Arts & Events

New: Around & About Opera: Dazzling Divas Production of Cosi Fan Tutti at Berkeley Piano Club

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday November 14, 2012 - 08:57:00 PM

Cosi fan tutti, the charming Mozart/Da Ponte opera, will be presented for one night only, Friday November 30, by Dazzling Diva Productions, Jonathan Khuner (of Berkeley West Edge Opera) conducting, and Eliza O'Malley producing, directing--and singing the role of Floridiligi--at the Berkeley Piano Club. -more-


Around & About Theater: Inferno Theater with a New 'Dracula' at South Berkeley Community Church

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday November 14, 2012 - 08:09:00 PM

Giulio Cesare Perrone, one of the most talented theater designers here, and formerly with both the Grotowski Institute in Italy and Dell'Arte Theater School at Blue Lake near Eureka, has written, directed and designed a new adaptation of 'Dracula,' one that plays up the power of suggestion, possession and somnambulism, for his Inferno Theatre, the European-style physical theater company that performed notably at the Berkeley City Club in Perrone's 'Galileo's Daughters' and 'The Iliad' the past two years. Inferno's a unique company in the Bay Area. -more-


New: Around & About Music: Neeman-Graber Duo Play at Berkeley Chamber Performances Tuesday

By Ken Bullock
Monday November 12, 2012 - 08:27:00 AM

Miles Graber, pianist, and Joe Neeman, violinist, will play Berkeley Chamber Performances second 20th anniversary season concert this Tuesday evening at 8 in the ballroom of the Berkeley City Club, with a program including Mozart's Sonata in D flat major, K454; Beethoven's Sonata in C minor, Opus 20, No. 2; Duo Concertante by Stravinsky; Estonian composer Avo Part's Fratres and Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Subito, written just before his death for Anne-Sofie Mutter. The concert will be followed by a complimentary wine and cheese reception for the audience to meet the artists.

2315 Durant Avenue, between Dana and Ellsworth. $25; students through high school, free; post-secondary school students, $12.50. 848-7800; berkeleychamberconcerts.org< -more-


Fame High: When Tomorrow's Young Stars Go to Make the Grade--Plays one night: Sunday, November 11, 7:15 PM, Shattuck Theaters

By Gar Smith
Friday November 09, 2012 - 12:19:00 PM
Grace Song takes to the stage.

At the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), "all the school's a stage." A proving ground for over-achievers and multi-taskers, LACHSA challenges a select community of teens to excel academically — researching essays, passing grueling tests — while leading parallel lives, honing their talents as singers, dancers, and actors. And the ground rules are clear: you may play piano like Thelonius Monk, but you aren't going to graduate if you can't make the grade in algebra. -more-


What's Up Doc? The SF Doc Fest Comes to Berkeley

By Gar Smith
Friday November 09, 2012 - 12:13:00 PM
San Quentin: Cruel and Unusual.

In cinema, documentaries constitute the literature of life. And, on that basis, the latest, 11th edition of SF DocFest rolls into town like a bookmobile for the eyes. Pouring over this DocFest selections — an eclectic list of more than 50 domestic and foreign films set to light up screens in SF and Berkeley from November 8-21— leads one to wonder: What combination of talent and luck does it take to find and film the offbeat tales and oddball personalities that define these projects? While a gifted writer of can endow fictional characters with fatal foibles or superpowers, it would be hard to imagine a novel populated by characters as delightful and daft as some of the protagonists on display in this year's DocFest. -more-


Around & About Theater: Golden Thread's ReOrient Festival—Plays from & About the Middle East

By Ken Bullock
Friday November 09, 2012 - 12:25:00 PM

Torange Yeghiazarian's Golden Thread Productions is in the midst of staging its annual ReOrient festival of contemporary plays from and about the Middle East. One of the most important theatrical companies in the Bay Area—or anywhere in North America—Golden Thread brings top quality collaborators to bear on a double string of short plays of immediate importance. -more-


Berkeley Unified's ex-Superintendent Tells All

Friday November 09, 2012 - 07:42:00 AM

Editior's Note: Who knew? Berkeley Unified School District's ex-Superintendent Jack McLaughlin has written a roman-a-clef about Our Town (but no competition with Thornton Wilder, I imagine.) For the full details, here's the press release we got from the "supported self-publishing provider:" -more-


Around & About Theater: Aurora Opens Wilder Nights; Ram Das 'Acid Test' at the Marsh—& a Few Richards: 'Richard the First' at Central Works & Actors Ensemble of Berkeley's 'Richard III'

By Ken Bullock
Thursday November 08, 2012 - 03:45:00 PM

—Aurora's opening a selection of Thornton Wilder's one-acts (Thursday, November 8 through December 9), directed by founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver: "Infancy" (1962), "Childhood" ('62), "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden" (1931) and "The Long Christmas Dinner" ('31)—the latter, his most famous one-act, with its time-lapse view of human lifetimes through a family feast, may've been part inspiration for Orson Welles' famous montage of a marriage at the breakfast table, failing over the years, in 'Citizen Kane.' It was made into an opera by Paul Hindemith. -more-


Around & About Music & Theater: International Operas at SF World Music Festival--including Free Shows

By Ken Bullock
Thursday November 08, 2012 - 02:11:00 PM

The San Francisco World Music Festival is celebrating its 13th year, and this weekend at the SF JCC there will be an extraordinary run of opera, or operatic forms, from around the world, including early Italian opera (Monteverdi) and Chinese opera, just to name two of the more familiar forms. -more-


Review: Mort Sahl on the Debates & the State of Things

By Ken Bullock
Thursday November 08, 2012 - 02:37:00 PM

Minutes after the third and last Presidential debate- the one on foreign policy--was over on TV, Mort Sahl came onstage at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley and opened his show by quipping: "What was the argument? Who is the best friend of the Jewish people! ... Either one of them would make a splendid prime minister of Israel. ... When he visited Israel, Obama went to the Holocaust Museum first. And Romney claims to be an intimate of Netanyahu. Romney wants to do what? Buy those countries in the Middle East--and consolidate them!" -more-


Around & About Music: Esa-Pekka Salonen Residency at UC

By Ken Bullock
Thursday November 08, 2012 - 02:09:00 PM

Matias Tarnopolsky of Cal Performances has initiated a series of residencies here with major orchestras and conductors--and this month, there are two, the first with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the London Philharmonia this weekend ... and later this month with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. -more-


New: Julia Morgan “Town and Gown” Architectural Tour This Sunday

By Steven Finacom
Tuesday November 13, 2012 - 10:29:00 PM
Girton Hall, a rustic Arts and Crafts lodge on the UC Berkeley campus built as a gathering place for women students and now used for childcare, was designed by Julia Morgan a century ago and will be featured on the November 18 architectural tour.

Locals have the opportunity to look at some of the most interesting design work of famed architect Julia Morgan on a tour this coming Sunday, November 18, 2012. Organized by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) the afternoon tour takes in ten buildings, including all the structures designed by Morgan standing on the UC Berkeley campus, the elaborate Berkeley City Club, and three off-campus houses Morgan designed as private homes which are now used as student living groups. -more-


Berkeley's Historic Post Office is NOT FOR SALE!

Margot Smith
Monday November 12, 2012 - 10:29:00 AM

Protest on Wednesday, Nov 14 at 11:30 at the Berkeley Post Office, 2000 Allston Street

Comment at the United States Post Office Public Hearing TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20th, 2012 @ 7:00 PM Florence Schwimley Little Theater Berkeley High School 1980 Alston Way, Berkeley -more-


Press Release: "Saints & Prophets" Return to Berkeley Council Supporting Homeless Youth Services Leveraging Proposal on Tuesday Agenda

From Sally Hindman
Sunday November 11, 2012 - 01:10:00 PM

Ten saints & prophets (giant puppets) representing diverse faith traditions including St. Martin des Porres, Our Lady of Guadelupe, Rabbi Hillel, Gandhi and others will be escorting formerly homeless youth leaders from Berkeley's Youth Spirit Artworks as they hold an interfaith prayer circle supporting their proposal to leverage existing homeless youth services to create a day time space for homeless youth. The Tuesday night event will take place at 6pm at Maudelle Shirek Old City Hall, 2134 MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley. -more-