Another Opening, Another Show: August 2024

A lot going on, even as we gear up for next month's start of the autumn season. . . .

Theatrical

ACT's Young Conservatory is putting on Carrie: The Musical, which, in true Broadway Big Flop style, is now a cult classic (music by Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Lawrence D Cohen); this revival is directed by Becky Potter & you can see it at the Strand Theater from 1 to 11 August.

The Marsh presents the In Front of Your Eyes Performance Festival, featuring works by women & non-binary people, at both their San Francisco & Berkeley stages; the festival runs from 1 to 25 August, & you can check out the full schedule here.

Golden Thread Productions presents the New Threads Reading Series: on 2 August you can experience Where can I find someone like you, Ali? by Raeda Taha, directed by Hala Baki, & on 9 August The Return by Hanna Eady & Edward Mast, directed by Hanna Eady; both shows are at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco & admission is free but you must register at their website.

BroadwaySF presents Thank You For Listening: An Evening of Songs and Stories with NPR Host / Pink Martini singer Ari Shapiro at the Curran Theater on 8 August.

PlayGround presents its third annual Free-Play Festival at the Potrero Stage from 9 to 25 August, featuring 11 different shows from a wide range of creators on a wide range of topics; you can get some specifics here.

BroadwaySF presents Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Concert at Davies Symphony Hall on 16 - 17 August.

42nd Street Moon presents Laurie Roldan Sings a Song for You: A Cabaret Concert Inspired by the Music of Karen Carpenter, written. directed, & performed by Laurie Roldan, at the Gateway Theater on 17 & 25 August.

The Shotgun Players Champagne Staged Reading Series presents Pluck, written by Jan Rosenberg & directed by Molly Van Der Molen, a "play about gender identity, dysphoria, twins, and monsters in the age of AOL", on 19 - 20 August.

BroadwaySF brings back the ever-popular Oz fan fic musical Wicked at the Orpheum Theater from 28 August through 13 October.

Operatic

The West Edge Opera Festival takes place this month, with three works, all staged at the gorgeous Scottish Rite Center on the beautiful shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland: there's the world premiere of Bulrusher, with music by Nathaniel Stookey to a libretto by Eisa Davis based on her original play, conducted by Emily Senturia, directed by NJ Agwuna, & starring soprano Shawnette Sulker, & that plays on 3, 11, & 15 August; Jacqueline, about cellist Jacqueline du Pré, with music by Luna Pearl Woolf to a libretto by Royce Vavrek, directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori & starring soprano Marnie Breckenridge & cellist Matt Haimovitz, & that plays 10, 16, & 18 August; & The Legend of the Ring, David Seaman's one-show reduction of Wagner's Ring cycle, conducted by Jonathan Khuner, staged by Sam Helfrich, & starring Philip Skinner as Wotan, Tracy Cox as Brunnhilde, & Alex Boyer as Siegmund & Siegfried, & that plays 4, 9,  & 17 August. & though we're told the show is a West Edge favorite & back by popular demand, & friends of mine are anticipating it eagerly, I will freely admit that I just don't really get it, & if you want a more detailed explication of my feelings on the subject, go here to see my entry on the 2010 production.

The Merola Opera Program presents Don Giovanni, conducted by Stefano Sarzani & directed by Patricia Racette, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on 1 & 3 August; for tickets call the box office at 415-864-3330 (no idea why you can't buy tickets on line, but in previous years Merola hasn't allowed buyers to choose their own seats, so you're probably better off calling anyway).

The Merola Opera Program Grand Finale will take place at the Opera House on 17 August.

The Lamplighters present the ever-popular Pirates of Penzance, with musical direction by Brett Strader & stage direction by Michael Mohammed, on 3 - 4 August at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 10 - 11 August at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, & 17 - 18 August at YBCA in San Francisco.

Choral

The Oakland Symphony is holding a Summer Sing-In series, in which community members are invited to join the orchestra & chorus at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland to sing along in some favorite works of the orchestra + chorus repertory: on 31 July, Ash Walker leads Ralph Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem & Fauré's Requiem; on 7 August Buddy James leads the Mozart Requiem & Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna; & on 14 August incoming Music Director Kendrick Armstrong leads Orff's Carmina Burana.

Vocalists

The Transgender District & Opera Parallèle present the third annual edition of Expansive - A Showcase of Transgender & Non-Binary Classical Artists, featuring baritone Lucas Bouk, bass-baritone Wilford Kelly, & violinist Queen Angelina, with Afrika America once again hosting, along with Taylor Chan on piano, & that's 8 - 9 August at the Strand Theater.

Chamber Music

Duo Penseur (violinist Chantel Charis & pianist Alex Fang) perform Minding the Gap, a program featuring works by Jessie Montgomery, Beethoven, Clara Schumann, & William Grant Still, at Old First Concerts on 2 August.

Noontime Concerts at Old Saint Mary's in downtown San Francisco has the following programs this month: on 13 August, cellist Evan Kahn & pianist Amy Zanrosso will perform Beethoven's Sonata for Cello and Piano #4 in C Major, Opus 102, # 1, Britten's Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, Opus 65, & Glazunov's Mélodie, Opus 20, # 1; on 20 August, cellist Angela Lee & pianist Elizabeth Schumann will perform Frank Bridge's Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor & Chopin;'s Cello Sonata, Opus 65; & on 27 August, in a co-presentation with the San Francisco International Piano Festival, violinist Ariel Pawlik-Zwiebel & pianist Markus Pawlik will perform a movement of Schubert's Violin Sonata #2 in A minor, Fauré's Nocturne in B Major Opus 33 #2 & his Barcarolle in F-Sharp Opus 66, Ravel's Tzigane, & César Franck's Violin Sonata  in A Major.

The Zēlos Saxophone Quartet (Jonah Cabral, soprano sax; Johnny Selmer, alto sax; Alessia Garcia, tenor sax; & Barry Galbreath, baritone sax) will perform works by Bach,Jean Baptiste Singelee, Astor Piazzolla, Carly Florio, Eugene Bozza, & Philip Glass at Old First Concerts on 16 August.

The Eos Ensemble (Craig Reiss, violinist; Evan Kahn, cellist; Elizabeth Dorman, piano), will play piano trios by Haydn & Dvořák at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland on 18 August.

Instrumental

The 7th Annual San Francisco International Piano Festival unfolds from 23 August to 1 September, with a particular emphasis this year on the works of Gabriel Fauré; check here for a full list of events.

Modern / Contemporary Music

Motoko Honda’s Simple Excesses Quartet, self-described as Uncharted Sonic Adventures: Jazz, Chamber, Avant-garde, and Beyond (Motoko Honda, composition & piano; Cory Wright, woodwinds; Matt Small, bass; & Jordan Glenn, drums) will perform a concert of compositions & arrangements, most of them new, by Honda on 17 August at Old First Concerts.

Jazz

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with special guest Irma Thomas, will play at the SF Jazz Center from 15 to 18 August.

Dance

The State of Play Festival, featuring new & in-progress works by local & national dance creators, takes place at the ODC Theater from 1 to 4 August; check out the full schedule here.

A new dance company, Eight/Moves, will inaugurate its first season at Z Space on 16 - 18 August, featuring world premiere dances by Rena Butler, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, KT Nelson, & Founder and Artistic Director Mia J Chong.

FACT/SF presents SF Summer Dance Festival at the ODC Theater with two programs, the first on 16 - 18 August & the second on 23 - 25 August.

World Arts West Dance Festival, which will spread over three weekends, opens on 25 August (the other two weekends are in September) at the Dance Mission Theater, with a series of panels & programs exploring Queer Identity, Dance as Resistance, & traditional Indian dance.

Art Means Painting

The Cartoon Art Museum hosts Gorey Elephants on Parade, featuring art prints created by Edward Gorey featuring elephants, from 5 August through 15 December.

Two new shows are opening, both on 10 August, at the de Young: About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift runs through 28 September 2025 & Robert Bechtle: Prints and Drawings, exploring the work of the Bay Area photorealist, will run through 5 January 2025.

To Exalt the Ephemeral: The (Im)permanent Collection opens at BAM/PFA on 14 August & runs through 6 July 2025; the exhibit "draws from BAMPFA’s art and film collections to explore how museums collect, care for, and amplify the work of artists who celebrate ideas of impermanence and cycles of decay and regeneration."

Cinematic

The Roxie in San Francisco has a mini-celebration of The Archers: Powell & Pressburger this month, featuring the documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, in which Martin Scorsese discusses his cinematic passion for the two, as well as showings of The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life & Death, & I Know Where I'm Going! (I hated that one so much I am tempted to watch it again).

Blade Runner, the [allegedly] Final Cut, will be shown at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco on 2 August.

A couple of classic German silent films are coming to the Balboa Theater this month: Fritz Lang's Metropolis on 4 August & The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, with live accompaniment by Sleepbomb, on 9 August.

On 3 August, City Arts & Lectures presents Jon M Chu, director of In the Heights & Crazy Rich Asians, in conversation with Awkwafina about his new memoir, Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen.

The San Francisco Symphony will show La La Land with live orchestral accompaniment, conducted by the score's composer, Justin Hurwitz, on 3 - 4 August. La La Land gained some extra notoriety a few years ago when it was initially but erroneously announced as Best Picture at that year's Oscar ceremony; after some confusion, the actual best winner, Moonlight, was announced, & the show came to an abrupt & awkward conclusion. Afterwards there were some "think" pieces claiming that La La Land, a musical about jazz & Hollywood show business during the mid-twentieth century, represented the Past & Moonlight, an artfully shot & beautifully performed film centering Black & queer experiences, represented the Future. I'm not so sure things divide that easily (spoilers ahead, as I will be talking about the films' endings). In the last part of Moonlight, the protagonist goes to a new city where he re-unites with the man he had a brief sexual encounter with in high school. This man is still good looking, employed in an "interesting" job (he's a cook), available, & still interested in the protagonist. Re-uniting with your high school crush who is still attractive &, though clearly a good catch, still available, as if waiting for you? This is an ending straight out of the Hallmark playbook (I say this as someone who has seen an embarrassing number of Hallmark Christmas movies – a friend & I would watch them during the lockdown, that's my excuse). The ending of La La Land, on the other hand, in which our two leads meet again but do not end up together, though lifted from Umbrellas of Cherbourg, is actually a more realistic & emotionally tougher ending. I think the artiness of Moonlight & the (let me add, welcome) emphasis on Black & queer experiences disguised for many viewers how similar the ending is to a conventional romance.

A new restoration of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai will play at the Roxie in San Francisco from 9 to 14 August.

On 11 August at the Roxie in San Francisco, there will be two showings of Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine & the Art of Translation, in which director Ward Serrill tells us about Red Pine, the celebrated translator of ancient Chinese poetry; Serrill & Red Pine are scheduled to attend in person, & the performance includes a Director Q&A, a conversation with Red Pine moderated by May-lee Chai, & a musical performance by Spring Cheng; a book signing will follow.

BAM/PFA will present The Films of Lynne Ramsay from 22 to 25 August.

On 30 August, as part of the San Francisco International Piano Festival, Old First Concerts will host pianist Stephen Prutsman with the Telegraph String Quartet (Eric Chin & Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) in Schumann's Piano Quintet Opus 44 followed by Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr, in my view possibly the best of Keaton's films, with Prutsman & the Quartet performing the pianist's original score.