Fall Arts Take Center Stage

Beer & Ballet

Sept. 29–Oct. 8 The popularity of this beloved annual event—returning this fall for its 30th year—belies the improbable juxtaposition of beer and ballet. B&B offers a chance to knock back a cold one while watching members of the Sacramento Ballet loosen their hair buns and think outside the barre as they debut pieces that they created. Last year saw the introduction of food trucks like Nash & Proper and Brunch in a Box, not to mention the addition of wine from Clarksburg’s Miner’s Leap Winery. This year, the Sacramento Ballet is also bringing in a large tent (as well as heaters and air conditioners) to cover the entire 250-person outdoor seating area at their midtown HQ in welcome shade for new matinee shows. Get to know the performers behind the coming season’s gravity-defying leaps and pirouettes at this joyous dance party, which features titular libations from Bike Dog Brewing. sacballet.org

Courtesy of B Street Theatre

Jump

Sept. 27–Nov. 5 Charly Evon Simpson—who recently wrote for HBO’s Industry—was inspired to pen Jump after reading a New Yorker story about people who leapt off the Golden Gate Bridge but survived, and the revelations they experienced on the way down. Jump is a family drama, centering on a young woman named Fay and her sister packing up their childhood home after the death of their mother from cancer, a process that takes a surreal turn when she meets a mysterious stranger on a bridge over troubled waters. An exploration of themes like grief, depression and redemption, leavened by moments of bittersweet comedy, the play—which will be staged by B Street Theatre—tells a story that is at once heartbreaking and heartwarming. bstreettheatre.org

N-Men (Photo by Bill Golding, courtesy of the film)

California Capital International Documentary Film Festival

Sept. 29–Oct. 1 Whether it’s Bicycle Island, a short film about the two-wheeled culture in Havana, or Impossible Town, a feature-length dive into the struggles of a doctor to save a West Virginia byway from chemical pollution, you might find that truth is greater than fiction at our region’s only documentary film festival. Returning for its second year, the cinema celebration—which is put on by the California Capital Arts Foundation—will screen 59 films from 23 countries at venues in and around Rancho Cordova, like the American River Room and CalCap Black Box Theatre. Kicking things off opening night is N-Men (pictured above) by Sacramento native James Sweigert about our city’s history-making 1975 underground skateboarding scene, which is narrated by Josh Brolin and features interviews with sports stars like Tony Hawk. calcapdocfest.org

Courtesy of Celebration Arts

Thurgood

Sept. 29–Oct. 22 Director of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund. The lawyer who instigated the 1954 case that finally ended school segregation. The first Black Supreme Court justice. It’s hard to overstate Thurgood Marshall’s towering legacy—when President Obama moved into the Oval Office, he hung a portrait of the civil rights icon on the wall. Thurgood by playwright George Stevens Jr.—who penned and directed the 1991 miniseries Separate but Equal, starring Sidney Poitier as Marshall, about the historic Brown v. Board of Education case—is a one-man play in which the justice relives memories of his storied life, from child- hood through his nearly 24 years on the highest court in the land. “The history in question is charged with a moral urgency that still resonates today,” The New York Times wrote in its thumbs-up review of the work’s Broadway debut in 2008, and that statement is even more true 15 years later, when all eyes are on the Supreme Court. Celebration Arts brings back its founder James Wheatley—who retired last year after over 40 years helming the local Black theater organization—to direct this fall’s staging of the Tony-nominated play. celebrationarts.net

Photo by Meredith Truax, Courtesy of the Mondavi Center

Samara Joy

Oct. 4 “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe… I’ve been watching y’all on TV for so long!” a flabbergasted Samara Joy said when she took the Grammys stage this past February. Claiming both the Best New Artist and Best New Jazz Album awards for her 2022 release Linger Awhile, the Bronx-raised 23-year-old jazz singer—whose deep, heartache-filled voice sounds like it wafted straight out of the darkest basement speakeasies of Prohibition—further made a name for herself by performing her stirring song “Can’t Get Out of This Mood” at the same ceremony. Joy, who grew up singing gospel music at church, only discovered jazz five years ago, but quickly fell in love with the likes of Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holliday. Hear the rising star’s break-out hits, such as “Guess Who I Saw Today,” when her buttery vocals fill the Mondavi Center in Davis. mondaviarts.org

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert 

Oct. 6 & 7 From the first notes of John Williams’ score, the music of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is unmistakable. There’s no denying that the 2001 film composition by the five-time Oscar winner (the same maestro behind everything from Star Wars to E.T. to Indiana Jones) is the sound of magic for an entire generation, from that opening melody on the celesta (a smaller piano that uses metal bars instead of strings), to the full orchestral send-off as Harry boards the train in the final scene, and everything in between. The Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera will take the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center stage in the group’s first performance of this kind, playing the full soundtrack live while a film—in this case, of Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts—runs on a 40-foot screen above. sacphilopera.org

READ MORE: The Fall Arts Season Begins – More events taking place around Sacramento