Only for laughs: Let’s face it, we’d like comedy now like by no means earlier than, whether or not to flee or to bore into the existential fact of our completely surreal world. Within the first of a brand new ongoing comedy roundup, considered one of this week’s native reveals is free (and there a whole lot of no-cost joke-fests in bars and eateries across the area) that includes longtime Bay Space humorist, creator, playwright and devoted pencil musician Danny Dechi, who performs the Bazaar Cafe, 5927 California St., San Francisco (bazaarcafe.com) on Friday. In the meantime, San Jose Improv hosts New York comic Abby Govindan and her hit solo present “How to Embarrass Your Immigrant Parents” at 8 p.m. Thursday ($31.14-$83.16; improv.com/sanjose); rising-star comic and Tony Award winner Alex Edelman headlines at Stanford College’s Studio venue at 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, offered by Stanford Reside ($40-$65; reside.stanford.edu); veteran comic and radio persona Nathaniel Stroman, aka Earthquake, holds forth at Tommy T’s comedy joint in Pleasanton for 5 reveals Friday by means of Sunday ($40-$50; tommyts.com); and Sacramento Filipino comic JR De Guzman brings his “Boyfriend Material” present to Cobb’s Comedy Membership in San Francisco for 5 reveals Friday by means of Sunday ($43-$68, topic to vary; cobbscomedy.com).
Pianist and composer Kadie Kelly performs “Storied Generations” together with her quartet in a free live performance on the Noe Valley Ministry on Feb. 22. (Courtesy Kadie Kelly)
Freebie of the week: The San Francisco Civic Music Affiliation is an outgrowth of kinds of the Civic Symphony, based almost a century in the past by a girl whose identify native lovers of free music acknowledge—Mrs. Sigmund Stern. Immediately, the affiliation continues to be related to free music, as a group orchestra welcoming musicians of all ranges, and as a supply of free concert events, together with one on Saturday afternoon. This system kicks off with Twentieth-century Irish/English composer Elizabeth Maconchy’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 15. It additionally options Bay Space composer, musician, trainer and self-described “inner-child advocate” Kadie Kelly, who, together with her quartet, performs her “Storied Generations,” a composition of “memory, lineage and transformation” for 3 flutes and piano. Additionally on this system is Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25. The efficiency runs 3 to five p.m. on the Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez St., San Francisco. It’s a beautiful spot that hosts all kinds of musical acts and different performers. For extra info on Civic Music Affiliation and free concert events, go to www.sfcivicmusic.org.
L-R, Nicole Javier and Wonjung Kim star in Lloyd Suh’s immigration-themed dramedy “The Heart Sellers,” getting its regional premiere in Berkeley and Mountain View. (Courtesy Kevin Berne/Aurora Theatre Firm and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
Hearts on the market: In an age when immigrants within the U.S. are being focused for deportation, harassment and blaming and shaming, it’s good to come back throughout a piece that recollects a time when these searching for to participate within the American dream have been handled with common sense compassion. One such present is “The Heart Sellers,” Lloyd Suh’s 2023 play about two Asian girls, immigrants to the U.S. within the Seventies, who meet and bond over a makeshift Thanksgiving meal whereas their husbands are working. There’s not way more to the story than that, but the observations of two girls who’re greeting a brand new life in a brand new world make for a comedic and sometimes poignant manufacturing. The present’s title performs off the Hart Cellar Act, which abolished immigrant quotas for some and paved the way in which for extra immigrant professionals to settle within the U.S. Suh took a a lot totally different take a look at immigration with “The Far Country,” his Pulitzer Prize-finalist play concerning the Chinese language Exclusion Act of 1882, which performed at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in spring of 2024. “Heart Sellers,” a co-production between Aurora Theatre in Berkeley and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto and directed by Jennifer Chang, performs at Aurora Theatre by means of March 9, and may be streamed March 4-9; tickets are $23-$46 at auroratheatre.org. The manufacturing strikes to TheatreWorks territory, the Mountain View Middle for the Performing Arts, for an April 2-27 run. Tickets are $26.75-$54 at theatreworks.org.
Soprano Nola Richardson sings the function of the title sea nymph within the American Bach Soloists manufacturing of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” onstage Feb. 21-24 all through the area. (Courtesy Suzanne Vinnick by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
Love and transformation: Is there a sadder story from Greek mythology than the story of the doomed lovers Acis the shepherd and the ocean nymph Galatea? As Ovid relates it in “Metamorphoses,” the Cyclops Polyphemus, the one-eyed big, seething with jealousy, smashed the gallant Acis to a pulp with a boulder. However the bereft Galatea, each stunning and resourceful, modified Acis into an immortal spirit of a river in order that their love would by no means die. Many have been captivated by the story, however Baroque composer George Frideric Handel in 1718 turned it right into a pastoral opera, “Acis and Galatea,” that grew to become the preferred work of his prolific output and is the one considered one of his operas that has by no means been out of the repertoire. American Bach Soloists, with an orchestra led by conductor Jeffrey Thomas, has engaged very good singers to convey it to 4 levels throughout the Bay Space this weekend. Singing the function of Galatea is soprano Nola Richardson, with tenor James Reese at her facet as Acis and bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams because the brutish Polyphemus. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday at St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, 7 p.m. Saturday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Church in San Francisco and seven p.m. Monday at Davis Group Church. Discover tickets, $44-$111, at americanbach.org.
Morgan Balfour is Susanna and Andrew Pardini is Figaro in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” as reimagined in an creative Pocket Opera manufacturing. (Courtesy Vero Kherian by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
Merriment from Mozart: A lecherous lord of the manor is scheming to sabotage upcoming nuptials between two devoted servants. In a later growth in a leafy backyard at evening, the selfsame lecherous lord places the strikes on what he thinks is the article of his lust, solely to find he’s propositioning his personal spouse. These are simply two parts of the convoluted, hilarious plot of “The Marriage of Figaro,” the Mozart opera that has loved enduring reputation ever since its debut in 1786. San Francisco’s beloved Pocket Opera opens its new season with a reimagined model set in New York’s the Gilded Age, and, as all the time with Pocket Opera, its English libretto was cleverly devised by the late, nice Donald Pippin. Heading the forged are Andrew Pardini as Figaro, the lord’s manservant, and Morgan Balfour as his beloved Susanna, maid to the girl of the home. Spencer Dodd is the philandering Rely Almaviva, and Julia Mulholland is his long-suffering spouse. The opera is onstage at 7:30 p.m. Friday on the Mountain View Middle for the Performing Arts, at 2 p.m. Sunday on the Hillside Membership in Berkeley, and a pair of p.m. March 2 on the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Discover tickets, $30-$84, at pocketopera.org.
