7 Days In Arts

Saturday

Actors with names like Jos and Johan fill the screen of the James Bridges Theater, as the Dutch Film Festival alights on UCLA’s campus this weekend. The films all conform to the festival’s theme, “Heroes, Traitors and Collaborators: The Netherlands Under Nazi Occupation.” UCLA and Utrecht University are co-sponsors.

10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (Saturday), 10:30 a.m.-5:55 p.m. (Sunday). Prices per screening: $5 (general), $3 (seniors and UCLA staff), $2 (students). $20 (all-screening pass). James Bridges Theater, UCLA. For more information, visit www.dutchfilmfestival.org.

Sunday

“Chasid Goes Hollywood” is our suggested alternate title to “The Emissary,” the official and very proper title for Harry Karp’s play, currently running at the Working Stage Theater. The story centers around David, a young man who abandons his Brooklyn Lubavitcher community for a life in secular Los Angeles after the death of his mother. His obligation to lead the saying of “Kaddish” for his mother gives the play it’s real title, which, we guess, also works.

Runs through Oct. 6. 2 p.m. (Sundays), 8 p.m. (Friday and Saturday). $15 (general). Senior, union and group discounts available. Working Stage Theater, 1516 N. Gardner St., West Hollywood. For reservations, call (310) 230-1784.

Monday

Artists Benjamin Strauss and Homer Peyton had the endorsements of a Funny Girl and a Jazz Singer. Fanny Brice and Al Jolson were both admirers of their pencil- and crayon-enhanced photographic portraits. Spanning two decades, Strauss and Peyton’s works make up the “Art and Artifice” exhibit from the Stephen White II Collection. The works are now available for viewing, by appointment only, at the Bell Family Gallery.

Runs through Dec. 20. The Jewish Federation, 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For reservations, call (323) 761-8352.

Tuesday

If history is any indication, Chava Alberstein isn’t likely to disappoint her audience tonight. When the widely celebrated Israeli folk singer played Royce Hall two years ago, she gave ’em five encore songs before calling it quits. This time around, make sure you catch her peacenik vibe as she returns to the Royce stage tonight. It’s your only chance before she moves on to our oft-forgotten Southern peeps in Gainesville, Fla., and beyond.

8 p.m. $15-$35. Royce Hall, UCLA. For reservations, call (310) 825-2101.

Wednesday

You may just want to pitch a tent by Royce Hall, as the fun continues tonight. This time, you’ve got Jewish banjoist extraordinaire Bela Fleck, with his band, the Flecktones, performing as part of the Verizon Music Festival. With their eclectic amalgam of bluegrass, jazz and pop flavors, they’ve won the respect of musicians like Amy Grant, John Medeski and the Dave Matthews Band, all of whom have contributed to the Flecktones’ albums. The Flecktones, in turn, have toured with Dave’s band, and Fleck himself is featured on “Before These Crowded Streets.”

8 p.m. $25-$40. Royce Hall, UCLA. For reservations, call (213) 365-3500.

Thursday

Reviewers have been calling “Diamond Men” a gem since the small independent film came to their attention last year. This week, the rest of us get a look at the goods as it opens in three L.A. theaters. Robert Forster plays an aging diamond seller in this adaptation of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” Readers of a certain generation may be interested to know that cast in the role of the younger diamond man is ex-New Kids on the Block bad boy Donnie Wahlberg. That is, unless Jordan or Joey was your favorite.

Pacific Arclight Hollywood Theater, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. For more information, call (323) 464-4226. Pacific Galleria, 15301 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. For more information, call (818) 501-5121. Pacific Paseo, 336 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 568-8888.

Friday

Rounding out the week is another Holocaust-inspired film. This one, called “radically minimalist and uncompromising” by the folks over at the American Cinematheque, is also likely best left to the true film buffs and Holocaust scholars. Part of the Cinematheque’s retrospective, “Beyond the Mainstream: A Tribute to Director Romauld Karamakar In-Person,” “The Himmler Project” is a three-hour experimental documentary in which actor Manfred Zapatka reads Heinrich Himmler’s 1943 speech to SS Officers in Posen. The film screens tonight, with an introduction by the German director himself.

In German with English subtitles. 7 p.m. $8 (general), $7 (seniors and students), $6 (members). The Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. For more information, call (323) 461-2020.