Bay Area arts: 9 great shows and concerts to catch this weekend

From an acclaimed stage actor giving props (sort of) to Shakespeare to an avant-garde artist returning to the museum that once hired her, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.

Here’s a partial rundown.

Brooding on the Bard

What happens when you discover at a very young age a passion for writing and language but discover not soon after that the world often has other plans? That’s kind of what Jacob Ming-Trent addresses in his new solo show, “How Shakespeare Saved My Life,” getting its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As Ming-Trent, who is Black, puts it, “America tried to take my life, and somehow a five-hundred-year-old white dude saved it.” In the 95-minute performance directed by former Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone, Ming-Trent recounts his eventful and occasionally tragic childhood that left him exiting a Greyhound bus in New York City’s Port Authority at age 17 with his mind set on becoming an actor. Shakespeare may be the biggest-name influence on the young Ming-Trent, but he also addresses how more contemporary wordsmiths like Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. influenced his love of language. In general, the actor and playwright says, he’s had an eventful life and there is a lot of “action” jammed into the one-act play. Shakespeare wouldn’t want it any other way.

Details: “Shakespeare” plays through March 1 at Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre; $25-$135; www.berkeleyrep.org

— Bay City News Foundation

Artist Cha comes full circle

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was a pioneering conceptual artist and writer born in South Korea, who became well-known in the avant-garde circles of 1970s-’80s San Francisco and New York.

For the first time in 25 years Cha’s work is getting a just-opened major retrospective, which runs until April 19 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, where she once worked (back when it was the University Art Museum) as an art handler and film usher. Titled “Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings,” the exhibit presents more than a hundred pieces of ephemera from her life and work – much of it never shown in a museum until now.

“Best known for her groundbreaking 1982 publication ‘Dictée,’ a hybrid novel-poem that collages image and text, Cha worked across different mediums to explore physical, cultural and linguistic displacement and their attendant effects,” the museum writes. This exhibit presents a “range of entry points into Cha’s work, guiding visitors through the themes — memory, displacement and the mutability of language, among others — that recur throughout her oeuvre.”

The show’s run will feature a public, daylong academic symposium of so-called “Chascholars” and a three-hour reading of “Dictée.” There will also be a film series from April 2-19 of Cha’s work as it appeared in the original format.

Details: Exhibit runs through April 19; museum open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday at 2155 Center St., Berkeley; $18 general admission; bampfa.org.

— John Metcalfe, Staff

Classical picks: Ax, O’Hara, ‘American Reflections’

As always, this week’s classical music events offer a wide range, from music by an Austrian master to American classics and contemporary works from living composers. Here are three of the highlights.

Piano Brilliance: As part of a program showcasing Austrian masters, the great pianist Emanuel Ax returns to the San Francisco Symphony, joining conductor Jaap van Zweden in Mozart’s C-major Piano Concerto, No. 25, K503. Also on the program: Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, a brilliant work in tribute to Wagner.

Details: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29-31, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $30-$149; sfsymphony.org.

“An Evening with Kelli O’Hara”: Known for her work in Broadway musicals and opera, the versatile actor and singer Kelli O’Hara comes to Berkeley on Saturday evening. Her Cal Performances program spans show tunes, classics from the Great American Songbook, and more.

Details: 8 p.m. Jan. 31, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $51-$185; calperformances.org.

“American Reflections”: That’s the name of a multi-event program by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, which features new and recent works by American composers as it celebrates the 250th anniversary of the United States, and includes works by composers Viet Cuong, Chen Yi, Elizabeth Ogonek and others.

Details: 8 p.m. Jan. 31; Taube Atrium Theater, San Francisco; also April 11 at Taube Atrium Theater and May 16 at Brava Theater Center, San Francisco; $18-$45; concert subscriptions $62-$277; cityboxoffice.com.

— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent

Your freebie of the week

The hearts are back!

We’re talking about the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s annual “hearty” fundraiser on behalf of the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. It’s arguably one of the best known and more popular fundraising campaigns in the Bay Area. Each year, more than 20 Bay Area artists create colorful and evocative designs for the 400-pound, 5-foot-tall heart sculptures that are eventually auctioned off with funds going to the Hospital Foundation. In previous years, the hearts could be seen all around the city. But nowadays, they are all displayed for free at the San Francisco Ferry Building, which is open to the public 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. They’ll be on display through Feb. 11.

Frankly, we love the idea of them all being displayed in one spot, and we can think of a lot worse ways to spend an afternoon than catching some sun and refreshing Bay breezes at the Ferry Building while checking out the Hearts, and maybe grabbing a brewski or some lunch at one of the several dining spots nearby. On Feb. 12, the Hearts will star at the annual Hearts After Dark fundraising gala at the Conservatory at One Sansome in San Francisco (tickets for that range from $50-$500).

Details: For more information, go to sfghf.org.

— Bay City News Foundation

Cooking up a winner

It’s a powerful plot maneuver that almost never fails to bring an arresting moment to a story: a long-submerged memory that resurfaces and creates absolute emotional chaos. There’s a reason why “Citizen’s Kane’s” Rosebud remains a potent symbol of how we can’t escape certain aspects of our past. In “Running After Shadows,” a world premiere play written during the COVID shutdown by Vincent Terrell Durham, a man with a love of – and burgeoning talent for – all things cooking is knocked for a memory loop as he unpacks a new garlic press. All of a sudden, his promising present and his painful youth come crashing together. Playwright Durham, who’s based in Los Angeles, has said he developed his storytelling skills as a standup comic; so don’t expect “Shadows” to be a complete downer. He’s well-known in the Bay Area for his COVID-era streaming show “Polar Bears, Black Boys, and Prairie Fringed Orchids,” which was a hit on the PlayGround theater development non-profit’s Zoom Fest. And “Shadows” also received Theatre Bay Area’s Rella Lossy Award, given to new works by emerging playwrights.

Details: “Shadows,” starring James Arthur M., is being presented by City Lights Theater in San Jose through Feb. 8. It’s helmed by acclaimed actor/director Aldo Billingslea. Tickets are $31-$75; go to cltc.org.

— Bay City News Foundation

A superlative strummer

A winner of the Rose Augustine Grand Prize at the international competition hosted by the Guitar Foundation of America, Leonela Alejandro, a native of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, who now lives in Columbus, Georgia, makes her San Francisco debut Jan. 31 in a recital sponsored by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. program at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’ Farrell St., are $45 plus a $3 fee, available at omniconcerts.com. Works on her evening program will include pieces by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Paulo Bellinati, Ronaldo Miranda, Toru Takemitsu, Leonardo Egúrbida, Juan Surroche, Ernesto Cordero, Django Reinhardt and Leo Brouwer.

— Bay City News Foundation

Steinway hosts a rising star

Born in South Korea, raised in Lawrence, Kansas, and now a New York resident, classical keyboardist Chaeyoung Park has been a semifinalist at the 2025 Cliburn International Piano Competition and the winner of the 2022 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions as well as an Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition finalist. Hosted by the Steinway Society, she will be featured in a recital at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 in the McAfee Performing Arts and Lecture Center at Saratoga High School that will also be streamed live. Her program will begin with Debussy’s three-part “Pour le piano” and conclude with Ravel’s “La Valse,” with works by  Brahms, Granados, Mompou, Albéniz and Messiaen in between.

Details: Tickets are $58-$78 for general admission and $26.75 per household for the livestream, which will be available for 48 hours. Find them and more information at steinwaysociety.com.

— Bay City News Foundation