There is lots to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond, from an intimate portrait of legendary playwright August Wilson to an abundance a comedy throughout the Bay Area.
TheatreWorks, City Lights ready new shows
Two South Bay companies kick off new productions this week, one touching on the life of legendary playwright August Wilson and one presenting a new look at an Henrik Ibsen classic.
TheatreWorks: Solo show “How I Learned What I Learned” finds Steven Anthony Jones portraying August Wilson as he recounts his life and literary evolution into one of America’s most celebrated and influential playwrights, as well as his observations on what it means to a Black writer and artist in the 20th century. Former TheatreWorks Silicon Valley artistic director Tim Bond, an acclaimed interpreter of Wilson’s works, helms this production.
Details: In previews through Jan. 19, main run is Jan. 20-Feb. 3; Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; $27-$77; theatreworks.org.
City Lights: The San Jose Company is presenting “Nora: A Doll’s House,” Stef Smith’s 2018 play that offers something of a retelling of Ibsen’s classic tale of a married woman struggling in a smothering existence and sets the action in three different years, 1918, 1968 and 2018. Angie Higgins, artistic director at Silicon Valley Shakespeare, directs the show getting its Northern California premiere.
Details: Today through Feb. 18; City Lights Theater, San Jose; $28-$67; cltc.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
A convict finds comedy
A prison term might seem an unlikely place to develop a second career as a stand-up comedian, but that is exactly what happened to Ali Siddiq.
The Texas native had a tumultuous childhood and was selling drugs by age 14. He was convicted of dealing cocaine and sent to prison near Houston, Texas – but instead of embarking on a path toward life in and out of jail, Siddiq discovered he had a knack for making people laugh, as he entertained fellow inmates in the cafeteria or while on laundry duty. After his release from prison in 1997, Siddiq jumped into the Houston stand-up comedy circuit and within a few years had become a nationally known comedian, landing stints on HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam” and Comedy Central’s “Comic View” and “This Is Not Happening (the cable outlet later declared him the “No. 1 comic to watch.”)
In 2017, Siddiq returned to prison — as an entertainer — to film the special “Ali Siddiq: It’s Bigger Than These Bars,” in which he relates to inmates his life-turnaround while making them cackle. Siddiq has some half-dozen comedy albums to his credit, and he brings his standup show to the California Theatre in San Jose on Saturday.
Details: 7 p.m.; $30-$125; sanjosetheaters.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Marga Gomez takes the plunge
“Turn your cell phones off before the show or walk the plank.”
That’s the warning projected on a screen as “Swimming With Lesbians”— the latest solo show written, directed and performed by Marga Gomez — begins. It’s a mild precursor to the hilarity that ensues.
This time around, Gomez is not exploring the absurdities of her own life — her relationship with her charismatic Latinx parents, the vicissitudes of her bumpy love life and more — as she’s done in the past with such wonderfully comic autobiographical pieces as “Latin Standards,” “Not Getting Any Younger” and “The Spanking Machine,” to name a few.
Instead, decked out (ahem) in a captain’s hat, striped shirt, shorts and knee socks, she invents a lesbian cruise ship, the Celesbian, helmed by super-butch Captain Debbie, complete with a squint, a smirk and a swagger. Aboard are an eager-to-please “singles coordinator” Prue Perez; the woo-woo onboard astrologer; a former boarding-school bully (the scary Arlene); and a few others, all portrayed wonderfully by Gomez, a talented comedian and actor.
Whether or not you’ve ever seen Marga Gomez onstage, and no matter your age, gender or sexual persuasion, if you feel like laughing until you’re gasping for breath, “Swimming With Lesbians” is a must-see.
Details: 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Jan. 28; The Marsh, Berkeley; $25-$100; themarsh.org.
— Jenny Schiffman, Bay City News Foundation
And yet lots more comedy is headed our way
If you find yourself in need of a good giggle, chuckle, chortle, cackle, snicker or guffaw this week, there are only about a gazillion performers willing to lend a hand. There is an explosion of comedy going on in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond. Here’s a look.
Lane Moore brings her Tinder-themed comedy show to San Francisco as part of Sketchfest. (Mindy Tucker/courtesy of Lane Moore)
Sketchfest returns: The massive and impressive annual Sketchfest SF, which returns Jan. 18 and runs through Feb. 4, features scores of A-List entertainers taking stages at venues throughout the city. Some of the better-known acts include: The Kids in the Hall; famed S.F. clown, comedian and actor Bill Irwin; Vacaville-reared comedian and “Yo, Is This Racist” podcaster Tawny Newsome; the Bay Area’s own sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster; Monty Python alum Eric Idle; and comedian and musician Lane Moore, who’s bringing her hit standup show about the Tinder dating app to town (and we are just barely scratching the surface). Go to www.sfsketchfest.com for the complete schedule and more information. (And if you are headed to Sketchfest, here are 12 shows not to miss.)
A Rainbow of Trump jokes: If you are like us, the arrival of another Randy Rainbow video spoofing a certain orange-skinned political aspirant or other aspect of our political landscape is cause for celebration. Now we can see him live. The Broadway star and outspoken comedian is on the Randy Rainbow for President tour, which stops at The Masonic in San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 and the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa at 7 p.m. Jan. 21.
Details: tickets available at www.livenation.com.
The Desi Comedy Fest: What’s described as the largest South Asian comedy festival in the country is coming through the Bay Area, featuring Abhay Nadkarni, BK Sharad, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Elizabeth Aziz and founder Samson Koletkar, among others. The show stops in the Great Star Theater in San Francisco at 7 p.m. Jan. 20 and at the Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley at 8 p.m. Jan. 23 and San Jose Improv at 8 p.m. Jan. 25.
Details: Go to www.desicomedyfest.com for tickets and more information.
Bookish humor: And if literary laughs are your thing, the popular humor writer Gary Janetti (“Do You Mind if I Cancel,” “Start Without Me”) will be on hand for a reading and Q&A at 8 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Details: Go to www.palaceoffinearts.org for tickets and more information. Whew! Let’s get to laughing, shall we?
Welcome, SF Art Week
t seems like such a good idea – such a given for a region packed with talented artists and people who love the art they produce – that it’s surprising it hasn’t been done before. We’re talking about inaugural San Francisco Art Week, which runs through Sunday and serves up a range of events and presentations designed to draw art lovers to galleries, museums and art displays around the Bay Area. And while some of the events, including those tied to the Fog Design + Art show running this week, are ticketed affairs, a good many of the attractions are free. Go to the event’s home page, sfartweek.com, and you’ll find a map and a guide to attractions, and under the “program” heading, there’s a list of “special events” that include hands-on events, tours and more. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, for example, there’s a workshop at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that lets you create works inspired by the artists showing at the center’s Bay Area Now 9 exhibit. From 5-9:30 p.m. Thursday the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University hosts a celebration, including performances, music, readings and demonstrations, tied to the new book “Trans History in 99 Objects,” published by the Cantor Center, the Museum of Trans History and Art (MOTHA) and Stanford’s Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. At 10 a.m Friday, you can catch a tour of Mexican artist Rodrigo Hernández’s intriguing exhibit “with what eyes” at the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco – it’s his first U.S. solo exhibit, in which he explores the question, “Are humans the only dreamers on Earth?” And from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.Saturday, visitors can take in a demonstration of the fine art of frame making at Aedicule gallery in San Francisco. All of the aforementioned events are free, and will have arts lovers hoping S.F. Arts Week becomes an annual event.
Seong-Jin Cho, SFS, take on Beethoven concerto
South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho makes his San Francisco Symphony debut this week, appearing at Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday to join the orchestra in the first of three performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, who is chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony, artistic director of the International Sibelius Festival, and principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony, conducts the program, which also includes Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$275; www.sfsymphony.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Biss is bliss for piano fans
American pianist and educator Jonathan Biss is an artist renowned both for his exquisite expressivity at the keyboard and his inquisitive, intellectual approach to music. An established favorite with San Francisco Performances, he returns to the Herbst Theatre Thursday night to launch the first of a new three-part project, which he is calling “Echoes of Schubert.” Biss has commissioned composers of three different generations to respond to Franz Schubert’s musical legacy, and he will perform each new work paired with two of Schubert’s own. Thursday night’s new piece is “Expansions of Light” by Tyson Gholston Davis, a composer who, at the astonishingly young age of 23, has already drawn commissions from such prestigious ensembles and agencies as the Juilliard String Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, New York Public Radio, the Da Camera Society of Houston and the New York New Music Ensemble, among many others. Biss will perform the Davis commission along with Schubert’s Impromptu in F minor and the Sonata in C minor. Subsequent programs will take place on March 14 and May 2. Performance time is 7:30 p.m. Find tickets, $60-$80, at 415-392-2545 or at sfperformances.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Another brainiac on the piano bench
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and raised in Budapest, composer and pianist Nicolas Namoradze at age 31 has a string of accomplishments as long as your arm. In addition to winning the 2018 triennial Honens International Competition in Calgary, Canada, and the 2020 and 2021 Young Pianist Award from the UK Critics’ Circle, he has a master’s from Juilliard and a doctorate from the CUNY Graduate Center and is pursuing postgraduate studies in neuropsychology at King’s College in London, with a focus on how mental practice and mindfulness impacts musical performance. He also has published a book on Gyorgi Ligeti’s macroharmonies, and he’ll be playing three of that composer’s etudes at his recital for the Steinway Society Sunday afternoon at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose. Also on his program are Bach’s French Suite No. 1 in D minor and a couple of selections from his “The Art of the Fugue,” three preludes by Fauré, two works by Arvo Pärt, a Scriabin sonata and his own reworking of the Adagio from Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony for the piano. Concert time is 2:30 p.m., and tickets are $45-$70 for the in-person performance or $25 per household for a livestream that will remain available for 48 hours; go to steinwaysociety.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
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