Freebie of the week: The notion of holiday shopping has been transmogrified over the years by forces and developments aimed at making it as easy and expedient as possible — Online shopping! Catalogs! Gift cards! It’s reached the point where we expect that someday we’ll be able to send people their gifts telepathically (which, don’t get us wrong, we would totally do!) If it’s reached the point where you feel the celebratory fun of holiday shopping has been lost, head to Richmond Art Center this weekend for the venue’s 62nd annual Holiday Arts Festival, an event that celebrates the making of presents as much as giving them. Among the attractions are a variety of arts and crafts activities as well as a special zone devoted to Bay Area zine-makers and their products, which includes opportunities to create your own zines. There will also be a wide variety of gifts and crafts for sale from more than 50 Bay Area artists, a ceramics studio sale, and plenty to eat and drink. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. More information is at richmondartcenter.org. The event is one of several art-centered holiday boutiques and events this weekend, most of which have free admission. These include the East Bay Print Sale Thursday through Sunday in Berkeley (www.eastbayprintsale.com); the Black Holiday Market, featuring works from African American-owned businesses on Saturday at San Francisco’s Ferry Building (downtownsf.org/do/pop-ups-on-the-plaza-black-holiday-market); the Makers Market on Haight Street on Saturday (thethirdplace.is/events/explore) and a pair of boutiques in Concord and Pleasanton this weekend hosted by KidFest (www.kidfestconcord.com). Happy shopping!
Join the fray: The “Dance-Along Nutracker” takes a classic holiday tale and stretches it into something strange, silly and special: a family-friendly, audience-participation humorous mystery ballet/stage show. Presented annually by the 75-member San Francisco Pride Band, the production weaves a new story each year. This year’s adventure centers on the theft of the Grand Prize for the Stahlbaum Family’s Holiday Talent Show, but young sleuths Clara and Fritz are on the case. Audience members follow along as our heroes sift through clues and investigate suspects in this dance/stage production — until the “Dance Along!” cue appears. All of a sudden everyone is up and busting moves on the stage (well, if they want to, anyway). The Pride Band performs live music that incorporates Tchaikovsky’s iconic score. It’s all certain to put a silly smile on your face and it’s going on this weekend. Performances are 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $28-$75; go to dance-along-nutcracker.sfprideband.org.
A Dickens of a mystery: Sherlock Holmes is in a bad way when we first see him in “A Sherlock Carol,” the new holiday comedy show being presented by San Jose Stage Company. The main problem is Holmes’ longtime nemesis, Professor Moriarty, has passed, creating an existential “what’s the point” crisis for the famed detective. That is, until a guy named Tiny Tim shows up asking Holmes to look into the suspicious death of a cranky, miserly fellow named Scrooge. That’s kind of the gist of “A Sherlock Carol,” which aims to add some always-needed levity to the holiday season. The comedy is by Mark Shanahan, a writer with an apparent affinity for murder mysteries; he won praise for adapting Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” for the stage. Directed by Kenneth Kelleher and starring L. Peter Callendar as Holmes, “A Sherlock Carol” plays through Dec. 15 at San Jose Stage, 490 S.1st St., San Jose. Tickets are $17-$74; go to www.thestage.org.
A harmonic convergence: Peaceful coexistence, it turns out, is not only preferable, it is demonstrably possible. That is the message being delivered at 7:30 p.m. Saturday by the musical ensemble Polyphony, the guest artists who will launch the Cantors’ Concert Series in the Congregation Emanu-El Main Sanctuary at 2 Lake St. in San Francisco. “Bridging the Divide Between Israeli Jews and Arabs Through Music” is both the title of their program and an apt description of Polyphony itself, founded in Nazareth, Israel, in 2006 as a performance and education group and entirely made up of Israeli and Arab musicians. Their performance will include contemporary works as well as music by Haydn, Handel, Vivaldi, Schubert and Piazzola. Tickets, $40.25, are available at http://emanuelsf.org/polyphony. A post-concert discussion follows, between Polyphony founder Nabeel Abboud Ashkar and Jewish News editor-in-chief Chanan Tigay.
Stringing Chopin along: A quartet of young students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music joins professional guitarist Mateusz Kowalski on Saturday night in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco for a highly unusual performance of Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor as arranged for guitar and string quartet. Kowalski, a young Polish guitarist who has won many prestigious competitions in Europe, made his San Francisco debut last year under the auspices of the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, which is bringing him back for this performance. The program will open with the string quartet playing music by Debussy, Dowland, F. Werthmueller, Piazzola, Walton and more. Performance time is 7:30 p.m. at 1111 O’Farrell St. Tickets, $60, are available at 415-242-4500 and at www.omniconcerts.com.
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