The theatre and dance and music departments, and the university's galleries and museums are putting on quite a show for Picnic Day (April 16).

The Department of Theatre and Dance presents a new event, the Edge Performance Festival, incorporating the Main Stage Dance-Theatre Festival of previous Picnic Days, and adding other department mainstays (Solo Explorations and Undergraduate One-Act Plays) — as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

A news release states the Edge Performance Festival “offers myriad opportunities to explore and experience the diversity of performance that takes place at UC Davis, whether through the Solo Explorations of graduating Master’s of Fine Arts acting candidates, the collaborative efforts of undergraduate writers and directors, or the choreography and movement of graduate and undergraduate dancers.”

• Main Stage Dance — Six new choreographies by first-year graduate students and eligible undergraduates. 2 and 4 p.m., Main Theatre. (Each  Main Stage Dance presentation will be full-length, and not a short program as previously announced.)
• Solo Explorations — Four new solo performances by graduating Master’s of Fine Arts candidates in acting. 7 p.m., Arena Theatre, Wright Hall.
• Undergraduate One-Act Plays — Three new works. 9:30 p.m., Lab A, Wright Hall.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show Sing-Along — Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon star in this 1975 film, a stylized, macabre musical as dark as it is daring — and which has become the most famous of all midnight movies. Rocky Horror is an overtly sexual, highly provocative and comedic portrayal of gay and transgender culture, and sexual quirks. Rated R. Midnight, Main Theatre.

The festival begins April 15 and is scheduled to run through April 23. The remaining schedule after Picnic Day comprises the Festival Cabaret, repeats of Main Stage Dance and Undergraduate One-Act Plays, and another showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Tickets: $30 for a festival pass, which covers admission to all events except The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Single events, including the movie showings, are $10 (including Picnic Day). Tickets are available in advance and also will be sold at the door; the prices are the same. Advance tickets are available online (click on “Purchase Tickets Now!”), or in person or by telephone at the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787.

Read more about the festival and see the complete schedule in last week's Dateline UC Davis: "Theatre and dance takes us to the Edge — and beyond (to Rocky Horror land)."

The Symphony Orchestra presents a free noon concert in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The program: Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, with Lois Brandwynne, piano.

Or, how about the annual Battle of the Bands? Follow the music to Lake Spafford, in the arboretum, where the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh! and other university bands will be playing back and forth from 2 to 10 p.m.

All of the university's galleries and museums will be open, with free admission, as always. Note that the Nelson Gallery has moved since last year's picnic Day, to the old University Club, now called Richard L. Nelson Hall, after the man for whom the gallery is named.

Here are the exhibitions:

• Across the Great Divide: A Photo Chronicle of the Counterculture — Photos by New Mexico’s Roberta Price, who left her home in the Northeast to pursue the hippie aesthetic in the late ’60s and became one of the founders of Colorado’s Libre commune, which still exists today. The exhibition’s title is the same as the title of Price’s new book, published last November by the University of New Mexico Press. Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Picnic Day hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Earlier coverage.

• Doors — Oil paintings on doors, not canvas, by Erin Jackson, Craft Center ceramics instructor. Craft Center Gallery, South Silo. Picnic Day hours: noon-3 p.m. (with demonstrations during this three-hour period). Earlier coverage.

• Design by Design: Juried Student Design Competition — Described as "a lively survey of student talent and creativity that reflects the multidisciplinary breadth of the Design Program." Design Museum, 145 Walker Hall. Picnic Day hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

• Extended Voices: Prints from Crow’s Shadow Press — Crow’s Shadow Press is the publishing arm of the Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts in Pendleton, Ore. With a primary focus on printmaking, the institute’s studio attracts established as well as emerging Native American artists. Extended Voices, presented in collaboration with Tamarind master printer Frank Janzen, reflects a range of printing techniques by such established artists as Rick Bartow, Edgar Heap of Birds, James Lavadour, Kay Walkingstick, Joe Feddersen, Marie Watt, Phillip John Charette, Gerald McMaster and Wendy Red Star. C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 Hart Hall. Picnic Day hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (with free coffee and tea). Earlier coverage.

• Least Favorite: Josh Greene — The San Francisco-based art humorist addresses the question: What do your parents really think of what you do? In a larger sense, he is exploring what the wider society thinks about contemporary art. He enlists his family in many of his art projects, and, for this work, he asked his parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and others to name their least favorite of his art projects over the past decade, and to explain why. Least Favorite comprises the responses, along with portraits of the responders. Nelson Gallery, Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Picnic Day hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Earlier coverage.

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