Say goodbye to summer and get ready to welcome autumn with some help from our handy round-up of fall-arts highlights. In the theater world, the Midpeninsula will be home to Tony-winning musicals, adaptations of classics and modern quirky dramas. In visual arts and museums, patrons can view exhibitions focused on parenthood, rare photographs by a master, a student-designed exhibit about local history and even take a hands-on role in building a temporary environmental installation. Music venues from Redwood City to Mountain View will host both big-name concerts and indie gems. And, as usual, Stanford University proves to be a hotspot for art and culture of all kinds. Read on for a guide to the plays, concerts, exhibitions, lectures and other artsy events that we’re most looking forward to this September, October and November. These are some of our top picks but of course there’s always more to come. For continuing coverage, check Palo Alto Online, subscribe to our Weekend Express email and peruse and/or submit event listings to our Community Calendar.
Exhibitions
‘Contact Warhol: Photography Without End’
Where: Cantor Arts Center, 328 Lomita Drive at Museum Way, Stanford.
Info: Go to Cantor Arts Center.
Andy Warhol is one of those artists whose work seems to be everywhere, from dorm-room posters to album covers. His iconic, colorful, playful pop art remains enduringly popular and recognizable, but with its upcoming exhibition, “Contact Warhol: Photography Without End” (Sept. 29-Jan. 6), Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center will include photographs by Warhol that have never before been publicly displayed, drawn from the thousands of contact sheets and negatives the Cantor acquired from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in 2014. The collection represents Warhol’s black-and-white photographic practice from 1976 until his death in 1987. Adding an interactive component, visitors will be able to use touch-screen monitors to browse through hundreds of contact sheets. Concurrent with the exhibition will be the revealing of a digitization project directed by Cantor project archivist Amy DiPasquale, who’s worked for two-and-a-half years to create a searchable, public database of the Cantor’s collection of Warhol’s work.
Other exhibitions worth a look:
* “Africa: The Struggle of Beauty” at Pacific Art League (Sept. 7-Oct. 25); PAL.
* “Inspired by Juana” at the Los Altos History Museum (Oct. 18-Mar. 31); LAHM.
* “Care and Feeding: The Art of Parenthood” at the Palo Alto Art Center (Sept. 15-Dec. 30); City of Palo Alto.
* Agnes Martin’s “Navajo Blankets” at Pace Gallery (Sept. 27-Oct. 28); Pace Gallery.
* “Salon Style II” at Anderson Collection (Sept. 20-Feb. 18); Anderson Collection.
* From the Palo Alto public art program: Community volunteers of all ages are invited to help artists create temporary environmental sculptures in the Baylands (Sept. 1, 2, 6 and 7), contact brittany.amante@cityofpaloalto.org to sign up or visit Palo Alto Public Art.
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Theater
The Pear’s 17th season starts with a double-cast classic
Where: 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View.
Info: Go to The Pear.
Though founder and former artistic director Diane Tasca has retired as head of Mountain View’s Pear Theatre, she’s remained involved as a director, actor and playwright. For the Pear’s upcoming season, her adaptation of Jane Austen’s comic “Northanger Abbey,” which debuted at the Pear a decade ago, will receive a revival, this time in repertory, with one adult cast and one made up of local teens. Tasca said her adaptation takes Austen’s words, including narration, straight from the page. She’s excited to see it come to life again in the twin productions kicking off the Pear’s 17th season. “It’s the kind of play that I think is a good opening or closing because it’s an ultimately joyous story,” she said of Austen’s satirical send-up of Gothic novels. “Northanger Abbey” runs Aug. 31-Sept. 23, followed by “Hedda Gabler” (Oct. 12-28) and “Girls Kill Nazis” (Nov. 9-Dec. 2).
Other on-stage highlights
* From TheatreWorks Silicon Valley: “Native Gardens” (through Sept. 16); “Fun Home” (Oct. 3-28); “Tuck Everlasting” (Nov. 28-Dec. 30); TheatreWorks.
* From Los Altos Stage Company: “The Legend of Georgia McBride” (Sept. 6-30); “Into the Woods” (Nov. 29-Dec. 23); LASC.
* From Palo Alto Players: “Tarzan” (Sept. 8-23); “All the Way” (Nov. 3-18); PA Players.
* From Dragon Theatre: “The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence” (Sept. 14-Oct. 7); “K2” (Nov. 9-Dec. 2); Dragon Theatre.
* At the Palo Alto JCC: “The Chosen” (Oct. 20-21); PA JCC.
* From Broadway by the Bay: “Aida” (Nov. 2-18); BBB.
* From West Bay Opera: “La Boheme” (Oct. 12-21); WBO.
* From Upstage Theater: “Dog Sees God” (Oct. 26-28); Upstage.
* From EnActe Arts: “A Widow of No Importance” (Nov. 30-Dec. 2); EnActe.
* From Peninsula Youth Theatre: “Au Cabaret” (Sept. 22); “The Frog Prince” (Oct. 5-6); “Junie B. Jones is NOT a Crook” (Nov. 2-3); “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka” (Nov. 10-18); PYT.
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Music
Oshman Family JCC’s autumn concerts
Where: Schultz Cultural Arts Hall, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto.
Info: Go to PA JCC.
The Oshman Family Jewish Community Center continues to make a name for itself as a local arts haven, with performances in a variety of media and genres. Music, in particular, is well-represented. This autumn, the JCC will host fiddler/singer-songwriter Phoebe Hunt and her group The Gatherers (Sept. 13); Beatles tribute Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band (Oct. 11); Latin Grammy nominees and all-female Mariachi Flor de Toloache (Oct. 27); eight-piece jazz, Afro-Cuban, funk, world music group Wobbly World (Oct. 30); the legendary Mandy Patinkin (Nov. 1); “Jewish punk cabaret” group Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird (Nov. 15) and virtuoso oboist Brenda Schuman-Post (Nov. 27).
Other concerts worth a listen
* From Stanford Live: Charles Lloyd and the Marvels with special guest Lucinda Williams (Sept. 21); Jon Cleary (Sept. 22); The Baylor Project (Sept. 23); Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Sept. 26); Tord Gustavsen Trio (Sept. 28); Nitin Sawhney (Sept. 29); Delgres (Sept. 30); Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Oct. 3); I’m With Her (Oct. 10); “Love, Life, and Loss: The Music of Stephen Sondheim” (Oct. 11); Diana Gameros (Oct. 13); The Kronos Quartet (Oct. 20); Seong-Jin Cho (Oct. 21); John Lloyd Young (Oct. 27); The Routes of Slavery (Nov. 4); David Bowie’s “Blackstar” (Nov. 7); Czech Philharmonic (Nov. 10); and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Nov. 14); Stanford Live.
* Palo Alto Philharmonic fall concerts, including the finale of longtime conductor Thomas Shoebotham (Sept. 8, Oct. 20, Nov. 10); PA Phil.
* Redwood Symphony’s fall concerts (Sept. 22, Oct. 28, Nov. 17); Redwood Symphony.
* Shoreline Amphitheatre presents: Evanescence (Sept. 5); Dave Matthews Band (Sept, 8); Lauryn Hill (Sept. 20); Jason Aldean (Sept. 28); Deep Purple and Judas Priest (Sept. 29); Ozzy Osbourne and Stone Sour (Oct. 6); Shoreline.
* The Fox Theatre and Club Fox present: Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band (Sept. 11); Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra (Sept. 13); The Simon and Garfunkel Story (Oct.7); George Wassouf (Oct. 12); Fox RWC.
* California Bach Society’s fall concert in Palo Alto (Oct. 20); Cal Bach.
* New Esterhazy Quartet’s fall concert in Palo Alto (Sept. 30); New Esterhazy.
* At Red Rock Coffee: Craig Marker (Sept. 14); Renee Dion (Sept. 15); Ciosi (Sept. 21); Garrison Starr (Sept. 22); Red Rock.
* At the Community School of Music and Arts: Peter and Will Anderson (Sept. 15); Cal Arte Ensemble with Tamami Honma (Sept. 30); Mandy Chiu (Nov. 30); CSMA.
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Dance, film, comedy, authors and more
Stanford Live’s eclectic array
Where: Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford
Info: Go to Stanford Live.
Stanford Live hosts numerous culture events throughout the year, both in the main Bing Concert Hall space and the smaller, subterranean studio/cabaret space. In addition to its many concerts (some of which are mentioned in the music section above), Stanford Live hosts dance performances, comedy events, discussion panels and more, including Nick Thune’s deadpan comedy (Sept. 29), the U.S. premiere of the dance/theater piece “Dystopian Dream” (Oct. 4-5), Ryan Haddad’s one-man show “Hi, Are You Single?” about his experience as a gay man with cerebral palsy in New York’s high-stakes dating scene (Oct. 18-19); the Australian acrobatic act “Humans” by Circa (Nov. 1-2); and the theatrical piece “Barber Shop Chronicles,” Nigerian-British writer Inua Ellams’ stories of African barber shops in Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos, Accra and London and their role in the community (Nov. 8-10).
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More dance and film
* Kelucharan Keerti Sampradaya Festival 2018 at the Woodside Performing Arts Center, an Odissi dance celebration (Sept. 29); Odissi.
* The Hungarian National Dance Ensemble at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (Nov. 1); MVCPA.
* The Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival (Palo Alto and Saratoga, Oct. 14-Nov. 11); SVJFF.
* The United Nations Association Film Festival (Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Stanford and San Francisco, Oct. 18-28); UNAFF.
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Author events and lectures
* At Books Inc (Palo Alto and Mountain View): Kim Steinhardt (Sept. 6); Lisa Prince Newman (Sept. 13); Lucie Greene (Sept. 18); Books Inc.
* Kepler’s Books presents: Chris Hedges (Sept. 8); Mary Robinson (Sept. 13); Lisa Margonelli and Mary Roach (Sept. 27); Ge Wang (Oct. 2); Barbara Kingsolver (Oct. 23, in Mountain View); Keplers.
* At Stanford University: Zakaria Hashemi (Oct. 11); Shahriar Mandanipour (Oct. 16); Japonica Brown-Saracino (Oct. 29); Gish Jen (Nov. 5); Stanford Events.
* At the JCC: Jane Goodall (Sept. 12); Sean Penn (Sept. 26); Marc Dollinger (Oct. 3); Rachel Kadish (Nov. 13); PA JCC.
* At East West Bookshop: Robert Perala (Sept. 7); Kimi Avary (Sept. 17); Mark Mezadourian (Sept. 20); East West.