🎭The Show Must Go On! 9/21/25

Hi Everyone!

It’s really exciting when classroom learning spills over into real life. Having a dedicated space to discuss readings is one thing, but being able to bring those ideas into everyday conversations feels totally different. Recently, I was talking with a first-grade teacher and found myself bringing up critical pedagogy, comparing the traditional “banking model” (lectures, the classic classroom setup) with the “problem-posing model,” where teachers and students work together as co-creators of knowledge. What made the conversation even more interesting was learning that their school had just shifted the social studies curriculum more towards a model similar to the “problem-posing” model by asking students questions and guiding them to discover answers on their own. I can’t wait to share this in class next week!

Now, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

This week is Bay Area Theater Week, a celebration of the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area, put on by the local non-profit Theater Bay Area. During the event, there are discounted and free shows and events, all to support local artists and theaters by wishing them to 'break a leg.' While we would go to an actual production (more on that later), they started the week by having a behind-the-scenes tour of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, including the Veterans Building (home of the Green Room and the Herbst Theater), the SF Opera House, and the Davies Symphony Hall.

Along the way, we learned about the history of the buildings, like how the Herbst Theater was the place where the UN charter was signed. We also looked at some of the architectural features present in the buildings, such as the 88 windows of the Davies Symphony Hall, one for each key of a piano, the SF Opera House’s chandlier, which is the first use of aluminum as an architectural feature in the world, and the overwhelmingly gaudy 11 and a half pounds of gold leaf used to decorate the theaters.

Additionally, we learned about some of the technologies that have been adopted by the theaters, such as sound-dampening systems and automated lighting and stage hoist systems. The tour also covered some of the practical limitations of the technologies adopted, too. For instance, the Opera originally used gigantic CRT TVs to display the conductor, as flat screens would have resulted in a second delay, and anyone who plays music knows the importance of staying in time.

In the music library of the Davies Symphony Hall, we talked to the head librarian about the intricacies of licensing music, especially for movie in concert shows, which they have been doing more and more of to attract a younger audience.

Don’t be starstruck, but my favorite part of the tour was being able to get on all three stages!

The next adventure was another museum.

I feel like most people are familiar with the Painted Ladies, whether it be from Full House, The Five-Year Engagement, or any of the other movies or TV shows in which it has appeared. For the first time, the Pink Painted Lady opened up to the public for a pop-up museum for the San Franciscan street artist fnnch. fnnch’s philosophy is all about bringing art to the 95% of people who do not go to art museums, as well as to change the perception of the public space as a canvas for art. With these guiding principles, fnnch’s medium is mostly street art, but fnnch is probably most well known for the Honey Bear. This museum is a retrospective of fnnch’s Honey Bear paintings over the past 10 years and includes 116 pieces.

My good friend Hunter is a big Broadway theater guy and goes to plenty of plays and musicals. One of the ones that he could not give higher praise was Shucked,  comparing it to Book of Mormon, which I consider to be one of the all-time musical comedy greats. I have been on the lookout for a national tour, and it finally came to SF Broadway! What’s more is that there was a special young professionals’ night, which included a networking event with unlimited drinks, and a post-show after party with members of the cast.

I am delighted to say that even with such high expectations, Shucked lived up to the hype, even if it did not exceed it. In fact, I would say that if I had to describe the musical in one word, it would be: corny. I do not want to give too much away, but the premise is about a small town girl who goes to the big city for help when her town’s corn crop starts dying. However, the small town was set in a fictional Cobb County, and as someone who grew up in the real one in Georgia, I couldn’t help but flinch when hearing lines like, “No one ever leaves Cobb County”.

To kick off our weekend, we headed to the Lafayette Art and Wine Festival. Once a year, the town shuts down its downtown streets and transforms them into a celebration of handmade crafts and local gastronomy. It is also one of the largest annual events in Contra Costa County (drawing an estimated 85,000 visitors in 2024).

The sheer variety of artists blew us away. Honestly, I thought it was far better than the Walnut Creek Art and Wine Festival. We spent nearly four hours wandering the booths, and even then, it felt like we only saw a fraction of what was there. Still, we managed to find a couple of beautiful pieces to bring home.

For lunch, we stopped at Roam Burgers, and the autumn menu didn’t disappoint. I had a pretzel bun burger paired with a pumpkin pie shake, which felt perfectly seasonal and indulgent after hours of browsing art.

Don’t think just because this newsletter is focused on the finer things in life, that you were going to get out of another baseball section. Some people might even argue that baseball is the theater of the masses.

In actuality, we were not originally planning on going to a game this week, but things changed when the Oakland Ballers made it to the Pioneer League championship.

The Oakland Ballers have had a spectacular season, winning 73 games and only losing 23. This is a winning percentage of .760, and is the best record in the Pioneer League. What’s more, according to the owners Bryan and Paul, only three teams in the entire history of baseball have had higher regular-season win percentages: the 1929 Monarchs (.808), the 1943 Grays (.792), and the 1906 Chicago Cubs (.763).

We went to Game 4 of 5. The Ballers were down in the series with one win against the Idaho Falls Chukars, with two wins in the series. It was a tight match, with the Chukars up until around the 6th inning, when the Ballers started doing what they do best, Ballin’. As the dust settled, Oakland Ballers won the match 8-3 and forced a game 5. I think it’s been pretty awesome to see Oakland rally around this team, and that this is the first year with the Athletics gone, the Ballers have seen such success.

Spoiler alert: the Ballers won the game 5 and are the 2025 Pioneer League Champions!

To finish out the week, I played some Magic: The Gathering with a Spider-Man twist.

With the release of the MTG Spider-Man crossover set, I decided to play in the prerelease tournament this weekend, and I got Connor to join me for a 2v2 format known as 2-Headed Giant. We have been trying to coordinate a 2-Headed Giant tournament together for quite some time now. We did manage to link up our schedules about a year ago, but when we arrived, we found out that no one else signed up for the tournament except for two 10-year-olds, whom we decisively crushed. That is the way of the game, though. Sometimes you are clobbering a 10-year-old opponent, and other times a 10-year-old is clobbering you. We went 2-1, and unfortunately, our one loss was in fact to a ten-year-old.

I was surprised at how few people were at the tournament. Normally, prereleases are crowded and chaotic. Today, though, I could actually hear myself think. Connor and I asked around about the low attendance, and people cited two reasons. The first was set fatigue with so many Magic: The Gathering product releases in the past year. The other one was card design-related. I think some people aren’t happy about the quality of the set. They believe that cards like “City Pigeon” and “Bagel and Schmear” are an affront to Magic’s card ecosystem. Now, I am not the biggest MTG fan, but I think casting a bagel is objectively hilarious.

We recently watched The Office’s spin-off, The Paper. We really enjoyed the first season, however, there is one scene with the managing editor of the online newspaper, Esmeralda, where she shares her ethos on her writing, and its something that I think completely captures the vision of “What’s Up With Will”.