Arts DEVO

Runnin’ with the devil The October arts calendar is insane in Chico. Though Arts DEVO tries hard to find a spot in the paper every week to highlight every interesting event on the calendar, the Artoberfest month is so overstuffed that it’s just not possible to do justice to all the worthy works of art, let alone take it all in.

I’m particularly disappointed to (most likely) not be able to attend the Chico State theater department’s production of Doctor Faustus (showing through Oct. 20, in Wismer Theatre). Ideally, I would have gone to a dress rehearsal in time to share how director Katie Whitlock reinvented Christopher Marlowe’s sin-filled tragedy. Whitlock can always be counted on to throw convention aside in favor of experimentation, and her approach always makes me eagerly anticipate any project she’s working on. But, even without my fan-boy blathering, the advance details should inspire a visit to the university’s black-box theater.

“Some blues music in a coffin graveyard filled with voodoo-inspired sins and demons,” is one description offered by Whitlock via email for her adaptation, which includes gender-swapping the doctor (played by senior theater major Brittany Siguenza) who makes a deal with the devil, and putting her in a Southern Gothic setting to a blues soundtrack. Add the frightening skull-headed demons created by costume designer Sandra Barton, and you have the promise of enough pre-Halloween darkness to satisfy all sinners.

Hop-bombs away! In case hosting beer fests, pumping out a million barrels of beer, and building a second brewery wasn’t enough, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is also adding a Bay Area expansion to the brewery’s busiest year ever. According to a company press release, the Torpedo Room will begin pouring Sierra Nevada beers in Berkeley (at 2031 Fourth St.) in early November. Named for the hop-infusion machine that the brewery invented (and uses to great effect on the popular palate-tingling IPA bearing the magic machine’s name), the intimate Torpedo tasting room (capacity: 45) will feature 16 taps, taster flights, growlers to go, as well as six-packs, cases and big bottles of special releases.

This announcement comes on the heels of news that Sierra Nevada’s new East Coast facility in Mills River, N.C., is already brewing its first test batches, and will be brewing for production by early November.

And, in related news, Lucero Olive Oil is branching out as well. The Corning olive-oil grower and seller opened a tasting room in Tigard, Ore. (outside Portland), in May of this year, and on Oct. 26 will cut the ribbon on a second room in downtown Napa. There’s just too much good stuff in the North Valley not to share. You’re welcome, world.

DEVOtions

• Poetry 99 reading: Tonight we read! Join the winners and those honorably mentioned at Lyon Books tonight, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m., for free live poetry … and probably some cookies.

• Bogg does Chico: It’s a special edition of the local jazz crew’s weekly morning program at Café Coda (Friday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m.), featuring Bogg’s reinterpreted versions of original tunes by local bands, with selections from Surrogate, The Shimmies, Lish Bills and more.

• Boutique Crawl: Friday, Oct. 18, 6-9 p.m.: Get on your knees and join the nighttime crawl from one downtown resale boutique to another—Bootleg, Three Sixty Ecotique, Yard Sale and BOHO.

• Blue Room stand-up: San Francisco comedian Kevin Young headlines two sets of comedy in the theater, Saturday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.