Stage listings are compiled by Deborah Giattina. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, Nicole Gluckstern, and Karen McKevitt.
See Picks for information on how to submit items to the listings. Hedda Gabler American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary; 749-2228, www.act-sf.
org. $13.50-81.
50. Previews Fri/9-Sat/10, Tues/13, 8pm (also Sat/10, 2pm); Sun/11, 2pm. Opens Feb 14, 8pm.
Runs Tues, Thurs-Fri, 8pm (Feb 20, 7pm); Wed, Sat-Sun, 2pm (also Wed, Sat, 8pm). No matinee Feb 11, 14, or 28. Additional show Feb 18, 7pm.
American Conservatory Theater presents a new translation of Henrik Ibsen's domestic thriller by Paul Walsh. Odd by Nature II: The Stranger Journeys Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy; 673-3847, www.theexit.
org. $12-20. Opens Thurs/8, 8pm.
Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Feb 24. Sean Owens follows up Odd by Nature I with a series of disturbing and weird short plays.
There's Something about Marriage Theatre Rhinoceros, 2926 16th St; 861-5079, www.therhino.org.
$15. Opens Thurs/8, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm.
Rhino artistic director John Fisher explores the issue of same-sex marriage in a multifaceted show including celebrity call-ins, game-show quizzing, and drama. Dragonwings Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College, Berk; (925) 798-1300. $14-18.
Opens Sat/10, 11:30am. Runs Sat-Sun, 2pm (also Sat, 11:30am). Active Arts Theatre puts on a play based on Laurence Yep's book set in San Francisco's Chinatown at the beginning of the 20th century.
Nathan the Wise Old Oakland Theatre, 481 Ninth St, Oakl; (510) 436-5085, www.theatrefirst.com.
$10-25. Previews Thurs/8, 8pm. Opens Fri/9, 8pm.
Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through March 4. (Also March 9-11, Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida, SF.
) TheatreFirst presents a play about tensions between Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem at the end of the 12th century. Beach Blanket Babylon Club Fugazi, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd; 421-4222, $25-78. Wed-Thurs, 8pm; Fri-Sat, 7 and 10pm; Sun, 2 and 5pm.
Ongoing. The long-running musical comedy revue spoofing popular culture returns for a new year with new characters, costumes, and skits. Dead Certain Off-Market Theater, 965 Mission; 1-866-811-4111.
$20-30. Fri-Sat, first Thurs, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm and 10pm). Through June 30.
A could-have-been-somebody actor (Andrey Esterlis) arrives at the home of an eccentric, wheelchair-bound former dancer (Diana Brown) to develop a script she's penned, a sort of pas de deux with eerie similarities to real life that soon leads him ominously into a psychological house of mirrors. Expression Theater's neatly staged production of British playwright Marcus Lloyd's 1999 thriller is genuinely enjoyable and gripping, though Lloyd's serpentine scenario gets a little too clever for its own good, eventually stretching the bounds of verisimilitude too far. Still, the 90-minute one-act remains taut and twisty to the end and features two finely tuned performances and strong onstage chemistry between Esterlis (who also directs) and Brown.
Returning from a stint in New York for an open-ended run at Off-Market Theater, Dead Certain rolls into town alive and kicking. (Avila) Don't Let Go of the Potato Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750, 1-800-838-3006, www.themarsh.
org. $10-22. Previews Thurs/8-Fri/9, 8pm.
Opens Sat/10, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through March 10.
Todd LeJeune spins tales of mirth and misery about his rural Louisiana childhood in a solo show directed by David Ford. The Dying Gaul New Conservatory Theatre Center, Walker Theatre, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.nctcsf.
org. $22-40. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm.
Through March 4. Bruce Elsperger directs Craig Lucas's play about a gay Hollywood screenwriter who sells out his convictions for success. Edward II Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor; 1-800-838-3006, www.
sffringe.org. Thurs-Sat, 8pm.
Additional show Feb 24, 2pm. Through Feb 24. Seraphim theater company sets Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan play during the blacklisting of the McCarthy era.
Emperor Norton, the Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter; 433-1227, www.emperornortonthemusical.com.
Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through April 1. $30.
Third Child Productions presents an expanded version of the musical originally staged at the Dark Room Theater last year about Joshua Norton, who came to San Francisco in the post-Gold Rush era and proclaimed himself emperor of the United States. The Ethiopian Tattoo Shop Teatro de la Esperanza, 2940 16th St, second floor; www.brownpapertickets.
com. $10-15 (Feb 1 and 12, pay what you can). Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm.
Additional show Mon/12, 8pm. Through Feb 18. Farm Boys New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.
nctcsf.org. $22-40.
Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 18. Dennis Lickteig directs a drama by Amy Fox and Dean Gray about a New York transplant who must confront homophobia when he returns to the family farm.
Get Real! New Conservatory Theatre Center, Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness; 694-6149, www.nctcsf.
org. $7-10. Mon-Thurs, 10 and 11:30am.
Through Feb 8. The Youth Aware Educational Theatre revives its production of Doug Holsclaw's comedic vignettes addressing issues such as preventing HIV for fourth to sixth graders. Jersey Boys Curran Theater, 445 Geary; 551-2000, www.
bestofbroadway-sf.com. $30-90.
Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Wed, Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through March 25. Those other fab four, the Four Seasons, get the Broadway treatment in director Des McAnuff's more than serviceable but less than brilliant musical portrait, which recently garnered the Best Musical Tony.
It boasts great performances and an excellent live sound in such persuasively rocking Brylcreem hits as Sherry and Walk Like a Man. Likewise, oldies but goodies like Can't Take My Eyes off of You give this touring version real lift over and above the crisp and wisecracking, if by the end slightly schmaltzy, book by Rick Elise and longtime Woody Allen collaborator Marshall Brickman. (Avila) Joe Turner's Come and Gone Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 620 Sutter; 474-8800, www.
lhtsf.org. $25-32.
Previews Thurs/8-Fri/9, 8pm. Opens Sat/10, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm.
Through March 4. Stanley E. Williams directs the second of August Wilson's plays covering the African American experience in each decade of the 20th century.
Legally Blonde Golden Gate Theatre, One Taylor; 512-7770, www.shnsf.com.
$35-90. Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Additional show Feb 22, 2pm.
Through Feb 24. Laura Bell Bundy stars as the sorority member on her way to Harvard Law in this musical adaptation of the film. The Magnificence of the Disaster Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750, 1-800-838-3006, www.
themarsh.org. $15-22.
Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Feb 25. Rebecca Fisher performs in her autobiographical solo show about a tragedy that befell her old-money Southern family.
Menopause the Musical Theatre 39, Embarcadero at Pier 39; 433-3939, www.tix.com.
$43.50-46.50.
Wed-Sat, 8pm (also Wed, 2pm; Sat, 4pm); Sun, 1 and 4pm. Ongoing. Jeanie Linders's show tailors pop songs from the '60s through the '80s to fit the experiences of women undergoing the Change.
Murder at Next Stage Next Stage, 1620 Gough; www.wehavemet.org.
$20. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through Feb 24.
Multi Ethnic Theater presents an adaptation of the 1940s radio-drama spoof Murder at Studio One. Pinocchio New Conservatory Theatre Center, Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.nctcsf.
org. $8-15. Sat-Sun, 2pm (also Sat, 4pm).
Through Feb 19. New Conservatory Theatre Center's Youth Conservatory performs Blanche Marvin's adaptation of the Carlo Collodi tale about a puppet maker and his creation, directed by Eric Fraisher Hayes. Pleasure and Pain Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, bldg D, third floor, Marina at Laguna; 441-8822, www.
magictheatre.org. $20-45 (Wed, $5-25, sliding scale).
Opens Sat/10, 8:30pm. Through March 31. See Web site for schedule.
The thriller about a Midwestern woman with S-M daydreams launches the Magic Theatre's Hot House '07 series, an annual world premiere of works by three emerging playwrights. The Princess and the Pea Young Performers Theatre, Fort Mason Center, bldg C, third floor, Marina at Laguna; 346-5550, www.ypt.
org. $6-9. Sat/10-Sun/11, 1pm (also Sun, 3:30pm).
Young Performers Theatre performs a play adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story. *Serve by Expiration Exit Stage Left, 1246 Folsom; 289-6766, www.thunderbirdtheatre.
com. $15-20. Thurs-Sat, 8pm.
Through Feb 23. Thunderbird Theatre Company subverts stock theatrical genres in a sketch comedy show. Shopping!
the Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter; 1-800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com.
$25-29. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Ongoing.
Morris Bobrow directs a musical comedy revue about the ups and downs of buying stuff. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona, El Cerrito; (510) 524-9132, www.ccct.
org. $15-24. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Feb 11, Feb 18, 2pm.
Through March 3. Daren A.C.
Carollo directs Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's thriller-musical. *Three Seconds in the Key SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter; 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.
org. $18-60. Wed-Sat, 3 and 8pm.
Through Feb 17. In New York playwright Deb Margolin's autobiographical dream play, a Jewish single mother from New York (Amy Resnick) forms a unique bond with an African American basketball star from Mississippi (Paul Oakley Stovall) when she needs it most in the wee hours in front of the TV after her son (Gideon Lazarus), a devoted Knicks fan, has gone to sleep and left her alone with the Hodgkin's lymphoma keeping her in couch-bound existential limbo. Mother (as she is known throughout) and the Player, who mysteriously appears in her home, have nothing in common on the surface, but deep down they share a similar battle, evoked in the stark overlaying of living room and half court in artistic director and scenic designer Bill English's surprisingly capacious set (which puts the audience courtside to five hustling basketball players).
Mother's dazzling, word-struck imagination carries the play's traveling note of defiance across several fields (stadium, TV commercial, sickbed) with sharp, sometimes bizarre humor as she and the Player attempt to make the most of their mutual time in the key. While the generally productive contrasts deployed here also become a bit repetitive, SF Playhouse's West Coast premiere, under the astute direction of Leigh Fondakowski (The People's Temple), has verve, spirit, and a great lineup, headed by Resnick's agile and winning performance. (Avila) *Tings Dey Happen Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750, 1-800-838-3006, www.
themarsh.org. $15-22.
Extended run: Thurs-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through Feb 18: Sun, 3pm. Through March 31.
Working with director and veteran solo performer Charlie Varon, Dan Hoyle creates a powerfully etched human-scale impression of the scope of oil politics in Nigeria as he discovered it during a 10-month trip in 2005 as a Fulbright scholar. Without benefit of costume or scenery and with merely an atmospheric sound design (courtesy of David Hines) and some key lighting shifts (by Patti Meyer), Hoyle plays more than 20 characters based on people he met and interviewed. Affecting the pidgin English that is the lingua franca of Nigeria and smoothly transitioning through various postures and demeanors, Hoyle re-creates his reception as a white American sore thumb.
We travel with him widely, from stops at the US Embassy and local bars frequented by expat oil workers to the territory of dozens of militia groups at war with the state and one another for the liberation of the delta and a share of the oil money. There's a certain admirable audacity in Hoyle's Nigeria project, not just in his fearless reconnaissance of deeply troubled waters but in his willingness to boldly assume the voices and personae of ordinary Nigerians, to step inside their perspectives and encourage his American audiences to follow. The play's two hours could stand trimming and focusing.
Nevertheless, Hoyle's work brings a burgeoning talent to a still woefully neglected subject that is both absorbing in its dramatic complexity and urgent in its political import. (Avila) Woody Allen's God and Death Off-Market Theaters, Custom Stage, 965 Mission; www.custommade.
org, 1-800-838-3006. $15-25. Thurs-Sat, 8pm.
Through March 10. The Custom Made Theatre Company presents two existential plays by Woody Allen. All the Great Books (Abridged) Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Dean Lesher Theatre, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek; (925) 943-7469.
$14-38. Opens Wed/7, 7:30pm. Through March 3.
See Web site for schedule. The Reduced Shakespeare Company rockets through the classics of literature in a comedic performance running in rotation with The Complete History of America (Abridged). Ambition Facing West Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mountain View; (650) 903-6000, www.
theatreworks.org. $20-55.
Wed/7-Sat/10, 8pm; Sun/11, 7pm. TheatreWorks presents the California premiere of Bay Area-born playwright Anthony Clarvoe's story chronicling his family's history from Eastern Europe to the United States. Arsenic and Old Lace Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Pl, Point Richmond; (510) 232-4031, www.
masquers.org. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2:30pm.
Through Feb 24. Two elderly ladies have something very special in their elderberry wine in Joseph Kesserling's amusing thriller. Cartoon Impact Theatre, La Val's Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; (510) 464-4468, www.
impacttheatre.com. $10-15.
Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through March 10. Impact Theatre performs in a West Coast premiere of Steven Yockey's comedy about the brainwashing of American children that takes place every Saturday morning.
Catherine's Care Rebound Bookstore, 1557 Fourth St, San Rafael; 454-2787, www.altertheater.org.
$20. Thurs, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through Feb 18.
Veteran Bay Area actor, playwright, and musician Robert Ernst (a cofounder of the fabled Blake Street Hawkeyes and, more recently, creator-performer of the solo mens'-room death dance The John) unveils a new play weaving music, character, and movement into a pair of dramatic wings for a bed-ridden, walker-bound imagination. Inspired by his mother's life, Catherine's Care plumbs the experience of aging through the rheumatoid ruminations of a fearful yet feisty woman (Carla Spindt) living out her last days in a facility overseen by a Ratched-y head nurse (Tamar Cohn). Staged in a largely bare San Rafael storefront by site-specific company AlterTheater, the elliptical narrative comes enveloped in a live, shimmeringly atmospheric, blues-inflected score (composed and arranged by Andy Dinsmoor and Barney Jones and performed live by Dinsmoor, Ernst, and Mark Malmberg).
The musical story line snakes in and out of Catherine's sometimes addled head as she revisits her tempestuous youth and receives waking visits from her daughter (Jenna Johnson) and late-night ones from her late husband (Craig Jessup), mysteriously returned in the form of a sly, fun-loving crow. Catherine's Care avoids sentimentality for the majority of its 90 minutes, preferring an earthy, wry humor to balance the bleakness of its heroine's situation (punctuated simply and mournfully by the mechanical pulse of an EKG) with the elevating force of memory and desire. Fluidly and imaginatively staged by director Jon Tracy, AlterTheater's ensemble production easily rises to the play's sometimes turbulent, sometimes soaring flights of fancy.
(Avila) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean California Conservatory Theatre, 999 E 14th St, San Leandro; (510) 632-8850. $18-20. Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm.
Through Feb 18. Ed Graczyk's play, set in lonesome west Texas, is about a group of James Dean fans who meet for their 20th annual reunion. The Complete History of America (Abridged) Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Dean Lesher Theatre, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek; (925) 943-7469.
$14-38. Through March 3. See Web site for schedule.
The Reduced Shakespeare Company performs 600 years of history in an acclaimed 6,000 seconds in a show running in rotation with All the Great Books (Abridged). Frozen Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; 388-5208, www.marintheatre.
org. Wed/7, 7:30; Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun/11, 2 and 7pm. $22-47.
British playwright Bryony Lavery's drama both celebrated and seminotorious (following public accusations of plagiarism) on Broadway in 2004 gets a cool, competent Bay Area debut at the Marin Theatre Company in director Amy Glazer's well-acted production. The play intercuts three separate testimonials: an English mother (Lorri Holt) grapples with the disappearance of her 10-year-old daughter; a pedophile and serial murderer (Rod Knapp) talks frankly and with a kind of professional pride about his well-considered method of predation; and an American psychiatric researcher (Stacy Ross) discusses her work on the neurological roots of serial killing, which presents a scientific basis for forgiveness. The cast does a superb job, and Knapp's serial killer is a carefully etched, intensely focused portrait of a deeply damaged yet always recognizably human personality.
Frozen's larger moral universe, however, is liable to leave one a little cold. The play's replacement of sin with symptom is compelling enough, and the science supporting it (delivered in an apt form that precariously balances the detached objectivity and personal turmoil of Ross's grieving scientist) is nothing if not fascinating. Nevertheless, the emphasis on forgiveness and moving on feels too pat by the end, and ultimately the play lacks some of the cohesion, let alone the wallop, it means to convey.
(Avila) A Grand Night for Singing Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High, Alameda; (510) 523-1553, www.altarena.org.
$17-20. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Feb 17.
Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II receive tribute in this musical review. The Pillowman Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.
org. $33-61. Extended run: Tues, Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also Thurs, Sat, 2pm); Wed, Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm).
No show Feb 23 or March 10; no matinee Feb 10 or 15, March 1 or 8. Through March 11. The theme of serial child killers is a source of dispute and humor in Irish dramaturge Martin McDonagh's hilarious, eerie, and strictly macabre comedy set in a gritty police station-cum-torture chamber in an unnamed totalitarian country.
Here a prolific but largely unrecognized writer with the stubbornly emphatic name Katurian Katurian Katurian (Erik Lochtefeld) has been hauled in for some very rough questioning following a string of child murders whose gory details mimic the content of several of his generally ghastly stories. The Pillowman, however, ultimately has nothing to do with the kind of social, psychological, moral, and forensic themes typical of the genre. Instead, its primary purpose is to grip the audience by the story-hungry throat, a feat it manages expertly and with a dreamlike complexity, merging one story into another to create a grimly comic nightmare director Les Waters and his cast unfold with unflinching panache.
As Katurian, Lochtefeld (The Glass Menagerie) delivers a cannily offbeat, charismatic performance, convincingly mixing bottomless artistic pride with obsequiousness before authority, sibling angst, and a gently subversive humor. Matthew Maher's deft turn as Katurian's brother Michal, meanwhile, is an equally riveting combination of utter ingenuousness and playful mischief. If storytelling seems to be a double-edged sword, its spirit emerges immaculate in the end as a kind of joyful seduction by the master storyteller.
(Avila) *Rose Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mountain View; (650) 903-6000 (Mountain View Tickets only), 1-800-838-3006, www.atjt.com.
$18-44. Wed/7, 2pm; Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm; Sun/11, 2pm. (Also Feb 15-25, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk.
) Martin Sherman's one-person play, directed by Joan Mankin and starring Naomi Newman, opens Traveling Jewish Theatre's season in an engagingly well-tuned and elegantly staged production. Rose grows from the soil of history with a capital H, as seen in the character's journey from a shtetl to the Warsaw Ghetto and eventually to the Palestine-bound refugee ship Exodus and from Miami Beach to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and back. Covering such breadth of experience in two hefty acts would be too much if not for Newman's subtlety and vivacity.
Telling her story while she sits shivah for a nine-year-old girl slain by a shot through the forehead, Newman brilliantly owns the part of Rose, making a monologue seem no great strain on anyone's behind. Of course, while Sherman's best-known play, Bent, broke new ground in its depiction of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, Rose largely reaffirms a story with which we are duly raised, adding, importantly, a critical glance at Israeli violence toward Palestinian Arabs. Ultimately, as its heroine narrates the movement of an embattled Yiddish culture into a deeply fractured 21st century, Rose raises issues of identity and affiliation that encompass the idea of a Jewish homeland while pointing beyond the realities of the present.
(Avila) Shopping for God Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; 826-5750, 1-800-838-3006, www.themarsh.org.
$10-22. Thurs-Sat, 7pm. Through March 3.
Erica Lann Clark stars in a solo show about her spiritual search as the offspring of atheist Jews. The Tempest Willard Middle School, Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart, Berk; 1-800-838-3006, www.raggedwing.
org. $15-25. Fri-Sat, 8pm.
Through Feb 17. The Ragged Wing Ensemble applies a dose of mask, puppetry, and video magic to William Shakespeare's fantastical tale, grounding it in the kind of physical theater the young company has been cultivating to generally strong effect. The results are mixed here, however, in part because the application comes across inconsistently and a bit arbitrarily.
Director Keith C. Davis's production begins with the full cast striking a series of tableaux suggestive of various scenes and states from the story ahead as the ensemble chants sections of Prospero's Our revels now are ended speech from Act IV. The expressive choreography from company member Amy Sass (the production's lithesome if somewhat impassive Ariel) that accompanies this incantation (something of a tempest in a teapot) builds until it unleashes the storm that sets the plot in motion a sequence fortified with Aiden Fraser's video projections, a suitably roaring sound design by Kent Blodgett (who also provides an original score), and set designer Sarah Samonsky's actor-friendly maritime rigging.
Afterward the play moves along more or less traditionally, beginning with a surprisingly listless scene between Jeffrey Hoffman's dyspeptic Prospero and Ariel Hart's comical good girl Miranda. Nice work in other key roles including Christine Odera's snarling Caliban and Phil Wharton's drunken Stephano helps smooth the otherwise turbulent course of this tempest. (Avila) True West Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck, Berk; 1-800-838-3006, www.
aeofberkeley.org, www.brownpapertickets.
com. $12. Fri-Sat, 8pm.
Through Feb 17. Actors Ensemble of Berkeley performs in Sam Shepard's dark comedy about two feuding brothers. Company C Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, Marina at Laguna; 345-7575.
$20. Fri-Sat, 8pm. The troupe performs work by Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, and Charles Anderson.
Dallas Black Dance Theater City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus, 50 Phelan, Diego Rivera Theater; 239-3580. Free. Wed, 11am.
The modern jazz company dances in 30 Years like None Other. Shinichi Iova-Koga NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa; 621-7978, www.theatreofyugen.
com. $10-15. Thurs-Sun, 8pm.
The Butoh dancer and choreographer presents his latest piece, Milk Traces. *Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, 701 Mission; 978-2787, www.ybca.
org. $19-25. Fri-Sat, 8pm.
See pick box. Robert Moses's Kin Jewish Community Center, 3200 California; 292-1233, www.jccsf.
org, www.robertmoseskin.org.
$18-26. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Feb 18.
The Stanford artist in residence's troupe performs a contemporary dance program honoring African American history month; guest choreographer Amy Seiwert also performs her own work. San Francisco Ballet War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness; 865-2000, www.sfballet.
org. $18-205. Program one: Divertimento No.
15, Carousel, pas de deux from After the Rain, Artifact Suite (Thurs, 8pm; Sat, 2 and 8pm); Program two: Blue Rose, The Dance House, and Firebird (Tues, 8pm). Stephen Petronio Company Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard; 392-2545, www.performances.
org. $8-39. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm.
The company performs new work to songs by Canadian singer and songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Takami and MoBu Dance Group Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida; 602-8557, www.brownpapertickets.
com. $18-22. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm.
The contemporary dance troupe performs Illusion, which features glass art by Kana Tanaka and sound design by Jorge Bachmann. Black Choreographers Festival Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice, Oakl; 863-9834, (510) 801-4523, www.bcfhereandnow.
com. (Also Feb 15-18, ODC Theater, 3153 17th St, SF.) Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3 and 7pm.
$10-20. Featured performers include Alonzo King, Reginald Ray Savage, High Definition, OSA, and more. Smuin Ballet Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek; (925) 943-7469, www.
smuinballet.org. $52-57.
Fri-Sat, 8pm. (also Sat, 2pm). (Also Feb 21-25, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mountain View.
) The ballet performs Obrigado Brazil, Shinju, and Amy Seiwert's Revealing the Bridge. BATS Improv Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, bldg B, Marina at Laguna; 474-8935, www.improv.
org. $12-18. Fri-Sat, 8pm.
Through Feb 24. The troupe holds a Rock and Roll Theatresports Tournament. Crying in Public and Sally: MIA CounterPulse, 1310 Mission; 435-7552, www.
counterpulse.org. $12-20.
Thurs-Sun, 8pm. See Picks. Dirty Little Secret Empire Plush Room, York Hotel, 940 Sutter; 885-2800, www.
empireplushroom.com. $25.
Fri-Sat, 11pm. Ongoing. This evening of performance is a Roaring '20s revue.
Emma, a New Musical Most Holy Redeemer Church, 100 Diamond; www.emmathemusical.com.
$12-15. Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Joseph Bell directs a musical based on the Jane Austen novel.
Martha Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, 34th Ave and Clement; 972-8934, www.pocketopera.org.
$18-35. Sun, 2pm. Also Feb 24, 2pm.
Pocket Opera performs Friedrich von Flotow's Martha in English with a translation by Donald Pippin. Monday Night Marsh Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750, www.themarsh.
org. $7. Mon-Tues, 8pm.
Local performers in David Ford's class present their works in progress. New Primitive Screwhead Show Victoria Theatre, 291 16th St; www.primitivescrewheads.
com. $15.25.
Fri-Sat, 11:45pm. Through Feb 17. As part of the SF Independent Film Festival, the comedy group performs Crazy Go Nuts, featuring a competition in which audience members can throw water balloons at the performers.
Novecento American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary, Garrett Stage; www.act-sf.org.
Free. Mon, 6:30pm. The Istituto Italiano di Cultura and American Conservatory Theater present a performance of Alessandro Baricco's Italian fable.
Oui Be Negroes Climate Theater, 285 Ninth St; www.improvalliance.org.
$10-15. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through Feb 24.
The sketch comedy and improv ensemble performs in Bury James Brown! Teatro ZinZanni Pier 29, Embarcadero at Battery; 438-2668, www.zinzanni.
org. $110-135. Wed-Sat, 6pm; Sun, 5pm.
Ongoing. The circus and cabaret troupe performs under the big top in a dinner-theater setting. A Weekend of Endearingly Offensive Insulting Compliments Triple Base, 3041 24th St; www.
basebasebase.com. Free.
Thurs, 7pm. Brent Weinbach, Alex Koll, and Sub-Standard Comix perform. Writers with Drinks Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St; www.
writerswithdrinks.com. $3-5.
Sat, 7:30pm. Other magazine editor Charlie Anders hosts an evening of readings featuring Frank Portman, Eric Spitznagel, Marta Acosta, Anh-Hoa Thi Nguyen, Angie Krass, and Joan Price. Blue Man Group Oracle Arena and McAfee Coliseum, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakl; (510) 625-8497, www.
ticketmaster.com, www.blueman.
com. $60.75-89.
25. Sat, 8pm. The blue and bald group performs in How to be a Megastar.
Farewell to the Tooth Fairy Spud's Pizza Parlor, 3290 Adeline, Berk; (510) 597-0795. $10. Thurs, 8pm.
Through March 9. After a long run in the city, Lynn Ruth Miller's solo show about self-discovery comes to Berkeley. Canvas Gallery 1200 Ninth Ave; 504-0010.
Tues, 8pm: Comedy Open Mic Night, hosted by Jerry Goldstone, free. Mock Cafe 1074 Valencia; 826-5750, ext 5, www.themarsh.
org. Sat, 9:30 and 11pm: stand-up comedy, $7. Red Victorian Hotel 1665 Haight; (650) 346-4195.
Sun, 7pm: SF Sunday Comics, hosted by Amir Malekpour and Ira Brightman, free. Temple Bar Tiki Bar and Grill 984 University, Berk; (510) 524-6403, (510) 548-9888, www.templebartiki.
com. Thurs, 9pm: Nelson Martini's Laugh-N-Luau, hosted by Bryan Moore, free. Open mics take place almost every night in caf e s throughout the Bay Area.
If you want to perform, show up about half an hour before start time to put your name on the list. A day-by-day guide to spoken word events and featured readers: Join an international protest of military violence in Haiti by United Nations troops, particularly a mostly Brazilian squad that raided Cit e Soleil in late December 2006, killing many civilians.
4:30 p.
m. rally at Powell and Market, SF
5 p.m.
march to the Brazilian Consulate
Watch Call Me Malcolm, a documentary about a transgender man's path to becoming an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, a Christian denomination that encourages full participation from the LGBT community.
7 p.m.
, free
Hear Liam Madden, US marine, Iraq War vet, and cofounder of Appeal for Redress (a campaign of active service members petitioning Congress to bring the troops home); Sunsara Taylor of the World Can't Wait coalition to end the war; and Larry Everest, author of Oil, Power, and Empire, address students at an East Bay stop on their nationwide speaking tour to lead a generation into antiwar activism.
Hearst and Euclid, Berkeley
Come to a gathering of the Oakland Chapter of Drinking Liberally club featuring an informal Q A session with the cofounder of Working Assets and author of Capitalism 3.0.
Luka's Taproom and Lounge 2221 Broadway, Oakl. oakland.drinkingliberally.
org
Get insight into the recent riots against the election of Felipe Calder o n in Mexico and an update on the Zapatista movement from John Ross, who has been covering uprisings around the world for the past 50 years.
7 p.m.
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