The altered sound of a wine glass inspired Sayaka Yabuki’s latest piece, “Water and Wine.” The composition, which combines a chamber ensemble with live looping, has its world premiere January 15 as part of New Music Works’ first Night of the Emerging Composers at UC Santa Cruz’s Music Center Recital Hall. Also on the program are the world premieres of Remy Le Boeuf’s “The Third Elegy” and Stan Poplin’s “Detour,” along with Noah Meites’ “Bioskop.”

The four movements of “Water and Wine” take the listener on a 15-minute journey through liquid sound — from the frozen essence of Movement I to the boiling turbulence of the last movement — using violin, theremin, musical glasses, vibraphone, double bass, trumpet, percussion and looping….

Strip Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol down to its bones and you’ll find the story of a haunted man who comes to terms with his past and finds redemption. It’s that essence that director Andrew Ceglio wants audiences to find in his production of Scrooge, through January 3 at Cabrillo College’s Crocker Theater.

“It isn’t a Christmas show,” Ceglio said of the Cabrillo Stage production. “It’s a ghost story with Christmas as the main setting.”

The musical, by Leslie Bricusse of Dr. Doolitte fame, takes audiences through the life of misanthropic miser Ebenezer Scrooge via visitations by three spirits on Christmas Eve….

Gina Marie Hayes was five years old when she first saw Camelot. It was the first stage musical the native Santa Cruzian, now the founder and producing artistic director of Red Egg Theater, ever saw.

The show, with its magic and mystery, was a turning point in her life. “From then on, it was complete and utter dedication to theater.”

Now Hayes is putting her own spin on the knights of the Round Table with (puppet)Camelot, December 23 through 27 at Actors’ Theatre. A preview of the family-friendly Red Egg Theater production will be held 7: 30 p.m. December 15 at Capitola Book Cafe….

So this is Santa Cruz. And what have we done? Another year of holiday shows and traditions just begun. Stages around town carry proof through the night that there’s always something to bring seasonal delight. A complete day-by-day listing of holiday events — without rewritten John Lennon lyrics — can be found here.

WE THREE SHOWS….
A play, a musical and a ballet bring out different aspects of the holiday season for Santa Cruz theatergoers.

A killer wielding a candy cane rocks the caroling community of Seattle in The Last Noel, winner of the Actors’ Theatre Full Length Play Contest…

Somewhere in the middle of each Michelle Chappel performance comes the moment when she looks into the audience and asks “Do you have a dream? What is it?” Following your passion is of the utmost importance to the singer-songwriter, whose fifth album Shine was released earlier this year. If Chappel hadn’t followed her bliss, she would still be teaching college psychology instead of singing December 6 at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall.

It’s been more than a decade since Chappel discovered her musical inclinations, and five years since she taught her last class at UC Santa Cruz, where she was once named “Most Inspirational Professor of Psychology….”

Before Mark Morris’ The Hard Nut, before Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!, choreographer Tandy Beal revamped Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with a modern twist. Her latest version, Mixed Nutz, is a colorful confection of circus performers, acrobats and dancers set to an a capella score by the Bay Area group SoVoSo. Mixed Nutz plays UC Santa Cruz’s Mainstage Theater weekends through December 6.

“This is really a bon bon of visual delights for the audience,” said Beal, who was named a Dance Icon of the West by the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum in 2005….

Most first-time directors would start small. Perhaps with a one-act performed one-night only in a venue that seats 20. Not Alan Fox. By day a successful executive recruiter for non-profits including the national Red Cross, Fox chose John C. Picardi’s full-length World War II-era tragicomedy The Sweepers for his directorial debut.

It wasn’t enough to simply rent out 62-seat Broadway Theatre for six performances November 6 through 15. Instead, Fox decided there should be more entertainment for the crowd. He convinced local Italian restaurants to do a sampling of hors d’oeuvres during intermission and plans to have costumed/in-character actors show audience members to their seats while music by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Duke Ellington plays….

Unexpected relationships define Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson’s duo of one acts, The Great Nebula in Orion and A Bethrothal. And in some ways, it was another unexpected relationship that brought the two plays, in chamber musical form, to Jewel Theatre artistic director Julie James.

James, last seen on stage as the title character in the company’s production of Sylvia, took time from her busy schedule directing the two musicals (which open November 5) to answer questions via email for Weekend Santa Cruz…

The guitar glides through plucked and drummed rhythms, pulling the listener into the “Cat o’ Nine Tails Waltz.” The tune, by guitarist/composer Sweeney Schragg, is on jazz trio Quasimodal’s sophomore CD of original tunes, Discordia Concors, which has its official release at Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Thursday (October 29).

With the upcoming CD release in mind, Schragg agreed to answer a few questions for Weekend Santa Cruz….

Music that moves. That’s what Barry Green intends to perform Friday (October 23) at UC Santa Cruz. But the professor, who has taught double bass at the university since 1996, is pushing beyond basic rhythm.

“I wanted to experiment with finding a way for an audience to break the tradition of sitting there and essentially listening with you head, with your intellect,” said Green, who plans to get people out of their seats using video clips of dance between pieces to “put music into the audience’s bodies….”