Bay Area Performing Arts 2017 Fall and Winter Events

COMEDY:

Chardonnay Comedy presents Totes Blessed! Where: PianoFight, San Francisco When: 11/3-11/18/17 Friday & Saturday Ticket Price: $15 - $40 Chardonnay falls into basic b*tchdom this November with their brand new sketch comedy show Totes Blessed! Afraid your love of mainstream trends is keeping you from living your #bestlife? Love pumpkin spice but hate the mental yeast infection? Looking for a safe space to unpack what being basic even means? Then this is the show for you. Treat yourself (you deserve it!) to a celebrity life coach, learn how to tell your bestie that her baby will ruin your friendship, get your cardio in with some lady pirates, and dance like no one’s watching with Tilda Swinton.  Live Laugh Love <3 with Chardonnay at Totes Blessed!

DANCE:

Hope Mohr Dance’s 7th Annual Bridge Project Where: 11/10/17 When: CounterPulse, San Francisco Ticket Price: $20 - $100 Peacock Rebellion premieres You Really Should Sit Like A Lady (or how I got to femme).  What do martial arts, early 90’s R&B divas, crotchety elders and sailor moon have to do with gender? A whole damn lot! Join Lisa Evans for an exploration of the hilarious, perplexing and sometimes infuriating contradictions in the process of gender identity formation in their first ever full length show You Really Should Sit Like A Lady (or how I got to Femme).

DanceHackSF Where: CounterPulse, San Francisco When: 12/2 & 12/3/17 Ticket Price:  Free - $20 DanceHackSF is an annual San Francisco-based event that brings together performers and developers to inspire one another and experiment with emerging technologies, here in SF and around the World. This year will be the 4th annual DanceHackSF, the 2nd co-sponsored by Kinetech Arts and CounterPulse, in association with Raktor.  DanceHackSF is an opportunity to spark unconventional applications of new technological tools and innovative dance material to create an amazing live experiences. This year’s event is so big, it takes place over two days. Day 1 will be dedicated to hacking and experimentation, while Day 2 will feature performances based on the previous day’s discoveries.

Mark Morris Dance Group presents the Hard Nut Where: Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley When: 12/15 - 12/24/17 Ticket Price: starts at $40 What holiday season would be complete without go-go boots, dancing G.I. Joes, gender-bending snowflakes, and a spirited, slightly out-of-control family Christmas party? Mark Morris' The Hard Nut, "as gleefully irreverent as it is visually poetic and musically sensitive" (Dance Magazine), returns to Zellerbach Hall for the first time in five years with all that and more. Set to Tchaikovsky's iconic Nutcracker score, this lavish production has been charming audiences for over 25 years, delivering a pitch-perfect dose of both naughty and nice!

FILM:

Under the Stars Where:  Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin When:  11/7/17 Ticket Price:  Free with RSVP Check out Headlands Center for the Arts’ new artist-deigned outdoor space, The Commons, while also enjoying a night of live music, storytelling, and cinema. The content will feature short films made and selected by current and past Artists in Residence. Wear warm layers, bring some blankets, and pack a snack. They’ll also have hot chili and cornbread prepared by Headlands’ chef Damon Little for purchase. In the event of rain, the event will relocate the screening indoors.

Mildred Pierce Film Screening Where:  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film, Berkeley When: 12/15, 12/23 & 12/27/17 Ticket Price: $12 Sit back and enjoy this new digital restoration of an American Noir film classic that features an Academy Award winning performance (Best Actress) by Joan Crawford. After her husband leaves her for his bridge partner, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) devotes her energies and talents to providing for her elder daughter, Veda, who suffers from perpetual dissatisfaction and disdains her mother penchant for work. In a disquieting mixture of the dark, unsettling world of film noir and the open, daylit world of melodrama, Mildred’s loving too much is inseparable from her working too much in a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

MUSIC & OPERA:

The Little Prince Where:  Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco When: 12/1 – 12/3/17 Ticket Price: $25 - $75 Academy Award-winning English composer Rachel Portman’s magical opera comes to the Opera Parallèle stage in collaboration with the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the Cowell Theater. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved story of a charming boy who falls from space into the Sahara desert takes on even more universal appeal and a feminist touch with the principal characters played by women and girls. The original production brims with digital magic, animated illustrations, and a cast of fantastical characters including the Prince and the Pilot, stars and birds, the King, a Businessman, the Rose and others.

Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s 32nd Holiday Concert with host, LeVar Burton Where:  Paramount Theatre, Oakland When: 12/2/17 Ticket Price: $15 - $45 Join the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir in their 32nd annual Holiday Concert with host, LeVar Burton.  “We send love, we send joy, we send peace.”

San Francisco Girls Chorus Holiday Concert Where: San Francisco Symphony When: 12/18/17 Ticket Price: $30 - $60 Ring in the holidays with a San Francisco tradition like no other – SFGC's annual holiday concert at Davies Symphony Hall.  This year’s concert - Greetings from All Seasons - is inspired by the diverse range of holiday traditions celebrated by SFGC’s choristers. Through the collection of stories from choristers about their respective holiday experiences, a unique program was formed to tell a special ‘SFGC Holiday Tale’ that ranges from Beltane to Luminaria to Hannukah to Victory Day to Holi to Nawrouz to Christmas, from Mexico to Haiti to Syria to Ireland to Armenia to China.

A Charlie Brown Christmas Where: San Francisco Symphony When: 12/21 – 12/24/17 Ticket Price: $30 - 80 Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, and the whole Peanuts gang return to Davies Symphony Hall to bring this television classic to life. With live actors, an animated backdrop, and Vince Guaraldi’s timeless music performed live by the San Francisco Symphony, this is A Charlie Brown Christmas—LIVE! experience you won’t want to miss.  Come early and enjoy a family-friendly reception. The lobbies will be filled with festive decorations and activities, including gigantic Christmas trees and special Peanuts décor.

A Musical Refuge: Salute to Dreamer, Immigrant & Refugee Resistance Where:  Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Oakland When: 1/27/18 Ticket Price:  Free Zawaya will present its inter-community collaboration A Musical Refuge: Salute to Dreamer, Immigrant, & Refugee Resistance at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. This free concert will feature collaborative performances by the Aswat Ensemble, Vukani Mawethu, La Peña Community Chorus, San Jose Taiko, and other special guests to perform Turkish and Persian music.

MISC:

Friends of Larkin Street 7th Annual Ice Skating Party Where: Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco When: 12/8/17 Ticket Price: $35 - $55 Join the Friends of Larkin Street (FOLS) for our 7th Annual Holiday Ice Skating Party on Thursday, December 8th from 6:30pm – 9:30pm @ Justin Herman Plaza (right on the Embarcadero!) We’ll have snacks, holiday games, and skate rentals ready to go so you can join us on the ice rink! Beer will be provided, but if beer’s not your thing, we’ll also have wine and featured cocktails on hand for you to purchase. All proceeds from the event will benefit Larkin Street Youth Services programs for homeless and at-risk youth. For additional ways to give, on-site we will have mobile giving and a holiday gift drive for personal care items (shampoo/conditioner, lotion, soap, deodorant etc).

Ashkenaz Annual Holiday Bazaar Where: 12/4/17 When: Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, Berkeley Ticket Price:  Free Ashkenaz’s Holiday Bazaar reflects our community center’s global perspective, exhibiting arts and crafts that are handmade, sustainable, recycled, related to music and dance themes, or representing cultures and traditions from around the world. Items to be offered include pottery, jewelry, handmade and ethnic clothing, leather crafts, African masks and baskets, books, photography, and more. Most are priced at $25 or less. Admission is free! The event also features live acoustic music, beer & wine, hot & cold beverages, and organic vegetarian food from our café. This year, we will also feature workshops in maraca-making, self-healing with acupressure, art, and drumming.  Support local artisans this holiday season, and your home for world music and dance!

THEATER:

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley Where: City Lights, San Jose When: 11/16 – 12/17/17 Ticket Price: $19 – $40 In this new holiday work, revisit your favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice as they come together for Christmas at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. It’s a continuation of Jane Austen’s beloved tale with the focus on Mary Bennet, still feeling like the odd sister out as she spends the holidays with her witty, pretty and newly married sisters. Then Mary unexpectedly finds she has a chance to write her own story. Miss Bennet is a perfect holiday show for family and friends, and it’s not one of the same holiday shows.