Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/56926
6A Daily News – Thursday, March 1, 2012 Pastimes The North State's only married comedy couple, Aaron Standish and Liz Merry, return to the his- toric State Theatre, 333 Oak St., with longtime, piano-playing partner Roland Allen for an evening of original stand- up comedy Saturday, March 10 at 8 p.m. Standish began writing and performing full-length comedy plays with Steve Ferchaud in 1978 while attending Mercy High School. Fellow Mercy alumni Allen provided piano accompaniment for all of those early shows, eventually becoming one of the troupe's leading onstage actors. Standish and Ferchaud continued the parody play format — with large casts and full sets — until 1984. For the next four years Arts & entertainment An evening of stand-up comedy Bach Festival to feature guest artists The CSU, Chico Department of Music presents the annual Chico Bach Festival, Thursday, March 8 through Saturday, March 10, featuring performances by guest artists, Chico State students, members of the North Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and students of the Suzuki Music Teachers' Association of California. CSU, Chico music students kick off the festival with Totally Baroque, a free concert at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 8 in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall. At 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 9, on the stage of Harlen Adams Theatre, visiting organist Christa Rakich from the New England Conservatory of Music sits at CSU, Chico's Centennial Pipe Organ for her recital, Beautifully Bach, featuring Bach's Trio Sonata No. 1 in Eb and the Prelude and Fugue in B Minor. Members of the North Valley Chapter of AGO bring a the show evolved into more of a revue, with sketches, songs, short bits and smaller casts rather than the plot- and charac- ter-driven scripts of earli- er shows. Standish and Allen took this format to its most basic with a two- man act, "Comedy From The Basement," which lasted until 1990. Rock and roll juggler Liz Merry came to Chico from the Bronx via the Jersey Shore and the Grateful Dead in 1984. She saw the boys doing comedy and thought "I can do that." So she did and she does. She wrote her way into a Wacky Wednesdays show at LaSalle's in early 1990. She and Standish were married by October and have been co-writing their own shows ever since. In 1999, they raised the initial $10,000 for a feasibility study that kicked off the restoration of the State Theatre. They put a year in as volunteers for the State Theatre for the Arts and hosted other fundraisers in addition to staging all their Red Bluff performances at the the- ater. Merry Standish Come- dy was a mix of sketch humor, funny songs, stand-up, satire, local spoofery and video bits that played throughout CSU, Chico's School of the Arts presents the final round of the 14th Annual Earl R. and Marilyn Ann Kruschke Piano Performance Competition, Saturday, March 3, begin- ning at noon in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall The five finalists chosen to perform include Megumi Ito of CSU, Chico; Yuko McWhorter of CSU, Chico; Irina Smolyakova of CSU, Frenso; Naoko Terakado of CSU, Chico; and Nicholas Pietromonaco of CSU, Humboldt. The public is invited to attend; admission is free. For a decade, the competition had been solely open to CSU, Chico's piano students and no specific program was required of the contestants to be performed in the competi- tion. This year's invited competition adjudicator is Dr. Dena Kay Jones, Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at the University of Texas, El Paso. Dr. Jones will also be offering a piano master class at Chico State on Saturday evening, March 3. Call 898-4043 for more information. The required repertoire for the 2012 competition consists of two solo pieces representing two of the following four musical styles: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contem- porary. The competition program cannot exceed a 15- minute time frame and the works should be completely memorized. For more information about the competition call 898-4043. the north valley from the early '90s until they took a hiatus in 2008. The cou- ple continued to produce audio podcasts and a fake online newspaper during their time offstage. The latest incarnation of Merry Standish is an 'unplugged' version that includes two sets of orig- inal stand-up comedy and a few funny songs from each of the three veteran performers. They're leav- ing the costumes and props at home, but still bringing the same topical, political, local, personal Merry Standish point of view to their loyal fan base in the great Red- ding-Red Bluff-Chico comedy triangle. "Simpler means more for us," Standish said, "As in keeping it simple will allow us to perform more and still leave time for naps." The March 10 show is a fundraiser for the State Theatre and is suggested for a mature audience. $10 Advance tickets for "Still Standish: An Evening Of Stand-Up Comedy" are $10 and on sale at Wild Oak, 328 Oak St, across from the State Theatre, Plum Crazy, 643 Main St. and First Love Tattoo, 648 Main St.. Admission at the door is $12. For more information, visit www.merrystan- dish.com. new aspect to this year's festival as they play a Bachathon (a marathon of the music of J.S. Bach). This unique event takes place from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, at St. John's Catholic Church at 435 Chestnut St. Organists featured performing during the Bachathon include Helen Mendenhall, Gail Pfister, Sally Stoner, Richard Emmons, David Rothe (and the men of St. John's Choir), Michael Tschoepe (student organist), John Zenor, and Marian Metson. Later that evening the young players from the Suzuki Music Teachers' Association of California take the stageat 7:30 p.m. in Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall to show off their budding talents in a free concert entitled Bach to the Future. Their performance will conclude this year's Bach Festival. An additional event — Bach and the Spirit of Innova- tion — scheduled for Sunday, March 11 has been can- celled; call the University Box Office, 898-6333 if you purchased tickets in advance for this event. For those people that really enjoy organ music, the Bachathon on Saturday afternoon, featuring another fine instrument, will be at St. John's Catholic Church. Advance tickets for Friday evening performance by Rakich, at $15 adults, $13 seniors, and $6 students, are available at the University Box Office; add $2 for tickets purchased made at the door. For disability-related seating please call 898-4325. All other performances are free and open to the public, with a suggested donation of $5 at the door for the Bachathon on Saturday afternoon that will go to support student organist scholarships. Performers vie for $2,000 prize Music school to perform recital For the 35th year in a row, the Red Bluff School of the Music Arts will present a day of music on Saturday, March 10. The instructor, Judi Richins, and 68 students of piano, trumpet, guitar and voice will perform a variety of pieces. Individual musicians range from 5 years old to adult. Richins' Winter Choir and the MusiKids' Klass, con- sisting of 3 and 4 year olds putting music into motion, will perform. Student, Jennifer Peyton, will emcee the event. ferent concerts with dif- ferent performers in each. There will be two dif- The first will com- mence at 1 p.m., fol- lowed by a reception at 3 p.m. for everyone who attends either concert. The second concert will begin at 4 p.m. This annual event is being held at the First Church of God, corner of Luther Road and South Jackson Street. Forty-three students, who have memorized five performance pieces and passed the annual adjudication, will be awarded medals and tro- phies for their accom- plishments. Special Recognition plaques will be awarded to eight students for their excellent musi- cianship, as well as to the graduating seniors, 2 eggs, hash browns or home fries & toast or bisquit & gravy $649 Served 6:30am-2pm 7 days a week No substitutions ORDERS TO GO 7875 HWY 99E LOS MOLINOS, CA 384-1265 Photo courtesy of Bill Treat Students of Judi Richins' Red Bluff School of the Music Arts will per- form March 10 at First Church of God at Luther Road and South Jack- son Street. Jace Jonsson and Jen- nifer Gentry. Musicians to perform in the concerts are: Ryanne Ampi; Rose- mary and Willow Anker-Kelly; Dante and Samantha Beeman; Jayne, Julia and Jordan Brandt; Natalie Brown; Mark and Will Cohen; Grant and Mary Cottier; Kolton Cutler; Jasmine Dittner; Badegech and HanneMae Hatcher-Dit- tner; Selena Dobson; Katrina Eusted; Eva Flynn; Kevin Foster; Grace Gallagher; Cullen and Reese Gambetta; Emiana Gaumer; Jen- nifer and William Gen- try; Aiden and Paige Gonczeruk; Emilia Gray; Camille and Chloe Hess; Faith Himes; Haley Isaacson; Jace Jonsson; Cadence Large Ham Steak Breakfast and Judy Killam; Rose Kinner; Keira Klein; Georgia Kunau; Ashtin and Austin Lopeman; Vanessa Martinez; Brea Myers; Giancarlo Nandino; Mahlon Owens; Karl, Nicky and Sofie Parks; Emma Peterson; Griffin and Jennifer Peyton; Jake and James Ramey; Kaylee and Laurelle Ramsey; Caden, Carter and Sophie Ray; lan Reynolds; Brooke Shackelford; Amy Shoff; Joey Simonis; Masy Skiver; Zack Staszel; Addy Stubbs; Josiah Vasey; and Leslie Wall. The public is invited and the admission is free. For further informa- tion, call Judi Richins at 529-0383. GRAND OPENING 60 minute with massage $25~$55 per hour Elite Skin Care & Spa Facials~ Waxing~and more Eyebrows $5 Gift Certificates Available Owners, Mike & Trisa Waelty 741 Main St., Suite #14 526-8713 Served with