We like classic, elegant theater just as much as the next avid theatergoer, but sometimes we’re in the mood for something a little more…well, gritty. When we checked out the Guerrilla Rep theater company we found just what we were looking for. In their own words Guerrilla Rep’s mission is to “explore class in American society through provocative and entertaining new plays created by artists focused on the evolutionary process …more…
Arts America Blog
Lou Harrison and Morton Lauridsen on Display
May 24, 2012 by
Bay Area Composer Lou Harrison, who passed away in 2003, wrote several works for instruments he built and designed himself, known as an American Gamelan, modeled on the Balinese gamelan ensemble. These instruments, ranging from highly complex chimes to very simplistic hanging garbage cans, have a unique sound unattainable by standard percussion ensembles.
From May 23 and 25th, Harrison’s original instruments will be on display at the UC Berkeley Art Museum, …more…
San Francisco Jazz Landmark Recognized
May 22, 2012 by
Though it closed its doors in 1963, a half-dozen classic recordings made at San Francisco’s Blackhawk nightclub have ensured a secure, lasting renown for the club in jazz lore. Along with other, long-gone clubs such as New York’s Royal Roost, Chicago’s Blue Note, and Philly’s Showboat and Peps’, the Blackhawk enjoys a mythic status as a club where all of the great post-war small groups played; Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, …more…
Liss Fain Dance
May 19, 2012 by
Liss Fain Dance
Founded in Boston in 1988, Liss Fain Dance makes its home in San Francisco , with local performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Z Space. Besides proscenium work, the company also performs in on-site venues, as well as within installation creations that enhance the already evocative material that is signature to Ms. Fain’s vision.
Abstract, dynamic, emotional, fluid, and highly intelligent, LFD presents non-narrative …more…
LINES Ballet – Before the Blues: Prince Credell
May 13, 2012 by
Prince Credell in Alonzo King's Before the Blues ~ photo by Marty Sohl
In my usual weekly search for inspiration, I was watching various videos on You Tube of one of my favorite choreographers, Alonso King, Artistic Director of LINES Ballet in San Francisco. King’s work always makes me cry as it reaches into the soul through the simplest of means: honesty. There is never a false moment, never an …more…
Bill Irwin Amazes San Francisco Audiences in Endgame
May 10, 2012 by
Bill Irwin stars in Endgame, photo by Mary Ellen Mark
There are Samuel Beckett fans out there who worship every word the brilliant playwright/author wrote, and there are Bill Irwin fans who have followed his career through the years as he’s intertwined clowning and serious acting with nothing short of pure genius. If you happen to be a fan of both of these fascinating men, you cannot miss the San …more…
Taking Odds and Payoffs on Moby Dick
May 7, 2012 by
I would place my bet that Canadian tenor Ben Heppner will withdraw from October’s scheduled performances of Jake Heggie’s opera “Moby Dick” handing the role of Captain Ahab over to his comrade Jay Hunter Morris. In February, Heppner withdrew from the San Diego Opera’s performances of the same work, citing illness. This comes upon a string of recent cancellations, quite often replaced by Morris, including withdrawing from the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring Cycle …more…
Oakland Ballet Company Forges Ahead
May 6, 2012 by
Oakland Ballet Company
Oakland Ballet Company lends new meaning to the word ‘resilient.’ Founded by Ronn Guidi in 1965 (as Oakland Ballet), it developed a reputation for restaging – often with the participation of the original choreographers– classic early-20th-century ballets, such as Petrouchka, Les Biches, and Les Noces. Guidi retired in 1998. In the hands of an inexperienced director, the company collapsed eight years later. In 2007, Guidi came …more…
Smuin Ballet Presents Mesmerizing World Premiere
May 1, 2012 by
Smuin Ballet in Ma Cong's French Twist
Smuin Ballet has adopted the tagline “Beyond Ballet.” While it is true that the company’s dances run beyond the Romantic or classical style the word ballet generally calls to mind, much of the work is executed using traditional ballet vocabulary and all of it is performed by thoroughly trained classical dancers. Indeed, it is this that sets the late Michael Smuin’s 18-year-old troupe apart …more…
A Slate of Premieres and a Glut of Beethoven.
April 29, 2012 by
May is promising to be a strong month for new music fans, led by the Bay Area’s regional orchestras.
Last Thursday, the Berkeley Symphony premiered Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Holy Sisters” with the San Francisco Girl’s Chorus and soprano Jessica Rivera.
On May 5 and 6th, the Walnut Creek’s California Symphony will premiere “Optima Vota” by it’s composer in residence, D.J. Sparr, who is completing his residency. Sharing the program is Beethoven’s 9th …more…
To Berkeley with Fury: Seun Kuti and Egypt 80
April 20, 2012 by
Last night in UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Seun Kuti had the crowd on its feet and dancing in the aisles to his version of Afrobeat, the music pioneered by his legendary father, Fela Kuti. While Fela! The Musical has brought new attention and perhaps a new audience to Fela’s music and story of protest, the late Black President’s legacy also survives in the music of his son, Seun (pronounce Shay-oon). …more…
Qualified Performing Artists: Tax Day Edition
April 16, 2012 by
One of the cruel realities of performing artists is while they often do not earn much, they have extremely complicated tax returns. This can involve a stack of 1099s, W2s, and filing in multiple states, royalties statements, and even international returns. Performing artists also have greater out-of-pocket expenses than the average worker, and one of the complicating factors in their tax return is how to divide deductions between schedule C …more…
San Francisco Improv Company Leela Offers More Than a Great Show
April 12, 2012 by
There’s nothing like improvisational theater to get your heart racing. It’s like watching a group of actors play catch, with a ball that has a wildly unpredictable life of its own. You watch them toss lines back and forth, waiting for just one slip, and then when the slip occurs, it somehow—miraculously—becomes part of the storyline. And when the actors rely on audience members to give them suggestions for different …more…
Jazz Concerto Premiere – An Interview With Lewis Porter
April 10, 2012 by
On April 19, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. in Paine Hall on the Harvard University campus, jazz pianist, composer, educator, and author, Lewis Porter’s Concerto for Saxophone will receive its world premiere with jazz icon Dave Liebman as the soloist (event site). Dr. Porter was kind enough to answer some questions about the piece and his collaborations with Liebman:
Your achievements as a scholar and educator are tremendous: You have been a …more…
San Francisco Magician’s Show an Enigma Wrapped in Mystery
April 3, 2012 by
Christian Cagigal, photo by Julie Michelle
Christian Cagigal was named ‘Best Magician’ by Best of the Bay for a reason—because he is one of the best magicians working today. He brings magic and the art of performance to new heights with every new show. Now and at the Hour, which premiered in 2009 at New York’s FRIGIDfest, lured the audience in by taking a peek into their innermost thoughts. Cagigal …more…
SFJAZZ Spring Season Underway
March 31, 2012 by
The Spring season is well underway at SFJAZZ, but there is still plenty to look forward to in April, May, and June. Starting the month on a particularly strong note, the presenting company’s namesake combo, the SFJAZZ Collective, is playing Yoshi’s in Oakland on this weekend, March 31 – April 1. As great as they are, you may want to wait and catch them on Sunday so that you don’t …more…
Rarely Seen Gem by Tom Stoppard Performed in Berkeley
March 22, 2012 by
The 2012 theater season for Shotgun Players in Berkeley, CA is off to a roaring start with The Coast of Utopia: Voyage by Tom Stoppard. Shotgun Players is a theater company which prides itself on 20 years of experience performing little-known works by well-known playwrights, and sometimes this takes a bit of legal legwork on their part to secure the rights to some of these masterpieces. The Coast of Utopia: …more…
London’s Royal Ballet Comes to Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater
March 22, 2012 by
Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli in the Royal Ballet production of Romeo & Juliet
Well, not exactly. But it is just this sort of headline that Ballet in Cinema, a project of alternate content theater network Emerging Pictures, inspires. On March 22 at 12:30 pm, for $25, you can take a seat in the Grand Lake Theater, an Oakland, California movie house, and enjoy the Royal Ballet’s production of Romeo …more…
Jovino Santos Neto joined Santos at Yoshi’s
March 16, 2012 by
The top Bay Area jazz happening of recent weeks was surely John Santos Sextet’s two-night stand at Yoshi’s in Oakland. While Santos is always a notable attraction in these parts, his engagement at the famous East Bay club on March 2 & 3, 2012, was one of those not-to-be-missed events whose auditors were glad they had made the trip. Upon entering the room for the first set on Friday night, it was clear that the evening was going to be a fun and collaborative one. ...more...
A Bright Room Called Day Dazzles San Francisco
March 14, 2012 by
The Gough Street Playhouse in San Francisco is currently performing one of the earlier plays of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Tony Kushner: A Bright Room Called Day. Although the show just opened last week (March 9), it has already been featured in 96 Hours, the San Francisco Chronicle’s “what to do this weekend” section. Kushner is also known for his work in film. The screenplay of Munich, which he co-wrote, was directed and produced by Stephen Spielberg in 2005. But whether he’s writing for the stage or for film, Kushner’s commitment to challenging his audiences, and his habit of introducing innovative juxtapositions of plot, continue to inspire. ...more...
Haydn’s Unlikely Creation
March 12, 2012 by
There have been so many excellent and exciting Bay Area concerts of late (the SF Symphony’s American Mavericks mini-festival, and a spectacular St. Matthew Passion from the American Bach Soloists come to mind as well as numerous touring groups), I would need a staff of twenty to sort through the listings. One particular concert, however, stood out from the rest.
On Monday, April 30th, the period instrument New Esterházy String Quartet …more…
San Francisco Dance Marches In Like a Lion
March 1, 2012 by
Spring comes early for Bay Area dance lovers with March engagements by daring, evocative and critically acclaimed local and touring troupes. ...more...
Literature Comes to Life as Theater in San Francisco
February 27, 2012 by
From left: Rudy Guererro, Gendall Hernandez and Delia MacDougall. Photo by Mark Leialoha.
The performing arts ensemble Word for Word delivers their promise to San Francisco theatergoers with their name. They bring classic and contemporary fiction to life, literally, by performing it word for word. Their process is easy to understand and enjoyable to watch. They choose a short story, and then act out the entire piece, without omitting the …more…
Decriminalizing Intermission
February 20, 2012 by
Unlike 31 other states states, California lacks a “cottage food” law, meaning it is illegal to sell or even give away homemade food at events open to the public. This obviously means concerts, but it extends to events like PTA meetings. In 2011, a Los Angeles Synagogue was fined by the Los Angeles department of Environmental health and threatened with closure for holding a bake sale. ...more...
SF Grants for the Arts
February 15, 2012 by
If you attend a San Francisco concert this month and the administration staff seems frazzled, it it most likely because they are recovering from preparing their annual San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts application, due on February 10th.
The program, which has been around since 1961, was a pioneering model of government funding for the arts, and it remains a reason why San Francisco has a disproportionately high level of arts …more…
