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This past July, San Diego’s New Fortune Theatre Company presented “American Monkeys,” an immersive daylong theater and activations event at a Point Loma church that re-created both the the fiery religion-versus-science debate that took place during the famed 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” and the circus-like atmosphere that surrounded it. On Monday, New Fortune is co-presenting with the San Diego Library Foundation a follow-up theatrical event that tackles the same issue, which is the teaching of evolution in American public high schools. But the real-life trial that inspired this play occurred just 20 years ago. “Star Trek” actor John “Q” De Lancie and Kristen Tregar will co-star in “The Dover Panda Trial,” the radio-style play they wrote based on the real-life 2005 trial where a Pennsylvania high school board was sued for teaching religion-based “intelligent design” alongside Darwinian evolution. The performance will take place at 6 p.m. Monday at San Diego Central Library 330 Park Blvd., downtown. A $20 donation is requested onsite. Visual art Readers of The San Diego Union-Tribune in recent months may have noticed our new visual arts series created and authored by Michael James Rocha, who is the U-T’s digital creative director, as well as the former arts and entertainment editor and an award-winning writer. In Rocha’s “In the Curator’s Words” series, he visits San Diego County museums and galleries to explore new art exhibitions, and he interviews the curators and museum directors for a discussion on how the exhibit came to be, what is featured in the show and what visitors can learn from it when they arrive. This week’s “In the Curator’s Words” story is an interview with Rafael Barrientos Martinez, who curated a 30-year retrospective exhibition of works by 81-year-old Chicano artist and activist Ramsés Noriega of Los Angeles. Titled “Fragmentos Del Barrio,” the exhibit is on now on display through Feb. 28 at the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center in San Diego’s Barrio Logan. Here’s a link to the archive of Rocha’s other “In the Curator’s Words” and other stories. Film festival Photographer and La Jolla resident Eric Wolfinger, best known for his photography in chef Chad Robertson’s James Beard Award-winning 2010 cookbook “Tartine Bread,” is now also an award-winning filmmaker. His independent short film “Linda Dahl: Blessed by Grace” will make its San Diego premiere Sunday at the Coronado Island Film Festival. The documentary recently won two awards at the Indy Shorts International Film Festival. The film tells the story of chef and restaurateur Dahl, who discovered that cooking was a healing force for her after her son, Justin, was murdered by a backpack thief in the 1990s. Dahl eventually moved to Sedona, Arizona, and opened her first restaurant, Dahl & DiLuca, in 1995. She now owns six restaurants. All of them are dedicated to Justin’s memory. Wolfinger’s film will be one of three shorts featured in the Culinary Cinema series at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the John D. Spreckels Center at 1019 7th St., Coronado. Tickets are $25. More movies Back in the early 1980s, a few friends and I would drive to La Jolla every year to attend what was then known as “Spike & Mike’s Festival of Imagination.” It was an hour-plus screening of a diverse mix of short films in all styles of animation from all over the world. As I remember, one of the co-founders, either Craig “Spike” Decker and Mike Gribble, would talk to the audience before each screening about how they selected that year’s films. Some of the films were great, some not so much. But one I’ll never forget was “Luxo Jr.,” a visually stunning short of a baby lamp bouncing around on a desk and playing with a ball as his much larger daddy lamp watched. It was the first computer-animated film ever made by some of the men who later founded Pixar Studios. The little desk lamp that started it all became Pixar’s official mascot. Now billed a Spike & Mike’s Animated Extravaganza, the annual festival carries on to this day. The first screenings for 2025 were held over Halloween weekend, but there’s still time to see the 2025 edition of new, cutting-edge animation. There are two screenings of the 2025 edition at 4 p.m. Sunday and 6 p.m. Wednesday at Edwards San Marcos Cinema. Storytelling Storytellers of San Diego is gearing up for its annual Tellabration event, a free afternoon event of storytelling from 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 15. Tellabration is an annual worldwide event where storytelling events are held on the same day and sometimes at the same time. The purpose is to celebrate and sustain the art of oral storytelling. This year’s event, at Bethany Church in Ocean Beach, will be curated and emceed by Mindy Donner and Fred Laskowski and will feature storytellers Patti Christensen and James Nelson-Lucas, Marilyn McPhie, Fred Laskowski, JT Moring, Emily Stamets, Jim Dieckmann, Lisse e Ryan, and Aunt Li-Anne. The program is best suited for ages 12 and up. Other U-T stories you may have missed this week
