San Diego Weekend Arts Events: SD Practice, Ghost Light Masquerade, Cristóbal Gracia, ‘Soft Plans’ And High Tea

Speaker 1: 00:00 This weekend and the arts, the culmination of a pandemic era program from the city's commission for arts and culture live performances of a haunting dance production, and outdoor music, art and food festival in Oceanside, San Diego pride kicks off and closing weekend of a very timely virtual play. Joining me with all the details is KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Julia. Welcome. Hi Jade. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So first big news in the local contemporary art world. Tell us about San Diego practice. Speaker 2: 00:35 This is from the city of San Diego's commission for art and culture. It was part of a 1.2, 5 million relief effort for artists. Um, it took place last April, and they started buying new art for the civic art collection. It's really nice to finally be able to see these works starting this weekend. There's about a hundred pieces from 89 regional artists and the curators have split them up across two sites, two galleries. So it'll be at bread and salt in Logan Heights and San Diego art Institute in Balboa park. And there's a really cool mixture of big names. We know like men really to brown Jean lo Hugo Crossway, Melissa Walter Bhavna Metta, but also a lot of emerging artists and people that are newer to the scene. It all runs from Saturday through September 5th, and then all these works will go to their various homes, whether permanent or semi-permanent, they're going to be in public institutions or parks or libraries. Speaker 2: 01:40 So this is pretty much our last chance to see them all in one place like this. And the details are Saturday evening, they're doing a two part reception. So you can start at SDHI from four to 6:00 PM. That's in Balboa park, and then you can head over to bread and salt from six to 8:00 PM. And while you're at bread and salt, there's another exhibition opening on the premises at crystal bar. Grassy is a money laundering pond, which is also a painting, but it is not a painting of a pond which wins the title a word for the week. Uh, he is from Mexico city and he built this installation where he constructs a kind of wishing well out of these glary white rocks and sand all glued together. And then he fills it with hot sauce and that all opens at five o'clock. And also right there at Jason tear bread and salt is a brand new photography exhibit from photographs, from the sea of Cortez and that's bay and helicopter Scotto. And that's at the Athenaeum art center that also opens at five. So right there, there's basically four art things you can do in one evening that Speaker 1: 02:50 Alone would pack the weekend. The SD practice exhibition will open on Saturday at San Diego art Institute at four, and then at bread and salt at 6:00 PM. Uh, the Rosenbach stands company has an intriguing live show this weekend. Tell us about the ghost light masquerade. Yeah, Speaker 2: 03:11 The, this contemporary dance company. They really crushed the virtual stuff throughout the pandemic. And they're kind of borrowing from that ingenuity in these live performances that they're going to do this weekend. It's called ghost light masquerade, and it's in the outdoor space at Liberty station. And it's not like you'll be passively sitting down and watching dancers on a stage. They're more like these smaller vignettes that you stumble upon and discover. It's all about the idea of superstitions and hauntings in the theater world. They'll also be doing virtual performances of this later in the month, starting July 23rd. And you can plan ahead if that's what you want to do to get the special goodies sent to you in advance, including a cocktail kit and a personal VR headset, but in the meanwhile it's live this weekend Speaker 1: 04:02 And live performances of Ghostlight masquerade take place at Liberty station tonight and Saturday at 8:00 PM. Uh, it's closing weekend for the virtual production of playwright Lauren, Gunderson's new play the catastrophist, uh, tell us about this play and how we can stream Speaker 2: 04:18 It. Yeah. This is a new and very timely work by the prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson, who happens to be married to a virologist Nathan Wolf and he tracks viral pandemics. So this is a virtual play about him written during the pandemic about pandemics and about playwriting. So it's all very meta and the character is even aware of the play unfolding. So it's all really amazingly of the moment. Here's a little card. I Speaker 3: 04:49 Should explain that my wife is a writer she's writing. I think this just maybe every now and then with a good answer, you get to discover something true. There is right now out there building capacity through the natural trial and error of any evolution. Something is evolving right now into something that will be ready for us. Speaker 1: 05:17 Will we be ready? And the San Diego rep presents a virtual production of the catastrophist with streaming tickets available to purchase through Sunday pride, mostly takes place next week, but on Saturday you can kick things off with a hybrid version of Xi Fest, which is the annual program, especially for San Diego's LGBTQ plus women. And non-binary folk, how can we join in? Speaker 2: 05:42 Yeah, so it runs virtually first at 11:00 AM with a live stream and on the Xi Fest Facebook page, they're going to have history, Xen making trivia music, and even a segment on how to socialize again. COVID and then the in-person stuff kicks off at the pride flag and Hillcrest at one o'clock with a DJ set, and then there's going to be a performance from Evan diamond at two and tons more throughout the afternoon, including drag king shows later on, they'll also be trivia and scavenger hunts. It's a really great way to kick off pride. She Speaker 1: 06:18 First takes place in person Saturday from one to 6:00 PM at the pride flag and Hillcrest and virtually from 11 to 2:00 PM and event on Sunday in ocean side, features music, art, taro readings, and craft food and drink. Tell us a little bit about the hill street country clubs. It, Speaker 2: 06:37 Yeah, so this is a family friendly fundraising event. There'll be outdoor music, picnic blanket style on a golf course setting. There'll be vegan soul food, as well as a take on high tea cuisine. Musical performances include a set from to vinyl club. The renters T-Rex chicken Irenie and headlining is the sacred souls, but what's really special about this is how essential the Hillstreet country club has been to the art and culture scene across the entire region. But especially in north county, we talk to cultural strategists, Andrea Angie Chandler last week to discuss this. And here's what she said Speaker 4: 07:19 Last nine years. They've used their gallery space to advocate for social justice and equity long before it was trending. Um, and they really want it to be thoughtful about how they showed up in the fundraising space. They're using the exhibit and the opportunity to hold space for other artists, especially San Diego's own the sacred souls, which had a major, major splash onto the music scene in 2020 to kind of give all of these artists a larger platform. And then to also raise funds. They're joining up with a collective called club boutique, which is a culinary and craft set of women working together. Speaker 3: 07:57 I was art strategist, Andrea Chandler, and we're listening to it's our love by the sacred souls. We'll perform Sunday at 4:00 PM at high tea or details on these and more arts events or to sign up for Julia's weekly arts newsletter go to kpbs.org/arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Julia. Thanks. Thank you, Jade. Have a great weekend. [inaudible].