If last Thursday felt slightly normal (some people claim it was just one week ago!), this Thursday decidedly does not. Fortunately, the momentum the COVID-adaptive arts and culture scene has built lately is still rolling. There's plenty to do and see, and I'm continually thankful for the resiliency and creativity of artists. We can celebrate the Zoom play phenomenon with a new festival, take in a dance film, check out a brand new South Park art space either in person or online, discover Filipino-American stories, listen to jazz and maybe still have time for a hefty dose of new literature. Dust off your calendars.
Living Room Play Festival
Theatre
The Old Globe's Living Room Play Workshop has graced the couches of aspiring playwrights for almost the entire pandemic. The workshops, led by The Old Globe's Katherine Harroff, covered more than just a script. Participants explored at-home costume design, production and more. And select works created during these sessions will finally be collected and performed by local actors. For a teaser, check out Jake Millgard's short play about trying to film the perfect birthday video for grandma here.
Details: Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. Virtual via Facebook Live, the Old Globe's website or YouTube. Free.
More Theater: "The Destroyers" opens Monday night, virtually, from the Southwestern College Theatre Arts Department. It's a modern, hyper-relevant, racial-justice themed retelling of the play "The Trojan Women," by Euripides. A three night run will be held via Zoom, Oct. 12-14. Free.
'Mutual Chaos' Group Show At Brand New Trash Lamb Gallery
Visual Art
The new Trash Lamb Gallery, art space and shop in South Park will feed your misfit hearts. Just opened this week, the first exhibition is a no-theme group show, "Mutual Chaos," which has work from Aaron Cathcart, Max Daily, Becky DiGiglio, Pall Jenkins, Christopher Wassell, Manuel Zamudio and many more.
A partial version of the exhibition is available for browsing online, with more works set to be added to the virtual collection this weekend. Otherwise, the gallery and shop is open to view the full exhibition with limited hours and by appointment.
Details: "Mutual Chaos" is on view now through Nov. 15, with gallery hours Thursday through Sunday 11-6 p.m. 2365 30th St. Free.
More Visual Art: Jean Lowe unveils brand new, site-specific work at Quint ONE. On display Tuesday through Nov. 10, "POW!" — "portraits of women" — an immersive, staged representation of a modernist gallery. The legendary local artist will create mock decor and renditions of works by Picasso, de Kooning and Pollock to study what it means for modern artists to depict women. Quint ONE is open for appointment-only, socially distanced visits.
Lesley Stern, Eileen Myles and More Discuss Stern's 'Diary of a Detour'
Literature
Professor emerita at UC San Diego's visual arts department Lesley Stern's cross-disciplinary memoir about living with cancer is called "Diary of a Detour." It's described by Kirkus Reviews as "A mixture of the mundane and the medical, the ordinary and the extraordinary." The UC San Diego visual arts department will host Stern Friday afternoon with a diverse panel of memoirists and artists to discuss the work. I'm excited to see the inclusion of writer Eileen Myles, the Guggenheim-recipient author of 1994's "Chelsea Girls" and dozens more books of poetry, fiction and memoir.
Details: Friday at 1 p.m. Online via UCSD Visual Arts' YouTube. Free.
More Literature: UC San Diego creative writing professor Kazim Ali just dropped a new poetry collection. You can check out my review and interview with Ali here, and catch his (virtual) appearance with the Brooklyn-based Books Are Magic bookstore alongside other Alice James Books authors Friday at 4.
The Rosin Box: In Focus Film Series Presents 'Epiphany, If You Will'
Dance
It's the final weekend of The Rosin Box's four-part dance film series. "Epiphany, If You Will" is choreographed by Bethany Green with cinematography by Brandon Lazo and Caleb Gonz, stark piano music by Yann Teirsen. Here's the trailer:
These films are beautifully put together, and it's refreshing to experience dance in a way that eschews a stage and Zoom. The work will be available to stream on demand for just 48 hours.
Details: On-demand starting Friday at 5 p.m. through Sunday at 5 p.m. Online. $12.
FilAmFest: Journey
Photography, Storytelling
The annual local celebration of Filipinx culture has gone virtual this year, with a few creative community events throughout the month. It kicks off on Friday with two events: Scholar of pre-Philippine scripts Kristian Kabuay will discuss his work at 6 p.m., followed by the Aja Project's Rizzhel Javier, who will discuss a new initiative, the "Journey" project, which will gather refugee and migrant stories, narratives, photographs and more. The community dialogue takes place at 7 p.m. Javier will invite participants to voluntarily turn their cameras on to be part of a recording to be used alongside future collaborations.
Details: Friday at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Online via Zoom. Free.
Firefly Jazz Quartet Livestream
Music
Missing live performances? Or maybe you need to elevate your at-home after-dinner music? Firefly Jazz Quartet is here for you, livestreaming a set of jazz standards from the empty Casbah Monday night. And while time has taken on a strange, endless flavor these last few pandemic months, there's still something very much worth exhaling and relaxing about after making it through a Monday.
Details: Monday at 8:30 p.m. Online via Twitch. Free/donation based.
For even more arts and culture events, visit the KPBS/Arts calendar. And you can sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts newsletter here.
