Night+Day

wednesday
july 31
Butch Whack Lesbian comedy trio Karla Carmony, Amy Boyd, and Fontana Butterfield sing and interpretive-dance their way through a pastiche of original video-augmented skits, from sketch to spoof, in This Side of Butch, using theatrical staples like funny costumes and wig changes to entertain thoughts on the results of a Broadway musical gone gay and commercials aimed at the dyke demographic. This Side of Butch plays at 8 p.m. (continuing through Aug. 18) at Josie's Cabaret & Juice Joint, 3583 16th St., S.F. Admission is $12; call 861-7933.

Portrait of a Portraitist From the freckled sisters to the Italian wrist-wrestlers, photographer Murray Rockowitz has assembled a colorful array of personages in his exhibit of silver prints "It's Not Just Black and White." Some are people he already knew from his work as a studio portraitist, while others are people he says he "found along the way," but all of them are real people rather than models, and through them he explores the relationships that develop between friends and relatives, lovers and rivals. The exhibit, which continues through Aug. 10, opens with a reception at 5 p.m. at Caffe Centro, 102 South Park, S.F. Admission is free; call (707) 765-1972.

thursday
august 1
Bureaucratic Heroism One of the lesser-known but vitally important alliances of World War II was the phony-visa-producing team of Jan Zwartendijk and Chiune Sugihara, who helped save thousands of Jewish citizens from Nazi persecution. Zwartendijk, the acting Dutch consul to Lithuania, circumvented the entry laws of other countries by issuing what became known as the "Curacao visa," a bogus pass into the Dutch colony. Sugihara, the Japanese consul to Lithuania, then issued unofficial transit visas so that refugees could travel to Curacao by boat via Japan. Once people were able to get out of the country, they scattered around the globe; some obtained visas in Japan, while others were sent to Shanghai until the war's end -- none actually went to Curacao. The consuls never met, but each knew what the other was doing, and both were aware of the governmental penalties they risked for doing it (Sugihara was dismissed from the diplomatic corps upon his return to Japan). A photo exhibit detailing this slice of history, "Visas for Life," opens on what would have been Zwartendijk's 100th birthday and runs through Sept. 20 at Fort Mason Center's Bayfront Gallery, Marina & Buchanan, S.F. Admission is free; call 882-7092.

friday
august 2
Jung and a Freud Head games are the norm in the suspense drama Mrs. Klein, as an aging psychoanalyst charged with blurring personal and professional lines becomes the center of debate. Uta Hagen (of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fame) plays the Austrian-born doctor who used her own children as the subjects of her controversial theories and practices; Laila Robins is Melitta, the grown daughter who bitterly resents the guinea pig treatment, and Amy Wright is Paula, a psychoanalysis student visiting Klein. Mrs. Klein previews at 8 p.m. (continuing through Sept. 1) at the Geary Theater, 415 Geary, S.F. Admission is $19-50; call 749-2228.

Deja Vu Blues Delta bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards has lived the kind of life that is mostly written about in books, and would sound mighty fine set to music. The 81-year-old singer/guitarist left his Mississippi home at age 14 to ply his trade on riverboats and street corners and in juke joints and brothels. He kept company with other blues greats like Son House and Robert Johnson before moving north to Chicago, where he picked up electric blues without losing the lean acoustic country slide and throaty delivery that tie him even now with Johnson. Blues harpist Lester "Mad Dog" Davenport and local combo Preacher Boy and Big Bones join Edwards for an evening of Delta by the bay. Doug MacLeod opens the show at 10 p.m. at Boomerang, 1840 Haight, S.F. Admission is $10; call 387-2996.

Crafty Evidently, macrame is no longer the defining medium of craft fairs. With increasing exposure to other cultures and the advent of finer materials and a market for recycled parts, U.S. artisans are making sleeker, more varied products. The American Craft Council Craft Fair shows off the housewares and furniture, jewelry, clothing, and art made by hundreds of participating vendors -- coffee-serving items, organizers say, are particularly popular this year. The fair begins at 10 a.m. (also Saturday and Sunday) at Fort Mason Center's Herbst and Festival pavilions, Marina & Buchanan, S.F. Admission is free-$7 ($12 for a two-day pass); call 896-5060.

The XX Perspective Girly issues -- race, religion, hell jobs, capital punishment -- is the stuff of the group performance series "Women's Work." Sarah Ells is a worn-down, fed-up truck stop cafe worker who turns to Jesus for answers in Waitress on P.M.S., while Margot Lynn addresses the perennial query "Are you a boy or a girl?" in Raised Butch and Karen Goldstein delivers the naked truth on exotic dancing in "Why I Take My Clothes Off," an excerpt from her play Just Love Me. The writers/performers take the stage in rotating lineups over two weeks in "Women's Work," which begins at 8 p.m. (continuing Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 10) at Venue Nine, 252 Ninth St., S.F. Admission is $7; call 626-2169 for performance schedule and ticket information.