Classical music The 29th annual Mainly Mozart Festival opens its Spotlight Series concerts, with this year’s theme being “Finding His Voice: Beauty Through Adversity.” The series is scheduled at 6 p.m. on June 2, at the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club and 6:30 p.m. on June 3, at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI Auditorium). Concerts feature works by Mozart and Mendelssohn on June 2 and Mozart and Beethoven June 3. As the centerpiece of both concerts, mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel, violinist Tereza Stranislav and cellist Andrew Shulman perform Jake Heggie’s “The Work at Hand,” with text by a San Diego-raised poet, the late Laura (nee Costales) Morefield, who happens to be the daughter of this columnist. The 2015 work, which perfectly fits Mainly Mozart’s theme this year, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Pittsburgh Symphony, where it was conducted by Mainly Mozart music director Michael Francis. Francis conducts the Mainly Mozart All-Star Festival Orchestra in concerts from June 10 to 24 at the Balboa Theatre at 444 4th Ave., Gaslamp District. For more information, visit www.mainlymzart.org or call 619-239-0100.
Playhouse wold premiere
The world premiere of La Jolla Playhouse-associated composer Michael Roth’s “Imagination Dead Imagine” takes place at the Lyceum Space, 79 Horton Plaza, at 7:30 p.m. on June 7 and 8 as part of the 24th annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival. Roth has many credits at La Jolla Playhouse, and has been called the playwright Samuel Beckett’s “hidden masterpiece,” the work is performed by Quartet Nouveau. Also on the program is the world premiere of Roth’s “Labor Day 1967,” featuring a 78-RPM recording of a Bar Mitzvah lesson with a special appearance by Cantor William Tiep. Tickets cost $18. For more information, visit www.sdrep.org or call 619-544-1000.
Teatro
Tony Award-nominated plays “Oslo,” the La Jolla Playhouse-originated “Indecent,” and “Sweat” received Obie (Off-Broadway) awards along with the musical titled “The Band’s Visit” at the awards ceremony held May 22 at New York’s Webster Hall. “Indecent” director Rebecca Taichman was honored for her direction, and playwright Paula Vogel received a Lifetime Achievement Award. “Oslo,” which stars UC San Diego alum Robinson Mays, won for Best New American Theater Work. Director Bartlett Sher and the full company were honored for the ensemble. The new musical, “The Band’s Visit,” was written by Itamar Moses (“Bach at Leipzig”) and David Yazbek (“The Full Monty” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” among others), who are familiar with their work at The Old Globe. Be sure to watch the Tony Awards live on CBS Sunday, June 11. “Indecent” and “Oslo” are contenders, and in the musical category, among others, are “Anastasia” (directed by Darko Tresnjak, former Old Globe Shakespeare Festival artistic director) and “Come From Away” (Playhouse world premiere, directed by Christopher Riley) and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” directed by Jack O’Brien, artistic director emeritus, Old Globe Theatre. The new Roustabouts Theatre Co., which debuted so auspiciously with Will Cooper’s “Margin of Error,” continues its first season with two plays in repertory at Diversionary Theatre (4465 Park Blvd., 619-220-0097 or theroustabouts.org) writers/actors Phil Johnson and Omri Schein’s “Withering Heights” (June 11-July 9) and “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” (June 22-July 8), starring Monique Gaffney.
Do not miss New Village Arts’ beautiful production of Emily Mann’s “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years” (produced by La Jolla Playhouse in 1997). It plays through June 11 at New Village Arts, which is located at 2787 State St. in Carlsbad Village.
For more information, visit www.newvillagearts.org or call 760-433-3245.