TheatreWorks Silicon Valley finished its run of August Wilson’s “How I Learned What I Learned” on Feb. 3, but that wasn’t really the end for the one-man show starring Steven Anthony Jones.
For the past week, TheatreWorks has taken it on tour, presenting a stripped down version of the 85-minute autobiographical play at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Overfelt High School and Sacred Heart Community Service in San Jose and the Oakland Theater Project, which sold out a public performance scheduled for Saturday night.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Associate Producer Jeffrey Lo said this is the beginning of a community outreach initiative the company hopes to do with a show every year.
“We have a more invigorated focus on serving the community in this way,” Lo said Friday afternoon at Sacred Heart, where an audience of about 75 people watched the performance. “Some of the audiences we’ve reached on this tour are people who might be without the means to attend the theater or maybe they didn’t grow up going to the theater.”
Lo said this particular show was one that TheatreWorks saw could really speak to those communities, increasing the impact, especially for students. “We’re also creating a point of contact so they know us and know TheatreWorks and if they do want to come to one of our shows, we will make that happen,” he said.
TheatreWorks is wrapping up a limited engagement of “Hershey Felder as George Gershwin, Alone” this weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts before starting on its next show, Madhuri Shekar’s “Queen,” which opens March 6. Go to www.theatreworks.org for more details.
MAN ABOUT TOWN: Richard Santos, the vice chair of Valley Water’s board, has been running around so much lately he should qualify as a marathoner.
Over a couple days in late January, he introduced new Valley Water Chair Nai Hsueh at the Valley Water Commission meeting, presented the volunteer of the year awards at the Santa Visits Alviso program meeting, headed over to Milpitas to celebrate that city’s 70th anniversary in late January, attended a community recognition by San Jose Councilmember David Cohen for Alviso Santa program founder Judy Santiago, was interviewed by a Milpitas High student, presented a plaque to Plata Arroyo Neighborhood Association President Danny Garza at a La Raza Roundtable meeting and wound up at the Santa Visits Alviso cioppino dinner at the South Bay Yacht Club. Whew!
He’s not slowing down much this month either. On Saturday morning, he was slated to share some Alviso history and talk water conservation with members of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition who took part in a King Tides Ride. At least he plans to take a break Sunday to watch the Super Bowl at home with some chips, salsa and a Corona.
THE WRITE STUFF: Williams Briggs, the former chair of San Jose State’s journalism department, has completed his trilogy of little-known regional California histories with “The Star, The Saint and The City: How Sam Brannan’s Newspaper Heralded the Gold Rush and Created San Francisco.” Brannan’s newspaper, “The California Star” is credited with renaming the fledgling city of Yerba Buena to San Francisco in 1846 and breaking the story of the gold discovery at Sutter’s Mill two years later.
“Brannan was the city’s biggest promoter, its first entrepreneur and California’s first millionaire, but many people are less familiar with that part of the story for any number of reasons,” says Briggs, the former chair of San Jose State’s journalism department. “He’s an extraordinary historical figure who deserves more attention.”
Briggs — who is also the author of “Badass Lawman” and “That Pirate, Bouchard” will have a talk and booksigning at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 at Booksmart in Morgan Hill.
SUPER SUPPORT: The Santa Clara County Fairgrounds installed a 40-foot banner emblazed with “Go 49ers!” on its gateway arch this week, showing some love for the Niners as they face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Sunday. The fair folks are optimists, too: There isn’t a specific game mentioned on the banner, so it could be used for years to come.
Bertucelli’s La Villa deli in Willow Glen also has a lighted “Go 49ers” sign on the side of its building, but they’re hardly bandwagon fans. The deli’s meaty Chris Combo sandwich has been a longtime favorite of 49ers players.
Of course, nearly every sports bar and restaurant will be showing the big game, but you shouldn’t plan to see it at Original Joe’s in downtown San Jose. The landmark eatery will be closed Sunday, as owners Brad and Michelle Rocca have given the staff the day off so they can watch the game, too.
Even Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff got into the spirit when sending out the regular media notification Friday morning that he had left the state: “Governor Gavin Newsom has left the state and will purdy soon touchdown in Nevada to usher in another Super Bowl with his hometown team.” I guess they couldn’t figure out a way to fit “McCaffrey” in there.
And I recently wrote about a couple of auctions that had 49ers tickets up for bid last weekend. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley raised $25,000 for its pair of tickets, which included first-class airfare, and Hillbrook School brought in $61,000 for its ticket pacakge, which also included a Vegas hotel stay and invites to 49ers friends and family parties. I don’t know who bought those items, but it wasn’t me: I’ll be dropping considerably less dough on some pizza and watching from home.
