Arts & Events

—Subterranean Shakespeare has moved to the Berkeley Art Festival Theater, 2133 University at Shattuck, with a new Monday reading series already underway—next up, Marlowe's masterpiece 'Doctor Faustus,' directed by Heather Robinson on the 13th ... followed by The Bard's 'Julius Caesar' (20th), Ben Jonson's great comedy 'Volpone' (27th)—and on September 3rd, a new play by George Crowe about the plays and their playwrights, 'Shakespeare Night at the Blackfriars,' directed by Robert Estes. $10. 276-3871 

—'Education of a Rake,' a political comedy in an election year, about a congressman trying to revive the ERA while trying to suppress information about his privte life, produced by Central Works at the Berkeley City Club, is William Bivins' newest play ... A couple of years ago, with six premieres (four of them full-length) of his plays, he was the most produced playwright in the Bay Area for a season. Venues like SF Playhouse, Pacific Repertory and PianoFight staged his work—and Virago, of Alameda, put up 'Afterlife of the Mind.' Jan Zvaifler, co-founder of Central Works, directs—and of course it's been produced through Central Works' unique collaborative method. There's a trailer on the web: 

Thursdays through Saturdays at 8, Sundays at 5 through August 26 at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue. $25 in advance; sliding scale $25-$14 at door. (Pay what you can night August 9.) 558-1381; centralworks.org 

—Jovelyn Richards will be performing what's getting to be an annual run at La Pena Cultural Center—this time the latest edition (with an added character and more) of her story-on-stage 'Mrs. Pat's House,' about a brothel in the black part of town during the Depression and the array of people who visit and live there. Jovelyn tells the story, acts it out, and is accompanied by her band. Friday through Sunday, August 10-12, 8 p. m. La Pena, 3105 Shattuck (near Ashby BART). $12-$15. 849-2568; lapena.org 

—Norman Gee of Oakland Public Theater—who's produced, directed and performed in many local productions over the past 20 years—is directing a staged reading of Nathan Louis Jackson's 'Broke-Ology,' the science of being broke, about an African-American family in Kansas City—at the Douglas Morrison Theater's Bare Bones Tuesdays, 8 p. m. on August 7. 23311 North Third, Hayward, across from the Japanese Gardens in Anza Park. $10. 881-6777; dmtonline.org