Arts & Events

Berkeley Symphony Opens On Thursday With Music By Chapela, Brahms, Shostakovich

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday October 26, 2011 - 10:00:00 AM

Berkeley Symphony, conducted by Joana Carneiro, opens the new season with music by Enrico Chapela, Brahms and Shostakovich, Thursday at 8, Zellerbach Auditorium. -more-


Around & About Music: Kent Nagano Conducts at Gala Celebrating Alden Gilchrist's 60th Anniversary at Calvary Presbyterian

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday October 26, 2011 - 09:53:00 AM

In his only West Coast appearance this season, former Berkeley Symphony music director and present emeritus conductor Kent Nagano will conduct the San Francisco Academy Orchestra at a gala concert to celebrate Alden Gilchrist's 60th anniversary as organist and music director at Calvary Presbyterian Church atop Pacific Heights in San Francisco, where Nagano has sung with the Chancel Choir, which will also perform, along with featured soloists, a jazz cycle by the Dave Scott Quartet and the Santa Rosa Children's Chorus, featuring music of Monteverdi, J. S. Bach, Mozart, Dvorak--and Gilchrist, Friday at 6 p. m, with a reception to follow. The community is invited, free of charge, but asked to RSVP: (415) 346-3832 x 60; gilchrist60@calvarypresbyterian.org -more-


Brain Raves: Exposing The Power of Subliminal Messaging

Reviewed by Gar Smith
Tuesday October 25, 2011 - 10:53:00 AM
Media critic Noam Chomsky and film director Jeff Warrick.

Programming the Nation opens at the Balboa Theater on October 28.

Jeff Warrick is a genial, affable fellow who looks like he might be a high school football coach but be forewarned: Warrick is a man with an obsession — and a mission. Instead of studying how to score goals against cunning adversaries, Warrick's goal is studying whether advertisers are using hidden, subliminal messages to score in the marketplace. Warrick's game plan is mapped out in a provocative and dazzling new documentary, Programming the Nation. If you have children, you should see this film. If you value democracy, you should see this film and invite your friends and neighbors along for the experience. (You'll have a lot to talk about over coffee afterwards.) -more-


No Sugar-Coating for This Realistic ANNIE at Berkeley Playhouse

By John A. McMullen II
Tuesday October 25, 2011 - 11:20:00 AM

Berkeley Playhouse, the professional Children’s Musical Theatre at the Julia Morgan on College Ave., opens with ANNIE on October 29. -more-


Don't Miss This Around Halloween

By Dorothy Snodgrass
Monday October 24, 2011 - 03:19:00 PM

With Halloween just a week away, you'd be wise to stock up on candy to hand out to those little Trick or Treaters when they come knocking at your door. You may not know that Pope Gregory III designated Nov. 1 as a time to honor saints and martyrs. The evening before was known as Halloween's Eve and then later Halloween. Obviously this holiday has little religious meaning today. -more-


Around & About Theater: Central Works Premieres Brian Thorstenson's 'Embassy: A Domestic Diplomatic Comedy'

By Ken Bullock
Thursday October 20, 2011 - 04:27:00 PM

Billed as "Graham Greene Meets Liberace" and as a "shamelessly farcical mix of the personal and the political," Central Works--always a good bet for high theatrical values in staging with a low price in an intimate setting--is premiering Brian Thorstenson's Embassy, A Domestic Diplomatic Comedy at the City Club. Gary Graves directs Richard Frederick, Daniel Redmond, Olivia Rosaldo, Cole Alexander Smith and Jan Zvaifler, with costumes by Tammy Berlin and sound by Gregory Scharpen. (Central Works develops every play collaboratively with writer, director, company, and tech staff.)
Previews this Thursday and Friday at 8; opening on Saturday at 8, running Thursday-Sunday (Sundays at 5) through November 20. Sliding scale at door: $25-$14--& Pay What You Can, October 20, 21 & 27, November 3. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant. 558-1381; centralworks.org
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