There’s a lot to see and do this week for Bay Area arts fans. Here is a partial rundown.
New global dance fest comes to San Mateo
Peninsula Dance Theatre is celebrating its 55th anniversary this season and do these folks know how to put on party.
To mark the anniversary the company is hosting the inaugural Peninsula International Dance Festival this weekend, complete with 11 Bay Area troupes representing a staggering array of performance styles. In all, some 160 dancers are expected to perform in the event.
Among the companies and artist taking part are tango performers Maxi Copello and Raquel Makow; Native American dancer Eddie Madril; Filipino folk dance troupe Parangal; Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco, presenting traditional Mexican dance; classical Indian Kathak dance company Chitresh Das Institute’s Youth Dance division; Afro-Peruvian dance group Jaranon y Bochinche; Bollywood performers Gurus of Dance; Tribe and Poise’n, performing hip-hop dance; and of course Peninsula Ballet Theatre, performing American jazz, country and ballroom styles.
Organizers say they plan the global dance festival an annual event.
Details: 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; San Mateo Performing Arts Center; $35-$65; www.peninsulaballet.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Theater picks: ‘Sanctuary City,’ ‘Fun Home’
Here are two shows Bay Area theater fans should know about.
“Sanctuary City”: Polish-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok represents the kind of immigrant story that her protagonists in “Sanctuary City” could only hope for. As a child, she came to the U.S with her parents, who toiled at a variety of jobs while she grew up in New Jersey and discovered in school that she had a unique and powerful voice for drama. “Sanctuary City,” getting its West Coast premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, focuses on a pair of young undocumented immigrants, DREAMers, who are striving to build a stable life as teenagers in America, where even in a sanctuary city like Newark, N.J., something as simple as a traffic ticket can lead to peril. Love, courage and politics are intertwined in Majok’s 90-minute play that jumps back and forth in time and emerges in short snippets of action and narrative.
Details: Through Aug. 14; Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre; $21-$86; www.berkeleyrep.org.
“Fun Home”: City Lights Theater Company in San Jose, staging its first summer musical since 2019, is set to present the Tony Award-winning “Fun Home.” The groundbreaking show by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (book and lyrics), is adapted from Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir that detailed her complicated relationship with her brilliant, tempestuous and closeted gay father and her own coming out as a lesbian. The musical, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is credited with being the first Broadway production to feature a lesbian protagonist. At City Lights, Company executive artistic director Lisa Mallette will direct a cast of seven, which will be accompanied by a live band.
Details: In previews today and Friday; main run is Saturday through Aug. 21; City Lights Theater, San Jose; $25-$52; cltc.org.
— Staff and Bay Area News Foundation
Opera Parallèle’s Philip Glass hat trick
In the last decade, San Francisco’s always-adventurous Opera Parallèle has performed two of the three operas American composer Philip Glass wrote in homage to the great French artist and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. The tributes began with Parallèle productions of “Orphée,” presented in 2011, and “Les Enfants Terrible” performed in 2017.
This week, the company completes the cycle with “La Belle et la Bête” (Beauty and the Beast). It’s a timely tribute, marking Glass’s 85th birthday this year; it’s also a rare opportunity to experience the composer’s infrequently staged opera, with Glass’s own libretto adapted from the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont about a gentle beast in love with a beautiful girl.
Cocteau’s 1946 film, which featured a score by Georges Auric, starred Josette Day and Jean Marais. Parallèle’s multimedia production, incorporating film and music, boasts a fine cast led by soprano Vanessa Becerra and baritone Hadleigh Adams in the title roles. Soprano Sophie Delphis and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu also appear in what promises to be a surreal take on a classic. Company creative director Brian Staufenbiel helms the 90 minute production, performed without intermission, and Nicole Paiement conducts.
Details: 7:30 today through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; Miner Auditorium, SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco; $55-$135; www.operaparallele.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Concert picks: Pete Escovedo, Ren Geisick, rooftop jazz
Here are three shows jazz/Americana fans should know about.
Pete Escovedo: The Pittsburg native and legendary Latin Jazz percussionist and band leader turns 87 this week. And fittingly, he’s celebrating the milestone at Yoshi’s. Expect to hear a cut or two from his Gammy nominated 2018 album “Back to the Bay” when Escovedo and his Latin jazz orchestra take the stage at the famed Oakland jazz joint for five shows.
Details: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; $37-$79; yoshis.com.
Ren Geisick: The Bay Area singer-songwriter, whose versatile voice can venture into country, pop, rock, blues and jazz with equal aplomb, returns to San Jose’s Tabard Theatre April 17, this time with a full band behind her. The show is being offered live and via streaming.
Details: 7 p.m. Sunday (streaming July 18-Aug. 1); $10-$35; www.tabardtheatre.org.
Mason Jennings: The Hawaiian-born singer-songwriter has long been a favorite of the indie music world, bridging protest folk, rock and jazz with his provocative compositions and distinctive voice that recalls the late Tom Petty. Having released his latest album “Real Heart” earlier this year, Jennings comes to the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose for the venue’s new rooftop Sunset Series of concerts.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday; $35-$45; hammertheatre.com.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Source: www.mercurynews.com