30 Things to Do This November: See Camelot at Mountain Play, a Banksy Exhibit, Patton Oswalt Live and More

With the holidays soon approaching and the temperatures dropping, it’s a month for getting cozy. Luckily, there are plenty of theater, film, and art exhibits to keep you both entertained and warm, from the South Asian Film Festival in San Francisco to a botanical art exhibition at the Marin Art & Garden Center and designer Patrick Kelly’s Runway of Love at the de Young.

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Mountain Play’s Camelot

Camelot

What happens when Guenevere falls in love with a young Lancelot? If it has been on your mind since 1960 when Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe adapted T. H. White’s 1958 novel The Once and Future King into a hyper-successful Broadway musical, you are in luck. In partnership with Ross Valley Players, Mountain Play is reviving the classic that became associated with the Kennedy administration with live performances at The Barn Theater in Ross. Starring San Rafael resident Phillip Percy Williams as Arthur, Krista Joy Serpa as Guenevere and Izaak Heath as Lancelot, the Arthurian legend is explored through song (who could ever forget “The Lusty Month of May”?) as the idealistic Arthur sees his morale tested when Guenevere falls for Lancelot and the fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance. “The last couple of years have felt heavy,” says Williams. “Now my soul feels light, my heart and spirit have been freed to give love and hope through music and theater.”

Nov 1 Elements of Nature

A three-series collaboration between Oakland-based SLATE Contemporary and Cornerstone’s onsite SBHG Gallery means a show featuring five local, mixed media artists including Robert Buelteman, who utilizes a high-voltage electricity and a fiber-optically delivered light system to cast plants in photographs, through November 7.

Nov 2 Decibels

Inspired by San Francisco’s musical heritage dB Fest, a film festival dedicated to music in all its forms presents 25 films in-person at locations around San Francisco and on demand, through November 7.

Nov 3 Planet Earth Fights Back

Experimental artist Phyllis Thelen defends, protects and celebrates “Our Mother” and only terrestrial home while demonstrating our precarious perch and our power to fight back, through November 7 at Marin MOCA.

Nov 4 Roll Out

Live arts programming returns to the JCCSF, featuring a stellar ensemble of eighteen dancers in an exhilarating mix of dance, music and technicolor ball passing, through November 5.

Nov 5 These Are the Ones We Fell Among

odc the ones we fell among
Photo courtesy of Shinichi Lova Koga

Presented in collaboration with Inkboat and artist Ann Carlson, this dance takes inspiration from the movements, myths and metaphors of our endangered animal cousins and looks for humor and grace amid excrement, entropy and fear, through November 7 at ODC.

Nov 6 Masterworks 1

Pianist Orli Shaham is featured in Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery takes on Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, through November 7 at the Marin Symphony.

Nov 7 Living Worlds

living worlds landing cal academy

It’s opening weekend for the first planetarium show produced in-house by the Cal Academy of Science’s visualization studio since 2020’s Big Astronomy. It is an exploration of the ways life has transformed Earth’s surface and atmosphere over billions of years, and a journey through the cosmos in search of life in our solar system and beyond.

Nov 8 Wild Porcelain

In keeping with artist Michelle Erickson’s previous political statements, a series of works confronts visitors with issues such as socioeconomic inequality and environmental encroachment and conservation while also drawing inspiration from surrounding permanent-collection objects on view, through November 20.

Nov 9 Nocturne-X

 

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A new program from local arts nonprofit Grey Area invites visitors into a multi-sensory journey of a massive alien forest of extraterrestrial flora that responds to touch, sound and movement, each in its own unique way, through January 15, 2022.

Nov 10 Bill Plaschke

In an online discussion about Paradise Found: A High School Football Team’s Rise from the Ashes, the columnist for the Los Angeles Times reveals what happens to coach Rick Prinz and the Paradise football team in the aftermath of a fire that ravaged their town in 2018.

Nov 11 Below the Lighthouse

 

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The first solo exhibition in the U.S. of the work of New York-based artists Zakkubalan, aka Neo S. Sora and Albert Tholen, features their 2017 collaboration with composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, async – volume – , a 24-channel video installation that serves as a portrait of the composer and his creative process, and new work created in response to San Francisco’s David Ireland House, through February 19, 2022.

Nov 12 South Asian Film Festival

 

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From a documentary that explores the newsroom of the Kahabar Lahariya, the only paper run by Dalit women, to an exploration of the Tamil community and its diaspora, an online festival explores the breadth of the international and Indian-American communities, through November 16.

Nov 13 Warren Miller’s Winter Starts Now

The inveterate skier jumps a little higher in his 72nd film.

Nov 14 Johan Hagemeyer

 

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A life-changing meeting with Alfred Stieglitz turned a fruit farmer, who first arrived in the U.S. in 1900, into a renowned photographer. His work was widely influenced by his circle of friends, many of whom have work appearing in this exhibition. The exhibit closes today.

November 14 Play Marin Walk-a-thon

 

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Walk to promote diversity and inclusion for the young people of Marin. The day will be full of entertainment, food, fun and excitement. This event will run from Rocky Graham Park (Marin City, CA) to Mill Valley Middle School and back 10:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m.

Nov 15 Alton Brown

alton brown
Photo courtesy of Broadway San Jose

The Food Network celebrity Alton Brown brings his live culinary variety show with cooking, comedy and “potentially dangerous science stuff” to San Jose’s Center for the Performing Arts.

Nov 16 How the Other Half Eats

Sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh, Ph.D. brings us into the kitchen of dozens of families from various backgrounds to explore how — and why — we eat the way we do at an in-person event in San Francisco.

Nov 17 $avvy

Eight of ten women in the U.S. will solely be responsible for managing their finances at some point in their lives. Yet, 56% of women and 61% of millennial women still abdicate major financial decisions to the men in their lives. Finish Line Features’ director and producer Robin Hauser investigates these statistics in her most recent documentary film, $avvy, exploring why it is so important for women to understand and take control of their personal finances. Screening at the Smith Rafael Theater.

Nov 18 Still We Rise

fantastic negrito

Ten-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin headlines GLIDE’s annual benefit as it returns to the Masonic Auditorium with NPR Tiny Desk contest winner Fantastic Negrito and Renel Brooks-Moon as MC, also available as a virtual program.

Nov 19 Messalina

Ars Minerva

The company devoted to resurrecting forgotten operas from the Italian Baroque presents a story of the young wife of Emperor Claudius, staged at Rome’s corrupt imperial court circa 47 CE, complete with furtive meetings, frustrated trysts, kidnappings, betrayals and romantic vicissitudes, through November 21 at Ars Minerva.

Nov 20 Patton Oswalt

patton oswalt

A true polymath, the “Parks and Rec” and “Veep” star, who is as equally well known for his books, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland and Silver Screen Fiend, delivers a new standup routine, “Who’s Ready to Laugh?”

Nov 21 The Art of Banksy

banksy
Courtesy of The Art of Banksy Starvox Exhibit

Sourced from private collections, works that would otherwise stay hidden in private homes or warehouses are featured and include many of the artist’s most recognizable images — “Flower Thrower,” “Rude Copper” and “Girl With Balloon” — among others. Showing in San Francisco through January 3, 2022.

Nov 22 Christmas at Pemberley

Christmas at Pemberly
Photo courtesy of Kevin Berne

The final installment of a trilogy based on the characters of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice follows Mr. Darcy’s younger sister, Georgina, and the youngest Bennet sister, Kitty, as they navigate the arrival of Georgiana’s secret correspondent into the family’s holiday celebrations, through December 19 at Marin Theatre.

Nov 23 Runway of Love

deyoung patrick kelly

A spotlight on the remarkable career and legacy of Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly (1954–1990) includes 80 fully accessorized ensembles presented alongside footage from his fashion shows, revealing both an enduring message of love and an assertion of Black empowerment, through April 24, 2022 at the De Young.

Nov 24 Double Trouble 
svma moondance

Enrique Chagoya’s satirical creations and his partner Kara Maria’s canvases are part of a combined show at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art that explores themes of immigration, ecological collapse and power conflicts between humans and the natural world, through January 2, 2022.

Nov 25 Thanksgiving Dinner

 

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Savor a familial feast of roast turkey, short ribs or mushroom risotto at Sonoma’s the girl & the fig. Save some room for desserts, though – pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate pecan tart and caramel apple sundaes are not to be missed.

Nov 26 Soul of Black Folks

Moad
Courtesy of The Artist and Roberts Projects Los Angeles California Photo Robert Wedemeyer

Featuring more than 20 works created by Amoako Boafo between 2018 and 2021, this showcase at of the artist at MOAD is an exploration into Boafo’s efforts within his painting practice to capture the essence of the Black figure, including Black subjectivity, Black joy and the Black gaze, through February 27, 2022.

Nov 27 Christmas in Vienna

The Vienna Choir Boys raise their crystalline voices to sing favorites like “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”; “Joy to the World”; and their very own rendition of “Stille Nacht,” the original Viennese version of “Silent Night.”

Nov 28 Botanical Art

american society of botanical artists
Courtesy of ASBA

Today is the last day to see a juried exhibit of 45 floral works at the Marin Art & Garden Center from artists representing the U.S., France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K., among others, plus a presentation of the second installment of the Mt. Tam Florilegium project.

Nov 29 Nikole Hannah-Jones

The Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine discusses her latest work, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.

Nov 30 Continuity

 

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Like Interactive Van Gogh, the teamlab project at the Asian Art Museum invites participants to step into a lush imagery ecosystem. This version is drawn from nature and East Asian art, with a moving landscape, of blooming flowers and darting fish. The series ends today.


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Christina MuellerChristina Mueller is a long-time Bay Area food writer. She hails from the East Coast and has spent way too much time in South America and Europe. She discovered her talent as a wordsmith in college and her love of all things epicurean in grad school. She has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Sunset, and the Marin Independent Journal, among others. She volunteers with California State Parks and at her child’s school, and supports the Marin Audubon Society, PEN America, and Planned Parenthood. When she is not drinking wine by a fire, she is known to spend time with her extended family.