Guild Theatre centennial concert series
Next February, Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre will mark its fifth anniversary as a concert venue, but for most of the other 95 years of its existence, The Guild was a movie house. To celebrate the theater’s 100th anniversary, the Peninsula Arts Guild on May 5 announced a centennial concert series that will take place from June through November.
The Guild, which opened on May 6, 1926, was a single-screen movie theater and in its later years, an art house showing independent films. Local nonprofit Peninsula Arts Guild renovated the theater into a concert venue between 2019 and 2021, and operates the theater, which features a variety of musical acts year round.
The centennial concert series features a dozen acts that reflect The Guild’s diverse booking strategy, including 1980s favorites The Psychedelic Furs, who open the series June 2-3; free-spirited country singer-songwriter-guitarist Margo Price (July 18); blues guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (July 30-31); power-pop rockers Bad Nerves (Aug. 6) and indie rock singer-songwriter Cat Power (Aug. 17). The series concludes Nov. 16 with ’90s alternative country rockers Son Volt.
The Guild’s past and present come together in the series’ one non-musical show: A June 14 screening of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show featuring accompanying performances by The Bawdy Caste. The event, a staple at The Guild Theatre in its movie house days, has also continued in the venue’s new incarnation, with “Rocky Horror” showings typically taking place a couple times a year.
“This series reflects exactly what we want The Guild to be known for: memorable nights, dynamic cultural programming, and artists that feel extra special to see in a room this intimate,” said Tom Hoppa, talent buyer for The Guild Theatre, said in a press release announcing the series. “We wanted the centennial season to feel celebratory, distinctive and deeply rooted in the spirit of the venue.”
Also featured in the series are Neal Francis (June 20); Buckethead (June 24); Tommy Emmanuel (Sept. 23): Jon McLaughlin (Oct. 14) and Shovels and Rope (Oct. 16). Additional anniversary programming will be announced later on, according to the release.
Along with the concert series, The Guild Theatre also launched a new Legacy Giving Circle to support the nonprofit venue. For a yearly $10,000 contribution, donors get exclusive perks, including early access to presale codes for all publicly ticketed shows and an invitation to a private mixer. Donations are tax deductible.
For more information, visit guildtheatre.com.
Four Shilings Short farewell tour
Longstanding Peninsula band Four Shillings Short recently announced that it will be embarking on its farewell tour this summer. The Celtic, folk and world music group, which marked its 40th anniversary in 2025, was founded in Palo Alto by Stanford University student Aodh Og O’Tuama from Ireland, and Palo Alto musician Ernest Kinsolving, and featured numerous area musicians over the years, according to a press release announcing the tour. In its early years, the group was a fixture at Palo Alto restaurant St. Michael’s Alley and a favorite at Peninsula festivals.
Four Shillings Short is currently a duo, made up of O’Tuama and Bay Area musician Christy Martin, who joined the ensemble in 1995 — a creative partnership that also became a personal one, as the pair married in 1996. Four Shillings Short performs about 80 concerts a year and has released 13 recordings.
The group’s final tour will be a lengthy one, kicking off July 18 at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Palo Alto and expected to last through winter 2028, as the duo revisits favorite towns and venues throughout the United States. After the tour wraps up, O’Tuama and Martin plan to retire to Ireland.
The pair will also be plenty busy this spring, leading music, history and folklore tours in Ireland this May and June.
For information about the group’s July 18 concert, contact fourshillingsshort@gmail.com or visit 4shillingsshort.com/shows.
Palo Alto Players’ 96th season
Last month, Palo Alto Players announced their 2026-27 season, a slate of shows that skew ever so slightly dark, but in the most delightful way.
The season kicks off with “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (Sept. 11-27), a musical dark comedy about a young commoner who, upon learning he’s eighth in line to inherit an earldom, engineers fatal “accidents” to kill off the other heirs.
Bridging Halloween and the holidays, the company stages “The Addams Family” (Oct. 30-Nov. 15), an original musical that finds the spooky Addams children grown into young adults, with sullen daughter Wednesday experimenting with smiling after she falls in love with a normal guy and brings him to meet her parents.
The company kicks off the new year with mysteries to ponder: Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with the rope? Was communism “just a red herring” in a series of murders at a dinner party where the guests are all blackmail victims? Find out with the slapstick comedy whodunit “Clue” (Jan. 15-31) based on the 1985 cult favorite movie inspired by the classic board game.
The Players bring a spoonful of sugar to their lineup with a sprightly musical perfect for spring: “Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical” (April 23-May 9). Disney added an array of memorable songs to its 1964 film adaptation of P.L. Travers’ books about a magical nanny who brings love and calm to a dysfunctional family in Edwardian London.
Just in time for summer, the company closes its season with “On Golden Pond” (June 11-27), about a couple who spend every summer at their beloved lake house, where they find themselves beginning to reckon with encroaching age but also welcome new energy into the family with a young visitor who stays for the summer.
Watch the company’s season announcement video or for more information, visit paplayers.org.
‘Drawing Breath’ call for entries
The exhibition space itself may be unusually small, but an upcoming exhibit for the Safe Box gallery at Redwood City’s Center for Creativity is asking people to think big — and optimistically. Artist Barbara Kibbe, as part of her “Drawing Breath Project,” is asking the public to contribute their thoughts on key issues for a summer show that will be on display as the United States marks its 250th anniversary.
Take part in the exhibition by sharing your answers to questions such as what future you want for your family, community or country, what’s worth preserving and what you think should change. Kibbe’s art will be shown inside in the Center for Creativity’s Safe Box gallery, an actual former safe that has been repurposed from storing money to showcasing valuables of a different kind. Submit your thoughts through June 30.
Learn more about the project and where to send your thoughts at rwccfc.org/community-events/drawing-breathe-affirmations.
