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The End of the World on OkCupid - I, Too, Sing America - SF Wind Symphony - Mostly British Film

Michael Craig/Pear Theatre

This week on Open Air, KALW’s radio magazine for the Bay Area performing arts, host David Latulippe talks with actor Keith Larson (pictured above, left), and artistic director Betsy Kruse Craig, about the world premiere of the comedy  Spending the End of the World on OkCupid, currently at the Pear Theatre in Mountain View. 

Written by Jeffrey Lo and directed by Michael Champlin, Spending the End of the World on OkCupid shows a cast of characters awaiting the catastrophic end of the world, which is only twelve hours away. Some people spend time with their friends, most spend time with their family ... others spend the end of the world on OkCupid. The play runs Thursday through Saturday (8pm), and Sunday (2pm) at the Pear Theatre (1110 La Avenida St.) in Mountain View, through February 17. 

We talk with Rodney Jackson, co-founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (BATCO), and musical director Othello Jefferson, about the musical theater production I, Too, Sing America, honoring the perspectives and experiences of American artists of color with poetry, song, music and movement. 

Featuring a company of thirty-one dancers and singers, I, Too, Sing America highlights poetic works by artists including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Frances Chung, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker and more, with original compositions by Othello Jefferson and others. I, Too, Sing America runs for 8 performances, from February 14th - 24th at the Brava Theater Center (2781 24th Street) in San Francisco. 

Also stopping by the studio is Martin Seggelke, conductor and artistic director of the San Francisco Wind Symphony (SFWS), formerly the SF Wind Ensemble. The SFWS recently recorded and released their second studio album, Bridges, on Mark Records; and their upcoming concert is, for the first time, at the Auditorium of the Herbert Hoover Middle School (2290 - 14thAvenue) in San Francisco (7:30pm), featuring works by Mendelssohn, Holst, Hindemith and Rodrigo. 

Plus, postponed last week due to illness but fully recovered, Open Air’s regular contributor and critic at large, Peter Robinson, returns to preview the Mostly British Film Festival, which offers more than 25 movies from countries around the English-speaking world such as the United Kingdom, Australia, India and Ireland. 

The festival opens on February 14 with The White Crow, directed by Ralph Fiennes, about Russian ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, from his humble beginnings in Siberia to his life-changing visit to France as part of the Kirov Ballet, and his dramatic defection to the West in 1961. 

The Mostly British Film Festival runs through February 21 at the historic Vogue Theatre (3290 Sacramento Street) in San Francisco. 

Open Air with host David Latulippe; heard live on Thursday, February 7, at 1pm. Listen now or anytime…