Arts And Entertainment
From ‘Prairie’ to Freight and Salvage
By Ken Bullock
Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009
“I started off with my guitar, singing folk songs,” said jazz singer Inga Swearingen. A frequent guest on National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion show with Garrison Keillor, Swearingen will perform with her jazz band Wednesday, July 22, at Freight and Salvage.
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Midsummer? Then It Must Be Time for Mozart
By Ira Steingroot
Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009
If the economy, global warming, the state budget impasse, two wars, nuclear proliferation and the fact that your 401k is in the toilet have got you leaning on your elbow like Durer’s Melancholia, cheer up.
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Four Larks Presents ‘The Master and Margarita’
By Ken Bullock
Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009
Led through a progression of rooms—passages between them with flashing lights, bureaucratic apologies and evidence of some urban accident—into a devilish cabaret, devilishly good fun, where gypsies, eccentrics, a big cat on two legs and others sing and dance, the spectators are finally pulled into another room, a party, the guest of honor on a trapeze, all invited to kiss her knee . . .
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Shadowlight Puppet Play at ‘The Rootabaga Opera’
By Ken Bullock
Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009
“I’m driving to rehearsal in a truck loaded with banging metal shadow puppets,” said shadowmaster Larry Reed of Shadowlight Productions, who is co-directing the spectacular aspect of Dan Cantrell’s The Rootabaga Opera, featuring actors, dancers, shadowplay, women’s vocal group Kitka singing to live music. The show takes place tonight through Sunday at The Crucible’s annual Fire Arts Festival in West Oakland, which also hosts performances by several dozen other musicians, dancers, theater and circus artists, as well as demonstrations of the fire arts The Crucible teaches in workshops at its nearby facility.
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Julia Morgan Center, Berkeley Playhouse Merge
By Ken Bullock
Special to the Planet
Thursday July 16, 2009
The Julia Morgan Center on College Avenue and the Berkeley Playhouse have announced their merger as the Julia Morgan Young People’s Performing Arts Center.
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