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Virtual
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Dance Preview: VENTANAS (Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana)
FOREVER FLAMENCO There are many forms of dance and song that emerged as a celebration of life amidst human suffering, but surely Flamenco thrillingly stands out as an example of such an art form. There are moments in the music that clearly reflect Indian, Islamic and Moorish influence. Some Flamenco music styles (palos) have been…
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Theater Preview: THE WINTER WARLOCKDOWN TROUBIE HOLIDAY PARTY (Troubadour Theater Company)
FORGET YOUR TROUBLES WITH THE TROUBIES The holiday season simply wouldn’t be the same without the Troubies so they’re bringing you an experience second only to being tightly packed in a theater – being tightly packed in tiny boxes on a computer screen! Featuring Troubies from around the country, this family-friendly, vaudeville-esque variety-style celebration is…
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Theater Preview: STORAGE RUN (Rogue Artists Ensemble)
STORAGE RUN = VIRTUAL FUN Pee-Wee’s Playhouse meets Choose Your Own Adventure meets classic holiday fare in this new, interactive holiday experience from Rogue Artists Ensemble, one of the cleverest and most inventive theater companies nationwide. The Rogues create “Hyper-theater”: original, immersive, multi-dimensional experiences that celebrate the complexity and diversity of Los Angeles. Thankfully, virtual…
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Theater Preview: INTERVIEWING MISS DAVIS (Fountain Theatre’s End-of-Year Party and Playreading)
FOUNTAIN THEATRE’S VIRTUAL END-OF-YEAR PARTY: PLAYREADING ABOUT BETTE DAVIS; HOLIDAY CHEER; AND GAMES Settle in with your favorite beverage on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET when the Fountain Theatre winds up 2020 and its monthly Saturday Matinee series with an Old Hollywood-themed holiday party filled with joy, games, and ’” of course ’” an online playreading….
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Theater Preview: MAKING FRIENDS (IAMA Theatre Company)
LOOK FORWARD IN ANGER Wait a minute! Hold on! A one-man play by an angry gay man to be performed by an angry gay man in a show written by an angry gay man? I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you. In fact, just the thought of such a thing makes me so angry that I’ve…
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Theater Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (starring Jefferson Mays)
SINGING THE PRAISES OF A CAROL At this time of year, productions about dear old Scrooge are ablaze as usual, even in streaming mode. One-man shows, radio plays, and reruns on film. What’s your favorite? The first widely successful sound version (there were many silent ones) starred Reginald Owen in 1938?; Alastair Sim following in…
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Theater Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Williamstown Theatre Festival on Audible starring Audra McDonald)
THIS STREETCAR ROLLS AND HUMS WITH AUTHENTICITY Since struggle for power among the classes is one of the main themes in Tennessee Williams’ still-shocking A Streetcar Named Desire, it makes perfect sense that director Robert O’Hara would choose to update the Pulitzer Prize winner for modern times with a multicultural cast, including Audra McDonald as…
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Theater Review: THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER (Lookingglass)
STEADFAST THEATER This “soldier” is well worth saluting: There’s an enchanting Christmas Pantomime streaming from Michigan Avenue in Chicago ’” Lookingglass Theatre Company’s jewel-box of a holiday divertissement. Transformed by music, dance and spectacle more than by words and lyrics, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale from 1838, is the perfect recipient for director…
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Theater Preview: HOLIDAY SAUCE… PANDEMIC! (Taylor Mac)
TWAS THE MAC BEFORE CHRISTMAS Taylor Mac is back this holiday season with a full serving of virtual vaudeville. Celebrating the holiday season in all of its dysfunction, Taylor Mac’s HOLIDAY SAUCE… PANDEMIC! will make its live SF premiere from the Curran Theatre on December 12, 2020 at 7pm PST, followed by a strictly limited…
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Concert Preview: (AT) HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (SFGMC)
HUNDREDS OF MEN COMING TO YOUR HOME CHRISTMAS EVE Since 1990, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) has made its annual event Home for the Holidays a tradition usually held at San Francisco’s iconic Castro Theatre. It was among many other things that I was so sad to miss this year. But nothing keeps these…
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Preview: DAI 2.0 (Livestream Theater Event on December 3)
DAI 2.0 Originally scheduled to premiere Off-Broadway at the 14th Street Y in NYC, Iris Bahr’s funny and moving new solo work, DAI 2.0, is the sequel to her award winning solo show, DAI (enough), in which she portrayed 10 different characters in a Tel Aviv café moments before a suicide bomber enters. DAI had…
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MUSIC PREVIEW: CMS: FRONT ROW (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and The Soraya)
FROM NEW YORK TO L.A. TO THE WORLD The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) created a new digital initiative this year so that local chamber music venues could bring its digital chamber music concerts, CMS: FRONT ROW, to audiences around the country. Yes, it was created in the age of COVID, but now local presenters can stay in touch with their audiences while…
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Theater: SITI LEGACY PLAN (SITI Company’s Final Season)
SITI LEGACY PLAN SITI Company, a leading New York-based theater ensemble celebrated locally and internationally, announces the SITI Legacy Plan, which includes a finale 30th anniversary season and the creation of a robust physical and digital archive. At the conclusion of the finale season, anticipated to be the Fall of 2022, SITI Company will cease to operate…
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Theater Preview: BREATHE. (by Philicia Saunders)
BREATHE. With the recent political, racial, and global unrest occurring throughout 2020, the premiere of recent political, racial, and global unrest occurring throughout 2020, the premiere of Breathe., a live-streamed multimedia form of art activism and interactive theater event fusing performance, cinema, and artistic swimming in a hybridized narrative that could only be born during these challenging, yet…
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Theater Review: CITIZEN DETECTIVE (Geffen Playhouse)
THE BIG SLEEP No crime is as duplicitous as The Geffen’s latest zoom-as-theater project Citizen Detective. This is the point that I say “spoiler alert” but a) nothing I do can spoil this interactive 85 minutes any more than its shoddy execution already has, and b) I can’t spoil who murdered Silent-era Hollywood director William…
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Theater: ELEANOR’S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH – THE MUSICAL (Broadway & Beyond Theatricals in Chicago)
EXTRA! EXTRA! SANTA CAUGHT ON TAPE WITH RAG DOLL! If your little ones are aching for some color and Christmas and you’re looking for a critical and commercial success from Chicago to entertain them, well here it is. Last year, the premiere of Eleanor’s Very Merry Christmas – The Musical was caught and captured so…
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Concert: ARTURO SANDOVAL LIVE (The Broad Stage)
ARTURO SANDOVAL’S BRAND NEW CONCERT AVAILABLE FROM THE BROAD STAGE He moves easily across many varieties of jazz and instruments ’” using his trumpet to produce a fiery assortment of resonances, interchangeably stately, amusing and starry-eyed. The mighty, vibrant, effervescent Cuban trumpet player, big band leader, and composer Arturo Sandoval ’” a protégé of Dizzy…
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Theater Preview: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Manual Cinema)
A FEAST FOR THE IMAGINATION I have seen three shows from the Chicago-based performance collective Manual Cinema, and the theatricality is truly awesome. You wouldn’t expect this from a simple description, but you must believe me when I say that this endlessly inventive group of artists uses disarmingly simple tools ’” live music, paper puppets,…
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Dance Feature: THE SKY WAS DIFFERENT (A film by Jonathan Fredrickson; Hubbard Street Dance Chicago)
REACH FOR THE SKY Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, which began its 23rd season with a virtual new work from Rena Butler’s propulsive, truly lovely 25-minute work A Tale of Two (watch here), now presents Jonathan Fredrickson‘s The Sky Was Different, a premiere 50-minute surrealist film debuting on Thursday, December 3. 2020 on HSDC’s site. Hubbard…
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Music: APPALACHIAN SPRING (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)
SPRING INTO LACO Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra continues its digital season with Aaron Copeland’s masterwork Appalachian Spring. The chamber version, originally commissioned by choreographer Martha Graham as a ballet, provides a superb showcase for LACO’s artistry. Conducted by Music Director Jaime Martín with LACO Conductor Laureate Jeffrey Kahane on piano in their first joint appearance,…



















