.W-O-M-A-N

5/9-5/10

As the saying goes, every woman has a story to tell. Veteran dancer and choreographer Cynthia Adams has a few. This weekend, she will spin (so to speak) a few yarns in her new one-woman dance show, Tales of a Woman. A blend of movement, text, video, and original music, the multimedia performance will premiere at the Oakland YWCA’s Ehmann Hall (1515 Webster St.). Presented by local dance/theater company the Fellow Travelers Performance Group, Tales centers on themes of fertility, aging, family, and the environment. The compilation of four original and repertory works includes a feisty piece called “The Beast” about confronting the biological clock, and a tender tribute to Adams’ grandmothers.According to Adams, FTPG’s co-artistic director, Tales, her first full-length solo performance, was the natural outgrowth of years producing the popular Women on the Edge festival. Founded in 1992 by Adams and Ken James, FTPG is known for its arresting productions, which often melt the boundaries between performer and audience and bend rules of social interaction. Steeped in the Dada tradition of avant-garde artistic expression based on deliberate irrationality, the members of FTPG have made a habit of following their creative intuition, resulting in a host of unusual movement projects such as outdoor body installations, “tempting” deer with salt blocks, and log-pulling dances. Tales of a Woman may not present quite the same spectacle as dancers hauling tree trunks, but chances are the show will have all the creativity of Eve. Friday and Saturday, May 9, 10 and 16, 17 at 8 p.m. $15 general; $10 students and seniors. Reservations: 510-465-3144. — Joy White

5/8-5/9

Standup Guy

Scott Capurro is branching out to the sex industry. The sharp-edged SF-to-NYC radio host and comic is pictured masturbating in a painting by erotic artist Karin Tobiason, to be raffled off Thursday (7:30 p.m.) at Good Vibrations (2509 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley) as part of her Masturbation Month exhibit called Well-Hung Art. Proceeds go to the AIDS Health Project of San Francisco. Visit www.goodvibes.com Then on Friday (8 p.m.), the fully clothed — we hope — Capurro steps up to the mic and lets fly with the funnies at Julia Morgan Theatre (2640 College Ave., Berkeley). Tickets: $20 from 925-798-1300. — Kelly Vance

THU 5/8

Bogit Man

Bogart some laughs in Fremont

When you think about it, Humphrey Bogart was a ’70s kinda guy. With his cigars, his unconventional sex appeal, and, most of all, his nineteen-year-old bride Lauren Bacall (for whom he left his wife of seven years, natch), he was a man for the Me Decade long before most of its movers and shakers were even born. But it took Woody Allen to recognize that fact, and to peg Bogie as the perfect deity for one of his nebbishy alter egos to worship. In Play It Again, Sam, a neurotic SF film buff tries desperately to swing with the times, with some misbegotten advice from Casablanca‘s Rick Blaine. Example: “Dames are simple. I never met one that didn’t understand a slap in the mouth or a slug from a .45.” See how well that kind of smack flies with the bra-burners at Broadway West (4000-B Bay St., Fremont), where Play It Again, Sam runs on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through June 7. Call 510-683-9218 for show times and ticket prices. — Stefanie Kalem

5/8-5/11

Viva la Frida

Art comes alive at Cal

Let’s get one thing straight here — for all of Salma Hayek’s passion for Frida Kahlo, her starring vehicle/executive production, Frida, was a travesty. The actors lost — then found — their accents unpredictably, and Hayek’s cosmetically scarred but still buff body was a joke as stand-in for Kahlo’s notoriously mangled one. Sure, the visuals were sumptuous, but Kahlo’s paintings were more than just pretty pictures. La Casa Azul, playing at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, should give Kahlo fans more of the substance they deserve. Robert LePage, who has previously staged imaginative bios of Jean Cocteau and Frank Lloyd Wright, directs playwright Sophie Faucher as Kahlo in this elaborate work, drawing heavily from the artist’s own diaries. Patric Saucier plays Diego, and Lise Roy portrays Leon Trotsky, Death, and everyone else. Tickets $36-$52. 510-642-9988. — Stefanie Kalem

5/9-5/10

Spanish Fly

The classic tale of Carmen — the straight arrow eventually ruined by the saucy strumpet — has wound its way from Prosper Mérimée’s novella to MTV’s unfortunate “hip-hopera.” By rights, it should have no juice left at all. But Nikolai Kabaniaev hopes to give it wings once more, or at least, assemblés and entrechats. His world premiere ballet, set to the Bizet/Schedrin score, shares the Diablo Ballet Season Finale stage with Paul Taylor’s Airs, a DVB premiere inspired by Handel’s Concerto Grossi, Opus 3. Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek), 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $26-$38. 925-943-7469. — Stefanie Kalem