The Indian Ink Theatre Company starts off spring with Mrs. Krishnans Party at the Mondavi Center
Running now through the weekend until Sunday, April 6, various times at Vanderhoef Studio Theatre in the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
Mrs. Krishnan is throwing a party of immersive theater and fun, where the audience feels like theyre taking a step into the back room of Mrs. Krishnans store. Food simmers on the stove, laughter abounds, and strangers become friends in this joyous celebration of life.
Watch the actors juggle cooking, music and guests in an unfolding drama where no two nights are the same. Kalyani Nagarajan and Justin Rogers have reviewers singing their praises and audiences leaping to their feet in appreciation.
Tickets for Wednesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.:
Tickets for Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. (limited availability):
Tickets for Friday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m.:
Tickets for Saturday, April 5 at 2 p.m. (limited availability):
Tickets for Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m.:
Tickets for Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m. (limited availability):
The Ghost Ensemble incorporates deep listening into mixed chamber ensemble for noon concert
Thursday, April 3, 12:05 p.m., Recital Hall, Ann E. Pitzer Center
Ghost Ensemble
Sky Macklay, oboe
Ben Richter, accordion
Lucia Stavros, harp
Martine Thomas, viola
T.J. Borden, cello
James Ilgenfritz, bass
Featuring 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis music students
Ben Saetern, flute
Joseph Donald Peterson, viola
Alex Ta and Colin Minigan, percussion
Peter Chatterjee, conductor
Ghost Ensemble is a mixed chamber ensemble dedicated to experimental music that expands perceptual horizons to foster individual and community transformation. Established in 2012, the ensemble conducts long-term exploratory workshops with a broad range of composers and creators to nurture adventurous new music over multiple seasons. Providing opportunities for new musical concepts that may not easily find a platform in traditional settings, the ensemble commissions, germinates, premieres, and tours music that moves beyond boundaries of genre, style, and scene. Performances and workshops also often incorporate Deep Listening, a practice pioneered by ensemble mentor Pauline Oliveros that encourages a heightened awareness of sound, space, and community.
This Shinkoskey Noon Concert is made possible with support from the Joy S. Shinkoskey Series of Noon Concert Endowment.
Attend Valente Lecture on reconstructing historical gestures
Thursday, April 3, 4-5:30 p.m., Room 266 Everson Hall
"The Bodys Eloquence: Acting, Moving, and Dancing on the Operatic Stage 'Ipermestra' by Francesco Cavalli (16541658)"
In this Valente Lecture, Christine Jeanneret will offer an attempt to reconstruct historical gestures on the Florentine stage of the 17th century. As a case study, she will use Ipermestra (libretto by Giovanni Andrea Moniglia and music by Francesco Cavalli). This opera is a unique case in 17th-century Italy, because it was produced in a semi-private representation with lavish expenses on costumes, machines and sceneries.
Joshua Bell and Peter Dugan illuminate the evening with the violin and piano
Friday, April 4, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
The legendary music director of Academy of St Martin in the Fields returns to the Mondavi Center for a very special recital performance with Peter Dugan.
With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy award-winning violinist Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated artists of his era. Hes performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court. Bells talent has even inspired a successful childrens book, The Man With The Violin, and an animated film with music by Academy Award-winning composer Anne Dudley. He appears in recital with Peter Dugan, the fearlessly athletic (San Francisco Chronicle) pianist and host of NPRs From the Top.
Get tickets here:
Show off your crafty side with Thank Goodness for Staff Crafts
Running until April 25 at the 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Craft Center, 12:30-6 p.m.
The Thank Goodness for Staff Crafts Exhibition is running at the from March 31 to April 25. Celebrating 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis staff members creative sparks, selected art pieces will be on display from 12:30-6 p.m. daily showing a range of art pieces like crochet, origami, carved wood, photography, and more.
Ongoing Exhibitions in Davis
Read about ongoing art and design exhibitions in this Arts Blog story.
Above art, Coyote dancer with flute #III, 1983, Acrylic wash/paper. (Courtesy/Gorman Museum of Native American Art).
Join TANA in a zine-making workshop
Saturday, April 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 1224 Lemen Ave., Woodland
This weekend, take part in a creative, hands-on workshop at the TANA. Participants will learn how to design and print their own 8 page zine using screen printing techniques. The workshop is open to all ages and experience levels, all materials will be provided and no registration is required.
Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) is a collaborative partnership between the Chicana/o Studies Program at the University of California, Davis and the greater Woodland community.
Circa leaps over the Jackson Hall stage
Sunday, April 6, 2 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
10 acrobats and the Debussy String Quartet celebrate the music of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in a work of stunning power, virtuosity and physical poetry.
Shostakovichs quartets are by turns intimate, passionate, lyrical, ironic and deeply moving personal testimonies by one of the twentieth centurys greatest composers. Opus explores the complex relationships between the individual and the group, between the march of history and what dictates the heart, and between the tragic and the comic. Its a melding of music and bodies at the highest level producing a groundbreaking work of intense power, one The Guardian calls so remarkable as almost to defy description.
地n evening so remarkable as almost to defy description extraordinarily moving. The Guardian
Get tickets here:
Play Dives into the Life of Famed Mathematician Emmy Noether
Wednesday, April 9, 6 p.m., Wyatt Pavilion Theater
Mathematics and theatrics combine in Diving into Math with Emmy Noether, a play about the pioneering and influential mathematician who is often referred to as the mother of modern algebra.
In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Noether, who was Jewish, was one of the first instructors dismissed by the Nazi government. She sought refuge in the U.S., where she taught at both Bryn Mawr College and Princeton University. In 1935, she died following a medical operation to treat cancer. She was 53 years old. Famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein that Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.
The play was written by Sandra Schueddekopf and Anita Zieher in cooperation with historians Mechthild Koreuber and David E. Rowe. Schueddekopf directs the play and Zieher stars in it as Noether.
Get tickets here:
DakhaBrakha blends cultural musics together for Mondavi Center performance
Wednesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m., Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, Ukrainian ethno-chaos band DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected new music.
Formed in 2004 at the Kyiv Center of Contemporary Art DAKH by the avant-garde theatre director Vladyslav Troitskyi, their shows are staged with a strong visual element, illustrating their bright, unique and unforgettable sound. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African and Ukrainian traditional instrumentation, their musical spectrum is at first intimate then riotous, plumbing the depths of contemporary roots and rhythms, inspiring cultural and artistic liberation aimed at unlocking the potential of Ukrainian melodies for the countrys younger generation and the rest of the world.
Get tickets here:
51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Professor's Work on Display at Legion of Honor
Artist Wayne Thiebaud will be the subject of a retrospective at the Legion of Honor, opening on March 22 in San Francisco. The exhibition includes Thiebauds famous still lives, reinterpretations of works by Old Masters, and a selection of his personal art collection. Thiebaud was an admired art and art history professor at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College) and later at the University of California, Davis. His legacy as an artist, teacher, and mentor significantly influenced the evolution of American art in the post-World War II decades. Read more about the exhibit
Spend an evening full of laughter at the Crocker Art Museum
Thursday, April 10, 6 p.m., for ages 18+, 216 O Street, Sacramento
ArtMix is back at the Crocker! ArtMix is a fun-filled evening extravaganza bursting with live performances, DJed music, festive food and drinks, art activities, and more. This month, get ready to giggle as a cavalcade of stand up comedians and improv groups line up to humor you all night long.
Understand the untold history of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe
Wednesday, April 16, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
Register BEFORE April 9.
Head over to the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art for a screening of the film We Were Here - The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, Q&A and discussion with Fred Kudjo Kuwornu after the film, and a reception.
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is a socially engaged artist, filmmaker and scholar whose work is deeply influenced by his background as a person of African descent. By consistently bridging the past and present, the hegemonic and subaltern, the seen and unseen, Kuwornu's practice emerges as a vital contribution to contemporary visual culture, understanding the complex interplay between history, identity, race, and representation in our globalized world. This film sheds light on the overlooked presence of African and Black individuals in Renaissance Europe, highlighting their depiction in masterpieces by some of the eras most celebrated artists. Make sure to register before April 9th!
51勛圖窪蹋 Davis Students Build Practical Art
Juniors majoring in landscape architecture at 51勛圖窪蹋 Davis have designed and built a multitude of structures. This innovative set of projects started in 2013 when their programs Design and Build Studio course, or LDA 160, changed from a classroom model focused on construction materials to having students hands-on with projects installed in the courtyard of Hunt Hall. Read more about this impressive set of building projects and see the full photo essay here.
The California Studio lecture series presents Marie Lorenz
Thursday, April 10, 4:30-6 p.m. at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, doors open at 4 p.m.
Marie Lorenzs work is rooted in the exploration and narrative of New York Citys waterfronts. Combining psycho-geographic exploration with highly crafted, material forms, Lorenz uses boats to create an uncertain space and bring about a heightened awareness of place. In 2005, she started her Tide and Current Taxiproject, taking people around the New York Harbor in a boat built from salvaged materials, using the tide to guide her navigation.
Lorenz is the spring quarter visiting professor in The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies. During spring quarter 2025, Lorenz will teach the undergraduate course ART129 and the graduate seminar ART 227.
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Arts Blog Editor: Karen Nikos-Rose, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu
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