Arts & Events

Larry Reed with his Shadowlight Productions has spent decades expanding on the art of shadow puppetry, which he learned in Bali, with techniques from cinematography (which he studied at the SF Art Institute), live music and stories from cultures all over the world, and an international cast of collaborators. Shadowlight shows always have a new wrinkle, using projections, live actors in specially-made masks as shadow actors. This weekend only, at Cowell Theater in San Francisco's Fort Mason, Shadowlight presents THE GOOD-FOR-NOTHING LOVER, from a Ming Dynasty folk song cycle, as translated by Beat Era San Francisco Poets C. H. Kwock and Vincent McHugh, with live music (on stand-up bass and Guo Qin, fretless zither), modern and traditional dance, singing and dialogue in Chinese and English, calligraphy and Abstract Expressionism ("Action Painting")--and a new fluid, experimental storytelling theatrical form, by an international troupe, from a company that never stops experimenting.  

One of the Bay Area's great treasures of the performing arts. Friday at 7 p. m., Saturday at 4. Tickets: $20-$25. 1-800-838-3006; www.shadowlight.org (or Shadowlight on Facebook. Videos of Shadowlight productions and commentary by Larry Reed on YouTube.)