Stepping Out

Lyn Flaim Healy/Spotlight Moments Photography
Los Altos resident Braden Koch’s 10 years with Peninsula Youth Theatre includes performing “The Cat in the Hat.”

Local actor Braden Koch is preparing for his 50th and final performance with Peninsula Youth Theatre.

The Los Altos High senior, who began acting at age 8, is set to play the Pirate King in the Mountain View theater company’s CenterStage production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” scheduled to run May 11-19 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world premiere of “Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story,” written and performed by piano virtuoso Hershey Felder and directed by Trevor Hay, is set to run through May 5 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

“Paris” explores the life and music of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy. It includes Felder performing “La Mer,” “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” and “Clair de Lune,” among other pieces.

Los Altos Stage Company presents Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” which opened last week and is slated to run through May 5 at Bus Barn Theater.

Steinbeck’s book, published 80 years ago, is considered a classic piece of Americana. Set in the 1930s, the story follows the Joad family as it travels from Oklahoma to California to escape the ravages of the Dust Bowl. Fiercely proud but reduced to poverty, volatile young Tom Joad grows increasingly impatient with the intolerance and exploitation the family encounters on their journey.

Richard Mayer/Special to the Town Crier
The cast of Los Altos Stage Company’s “The Grapes of Wrath” includes, from left, Katie Maupin (as Ruthie Joad), Judith Miller (Ma Joad) and April Culver (Rose).

Los Altos Stage Company presents Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” slated to run Thursday through May 5 at Bus Barn Theater.

Steinbeck’s novel was published 80 years ago and is considered a classic piece of Americana. Set in the 1930s, the story follows the Joad family as it travels from Oklahoma to California to escape the ravages of the Dust Bowl. Fiercely proud but reduced to poverty, volatile young Tom Joad grows increasingly impatient with the intolerance and exploitation the family encounters on their journey.

Lyn Flaim Healy/Spotlight Moments Photography
Olivia Colace of Los Altos and Josh Gefkin of Mountain View have been cast in Peninsula Youth Theatre’s “Check Please!”

Peninsula Youth Theatre’s production of “Check Please!” – three one-act comedies by Jonathan Rand showcasing the challenges of dating in 2019 – is scheduled this weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, SecondStage, 500 Castro St.

The first act follows a series of blind dinner dates that could not get any worse – until they do. One person is set up with a raging kleptomaniac, another with his grandmother’s bridge partner and another with a mime.

The Community School of Music and Arts’ free screening of the documentary “Living on a Dollar a Day” is slated 5 p.m. Sunday on its Mountain View campus.

The film is based on the making of the award-winning book of the same name by professor Thomas Nazario. “Dollar” follows the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Renée C. Byer as she explores the personal experiences of women, children and families in 10 countries who live in extreme poverty.