Stunning solo: For a riveting one-person show featuring an impeccable performer telling a truly fascinating true story, check out Oakland Theater Project’s compelling “I Am My Own Wife.” It’s helmed by OTP co-artistic director Michael Socrates Moran, who led the company’s excellent recent production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America.” He makes magic again with this Pulitzer Prize winner by Doug Wright, which details the life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a transvestite woman who, during World War II, managed to appreciate art and create a community in East Berlin while surviving the Nazi and Communist regimes. Renee Mannequin is stunning in the solo role, sensitively portraying the protagonist, the people she encounters, and the playwright himself, who shares his challenges in developing a story that will do justice to his intriguing subject. This version of “I Am My Own Wife” also has a technical aspect that really works. Audience members wear headsets that allow them to hear the dialogue quite well and appreciate the intricate sound design. “I Am My Own Wife” opens the troupe’s 2025 season, which has the theme “Reckoning.” As Moran says, “Each play confronts the urgent questions of our era, from the targeting of trans people and mass deportations to the erasure of truth in authoritarian regimes, the resurgence of colonization, and the role of art as both refuge and resistance. We aim to engage our audience in a way that is personal, compassionate, and moving—not punishing, but also not escapist.” In an extended run, “I Am My Own Wife” continues through April 13 at OTP at FLAX art & design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$60 at oaklandtheaterproject.org.
Freebie of the week: On Oct. 7, 2023, Judaism—the religion, its relationship to Palestinians, its complicated standing in Middle East politics and history—was forced to reset. Again. The Hamas attacks and Israel’s response, and the resulting Gaza war, opened a violent new chapter in a saga that seems to have no end and continues to cry out for new responses in politics, religion and art. On Thursday through Sunday, visitors to the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco can witness one such response, from Bay Area artist, teacher and healer Day Schildkret, who created “The Broken Seder,” a free immersive exhibition. Described as an exploration of “the impact of Jewish identity in a post-Oct. 7 world,” the exhibit is timed to Passover (the Jewish holiday runs from April 12-20 this year), a time meant to instill togetherness, storytelling and tradition. Yet, as the title makes clear, many Jews today are experiencing troubling and complicated emotions around the holiday, and a fear of what the Jewish-Palestinian landscape holds in store. As organizers put it, “The ritual became a rupture, revealing deep fractures—political, personal, spiritual and generational. For Schildkret, what sounds like a metaphorical response is also in fact literal. The exhibit consists of a series of seders that are broken in half in a variety of ways, representing a variety of emotional responses to current events. The exhibit is available for timed viewing from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday, 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free, but visitors must reserve a viewing time. For more information and to make reservations, go to www.jccsf.org.
Giddens’ many gifts: Rhiannon Giddens has accomplished so much; one can’t help but wonder if there are four or five hyper-talented artists operating cooperatively under that name. She gained early-career fame as a member of the widely acclaimed folk/blues/old-time music revival band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. She released solo albums with her unique brand of folk-blues-roots music and contributed to well-received compilation recordings, including the T Bone Burnett-created album, “Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes,” which married recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics to new tunes. Two years ago, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Music with Michael Abels for the new opera “Omar,” based on the memoir “The Life of Omar ibn Said,” a Muslim American slave. Giddens is also the artistic director of Silkroad Ensemble, the musical outfit created years ago by Yo-Yo Ma. She appeared on two seasons of the musical drama “Nashville” and has written several kids’ books. On Friday, Giddens brings the Silkroad Ensemble to the Bankhead Theater in Livermore to perform “Uplifted Voices,” a concert melding global instrumentation and strings that “weaves a contemporary musical tapestry that spans from indigenous North America to global folk traditions” and keeps with her longtime goal of shining a light on the world’s overlooked people and artists. The concert begins at 8 p.m.; tickets are $25-$90; go to livermorearts.org.
A timely debut: Something we need now more than ever, “A Prayer for Peace,” a concerto grosso for string orchestra by San Francisco composer Jungyoon Wie, a Korean immigrant to the U.S., makes its West Coast debut Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Co-commissioned by a Far Cry Chamber Orchestra of Boston and the Bay Area’s own New Century Chamber Orchestra, the work will be given three performances by NCCO with music director Daniel Hope, for whom it was a passion project, in the lead. The search for peace also informs the rest of the program, which opens with composer Adolphus Hailstork’s Sonata da Chiesa for String Orchestra. The concert concludes with Richard Strauss’ famous “Metamorphosen,” with its “solo” parts for 23 individual string players, which was composed just after the conclusion of World War II. Repeat performances are at 2 p.m. Saturday in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco and 3 p.m. Sunday in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere. Tickets, $35-$80, are available at ncco.org.
Back to the basics: The American Bach Soloists close out their 36th season with “Bach’s Paradise,” a triumphant return to the sort of programming that established their reputation as preeminent historically accurate interpreters of the music of the Baroque era. Conducted by artistic director Jeffrey Thomas, the instrumental ensemble and vocal soloists will perform the composer’s “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit,” (God’s time is the very best time), an early cantata that expresses Bach’s vision of paradise. Also on the program are the Easter cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden,” the Palm Sunday piece “Himmelskönig, sei willkommen” and the gorgeous Brandenburg Concerto No. 6. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday in St. Stephen’s Church in Belvedere, 7 p.m. Saturday in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley, 4 p.m. Sunday in St. Mark’s Church in San Francisco and 7 p.m. Monday in Davis Community Church. Find tickets, $44-$111, at americanbachsoloists.org.
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