Stage listings are compiled by Cheryl Eddy. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, Lara Shalson, and Chloe Veltman. See 8 Days a Week for information on how to submit items to the listings.

theater
Opening

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story Post Street Theatre, 450 Post; 321-2900, www.buddyrocks.com. $39-63 (previews, $35). Previews June 1-5 and 8, 8pm (also June 5, 2pm); June 6, 2 and 7pm. Opens June 9, 8pm. Runs Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through July 11. Alan Janes's musical uses the songs of Buddy Holly to tell the story of the rock and roll legend's rise to fame.

Clue: The Play Dark Room Theater, 2263 Mission; 401-7987, www.cluetheplay.4t.com or www.acteva.com. $12.50-16. Opens Fri/28, 8pm. Runs Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through June 19. Impossible Productions presents a play based on the film based on the murder mystery-solving board game.

Love, Egos, Alternative Rock (LEAR) New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom; 752-2084, endymion82@aol.com. $10. Opens Thurs/27, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through June 12. No Nude Men Productions presents Stuart Bousel's play about a garage band that finds unexpected overnight success.

Ongoing

Apocrypha Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason; (510) 654-1835. $15. Thurs/27-Sat/29, 8pm. This world premiere by Ignacio Zulueta explores the relationship between sisters and Trojan War figures Clytemnestra and Helen.

Are We Almost There? Shelton Theatre, 533 Sutter; 345-7575. $20-22 (starting Tues/1, $22-24). Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. Travel is the theme of this musical comedy revue.

'BATS Improv Long-Form Festival' Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Bldg B, third fl, Marina at Laguna; 474-8935, www.improv.org. $8-12. Thurs/27-Sat/29, 8pm. BATS Improv hosts its second annual festival of long-form improvisational theater. This week: "Instant Film" (Thurs-Fri); "Memorial Day (an improvised family drama ... with laughs)" (Sat).

Bourgeois at Venue 9 Venue 9, 252 Ninth St; 885-4006, www.bourgeois.homestead.com. $10. Wed/26, 8pm. This evening of shared performance features choreographer Joe Landini's 4 Stories and Trauma Flintstone's drag cabaret Femmisphere: Songs in the Key of Angst, with special guest Tom Orr.

The Brute and A Marriage Proposal San Francisco Performing Arts Library, 401 Van Ness; 248-9371. $15. Fri/28-Sat/29, 8pm. Pocket Chekhov performs two one-act farces by the Russian playwright.

'Comedy on the Square' Shelton Theatre, 533 Sutter; 522-8900. Most shows $15. Upcoming performances include Oakland Playhouse Improv Troupe (Fri/28, 10pm); "A Celebration of Silliness," with Fred Anderson (Sun, 3 and 7pm, ongoing); "Strange and Treacherous Comedy," with Jason McPherson (Sun/30, 8:30pm).

Dirty Blonde New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.nctcsf.org. $18-28. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through June 26. From Thornton Wilder's Our Town to Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, characters who narrate their stories directly to the audience have become as commonplace in contemporary American drama as characters who booze. Playwright Claudia Shear's tragicomic eulogy to Mae West, Dirty Blonde, suffers from the same problems of "breaking the fourth wall" as many of its predecessors. While the technique helps create intimacy with the audience, it destroys most opportunities for conflict. Hence, the dramatic success of such plays depends on razor-sharp performances and elastic rhythms capable of sizzling through flat narrative passages. Despite Stephanie Temple's voluptuous turn as the feisty Lady Mae, Doyle Ott's production of Dirty Blonde lacks the rhythmic variety and attack necessary to mitigate the narrative pedantry. Yet with its spirited cavalcade of dapper vaudeville comics and cross-dressing queens, what this production loses in the narrative drag, it more than makes up for with its men in drag. (Veltman)

Disney's The Lion King Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market; 512-7770, 356-LION, www.bestofbroadway-sf.com. $26-82. Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Sat and June 23, 25, 28, and 30, 2pm); Sun, 1 and 6:30pm (no shows June 27 and July 4). Through Sept 5. Apparently director and designer Julie Taymor didn't win those Tonys for nothing. The Bay Area premiere of her staged interpretation of Disney's The Lion King, courtesy of Best of Broadway, works so well you're liable to forgive the residual Disney that clings to this singular spectacle. The plot – a lion cub grows up in exile until he can assume his rightful place on the usurped throne of his late father – must be familiar to nearly everyone by now; the characters are the stock ones recycled by Disney. They're animated, however, by a superb cast. (Avila)

'DIVAfest' Exit Theatreplex, 156 Eddy and 277 Taylor; 673-3847, www.divafest.org. $12-20 sliding scale (festival pass, $55). Wed/26-Sat/29, 8pm (also Wed/26, 7pm; Fri/28-Sat/29, 10pm). Boxcar Bertha: The Exit Theatre and DIVAfest present the depression-era career of anarchist hobo "Boxcar" Bertha Thompson in a new stage adaptation by Kerry Reid, in collaboration with Exit artistic director Christina Augello and director John Warren. In this simply staged yet evocative 60-minute monologue, Augello assumes the role of Bertha, here supposedly reclaiming her own story from the largely fictionalized narrative published as her "autobiography" by Emma Goldman's old flame Ben Reitman, the once semi-legendary hobo doctor to the underclass. To the wonderfully atmospheric accompaniment of Jack "Applejack" Walworth's mellifluous acoustic guitar (a cool mix of original material with standard and period tunes), Augello's genial and compassionate heroine recounts her wandering years from the age of 15 among the poor and working classes in (another) age of naked class warfare. Her tour of the country has her working variously as a grifter, prostitute, and labor agitator, all the while balancing her indignation on behalf of the oppressed and her prescriptions for a better world with a strong sense of the humor and beauty in human relations. (Avila)

*Don't Make Me Look Too Psychotic Marsh (upstairs), 1074 Valencia; 826-5750, www.toopsychotic.net. $14-17 (sliding scale). Fri/28-Sat/29, 9pm. Violently unhealthy relationships are the driving force behind Bruce Pachtman's hilarious solo show, which he developed after dating a particularly incendiary woman. Psychotic – which enjoyed a 68-week local run after premiering in 2000 and is now back for a brief revival run – is gut-bustingly funny, which is no small feat considering the seriousness of the material. (Joshua Medsker)

The End New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.nctcsf.org. $20. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm (no show June 6). Through June 26. The New Conservatory Theatre Center and HLS Productions present a pre-United States tour workshop production of the George Furth-Doug Katsaros musical revue, featuring three women of different ages singing about breakups.

*Hairspray Golden Gate Theatre, One Taylor; 512-7770, www.ticketmaster.com. $39-81. Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Wed and Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through June 20. Starting June 21, runs Mon-Sat, 8pm (also Wed and Sat, 2pm). Through July 3. In slightly sanitized John Waters fashion, Hairspray's heroine, Tracy Turnblad (a winning Keala Settle), brings boundless energy to her awkward teenage years in racially segregated 1962 Baltimore, where she lives with her parents (a modest, circus-like couple played with great aplomb by comedy veterans Bruce Vilanch and Todd Susman) and dreams of becoming a TV star on the local American Bandstand-style Corny Collins Show. In her way stand the guardians of good taste – represented by the show's reigning darling, Amber Von Tussle (Jordan Ballard), and her Gestapo-like producer-mother (Susan Cella) – and the racial segregation that keeps black and white kids from dancing together on air, a fact that finds a receptive nerve in our plump and hair-challenged outsider. Oozing pure teen-animal enthusiasm, Tracy leads her friends from the margins into the mainstream, upsetting the applecart of privileged white Baltimore. Director Jack O'Brien keeps us rolling on fine performances, clever and rousing songs, and inventive choreography. (Avila)

'The Hot House: Three New Plays in Rep' Magic Theatre, Northside Theater, Fort Mason Center, Bldg D; 441-8822, www.magictheatre.org. $20-38 (three-play pass, $72). Through June 20. Magic Theatre presents three world premiere plays, performed in rotating repertory (check Web site for schedule). Thirteen Hallucinations of Julio Rivera: The opening scene of Stephen R. Culp's 13 Hallucinations of Julio Rivera plays like the first frames of Sunset Boulevard transposed onto urban blacktop. "That's me, chicos," a disembodied voice says, "facedown on the asphalt. Look at me. Don't this suck, or what?" The body in the schoolyard, lying in a puddle of blood, belongs to our astonished narrator. How he, Julio Rivera (Rudy Guerrero), got there and what it might all possibly mean, we're about to find out. In a style very much indebted to another Rivera, playwright José, as well as Tony Kushner, the play moves swiftly and irrevocably beyond the tabloid details surrounding Rivera's demise, spinning out an unabashedly bold and sassy, frequently funny, sometimes poignant fantasy in the form of 13 stage-hogging visions from a dying man. (Avila) Drifting Elegant: Stephen Belber's lyrical new play explores the shifting cultural meanings of rape and race through two tangentially related plots. In one story, Nate (Darren Bridgett), a jaded Caucasian journalist, halfheartedly interviews a surly young Arab ex-prisoner, Victor (Harry Dillon), who may or may not have been falsely accused of raping an African American woman. In the other, go-getting real estate broker Renny (Michael Gene Sullivan) attempts to persuade Kate (Barbara Pitts), Nate's utopian-minded wife, to allow him to build a gated housing community for inner-city African Americans on her family's land. Balancing a fluid sense of time and place with sharply rhythmic blocking and movement, Amy Glazer's sensitively directed production carefully dissects the motivations behind human idealism. As liberalism and relationships fall prey to self-interest, the facts surrounding crimes and indiscretions take second place to feelings. Drifting Elegant features engrossing performances by a quartet of well-cast actors; only the drifting, pointless ending renders it inelegant. (Veltman) Relativity: Cassandra Medley's Relativity is about a talented, good-natured young geneticist (a charming Crystal Noelle) increasingly beset personally and professionally by the clash between her own empirical research (which denies any scientific foundation for distinct human "races") and loyalty to the Afro-centric pseudoscience promulgated by her loving but domineering activist mother (Tonia Jackson). Mother and daughter find their adversarial positions reinforced by those around them, making a final showdown inevitable. Along the way, Medley – provocatively reversing the specious "bell curve" science of white supremacy – lays out a complex tension between the reason and unreason of social relations in a race-inflected world built around individual achievement. (Avila)

*I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter; 1-877-771-6900, www.tickets.com. $40-55. Tues-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5 and 9pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through June 6. If the conceit of off Broadway's longest-running musical (a comic look at the roller-coaster ride of modern heterosexual romance) sounds less than original, its execution feels surprisingly fresh thanks to a fine balance of comedy, tunefulness, and charm. Amounting to a series of short sketches with titles like "Single Man Drought," "A Stud and a Babe," and "Men Who Talk and the Women Who Pretend They're Listening," the breezy book and consistently clever lyrics of Joe DiPietro (Memphis), together with engaging music from Jimmy Roberts (pleasing rendered by a piano-and-violin duet), serve as an ideal foundation for a sharp and versatile four-person cast (Darrin Baker, Anne Bobby, Jennifer Simard, and Daniel Tatar). All the while, director Joel Bishoff's direction keeps the whole thing looking effortless. Only one or two bits come over as noticeably weaker than the rest (an uninspired ad for a legal firm specializing in contractually obligated sexual fulfillment among couples doesn't even bother with a song), but in general this fluff is good stuff. (Avila)

The Importance of Being Earnest Off Market Theater, 965 Mission; 543-5738, www.asianamericantheater.org. $15-35. Fri/28-Sat/29, 8pm (also Sat/29, 4pm). Asian American Theater Company presents Oscar Wilde's perennial farce transposed from late-19th-century London to present-day San Francisco. Director Sean Lim's version of Wilde's entangling web of self-serving identities – assumed, presumed, and finally subsumed – retains (inexplicably) the English accents, but Algernon (Greg Ayers) and friend-rival Jack (Leon Goertzen) are now half-Japanese, Algy's cousin Gwendolyn (Yoonie Cho) is a Korean orphan adopted by Lady Bracknell (Martha Luehrmann), and so on. Ayers and Goertzen do solid work in the principal roles, and various contemporary references lend some fresh laughs. The pace can flag, however, and even excellent comedic actors like Pearl Wong (who plays Jack's too-well-tutored ward, Cecily) can appear unfocused at times. Luehrmann's somewhat lethargic Lady Bracknell is nonetheless a thorough treat, and Zachary Drake brings comic gravity to both the butler and Reverend Chasuble, admirer of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism (Jennifer Fong). Matthew Miller's set ably conjures a swank bachelor pad from a few choice elements, though the effect diminishes at the stage's dimly illuminated extremes. Where it succeeds, AATC's production suggests that whatever the prism (so to speak) through which one views the play, its delighting repartee, broad characters, and outrageous plot twists are its principal point. (Avila)

A Mother Geary Theater, 415 Geary; 749-2228, www.act-sf.org. $11-61. Wed/26-Sat/29, June 1-5, and 8-12, 8pm (also Wed/26, Sat/29, June 2, 5, and 12, 2pm); Sun/30, June 6, and 13, 2pm (also June 13, 7pm). Through June 13. Olympia Dukakis stars in ACT's world premiere production of Constance Congdon's comedy.

*Not a Genuine Black Man Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 641-0235. $15-22. Extended run: Thurs-Sat, 8pm (starting June 3, showtime 8:30pm). Through June 26. What, asks the unapologetically middle-class Brian Copeland, is the real meaning behind the phrase, "a genuine black man"? By way of an answer, the stand-up comic and KGO radio host offers up a simultaneously funny and disarmingly frank story about growing up African American in the racist suburb that was San Leandro in the early 1970s. Letting his narrative bounce back and forth between his boyhood memories and a period of depression that overtook him as a parent in 1999 – and interlarding the autobiography with verbatim utterances from both sides of the fight his family joined to desegregate the city – Copeland brings admirable chops as a comedian to bear on some difficult and disturbing, if ultimately hopeful, material. (Avila)

'A Pinter/Albee Duet' Theatre Rhinoceros, 2926 16th St; 861-5079, www.therhino.org. $15-30. Thurs/27-Sat/29, 8pm; Sun/30, 3pm. Theatre Rhinoceros presents a pair of one-act plays: The Collection, by Harold Pinter, and The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee.

'San Francisco Improv Festival' Next Stage, 1620 Gough; and Climate Theatre, 285 Ninth St; (415) 863-1076, www.sfimprovfestival.com. $15. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through June 26. This week, Black and Tan Improv and the Defiant Thomas Brothers (Next Stage).

Southern Baptist Sissies New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness; 861-8972, www.nctcsf.org. $18-28. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through July 11. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Del Shores's comedy-drama about four Texas gay men raised in the Baptist church.

*Strange Travel Suggestions Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750. $15-22. Extended run: Wed, 8pm. Through June 9. This vicarious journey with affable and offbeat travel writer Jeff Greenwald (Shopping for Buddhas; The Size of the World) offers inspiration to the globe-trotter within. A detailed plot summary is hard to give; like the open-minded traveler he is, Greenwald's show obeys Fortune's Wheel (this particular version appealingly reinvented by Jim Kelly and artist Mark Wagner). Funny, keen-eyed, utterly engaging tales surface strictly by association with any of 30 ideograms lining the wheel, given a throw by a random audience member, as Greenwald's thoughtful, well-crafted storytelling belies (along with Holly Johnston's alert lighting work) the easy spontaneity of the evening. Wherever it leads, it adds up to quite a trip. (Avila)

A Transylvanian in Silicon Valley Actors Theatre of San Francisco, 533 Sutter; 820-3929, 1-866-468-3399, www.atransylvanian.com. $10-24. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through June 19. Following a daring escape from Communist Romania in the late 1980s, Silvian Centiu made his way to the land of the free. With little cash and a tenuous grasp of English, he set about making good in the Golden State like so many ambitious immigrants before him. In his autobiographical solo show, Centiu's life story feels more like an inspirational lecture aimed at a group of students suffering under Ceaucescu's regime rather than theater. Although the narrative contains some endearing moments – Centiu's attempts to learn English by striking up conversations with car dealers are among the most memorable – the limited rhythmic, vocal, and physical scope of the staging keeps Centiu's tale from transcending fireside chat. Centiu is a willing performer with an interesting story, but the distance between recounting an anecdote and making theater is as vast as the journey across the Carpathian mountain range. (Veltman)

Bay Area

Communicating Doors Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; (415) 388-5208, www.marintheatre.org. $28-45 (Tues, pay what you can). Tues, Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also Thurs/27 and June 3, 1pm; June 12, 2pm); Wed, 7:30pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through June 13. Marin Theatre Company performs Alan Ayckbourn's time travel comedy-thriller.

*Dybbuk Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College, Berk; (925) 798-1300, www.atjt.com. $22-30. Thurs/27-Sat/29, 8pm; Sun/30, 2 and 7pm. Among the wandering spirits of the unhappy dead, Jewish folklore calls the one who possesses the body of a living person a dybbuk. Traveling Jewish Theater closes its 25th-anniversary season with a captivating revival of Bruce Myers's 1977 adaptation of the internationally prized ghost story by S. Ansky. By turns romantic, funny, wise, creepy, and haunting, the play makes use of an exquisitely distilled theatrical lexicon (set off gloriously in David Robertson's stark lighting design), wherein the actors' nimble transformations into a succession of characters subtly overlaps with the transfiguration and immateriality of the theme. (Avila)

Hamlet Berkeley Arts Center, 1275 Walnut, Berk; (510) 234-6046. $12. Thurs-Sat, 8pm (no show June 3). Through June 5. Military adventurism, plunder, intrigue, the usurpation of power, betrayal, madness, a self-destructive cycle of violence – apparently there's something rotten in Denmark too. And how supremely out of place in it is a cultivated mind like Hamlet's (Eric Moore), staring in amazement and repulsion at the face of barbarism behind the thin mask of civilization (donned by family and compatriots alike), as mother and queen (Barbara Jaspersen) marries uncle (Stanley Spenger) over the fresh corpse of a murdered patriarch demanding blood vengeance from beyond the grave. New Shakespeare Company (formerly Subterranean Shakespeare) inaugurates its first season of site-specific productions with an uneven but passionate and ultimately persuasive version of Shakespeare's tragedy, played in the round to an audience lining the walls of the Berkeley Arts Center's gallery. The pleasant but live-sounding room has a way of drowning certain lines in the reverberations it produces, but under Spenger's astute direction, the generally strong cast – led by Moore's admirably skillful, muscular performance – delivers potent work in the more vital roles and scenes, sustaining well a hefty three acts. Taking seriously Bertolt Brecht's admonition to keep theater "mindful of the needs of its time," this modern-dress production delivers plenty of dark deeds and corruption for your theater buck. (Avila)

Martha Stewart in Hell APE Space, 2525 Eighth St, Berk; hypedrama@aol.com. Free. June 13 and every second Sunday of 2004 (except July 11), 7pm. Through Dec 12. Acme Players Ensemble performs a monthly serial comedy about the rise and fall of Martha Stewart.

Master Class Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org. $10-55. Opens Wed/26, 8pm. Runs Tues and Thurs-Sat, 8pm (no shows Tues/1, June 4, 8, 25, July 9, and 15; additional shows June 3, 12, July 1, and 3, 2pm; June 5, July 8, and 10, show at 2pm only); Wed and Sun, 7pm (no shows June 16, July 4, 14; additional shows June 6, 20, 27, 11, and 18, 2pm; Sun/30, show at 2pm only). Through July 18. Rita Moreno stars as Maria Callas in Berkeley Rep's performance of the Terrence McNally drama.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Hwy 1 and Calle Del Mar, Stinson Beach; (415) 868-1115. $17-24. Fri-Sat, 7pm; Sun, 6pm. Through June 27. Shakespeare at Stinson performs the classic tale in an outdoor setting.

Money and Run La Val's Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, Berk; (510) 464-4468, www.impacttheatre.com. $10-15. Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through June 5. Impact Theatre performs Wayne Rawley's three-episode send-up of TV action-adventure shows, presented each week in consecutive order (Thurs, Episode One; Fri, Episode Two; Sat, Episode Three).

My Fair Lady Mountain Theatre, Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, Mt Tamalpais State Park, Mill Valley (call or go to Web site for info on shuttle bus service); (415) 383-1100, www.mountainplay.org. $20-30. Sun/30, June 6, 13, 19-20, 1pm. Through June 20. The Mountain Play Association performs the popular musical in an outdoor setting.

Oh My Goddess Oakland Box, 1928 Telegraph, Oakl; (510) 451-1932, www.oaklandbox.com. $11-15. Wed/26, 8pm. Sherry Glaser revives her multicharacter solo show. dance

Cedar Lake Ensemble Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission; 978-ARTS. Fri-Sat, 8pm. $20-33. The New York-based performance group, which "merges classical and contemporary ballet with striking theatrics," makes its San Francisco debut.

Galumpha Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida; 392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com. Wed-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. $15-25. The New York-based troupe, known for its acrobatics, visual effects, and physical comedy, performs in its Bay Area debut.

Mary Sano and Her Duncan Dancers Mary Sano Studio of Duncan Dancing, 245 Fifth St, Studio 314; 357-1817, www.duncandance.org. Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. $13-16. See Critic's Choice. Bay Area

Raices del Flamenco Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mtn View; (650) 903-6000, www.mvcpa.com. Fri, 7:30pm. $25-30. The Flamenco Society of San Jose presents the Spanish music and dance group in "Flamenco Roots."

Smuin Ballet Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic, Walnut Creek; (925) 943-SHOW, www.smuinballet.org. Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm). $41-50. The company performs its 10th-anniversary retrospective concert. performance

'CAFE Presents' Off-Market Theater (and Studio), 965 Mission; 896-6477, www.cafearts.com. $10. This week: "S.F. Arts Appreciation Day," with CAFE's Tilted Frame Improv (Thurs, 8pm); sketch comedy with Macaroni Art Theater (Fri, 8pm).

'First Look' Zeum, Fourth St at Mission; 749-2228. Wed-Thurs, 8pm (also Thurs, 3pm). Free (reservations strongly recommended). ACT presents script-in-hand productions of new works, including Splitting Infinity, written by Jamie Pachino; Carey Perloff's Luminescence Dating; and Michael Springate's Freeport, Texas.

'Longing for Light' Dance Mission Theatre, 3316 24th St; 273-4633, 282-4331, www.sunandmoonensemble.org. Thurs-Sun, 8pm (also Sun, 2pm). $10-15. The Sun and Moon Ensemble incorporates dance, giant puppets, live music, masks, shadow play, and other elements into an original performance inspired by creation tales from different cultures.

'Pinocchio Jones' Eureka Theater, 215 Jackson; 551-7990, www.sfartsed.org. Fri, 7:30pm; Sat-Sun, 2 (also Sat, 8pm, gala performance). $8-15 (gala, $50 and up). San Francisco Arts Education Project's children's theater troupe, the Event Players, performs Danny Duncan's musical.

'Tranny Lovers Show' Femina Potens, 465 South Van Ness; www.genderenders.com. Thurs, 8:30pm. $5-7 sliding scale. GenderEnders hosts this night of performance featuring writers who have been, or are, partners of trans people. Participants include Bay Guardian contributors Annalee Newitz and Michelle Tea.

'A Tribute to Anna Akhmatova' Washington Square Park, Union at Columbus; ljsmimosa@yahoo.com. Sat, 2pm. Free. Art Is Permitted Everywhere hosts a reading in honor of the Russian poet; bring her works to share or your own poems on the theme of exile. Bay Area

'A Package for Max' Pear Avenue Theater, 1220 Pear Ave, Mtn View; (650) 254-1148, www.thepear.org. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through June 6. $10-25. Pear Avenue Theatre performs John Angell Grant's comedy about marriage and midlife crises.

'The Variety Platter' Larkspur Cafe Theater, 500 Magnolia, Larkspur; (415) 924-6107. Thurs, 8pm. $15. Bay Area cabaret, comedy, and theater performers contribute to this variety show. comedy

Caffe Sapore 790 Lombard; www.sfcomedycollege.com. Fri, 8pm: "Comedy at Caffe Sapore," with Sean Hetherington, Matt Stiles, Michale Slack, Reggie Steele, and host Melissa Gans, $10.

Climate Theatre 285 Ninth St; 863-1076. Mon, 8pm: "Monday Night Improv Jam," presented by the San Francisco Improv Co-Operative, $5. Tues, 8pm: "Tuesday Night Improv Special: Night of 1000 Games," short-form improv jam, $5.

Cobb's Comedy Club 915 Columbus; 928-4320, www.cobbscomedy.com. Wed, 8pm: "All-Pro Comedy Showcase," $7. Thurs-Sun, 8pm (also Fri-Sat, 10:15pm): Brian Regan with Arj Barker, $20-25.

Dark Room 2263 Mission; 401-7987. Sat, 10pm: "Ha Bloody Ha," live talk show with Harmon Leon, $5-10. Through June 26.

Hyena Theater 2390 Mission, Ste 304; 821-3601. Sat, 8:30pm: "Comedy That Burns When You Pee," hosted by Eric Peterson, $6.

Mock Cafe 1074 Valencia; 826-5750, ext 5. Sat, 9pm: Stand-up comedy, $7.

Punch Line 444 Battery; 397-4337, www.punchlinecomedyclub.com. Wed-Sat, 9pm (also Fri-Sat, 11pm): Paul Mooney, Dan Rothenberg, and Kevin Shea, $12-20.

Purple Onion 140 Columbus; 956-1653, www.purpleonioncomedy.com. Wed, 9pm: Comedy night, $6. Thurs, 6 and 9pm: "Asian Comedy Night," $6.

San Francisco Comedy Club 50 Mason; 505-4995. Wed-Sat, 7:45pm: stand-up comedy showcase, $5-7. Wed, 9pm, and Thurs, 9:30pm: open mic, $5-7.

Uptown 200 Capp; 206-9997. Wed, 8:30pm: "Uptown Comedy Open Mic," hosted by Eric Peterson, free. spoken word

Open mics take place almost every night in cafés throughout the Bay Area. If you want to perform, show up about half an hour before start time to put your name on the list. A day-by-day guide to spoken word events and featured readers:

Wednesday: BrainWash Café 1122 Folsom, SF; (415) 440-5530. "Spoken Word Salon," with host Diamond Dave Whitaker, 8pm, free. Canvas Cafe 1200 Ninth Ave, SF; (415) 504-0060, mike@westcoastvideo.net. "Open Mic Talent Showcase," 7:30pm, free. Cafe du Nord 2170 Market, SF; www.porchlightsf.com. Porch Light reading series (this month's theme is "True Lust Confidential") with W. Kamau Bell, Jamie Berger, Whitey Broughton, and others, 8pm, $10. Samovar Tea Lounge 498 Sanchez, SF; (415) 626-4700, www.samovartea.com. Sherwin Bitsui reads, along with other Native American poets, 7:30pm, free. Chinese Culture Center Community Rm, third fl, 750 Kearny, SF; (415) 503-0520, www.kearnystreet.org. "Stranger Things," literary reading with Claire Light, Summi Kaipa, and Mukta Sambrani, 7pm, free ($5 suggested donation).

Thursday: Dalva 3121 16th St, SF; (415) 753-8091. "Poetry Mission," with featured reader Sherilyn Connelly, followed by open mic, 7pm, free. Hotel Cosmo 761 Post, SF; www.artworksf.com. "Poetry (and More) at the Cosmo"; this week, "The Last Laugh," with comedian Richard Stockton, 6pm, $3. 16th Street/Mission BART Plaza 16th St at Mission, SF; (415) 255-9881. "CAI Street Arts Workshop," open mic, 8:30pm, free. Mediterranean Cafe 2475 Telegraph, Berk; (510) 526-5985. "Word Beat Reading Series," featuring Charles Ellik and Keith Mosier, followed by open mic, 7pm, free. Morning Brew Coffee Co. 713 Linden, Ste A, South SF; www.morningbrewcoffee.com. Poetry reading featuring winners of the South San Francisco Teen Poetry Contest 2004, students of the S.F. Unified School District, and open mic, 7pm, free.

Sunday: Cody's Books 2454 Telegraph, Berk; (510) 845-7852. "Poetry Flash," with Peter Streckfus and Ilya Kaminsky, 7:30pm, $2. Cafe Prague 584 Pacific, SF; (415) 433-3811. Mark Schwartz hosts featured reader Jim Wilson, plus open mic, 4pm, free. Off-Market Theater 965 Mission, SF; (415) 896-6477, www.cafearts.com. Lyrikenesis hosts a poetry slam open mic, 8pm, $5.