Can’t-miss events kicking off in February

Photo courtesy of the National World War II Museum

Our War Too

Feb. 4–May 4 When Minnie Spotted-Wolf joined the U.S. Marine Corp Reserves, the bronc-busting member of the Blackfoot tribe won the respect of her male peers as a heavy equipment operator. Airwoman Jacqueline Cochran led a team of over 1,000 female pilots who flew 60 million miles for the U.S. military during World War II. Yet the stories of the 350,000 WACs, WAVES, WASPs and SPARs who served honorably in the Great War are all too seldom told (for all you aspiring WWII buffs, those acronyms are short for the “Women’s Army Corps,” the Navy’s “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service,” the “Women Airforce Service Pilots,” and the Coast Guard’s “Semper Paratus—Always Ready” female recruits, respectively). Now the California Museum’s latest display—a traveling exhibit from The National WWII Museum called Our War Too: Women in Service—honors that too-often overlooked history with more than 200 artifacts, from uniforms to letters to scrapbooks. But the showstopper is an AI-assisted interactive experience where you can “interview” real veterans and ask them questions. All proof that the Good Fight was indeed women’s work as well. californiamuseum.org

Photo by Mettie Ostrowski, courtesy of the Mondavi Center

Sasha Velour

Feb. 7 “An advocate and artistic trailblazer today, she has mastered the art of the drag reveal by recognizing the power of naked truth,” declared the Los Angeles Times  about Sasha Velour. Since winning season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race  in 2017, her truth-telling star power has only grown—the Vassar grad and Fulbright Scholar has gone on to co-host the Emmy-winning HBO reality series We’re Here, stage a theatrical play about her life, and release a vibrant and scholarly coffee table book, The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag. This powerhouse of gender-and-genre-bending energy will hold court at the Mondavi Center in a lecture devoted to the history and significance of drag, followed by an audience Q&A. mondaviarts.org

Romeo & Juliet

Feb 14–16 What happens when you put two star-crossed lovers on stage under the graceful guidance of one star choreographer? Balletic magic, we anticipate when the curtain rises on this Sacramento Ballet production of Romeo & Juliet, which will feature the world premiere of Young Soon Hue’s adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy. (The Korean choreographer’s credits include serving as artistic director of the Seoul Ballet Festival and earning Best Choreography of the Year honors in 2013 by the Ballet Association of Korea for her work The Moment.) The bitter rivalry between the Montagues and Capulets in fair Verona will play out at downtown’s SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center via a cavalcade of over four dozen dancers accompanied live by the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera. sacballet.org

Image courtesy of TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy

Fences

Feb. 14–March 2 “Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in,” wrote August Wilson in his Tony- and Pulitzer-winning Fences, which examines themes like race and generational trauma. Set in 1950s Pittsburgh, the drama centers on 53-year-old Black father Troy Maxson, who had to set aside his baseball dreams—MLB’s color barrier had not yet been broken when he was a player—and became a malcontented garbage collector. As The New Yorker  noted in its review of the original Broadway run that saw James Earl Jones in the patriarchal role (which Denzel Washington inhabited in the 2010 revival and 2016 film adaptation), “There is no aspect of his life in which he does not feel constricted.” This intimate production in Celebration Arts’ jewel-box main theater will kick off the local Black troupe’s new “Family Affair” season, with Sacramento director Anthony D’Juan bringing the universal humanity in this story to the surface for a contemporary audience. celebrationarts.net

For even more reasons to hit the town all year long, pick up our January-February issue, with the full list of 25 Can’t-Miss Events to Check Out in 2025