Freebie of the week: Nothing says summer quite like free outdoor Shakespeare and one of the Bay Area’s best-loved purveyors swings into action this weekend.
The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival is embarking on its 42nd season of Free Shakespeare in the Park. This year’s production, running Saturday through Sept. 8 at three outdoor sites, is “The Tempest.” It’s believed that the Bard penned the play around 1610-11, and that it represents one of the last plays he wrote on his own.
It centers on a father (Prospero) and daughter (Miranda) who are set adrift at sea by Prospero’s jealous brother. They land on an island filled with strange things and magical creatures and remain there until a tempest washes ashore Prospero’s brother and his henchmen. Filled with magic, music, intrigue, boisterous (and often silly) sailors, revenge, loyalty and forgiveness, not to mention Act 4’s famous “play within a play” wedding ceremony; the tragicomedy “asks the audience to find the humanity in all the characters they meet,” according to S.F. Shakespeare Festival organizers.
“The Tempest” opens 6 p.m. Saturday at Cupertino’s Memorial Park Amphitheater, 21163 Anton Way, and plays there through Aug. 4. Follow-up runs are at Redwood City’s Red Morton Park, Vera Avenue and Valota Road, Aug. 10-25, and at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre at San Francisco’s McLaren Park, 40 John F. Shelley Drive, Aug. 31-Sept. 8. Performances are at 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. More information is at sfshakes.org.
Latin festival in the East Bay: The Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek this week is hosting a celebration of Latin music, dance, art and comedy that runs through Saturday and features a wide range of A-List performers. Dubbed Fiesta Cultural, the series features the famed Ballet Hispanico (7:30 p.m. Wednesday); the family-friendly music act Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (10 a.m. Thursday), a free show by Colombian singer-musician Chika Di (5:30 p.m. Thursday), the renowned Spanish Harlem Orchestra (7:30 p.m. Friday), a street fair (noon to 7 p.m. Saturday) with live music, dance, food and other fun stuff, and a Latinx Comedy Night (7:30 p.m. Saturday) featuring Mean Dave, Ashley Monique, Alejandro Ochoa, Rudy Ortiz and Frida Sierra. Admission to the street fair is free; the ticketed items run $14-$121. More information and tickets are available at www.lesherartscenter.org.
An afternoon at the opera: Join the nimble members of San Francisco’s plucky little Pocket Opera cast as they gather to sing — in English, as late founder Donald Pippin has recast it — one of the most beloved operas of all time. Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème,” the one about the poverty-plagued but fun-loving young Parisians in a garret apartment in the dead of winter, takes to the stage at the Berkeley Hillside Club at 2 p.m. Sunday in a co-production with the Cinnabar Theater. Soprano Diana Skavronskaya stars as Mimi, she of the frozen little hand, and Nicholas Huff is the poet Rodolfo, the guy who is determined to warm her up. His roommates are Daniel Yoder as the painter Marcello, Michael Kuo as the musician Schaunard and Don Hoffman as the philosopher Colline. Melissa Sondhi sings in the pivotal role of the flirtatious Musetta. The production moves to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco on July 28. Find tickets, $33-$82, at www.pocketopera.org or call (415) 972-8934 weekdays between noon and 4 p.m.
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