Arts & Events

Tomoko Sakai, a piano teacher from Japan, is coordinating a concert and bakesale to benefit victims of Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami. With donations of talent and treats from her many students, Sakai hopes to raise money to donate to the relief fund in her homeland. -more-

When DC Scarpelli and Peter Budinger met as undergrads at Yale, they shared a love for the theatre, and decidedly for another Yalie’s work: Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette & Boo.

They came to the Bay Area, and started TheatreTremendo. Two of their entries won Best of SF Fringe. It Came from Beneath the Kilt! in 2000, and Where the Sun Don’t Shine in 2006, Both actively perform, mainly in musicals.

They are consummating another part of their dream by co-directing Durang’s play at the Masquers Playhouse. -more-

Queen of the Sun is hardly the first documentary about the world’s vanishing honeybees but it may well be the best. We’ve already seen The Vanishing of the Bees (narrated by Ellen Page) and Kevin Hansen’s Nicotine Bees, but Taggart Siegel’s Queen is the first Bee-Movie that has the potential to reach a mainstream audience with an essential “tipping-point” message.

Let’s hope there is still enough time left to make a difference. -more-

Grateful that we weren't all swept out to sea during those eleven days of constant rain, bay area residents will doubtlessly be looking for enjoyable and stimulating programs to lift their spirits. Certainly there's plenty out there to satisfy that need. Listed below, in no particular order, are just a few of the events that may strike your fancy. -more-

Beekeeper, Jennifer Lynne Roberts' play in its premiere by Virago Theatre Company at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda, is going into its last weekend. Set in rural Oregon, the story is of an eccentric, single parent beekeeper and his daughter, Oleta, who also has a passion for the bees. A tragic accident that comes of her childhood enthusiasm makes a rift between father and daughter ... and as a young woman, she goes off to study, returning home after her father's death to visit her aunt and uncle--and confront the past, swarming like a hive around her. -more-