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Wonderland - Divining - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming - Dexter Gordon - Monet: The Late Years

J. Norrena

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with playwright Gary Graves and director Jan Zvaifler about the world premiere of the Kafka-esque political comedy Wonderland at Central Works in Berkeley. Wonderland opens on February 16 (7pm) and runs through March 17. 

Wonderland is about a bank teller at National Savings and Trust, Joseph Kaye (John Patrick Moore, above), who one morning has been summoned to a place that looks an awful lot like the White House, without having done anything to deserve it. He doesn’t know why. He doesn’t know who summoned him. Some very sinister things begin happening as he waits anxiously for someone named “A.” There’s a “Rabbit” and a “Duchess” and a “Red Queen,” too. Lewis Carroll meets Franz Kafka in Wonderland. 

We talk to choreographer Katie Faulkner, about the world premiere of Diviningby her little seismic dance company. Created with a quartet of Bay Area dancers, and featuring a commissioned score by Ben Juodvalkis, Divining is a physical investigation of embodied forms of knowing, from prayer to palm reading to water witching. Performances are on February 14 - 16 (8pm) at ODC Theater (3153 17th St.) in San Francisco. 

We talk with San Francisco Ballet’s principal dancer, Luke Ingham, who performs in Tony Award winner Justin Peck’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, set to the music of Los Angeles-based electronic band M83, and danced in sneakers instead of pointe shoes. 

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is part of SF Ballet’s Program 2(Feb 12 - 23), and it can also be seen on February 26. This choreography was one of twelve pieces commissioned and premiered during the SF Ballet’s 2018 Unbound festival of new works. 

We talk with arts advocate, jazz historian and author Maxine Gordon, about her upcoming visit (Feb 22 - Mar 3) to the Bay Area to promote Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, her biography of her late husband, the legendary American jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon. Details about the book tour are here

Plus, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, previews the exhibit Monet: The Late Years, opening this week at the De Young museum in San Francisco. 

Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, February 14, at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…