Busy San Jose weekend includes theater openings, food festival

The last weekend in September is shaping up to be busy in San Jose, with two downtown theaters opening their seasons and the MACLA gallery hosting a special three-night-only performance.

• MACLA, formally known as Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, is presenting “Riding the Currents of the Wilding Wind,” an immersive theatrical concert directed by Kendra Ware that is the brainchild of Grammy award-winning musical director Martha Gonzalez of the band Quetzal, in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Virginia Grise. The show — which explores the complexities of gentrification and identity, blending storytelling and live music — draws from the novel, “Their Dogs Came with Them” by Helena Maria Viramontes. The music is a mix of Mexican and Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz, funk, rock and gospel.

The show — which plays Sept. 27-29 at MACLA’s Castellano Playhouse — is a National Performance Network Creation Fund project co-commissioned by MACLA and several national partners.

• City Lights Theater Company is opening its season Saturday night with “An Inspector Calls,” a thriller directed by Mark Anderson Phillips about a family gathering that takes a turn when an inspector appears with news of a young woman’s death. City Lights’ nonprofit partner on the show, which runs through Oct. 20, is homeless provider PATH, and that group will give a curtain speech at the Oct. 4 performance. Two other events worth noting: A talkback with the director and cast will follow the 2 p.m. matinee on Oct. 6, and masks are required on Oct. 13.

By the way, this season City Lights has added Saturday matinees and moved its Thursday night performances to 7:30 p.m.

• Jonathan Rhys Williams is making a quick return to San Jose Stage Company to open its season Saturday night with “The Smuggler,” a one-man thriller written in rhyme by Ronán Noone. It’s directed by Johnny Moreno, who also directed Williams in the season-closing musical, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” in June, but this time around Williams will have the stage all to himself as an Irish immigrant bartender working through some dark issues. The show runs through Oct. 13 at The Stage, 490 S. First St.

• The inaugural Tully East Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday outside in the Eastridge Center parking lot near Aloha Fun Center. A collaboration among the Tully Road Eastridge Business Association (TREBA), San Jose Made and Moveable Feast, the festival will feature more than 150 makers, artists, food trucks and community booths, along with live performances and an outdoor kitten lounge set up by Mini Cat Town. It’s free to attend and runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.