On Tap: Main Street Arts Gallery’s new exhibit in Martinez opening soon

MARTINEZ

The Main Street Arts Gallery in Martinez will host an intimate look into the world of fine arts, local-style, from 6 to 9 p.m. March 1 in the gallery at 613 Main St.

The gallery’s members, 11 artists from around the Bay Area, will display a collection of their new work every two months at the gallery starting with their March 1 opening. Dave Kwinter will be celebrated as the guest artist in the gallery. Longtime Bay Area resident Kwinter is a retired attorney with a varied background.

After years of painting, he says he found that, “3-D art is more fun than being confined to two (dimensions)” and hence started making “assemblage” pieces. He finds the various components for his works in thrift stores, on the street, flea markets … just about everywhere.

Kwinter says combines his “treasures” to assemble sculptures that keep the viewer wondering about the complexity and the story of each creation (“The job of an artist is to deepen the mystery,” he says). For more information, visit mainstreetarts.net online.

— Main Street Arts Gallery

ORINDA

Italy’s Oscar film submission, ‘Io Capitano’ opens March 8

The International Film Showcase will show the Italian film “Io Capitano” for at least a week starting March 8 at the Orinda Theatre. The film, Italy’s Oscar submission for this year, will also be screened March 16 at Napa’s Jarvis Conservatory. The film has won 11 international awards thus far.

In this acclaimed film, director Matteo Garrone presents the immigration experience while unfurling an epic, cinematically magnificent odyssey from West Africa to Italy. The story is told through the mind’s eye and experiences of two Senegalese teenagers living in Dakar who yearn for a brighter future in Europe.

Between their dreams and reality, though, lies a treacherous journey through a labyrinth of checkpoints, the scorched Saharan desert, a fetid North African prison and the vast waters of the Mediterranean, where thousands have died packed inside vessels barely fit for passage. Visit internationalshowcase.org for more details online.

— International Film Showcase

LIVERMORE

‘Best of San Francisco Comedy Competition’ on March 29

Livermore’s Bankhead Theater will present the “Best of San Francisco Comedy Competition,” starting at 8 p.m. March 29. The show will be hosted by Stuart Thompson, a stand-up comedian, actor, voiceover actor and writer.

The featured comedian will be Dana Gould, who has six solo stand-up comedy specials to his credit. As an actor, Gould has had memorable turns on the “Seinfeld” and “Parks and Rec” television shows and is one of the few actors to play his live-action self on “Family Guy.” Tickets are available online at livermorearts.org.

— Livermore Valley Arts

PITTSBURG

‘Streetcar Named Desire’ opens Friday at California Theatre

The Pittsburg Theatre Company will open its production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at 8 p.m. Friday in the Pittsburg California Theatre at 351 Railroad Ave. The popular Tennessee Williams’ play will be directed by Michael Wilson.

The play tells the story of fading southern belle Blanche DuBois (Michele Morgen), who visits her sister Stella (Mary Katherine Patterson) in New Orleans. Blanche’s yearning for the once romantic, magical South is in stark contrast to the simplistic, working-class lifestyle represented by Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski (Sam Leeper). The clash between Blanche’s escapist fantasies and Stanley’s often brutish demeanor begins to boil.

Other performances will be at 8 p.m. Saturday and March 1 and 3 and at 2 p.m. Sunday and March 2-3. Tickets are $22-$30 per person and can be purchased online at ptcca.org. To donate to the theater, which is facing a severe budget deficit, visit pittsburg-theatre-company.square.site, call 925-439-7529 or donate via Venmo @PCT-California.

— Pittsburg Community Theatre

ANTIOCH

El Campanil Theatre to present ‘Theme and Variations’

The Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra will perform “Theme & Variations” at 2 p.m. Saturday in El Campanil Theatre at 602 W. Second St. in Antioch.

The program explores how three composers use theme and variation form — a formal compositional device by which a theme is stated and then repeated in altered form through a metamorphosis of melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these.

Sometimes the theme is an original theme of the composer (Igor Stravinsky), and other times it’s the theme of another composer (Arensky and Brahms). Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, $7 for youths and are available online at elcampaniltheatre.com. For help with booking, email boxoffice@elcampaniltheatre.com or call 925-757-9500.

— El Campanil Theatre

WALNUT CREEK

Cellist, bassoonist to perform Sunday in St. Paul’s concert

St. Paul’s Concert Series will host cellist Rebecca Rust with bassoonist Friedrich Edelmann as its featured performers in a Sunday afternoon concert. This duo comes from Europe, with a brilliant program featuring Bach, Mozart and Beethoven compositions as well as modern composers Piazzolla, Frackenpohl with perhaps even some ragtime included.

St. Paul’s Concert Series invites its audience in-person for this event but will also broadcast the performance simultaneously online. To obtain the online link and review the full concert program, visit St. Paul’s at stpaulswc.org/concert-series.

St. Paul’s Concert Series offers monthly world-class performances to the local community for an affordable, donation-based cost. Located at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, there is free parking, or it’s an easy walk — three blocks from Walnut Creek BART.

— St. Paul’s Concert Series

Lesher Center to present Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ March 3

The Diablo Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will bring Igor Stravinsky’s groundbreaking “Rite of Spring” to Walnut Creek at 2 p.m. March 3 at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

Expanded to accommodate Stravinsky’s score calling for nearly 100 musicians, the orchestra will include multiple flutes and clarinets in different ranges; four oboes; two English horns; four bassoons, two contrabassoons; eight French horns; five trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, a full complement of violins, violas, and cellos; and eight string basses.

New sounds and energetic polyrhythms are created in the percussion section by six timpani (including a piccolo timpano) shared by two timpanists, a tam-tam, a bass drum, crash cymbals, antique cymbals, a tambourine and a stroked washboard.

The program also features a new commissioned work, “Many Hues of Green,” by San Francisco composer Jean Ahn and Edward Elgar’s cello “Concerto in E Minor,” featuring Starla Breshears, this season’s winner of the DSO’s Yen Liang Young Artist Competition.

Breshears, 16, is a precollege student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying cello with Jean-Michel Fonteneau. Advance Tickets are available at the Lesher Center for the Arts box office (925-943-7469) or online at diablosymphony.org. Tickets are $40 for adults and $10 for ages 13 to 17.

Admission is free for children 12 or younger, but they still need tickets, and a discounted ticket price of $30 each is available for groups of 10 or more seniors ages 62 or older. Tickets will also be sold at the door.

— Diablo Symphony Orchestra

LAFAYETTE

Parisian singer Pirard to perform at Town Hall Theatre

Lafayette’s Town Hall Theatre will present SonoMusette, with Parisian singer Mimi Pirard, who will transport you to the mid-1900s French café music scene of Paris through the songs of iconic musicians such as Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Jacques Brel, Charles Trenet, Georges Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg and many others.

SonoMusette weaves musette accordion, guitar, bass and drums into a musical tapestry that evokes the provocative and melancholic music of mid-20th century Paris. This music has retained its power to charm listeners of all generations, and SonoMusette taps that nostalgia with artistry in their vocals and instrumentation.

The performance will be at 2 p.m. Sunday in the theater at 3535 School St. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. For more information, call 925-283-1557.

Public invited to free season announcement party March 2

Town Hall Theatre officials invite the public to celebrate with them at their season announcement party from 2 to 4 p.m. March 2 at 3535 School St. in Lafayette. The theater company will unveil its highly anticipated 80th season with a theme that delves into the heart of humanity: “Family: Born into and Chosen.”

Participants can enjoy cocktails and live music in the lobby from the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society at 2 p.m. Then at 3 p.m. attendees will go upstairs, where Artistic Director Richard Perez and Education Director Erika March wil unveil the engaging selections for the 80th Main Stage Season as well as Town Hall Theatre’s first Youth Stage Season.

This free program will feature sneak peek scenes from the theater company’s upcoming main stage season’s plays, information about how to participate in the Youth Stage Season and will be capped off with live performances from Town Hall Theatre’s friends at Front Porch Presents. To confirm attendance for the free event, visit townhalltheatre.com/2024-2025-season online.

— Town Hall Theatre

Submit area arts-and-entertainment On Tap items to Judith Prieve at jprieve@bayareanewsgroup.com.