We've handpicked 20 cool arts and culture events for you to check out this May, from plays to art shows to festivals. What are you looking forward to this month? Let us know! Email us at [email protected].
“Skeleton Crew” at The Old Globe
When: May 2-7. 7 PM/8 PM
Where: The Old Globe
Price: $29-$76
Catch the last week of this play, May 2 to 7. Times are tough in 2008 Detroit, but there’s still one working auto plant. The long hours and demanding shifts have turned the line workers into a family.The firm, compassionate Faye holds them together, and she’s only months away from retiring with her full pension. But when she discovers that management has a new plan, she’s torn between self-preservation and allegiance to her coworkers.
ArtPower Presents: Miwa Matreyek Double Feature
When: May 3, 8 PM
Where: UCSD, Price Center East Ballroom
Price: $40 for adults/$20 for youth; $9 for students
Cinco de Mayo Concert in the Park
When: May 5, 4 PM
Where: Spreckles Organ Pavilion
Price: Free!
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a free concert in Balboa Park at 6 PM, featuring Jarabe Mexicano and the SDSU School of Music and Dance Jass Band and Wind Symphony. This concert will also feature an appearance by KUSI TV anchor Carlos Amezcua and his father Don Oscar Amezcua, who is a legendary Mariachi Leader. Before the show, start the festivity at 4 PM at the Plaza de Panama with City Heights Mariachi and San Diego's best food trucks.
San Diego Symphony Presents Mahler Symphony No. 3
When: May 5 -7, 8 PM and 2 PM
Where: Joan and Jacob Irwin Music Center
Price: $20-$85
One of Jahja Ling’s last performances with the Symphony is Mahler's Symphony No. 3.The performance also features Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano, and Women of the San Diego Master Chorale and St. Paul's Cathedral Choristers. Gustav Mahler attempted to capture the beauty, terror and sublimity of nature in the 100 minute, six movement Third Symphony. This classic must be experienced live, and the San Diego Symphony has only performed this once before.
Coyote Music Festival
When: May 6
Where: Cuyamaca College
Price: Free!
Cuyamaca College is hosting their ninth annual student-sponsored Coyote Music Festival. Six local bands will perform their music, from folk, rock, Americana and singer/songwriter. This year's artists are Barrie Dempsey (folk/blues), Bobby Michaels (folk/rock), Everything Undone (alt/hard rock), Geoff Bradley (singer/songwriter, bluegrass, acoustic rock), Hocus (rock, alt, punk), Peter Ray (Americana).The concert will be held outdoors on the spacious Great Lawn. Bring your lawn chair, pack a picnic and lay back and enjoy some wonderful music.
“Pictures At An Exhibition”, conducted by Michael Gerdes
When: May 6, 7:30 PM & May 7, 2 PM
Where: Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD
Price: $15 student (35 and younger), $27 senior, $29 adult
Guest conductor Michael Gerdes (faculty at SDSU) at La Jolla Symphony and Chorus (affilitated with UCSD) leads Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” This performance will be joined by Carlos Aguilar, Young Artist winner, doing a solo in Carl Nielsen’s playful “Flute Concerto,” and be accompanied by Vivian Fung’s “Biennale Snapshots”, a modern set of pictures in this U.S. A free pre-concert lecture is given by Michael Gerdes one hour prior to concert times.
“Marry Me A Little” by Carlsbad Playreaders
When: May 8 7:30 PM
Where: Carlsbad City Library
Price: $5 donation requested
"Marry Me A Little", written by Stephen Sondheim, is a charming and bittersweet musical about the relationship between two lonely New York single people. Despite knowing of the other's existence, they never get up the courage to talk to each other, though they imagine what such an encounter might be like.
"Jersey Boys" at The Civic
When: May 9 - 14
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre
Price: $22-$62
They were just four guys from Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard… and the radio just couldn’t get enough of. But while their harmonies were perfect on stage, off stage it was a very different story -- a story that has made them an international sensation all over again.Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in the Tony Award®-winning true-life musical phenomenon, "Jersey Boys." From the streets of New Jersey to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this is the musical that’s just too good to be true.
Athenaeum Jazz at the TSRI: Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes
When: May 9, 7:30 PM
Where: The Auditorium at The Scripps Research Institute
Price: $30-$35
The Athenaeum Jazz at TSRI series is ending with husband and wife duo-piano team Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes. Rosnes is one of the premier jazz pianists and composers of her generation and was also a founding member of the all-star band, the SFJAZZ Collective. Charlap has been performing and releasing albums for over a decade, focused on swing, eloquence, musical sensibility and celebrating the American Songbook tradition. He has also been nominated twice for a Grammy.
San Diego Surf Film Festival
When: May 10-13
Where: Misfit Gallery
Price:$10-$15 per movie, $20-$35 per event; VIP Pass $125
The sixth annual Surf Film Festival will be taking place May 10 - 13 at Misfit Gallery in La Jolla. This year's festival will welcome filmmakers and surf enthusiasts from around the world to come celebrate the art of surf cinema.Festival highlights include over 25 of the finest international surf films, a Skip Frye Lifetime Tribute, filmmaker meet and greets, Grant Ellis (Surfing Magazine Photo Editor) slideshow, live art brewery party, beach clean-ups and surfing expression sessions.Since it’s inception in 2012, the SDSFF has screened over 150 films which convey the current pulse of surf cinema.
“Carmen” and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” by City Ballet
When: May 12-14, 8 PM and 2 PM
Where: Spreckles Theatre
Price: $32-$85
City Ballet of San Diego presents "Carmen" and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. They will be performing Elizabeth Wistrich’s one-act version of "Carmen", which Wistrich created in 1988. "Carmen" is Georges Bizet's classic and exciting story of Carmen, a beautiful and sultry factory worker in 1820s Spain. Men would do anything for her love - including murder. City Ballet is also performing Vivaldi’s most popular score: The Four Seasons. With detailed scenery and elaborate costumes by designer, David Heuvel, this dramatic story ballet never fails to leave an indelible impression.
Linda Adair: “Echoes” Opening
When: May 13, 6 PM
Where: ArtHatch, Escondido
Price: Free!
Distinction Gallery at ArtHatch is proud to present Linda Adair’s first solo exhibition. She currently lives in Europe and will be attending the opening reception. The reception will also feature live music, ArtHatch open studios, BK Cellars Wine and Stone Beer. Her show will run until June 3. Linda Adair is an Australian-Canadian contemporary figurative painter currently residing in Germany. Her work ranges from classical portraiture to the fantastical world of imaginative realism. Primarily self-taught, most of her work derives from her extensive travels and personal experiences. Influenced and inspired by classical realism she has worked to merge the academic and classic with the contemporary, both in subject matter and in her approach to the medium.
The Mariachi Divas
When: May 14, 7:30 PM
Where: California Center for the Arts: Escondido
Price: $15-$35
A two-time Grammy Award winner with a total of six Grammy nominations and two Latin Grammy nominations, The Mariachi Divas are a multicultural, all-female ensemble imbued with the unique musical flavor of Los Angeles. Since 2003, the Mariachi Divas have performed at Disneyland Resort, melding musical styles from Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Germany, Spain, and other parts of the world.
Diverge/Convene: Contemporary Mixed Media
When: Last day May 15
Where: San Diego Art Institute
Price: Free
San Diego Art Institute presents "Diverge/Convene: Contemporary Mixed Media," a group exhibition of nontraditional collage and assemblage work.This exhibition celebrates artists both locally and nationally that are not only working in traditional 2D/3D mediums, but also in sound sculpture, video, photography, installation, and alternative processes.
21st Annual Festival of Arts
When: May 20, 11 AM
Where: North Park
Price: Free
North Park Main Street Association Announces this year's San Diego Credit Union 21st Annual Festival of the Arts in North Park, which is a free art and music fest that also brings together the local craft beer and food communities. This year, the festival will run from 11 am to 10 pm. The festival will take over 9 blocks at University and 30th and will feature live music and dance performances, artisan sales and even interactive activities. There will also be a Craft Beer Block for attendees over 21, and an interactive kid's Art Block for children to create their own art. Finally, there will be live art creation as well: urban artists will be creating art out of everyday objects.
5 Minute Play Festival
When: May 22, 7 PM
Where: Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
Price: $15-$18
This is the 4th annual 5 Minute Play Festival. This will be a showcase of national talent. The plays were chosen from more than 50 submissions, and will cover genres from comedy to tragedy and more. Director C. Candis Paule is working with local San Diego actors to turn all the scripts into spectacular theater. All the plays are by new playwrights that speak to Jewish identity, cultural experiences and thought-provoking questions presented by "Straight From the Page."
“Heathers The Musical”
When: Last Performance May 27
Where: OnStage Playhouse, Chula Vista
Price: $25
OnStage Playhouse is totally stoked to present San Diego's first fully-licensed production of Heathers the Musical! High school hallways have always been a social minefield with bullies and cliques behind every locker door, but in this satirical musical comedy, fitting in has never been more dangerous. Based on the classic 1989 film, Westerberg High is ruled by a posse of mean girls: Heather, Heather and Heather, the hottest and cruelest girls in all of Ohio. When misfit Veronica rejects their evil regime for the dark and sexy new guy, J.D., their relationship starts racking up a body count.
To Observe and Wonder
When: Last Day May 28
Where: Women’s Museum of California
Price: $5
The Women's Museum is presenting a history of the far-reaching minds of women in science. Women have played important roles in in discovery, development, and dissemination in science, from the earliest times. Women have been significant to science from the early foundations of computer programming to the structure of DNA to genomes, their work has inspired environmental movements, helped take astronauts to the moon, discovered new genes and helped bring us to the modern age. Women broke the sound barrier, gender barriers, all along the way. Their stories inspire and will inspire young women to pursue careers in science.
The Haydn Voyages, a Concert Series at the Maritime Museum
When: May 28 at 4 PM
Where: Maritime Museum of San Diego
Price: $10-$25
The Hausmann Quartet will be performing Operation Explorations at The Maritime Museum of San Diego aboard the historic Berkeley – a 1898 steam ferryboat that operated for 60 years on San Francisco Bay. A celebration of song, as two of Haydn’s most virtuosic quartets (the opus 17/5 “Recitative” and opus 20/5) are paired with Thomas Adès enchanting Arcadiana, a collection of song-inspired fantasies from 1994 that Adès says “evoke various vanished or vanishing ‘idylls’.
Visual Jazz
When: This show runs until June 3
Where: Monarch | Arredon Contemporary, La Jolla
Price: Free
Monarch | Arredon Contemporary is presenting "Visual Jazz" by San Diego county native Chor Boogie. The solo exhibition will feature over 20 original works on canvas..Chor Boogie is recognized for having achieved a groundbreaking level of technical and emotional virtuosity in the medium of spray paint. He is primarily a self taught artist, though he was first nurtured by the local street art culture of San Diego and Oceanside. "Visual Jazz" celebrates the creative power of the human spirit—and art as the intersection between the physical and the metaphysical.Vivid colors and multidimensional designs reverently embrace classic figures of jazz maestros. The composition and forms are unpredictable and yet harmonious, like jazz itself. The audience is invited to feel the music through the works. A percentage of sales from the show will go to benefit Writerz Blok, a youth arts and social enterprise program of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, where Chor Boogie found community, support and inspiration as an emerging artist.