Autumn is for the arts, and there's absolutely no shortage of ways to get your culture fix in the Bay Area. We've plucked 69 creative events from a seemingly endless roster of options; we hope you enjoy the show.
THEATER
Obama and Me is a one-woman show about the author's quest to establish her voice in a white-male-dominated world.
(Courtesy of MoAD)
San Francisco Fringe Festival, Exit Theater
Every year, San Francisco Fringe Festival introduces the best indie theater performances of the Bay Area. For the 26th anniversary, the festival will bring on stage 150 performances by 35 companies. Among the shows there will be $wampland, a comedy written and interpreted by seven award-winning Bay Area playwrights that will reflect on what making America great in the Trump era really means; Homeful by Amy Mihyang Ginther, a solo performance about the different perception of feeling at home; and How Not To Die by Sherri Rose, a dark comedy on living in constant crisis. // Sep. 8-23, 2017; Exit Theater, 156 Eddy Street, (Union Square); sffringe.org
American Conservatory Theater
A.C.T. opens its fall season with Hamlet, one of the Bard's most popular works. On stage, Tony Award nominee John Douglas Thompson will catch the attention of the public in this one-man show. In October, Small Moth Sounds, a new comedy by Bess Wohl, takes the stage. The play reveals how sometimes staying quiet doesn't necessarily bring inner peace and how mindfulness is becoming a wellness industry. Refuse the Hour, a multimedia show by South African artist William Kentridge, will investigate the meaning of time in our society. // Hamlet (Sep. 20-Oct. 15, 2017); Small Moth Sounds (Oct. 11- Dec. 10, 2017); Refuse the Hour (Nov. 10-11, 2017); A.C.T, The Geary Theater, 405 Geary Street, (Union Square); The Strand Theater, 1127 Market Street (Civic Center); act-sf.org
State of Siege by Theatre de la Ville
Living under the Trump Show and constantly watching him playing with U.S. politics, this Emmanuel Demarcy Mota-directed show is a must-see. Inspired by Camus's play The State of Siege, the work contemplates the necessity and importance of resistance in face of authoritarianism, all performed by a Parisian theatre troupe. // Oct. 21-22, 2017, Zellerbach Hall (Berkeley); calperformances.org
Obama and Me, MoAD
It's the story about a black woman who works in Brussels at the center of European politics and the parallelism between the difficulties of Barack Obama as the first black President of United States. Sylvia Arthur, British writer, will share on stage at the Museum of the African Diaspora in a solo performance her life experiences as a black woman trying to establish her voice and her career in a male- and white-dominated world. // Oct. 12, 2017; 6:30pm; MoAD, 685 Mission St. (SoMa); moadsf.org
A Midsummer Night's Dream @ The African-American Shakespeare Company
Following the most well attended season in the company's history, the African-American Shakespeare Company begins this season with A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sept. 16 through Oct. 1) set in Trinidad and Tobago during Carnival. This all new production is the first since the company's initial production in the late 90s. With puppets designed by Scott Ludwig, costumes by Rachael Heiman and lighting by Kevin Myrick, the production has been designed to put the audience "in the middle of the action," says director Sherri Young. "If anyone is a shrinking violet, I would suggest taking a seat as far from the stage as possible." // Taube Atrium Theater, 401 Van Ness Ave. (Civic Center); for more tickets ($30) and more 2017-2018 programming, go to african-americanshakes.org.
