Arts & Events

Golden Thread Productions, the Bay Area's Middle Eastern play company, whose ReOrient festival of short plays has graced Berkeley stages, will present their world premiere of Adriana Sevahn's Night Over Erzinga, September 15-October 9, at the Southside Theater, Magic Theater, Fort Mason, Marina & Buchanan, San Francisco--a story of those who escaped to America from the Armenian Genocide, haunted by the past, yet the survivors reunited with their ancestors, from Armenia 1913 to 1930s Massachusetts to New York in the 60s. Directed by Hafiz Karmali, who directed Island of Animals for Golden Thread and the Afghan Alliance a few years ago, with original music by Penka Kounava. Previews, Thursday (September 15) at 8:30, Friday-Saturday at 8: $20 advance or pay-what-you-can at the door. Opening night, Sunday at 5, $100 with gala reception following. 8:30 Thursdays, 8 on Friday, Sunday at 2: $28; Saturdays at 8: $36. (415) 345-7575; goldenthread.org (In November, Golden Thread presents Hafiz Karmali's Rumi X 7 with the Islamic Cultural Center in Downtown Oakland: seven stories from the great Persian poet and founder of the whirling dervishes, onstage in the ICCNC's Moorish Revival hall, dating from 1908. 

Four Plays for Actresses, written and directed by East Bay playwright James Keller, long associated with the old Magic Theater, is the too-brief offering of Poor Players, running just two days--Friday at 8, Saturday at 2--at the Unitarian Fellowship, Cedar & Bonita, Berkeley. Keller's plays explore a range of themes with wit and sensitivity: The Waitress Who Read Proust, That's My Chair, A Lifetime in Madrid, All At Sea ... running just over an hour and a half, all told, featuring Ann Hallinan, Kate Jopson, Janice Leone and Martha Luhrman--Berkeley theatergoers will know one or the other. A handmade, tiny company that produces sterling work indeed. $20. poorplayers.org