Freebie of the week: Nothing says summer like a family-friendly puppet show presented free on a gorgeous, warm evening in a scenic Alameda park. The puppets belong to String & Shadow Puppet Theater, an Olympia, Washington-based troupe known for fanciful and lighthearted productions presented each summer in a traveling tour.
This year’s show is titled “Night at the Grand Opera”; it likely runs closer to the Marx Brothers than Mozart. Performed in what’s described as an extravagant “rococo romp through a candlelit night at the opera,” the production weaves “love triangles, converging revolutionary plots, art-loving flies and disaffected vermin” unfolding in clever sets that morph to match the scene at hand.
String & Shadow was founded in 2020 by Emily McHugh and Donald Palardy, who sought to create a drive-in puppet show to entertain people during the COVID lockdown. Regarding art and theater as a community enriching and healing process, they continue to stage their shows free of charge.
The Bay Area performance takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at Jean Sweeney Open Space Park, 1925 Sherman St., Alameda; it’s part of Rhythmix Cultural Works’ Rhythmix in the Parks concert series. More information is at www.rhythmix.org.
India independence: The Association of Indo Americans and Bolly 92.3 FM are hosting one of the Bay Area’s largest multinational India Day parades on Saturday in downtown San Jose with a free community celebration with special guest, grand marshal Taapsee Pannu, the multi-award-winning Bollywood actress and entrepreneur.
The festivities, honoring the United States’ 250th Independence Anniversary and India’s 80th Independence Day, take place in Plaza de César Chávez. The parade, which starts at 4 p.m., features dozens of cultural floats and marching groups, but the festivities, which begin at 2 p.m. and go on until 10 p.m., include live cultural performances with lots of dancing, a food festival, shopping and exhibitions, a fashion show, kids zone and the historic Tiranga Walk, the patriotic display of the tricolor flag of India.
While admission is free, guests are invited to register to reserve a spot at aiaevents.org.
Free summer Shakes: Curtain Theatre, a 26-year-old Marin nonprofit dedicated to staging works by the Bard outdoors among the redwoods is under new leadership this year, and it opens its run of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” in Mill Valley this weekend. Organizers say the production includes a series of disguises, mistaken identities, witty arguments, and comic subplots, with a twist at the end that complicates the usual marriages that end Shakespeare comedies.
The show also has live acoustic music, with traditional and original melodies by Don Clark, as well as puppets, slapstick and swordplay. Director Doyle Ott invites guests to bring a picnic and enjoy an afternoon of theater among the trees.
Free performances are at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 5 in the Old Mill Park Amphitheater in Mill Valley. For more information, visit curtaintheatre.org.
Pay to go: San Francisco’s lively Ray of Light Theatre, celebrating its 25th anniversary, is amid a critically acclaimed run of “Urinetown,” the 2001 Tony Award-winning musical by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis. It’s a creepily relevant satire set in drought-stricken world where private toilets are illegal, and everyone must pay to pee. The public restrooms are controlled by a ruthless corporation, and anyone who refuses to pay is sent to the mysterious Urinetown.
But when one unlikely hero decides he’s had enough, a revolution begins. Reviewers are calling the show “flawlessly executed” and “razor sharp.” With the tagline “the revolution will not be sanitized,” the show continues through Aug. 29 at the Barbary Stage on 215 Jackson St. in San Francisco.
Tickets are $41 to $71 at rayoflighttheatre.com.
A grand night for singing: It’s the highlight of the year — and the summation of an intensive training program — for 28 ambitious young wannabe opera stars Saturday night at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. The Merola Grand Finale, which begins at 7:30 p.m., showcases the talents of these 22 singers, their stage director and five pianists-coaches who have completed their summer-long apprenticeship with San Francisco Opera’s prestigious program and are looking forward to starting their professional careers.
Their repertoire for the evening will include arias, ensembles and scenes from composers such as Mozart, Massenet, Puccini, Berlioz, and more plus some more contemporary offerings from Terence Blanchard and Lerner and Loewe. William Long conducts the program, which will be helmed by Claire Choquette, the 2026 Merola class stage director.
Tickets for the concert, ranging from $25-$95, are available at merola.org. For an additional $85, audience members can also attend a post-concert reception with the artists in the Wilsey Center for Opera.
Open air arias: Four fine and polished singers are lined up to entertain attendees at Livermore Valley Opera’s Opera in the Vineyard, which takes place at 5 p.m. Sunday on the grounds of the Garré Vineyard & Winery, 7986 Tesla Road in Livermore. Now in its 35th season, LVO has made a highly anticipated annual occasion of this event, which features Broadway tunes as well as the expected operatic fare.
This year’s performers are Courtney Miller, the mezzo-soprano who delighted as Despina in the company’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte”; tenor William Gorton, who has strode the stage in more than two dozen of it offerings; Luis Alejandro Orozco, a baritone who has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera and Opéra de Lyon and is the director of the San Jose State University Opera Theater; and soprano Avery Boettcher, who debuted with LVO in last fall’s production of Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Picnic baskets are welcome, and Garré wines will be available for purchase.
Find tickets, $80, through livermorevalleyopera.com.
The post Best Bets: India Independence parade, String & Shadow puppets, ‘Urinetown,’ ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost,’ Merola Grand Finale, Opera in the Vineyard in Livermore appeared first on Local News Matters.