Berkeley Rep Blog
Category archive: Events
Celebrating the next generation of theatre professionals
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Apr 27, 2010
in Events
At Saturday night's wonderful ONSTAGE! gala in the Roda Theatre, guests were asked to "raise the paddle" in support of the Berkeley Rep fellowship program. Each season, more than a dozen fellows spend 11 months directly involved in the Theatre’s daily operations and learn alongside an accomplished company of artists, administrators, guest directors and designers.
At the gala, guests watched this remarkable video (created by Pauline Luppert, our marketing and multimedia manager).
Then, in about five minutes, guests donated an impressive $55,500 to support next season's fellows! Our thanks to all who gave so generously.
Visit our website for more information about the fellowship program.
Above photo: The 2009-2010 Berkeley Rep fellows: (standing) Emily Hartman, Seth Fly, Rachel Viola, Viqui Peralta, Mina Morita, Matt Avery, Silvie Deutsch, Elana McKernan, Euphrates Dahout, Elizabeth Guzman, Alexandra Friedman, Kashara Robinson (kneeling) Katherine Wepler, Beryl Baker, Nora Merecicky Not pictured: Sarah Nowicki
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Bid online for American Idiot items!
posted by Chad Jones on Wed, Apr 14, 2010
in Events , News
Today, as Green Day’s American Idiot takes Broadway by storm, the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre announces a rare opportunity for fans to bid on exclusive items from the show’s world-premiere run in California. Four collectors’ items — including a guitar autographed by Green Day and the Berkeley Rep cast — will be available for 10 days on eBay beginning today, Wednesday, April 14. All proceeds from the auction benefit Berkeley Rep, a nonprofit theatre company dedicated to developing exhilarating new plays like American Idiot, Girlfriend, and Passing Strange.
The auction — which can be accessed at www.berkeleyrep.org/IdiotAuction — begins at 7pm PT today (Wednesday, April 14) and concludes at 7pm PT on Saturday, April 24. Berkeley Rep will receive 100 percent of the auction’s proceeds.
The auction includes the following hot items:
- A brand-new Epiphone LP Jr guitar autographed by all three members of Green Day and the Berkeley cast of American Idiot as they recorded a new version of “21 Guns” at the band’s Jingletown Studios in November 2009.
- A framed 20" x 30” photo of the original rendering for the show’s four-story set — with its sky-high walls, rolling stairs, punk posters, television monitors, and dangling car — created by Scenic Designer Christine Jones, who earned a Tony Award nomination for her work on Spring Awakening.
- A mixed-media collage of fabric swatches, photos, and sketches created by Costume Designer Andrea Lauer as she invented the outrageous outfit — including striped armband and pink combat boots – worn by Obie Award-winning actress Rebecca Naomi Jones, who portrays Whatsername (the collage is signed by Ms. Lauer and framed alongside a photo of Ms. Jones from the Berkeley run taken by renowned theatre photographer Kevin Berne).
- A similar collage by Ms. Lauer that features photos, drawings, and images of Whatsername alongside other characters from the show portrayed by Tony Vincent (St. Jimmy), Joshua Henry (The Favorite Son), and Libby Winters (ensemble).
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Concerning cultural intercourse
posted by Pauline Luppert on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
in Events , General theatre talk
In one of my favorite quotes from a review of Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West, The San Francisco Chronicle's Rob Hurwitt said scenes from the show "set the mind spinning about topics as varied as the art and commerce of photography, the ways in which humans love and use one another, a century of intercourse between Japan and America . . ." I love this concept of cultures having intercourse. It's sexy, and so much more dynamic than cultures "influencing" each other or "exchanging" with each other.
On that note, an upcoming evening event on Thursday, April 1 at The Asian Art Museum set my mind spinning about a century of intercourse between Shanghai and America.
Here's how the museum describes the event: "Dubbed 'the boy Billie Holiday,' Coco Zhao (seen right) performs an intimate set of original works and Shanghai jazz favorites in conjunction with the special exhibition Shanghai. Jazz thrived in Shanghai’s colorful cabarets and dance halls during the ’20s and ’30s. Suppressed during the Cultural Revolution, it’s enjoyed a renaissance thanks to a new generation of jazz musicians. Zhao cross-pollinates Mandarin vocals with distinct sounds of contemporary American jazz; his unique heritage (his parents performed traditional Chinese opera) is infused with youthful interpretations."
The event begins at 5pm and features a cash bar and various exhibit-related activities. Tickets are $10, but the museum is giving away some free tickets. Click here for a chance to win.
Watch a video of Coco Zhou performing at the Yokohama jazz festival:
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Girlfriend's Todd Almond in concert
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Mar 16, 2010
in Backstage buzz , Events
Though he's immersed in rehearsals for Girlfriend, Berkeley Rep's world-premiere stage adaptation of Matthew Sweet's classic album of the same name, playwright Todd Almond is going to give us a taste of his other artistic talents.
Todd is part of a dazzling lineup this Friday night, March 19, at San Francisco's Cafe du Nord. The show is Tingel Tangel's second-anniversary blow-out hosted by Joey Arrias and Veronica Klaus. In addition to Todd, you can also expect to see Holcombe Waller, the Winsome Griffles, Trauma Flinstone, Fauxnique, Harlem Shake, Allan Herrera & Terry T., Keith Hennessy, and Marga Gomez. Doors open at 8, and the show begins at 9. Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 at the door. Click here or here for info.
A composer, lyricist, and playwright, Todd has written a number of musicals and has released an album of original songs called Mexico City.
As a performer, Todd describes himself as "a singer/songwriter with a real theatrical inclination." That doesn't mean he wears outrageous costumes or tap dances on the piano. Rather, he sits at the piano to play and sing songs. "By theatrical, I mean the live-ness," Todd explains. "I love the storytelling and the humor of performance."
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Berkeley Rep audiences raise thousands for Haiti
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Feb 9, 2010
in Events , News
Tremendous thanks to Berkeley Rep’s generous audiences for donating to Haiti earthquake relief efforts through a small-change campaign in our Theatre lobbies.
Audiences at Aurélia’s Oratorio in the Roda Theatre and Coming Home on the Thrust Stage donated $7,835 to Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian group that, to quote the website, “works in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.”
Since the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, Doctors Without Borders has treated more than 11,000 patients in Haiti, and there’s so much more to be done. You can make a donation to Doctors Without Borders here.
Again, our thanks to Berkeley Rep audience members for their generosity.
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Congrats to our first lobby photo contest winner!
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Dec 15, 2009
in At the theatre , Events , News
Because it's the holidays and because we're having so much fun with Aurélia's Oratorio, the extraordinarily unique show running through January 24 in the Roda Theatre, we decided to have some fun in the lobby.
After setting up some decorations along with a trunk of robes and hats and other costume pieces, we invited our audience members to dress up and take a photo or two of themselves. If they send us the lobby photo (to [email protected]) or post it on our Facebook page, they're automatically entered into a contest to win four tickets to an upcoming Berkeley Rep show along with a pre-show drink for you and your three guests.
We'll conduct random drawings throughout the Aurélia run, and we're delighted to report that our first winner is Laurel Scheinman (seen above in the gold hat with her friend Mindy Geminder in the black hat). Congratulations, Laurel, and many thanks for playing.
Below are a few more festive lobby photos. You can see the entire collection in our Facebook photo album.
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Tower tour benefits Berkeley Rep
posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Nov 5, 2009
in Events
Take a peek inside some of San Francisco's most beautiful high-altitude homes this weekend and raise money for Berkeley Rep.
You are invited to an exclusive viewing of the Millennium Towers Condos in San Francisco during their Icons of Design event, which features 25 of the Bay Area’s finest interior designers decorating the four homes on the 52nd floor of the Towers. Each weekend benefits various Bay Area charities, and all proceeds for this weekend — November 7 and 8 — will be donated to Berkeley Rep! Touring is open to the public, and tickets are $25.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about some of the designers and their designs. Read the article.
For more information, visit iconsofdesignsf.comor contact Sarah Nowicki at [email protected] or 510 647-2901. No RSVP is required for this event
Photo by Robert Whitworth
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Punk pulsating around the Bay
posted by Chad Jones on Tue, Sep 22, 2009
in Events
Green Day’s American Idiot, now on stage at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, wears its punk heart on its sleeve, and Green Day’s local punk roots have been celebrated and analyzed in many discussions about the show.
If your Bay Area punk knowledge isn’t quite what it should be, never fear. The San Francisco Public Library has a free exhibition through Dec. 6 that focuses in on the San Francisco punk scene of the 1970s through the photographs of Ruby Ray, who first began documenting the local punk scene in the magazine Search and Destroy.
The exhibition, Punk Passage San Francisco First Wave Punk, is in the Main Library’s Jewett Gallery and includes 45 black-and-white portraits as well as concert and performance photographs of local punk innovators. Also included in the exhibit are punk rock ‘zines, fliers, posters, and ephemera documenting the years 1977 to 1981.
Here’s part of the official show description: “Bands such as The Avengers, the Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Crime, Sleepers, the Mutants, and others are represented, placing them within the historic context as an important part of San Francisco’s counter-cultural history, as innovative for its time as the beat and hippie movements were.”
The exhibit also includes special events and related programming. Here’s a sampling:
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We have a winner!
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Aug 21, 2009
in Events
This morning, we asked you to send us a 60-word email telling us why you'd like to win tickets to see Green Day live at Sacramento's Arco Arena and to the show of your choice this season at Berkeley Rep.
We received nearly 200 entries in a matter of hours, and they were all filled with a palpable passion for Green Day's music and an equally palpable excitement to see American Idiot, one of Green Day's greatest albums, become a piece of rock theatre on the stage of Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre.
It would have been way too hard to pick a winner ourselves, so we let fate take a hand. We reached into the hopper and out came....
Aron of Berkeley!
Aron submitted her entry in "modern haiku," and in only 58 words (we set the limit at 60 words). With her kind permission, we'd like to share her fine work.
Prom night in Berkeley --
I buy lemonade from
Billie Joe's children.The disenfranchised suburbanite
Hears American Idiot on the radio:
She knows it's her voice.Hoping to win this contest,
I wonder how Tony winners
Might dance to rock music.
To all who entered the contest, thank you for sharing your passion. We're just sorry we can't give you all tickets!
For information about Green Day's concert at the Arco Arena on Monday, August 24, visit livenation.com.
For information about American Idiot at Berkeley Rep, visit berkeleyrep.org
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Win tickets to a Green Day concert and a Berkeley Rep show!
posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Aug 21, 2009
in Events
You can enter to win two tickets to see Green Day in concert on Monday, August 24 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento along with two tickets to see any Berkeley Rep show in our 2009-10 season, which opens with Green Day’s American Idiot September 4-October 11.
In 60 words or less, tell us why you want to see both shows and email us at [email protected].
Be sure to include your contact information, and act fast: you have until 4pm today, Friday, August 21.
The winner will be selected and notified at 4:30pm today.
Monday's concert begins at 7:30pm with opening act Franz Ferdinand. For more information, click greenday.com.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Records