Wilde Irish, dubbed the area’s Best Bloomin’ Thespians by the Bay Guardian, celebrate their sixth annual Bloomsday in Berkeley bash on Tuesday, June 16, “the day Leopold Bloom, the most famous Jew in Ireland, and his contemporaries ... walked, wandered, meandered and staggered through ... Dublin city and county ... in one day (and night): June 16, 1904.” Passages of James Joyce’s epic modern novel Ulysses will be given staged readings, along with other Joycean prose. One time only, 7:30 p. m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2116 Allston Way, near Shattuck (and Berkeley BART). $12–$15 ($20 includes “Wine of the Country”). 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org. -more-


Around the East Bay: Live Oak Park Fest

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:22:00 PM

The 39th annual Live Oak Park Fair features work for sale by 110 artists and craftspeople (a select group of which will be exhibited by the co-sponsoring Berkeley Art Center) and entertainment by Tippy Canoe (ukelele and ’60s Girl Group/Country-style vocals), Mikie Lee Prasard (former blues & acoustic jam leader at Blakes), Wildsang (blues duos), Girltalk band (World Jazz) and Violet the Clown. Under the big trees alongside Codornices Creek, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, 10–6 Saturday and Sunday, with free shuttles every 20 minutes to and from North Berkeley BART (another co-sponsor, along with ACCI Gallery and the UC Botanical Garden, among others). This year held in memory of artist Claus Sievert. Wheelchair accessible. Free. 227-7110. liveoakparkfair.org. -more-


Architectural Excursions: Rustic Traditions in Southern California’s Mountain Resorts

By Daniella Thompson
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:09:00 PM
Boulder Bay, on the southern shore of Big Bear Lake.

Each September, the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, holds a rustic furniture fair featuring “unique interpretations of rustic found in handcrafted furniture, furnishings, and fine art.” The Adirondacks are widely considered to be the fount of rustic style, which found expression across North America, including the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California. -more-


About the House: Flashing Is Not a Dirty Word

By Matt Cantor
Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:08:00 PM

Disregard any fictitious tales you may have heard about me doing inspections in the buff. Aside from the danger of sunburn, electric shock or harm to the casual observer, it would be unprofessional and I am, if nothing, unflinchingly professional. OK, check your legs for matching length, but I do think I have your attention and it is flashing that I want to talk about (and not the naughty kind). -more-


Community Calendar

Thursday June 11, 2009 - 07:13:00 PM

THURSDAY, JUNE 11 -more-