 episode of In the Studio. I'm Lynn Moever, I'm your host and our topic today is Davis and what is happening in Davis and in particular for fun in Davis. And I have with me Jeff Hudson, he's an arts critic for the Davis Enterprise and for Capital Public Radio. He's also reporting on all the fun things that are happening in Davis. Welcome. That's good to be here Lynn. Thank you very much. I appreciate you know of how busy you are, so I appreciate your time being here. So the school year is upon us. The children going back to school may or may not regard it as fun, but it's definitely happening. I know. We were sort of a little bit ironic when we chose the title. Well actually all the educational institutions are getting back into the swing of it. The Sac City College Davis Center gets started on August the 24th. The Davis Public Schools start on August the 28th. The Woodland Schools actually start a week earlier than that. My wife is up working in Woodland today. And then the fall quarter at UC Davis finally gets started about September the 23rd. The thing that's going to be on the school district's agenda and also the city council's agenda is the transition to district elections. Well there's an act called the California Voting Rights Act and the city actually received a letter saying you need to switch to district elections which sets off the process. The school district decided on their own to switch to district elections back in the spring. But both the city and the school district are going to be having a bunch of public hearings in September, October, and in November. And they're going to be rolling out maps of what these districts will look like. That's a topic for a whole show on to itself, but it's just a lot of fun. It's going to be a very busy time for both those agencies. Can you tell us a little more about this district? Well currently they both elect city council members or school board members at a large basis across the whole city or across the whole school district. And they're basically going to be cutting that up into five districts so you'll have people who are representing specific parts of town. And this is a complicated legal process. I'm not going to try and sum it all up, but it's going to be a big transition. And it's certainly a very interesting topic that people will follow. Well and there's going to be lots of opportunities for public comment and Davis being Davis I'm sure there will be lots of public comment. And lots of letters to the answer. Right. Yes. Tell me a little more about the Sac City College. Isn't it in partnership with UC Davis? It is. And they coordinate and the school district is coordinating more with the Sac City College Davis Center as well. It's now possible to complete almost all the requirements that you need for admission into UC Davis at the Davis Center. So you don't have to be making multiple trips across the causeway all the time to pick up the course you would need over at the main Sac City College campus. So it's a very nice thing for people who are finishing high school. Very nice. And I've heard about it and this is a way for UC Davis I believe to meet some of the challenges that the students have. Well and then if you complete the required grade point average you're guaranteed admission into UC Davis or Sac State so that you have to meet the target though. You have to meet the target but you know people who are qualified will meet that. Education is what we do in Davis and so the those three educational groups are all kind of putting their heads together and trying to find ways to coordinate a little better. Yes I'm glad to hear about that because education is of course everything. Then in September art season gets underway and that that that is fun. Yes so tell us more about that. Well I wanted to start by talking a little bit about Davis Shakespeare. They did two shows this summer but they do their Shakespeare production in the fall and this is partly because the school groups want to visit and of course school is out of session in summer so they like to do the Shakespeare show in the fall and then student groups can come and they do student matinees and they pack that theater with lots and lots of students. Well they're very successful. Yes I've met one of the artistic product Gea. Gea Batista and Rob Salas and they're going to be doing in the fall Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors which as you and I are probably aware it's the one with the two sets of identical twins. Yes. Who get separated as babies and then all meet up by accident in an exotic place some decades later when they're young adults and then there's a lot of mistaken identity and crazy things happen. It's the closest thing to a forest that Shakespeare ever wrote. I would consider it a forest. And it's very interesting it's a forest but at the same time it's also a cyclical archetype and I'm thinking of Dafti de Mourier the scapegoat you know the same thing. Now you you see your children your sons are twins aren't they? Yes and I used to think that I No they're fraternal but the first time I saw before I was a dad the first time I saw Comedy of Errors I thought well it's kind of a gimmick comedy and then I realized after I became a father of twins no this is social realism all the way this is very close to real life and so people getting them confused and stuff like that so I changed my mind. So do they have a permanent troupe? They have a group of actors that they use year after year and some of the ones that you've seen Ian Hopps who's been in a bunch of David Shakespeare productions is going to be playing the two Dromios one who's working for one and the other one's working for the other master and then Gia, Gia Batista is going to be playing instead of Antiphalus they're calling her Antiphala or both Antiphalas and so you'll have Gia playing both Dromios and so there will be some fast costume changes they're doing it with just a cast of seven it's a very compact cast. Yes I'm so grateful that they have this David Shakespeare. They're doing lovely work and their attendance with the musical particularly this summer was really very good. Yes I know I know and I saw one of them very nice. What else? The fun parts. We should talk a little bit about the Mundavi Center season that gets started on September 29th with a basically a gospel and musical theater show concert with a black choir and Tray McLaughlin and the Sounds of Zamar is the name of the performers and then on October 4th a singer-songwriter John Prine you make the right right and and this is believe it or not he's in his 70s this is his first Mundavi Center appearance he might have played might have played at Freeborn Hall back in the day but I don't recall ever hearing about that. What is he playing? His own material. He plays guitar and sings. Would you say that sort of American roots? Right that's what I didn't dare. And then opera fans will want to go to the Barbara K. Jackson Rising Stars of Opera concert which is on October the 5th and it's free and the tickets are always grabbed in advance but if you show up on the day of the performance you almost always get in because there are always some no shows. And this I understand is on coincide with the late Barbara Jackson's birthday who is a very big donor. Oh yes a big supporter. That's why it's Jackson Hall. Yes that's right. Are you going? Did you get a ticket? Well if I decide to go I'll go yeah we'll see. Then there will be a Jimi Hendrix type concert with a bunch of screaming electric guitarists on October the 13th. I think I'll skip that one. And then well the last time they were in town with that tour the concert ran three hours. And then it was a full house. It was. The Alexander String Quartet comes in on October the 13th with the second year of the Shostakovich String Quartet survey. So the first concert will be the seventh and the eighth quartet. The eighth quartet is the famous one where you can sort of hear the KGB knocking on the door bump bump bump. And Shostakovich is afraid they've come for him. Now they've got a bunch of, every year they always have big orchestras as part of the Mundavi Center season. So January the 25th Royal Philharmonic Orchestra once again Pinkus Zuckerman as violinist and conductor. Zuckerman is going to come to do this. Oh he's been here several times now. He's going to be doing the Brookfile in Concerto and then leading the Brahms First Symphony, October 29th Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Joshua Bell. They're going to be touring. You don't often see orchestras tour with the Beethoven Fifth Symphony. But they will be doing it. It's very good. And Joshua Bell is. And Joshua Bell and the Academy have been doing this whole cycle of Beethoven things. So they're about halfway through recording them now. Good. And then he'll play, Bell will play the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1. And then this is a big one. March the 7th, San Francisco Symphony. Michael Tilson Thomas will be in his final. The Boston. Oh he's in San Francisco. He's in San Francisco. But he conducted the opening gala at the Mundavi Center back in October of 2002. And this will be his final appearance at the Mundavi Center as music director of the San Francisco Symphony. So this is kind of like, you know, everything connects. Jeff, tell me some of the free concerts that we have. Well, there's a very good series that happens at the UC Davis Pitzer Center. Yes, the new center. The Thursday concerts at noon, actually 1205. And those are very nice concerts. The acoustic in that hall, it's a 399 seat hall. And it's a beautiful hall. It's newly built. I mean, it was built about four years ago. That starts on. And those are recitals. Those are recitals. From the music department. Mostly the music department. Some visiting artists from out of town. Dajenay Smiley starts that series on October the 3rd. And then Susan Lamb Cook, the cellist, will be doing a Mozart program on October the 10th. There's a trio for oboe clarinet and bassoon. So Woodwind trio, the 17th of October. And of course, you can see all this on their website. Right. They record all of these. And you can watch them usually live. And then you can watch them on demand later on. And if you go online, you just want to ask for the UC Davis Music Channel on YouTube. Oh, wow. Fantastic. And you can just listen to them whenever you want. Well, this isn't necessarily free, but the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento is going to be starting up on September the 21st. All of their programs this year are going to include at least one piece by a female composer. They're trying to even things up a little bit. So you'll be hearing some music by Libby Larson and by Germaine Teller-Fair and some other composers from the 20th century and 21st century. Libby Larson is still very active out there. Right. Fantastic scene. Lots of stuff going on. Yes, I can see from your notes. Oh, yeah. I make lots of notes. Yeah. Then another good activity, and this would be in the summer or in the fall, is the Minetti Shrem Museum. I'm glad you mentioned that. And they have up through December. Hidden jewels. And I'm always surprised. There are people who've lived in Davis all along who've never been. It's relatively new. And it's opened in 2016. Really? Yeah. So it's in its third year. And as of November. But every time I go there there are people who drive all the way up from the Bay Area just to see that museum. And if you live in Davis and you've never checked it out, the admission is free. You have to pay a couple bucks for the parking. I think it's $3 for two hours of parking. Yes. I think it's fantastic. And it's open. It is free, as I said. And there are some wonderful exhibits. And the exhibits that are there now through December are all by artists who have either lived or studied in Davis or taught in Davis. And so there's a local connection. Yes. The university has this big collection of artwork by these people that they didn't used to get to show very often because they didn't have a nice big gallery. Now they've got a decent-sized gallery. So some of this stuff that you didn't get to see for a long time is actually available on public view. Yes. And of course one of the most well-known is Thibault, you know, Wayne Thibault. Yeah, Wayne Thibault, yeah. And who has donated a lot of his collection to Davis. And you know, I was impressed with Wayne Thibault because I always thought he was the cupcake man, you know? But he actually, some of his earlier works are fantastic, you know, architecturally and perspective. Yes. And also I think you told me that there is a sort of an art room you can go to with the children. Right. And they do have certain activities there. And they provide the material and you can, you know, splash whatever with paint. Right. And I will tell you that that museum is air conditioned. Yes. And on a hot summer day like the one where I have experienced this very afternoon, indoor museum is a nice thing to do. And don't forget the gong outside. Right. Well, and Wiley has some exhibits of other works that are up there now too. Yes. So the guy who did the gong. Well, I'm afraid our time is up. 15 minutes go very fast and it's fascinating. And you are a wealth of information. I mean, it's fantastic. And I know you go to a lot of these things. So it's, you can really prove that these things are extremely interesting. Yeah. So thank you so much, Jeff. It's my pleasure to be here. Jack Hudson of the Davis Enterprise in CapRadio. And thank you for taking the time to speak with us. And thank you all for watching. You may want to see this program, this show again. If you go on our website, dctv.davismedia.org. And while you're there, you can check out some of our other programs. We have very interesting topics and outstanding guests. So please do so if you have the time. From all of us here at Davis Media. Thank you and see you next time.