One Man Star Wars Trilogy

Long ago (1977), in a city not all that far away (Toronto), a young padowan began his training. By the time he was 10 years old, Charlie Ross has seen Star Wars more than 400 times and committed nearly every line to memory. The Canadian actor was inspired (by a mad-fanboy Frisbee game) to create a 75-minute-long, one-actor stage adaptation of the epic trilogy. Spin magazine called the result “funnier than you could possibly imagine.”

Since he began touring in 2002, the padowan-turned-master has performed his theatrical oddity more than 1,200 times in more than 180 cities on four continents.

In a spectacle we’re figuring you have to see to believe, Ross portrays all the characters, sings music from John Williams’ award-winning scores, battles for both the Empire and the Alliance, flies the ships, and recreates the cutting-edge effects—solo. May the Force be with him.

One Man Star Wars opens at the GE Theater at Proctors (432 State St., Schenectady) tonight (Thursday, Jan. 22) at 7:30 PM and runs through Sunday (Jan.25). Tickets are $25. For more info, or to purchase tickets, call 346-6204 or visit proctors.org.

Quicksilver

“Everything old was once new.” Cliché? You bet. But as a way to think about, recontextualize and perform music that is almost 400 years old, this way of looking at things is not a bad strategy.

That’s the way Quicksilver, an early-music ensemble led by violinists Robert Mealy and Julie Andrijeski, approach what they argue is the “brilliant and virtuosic music from the avant-garde of the 1600s.” While troublemakers like Galileo were turning received scientific wisdom upside down, composers were experimenting with musical forms like that newfangled “sonata” thingy. Friday evening at EMPAC, Quicksilver promise to present this experimentation in a fresh way in the program Stile Moderno: New Music From the 17th Century.

Quicksilver will perform tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 23) at 8 PM at EMPAC (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy). Tickets are $5-$15. For more info, call 276-3921 or visit empac.rpi.edu.

Joshua Redman Trios

There must just be something about the number three. Pigs, bears, amigos, stooges: Some of the best things in life come in threes, surely not the least of which are jazz musicians.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman has stayed true to the holy trinity of the jazz trio for much of his career, so much so that devotees have been forced to pick a favorite of his two alternating rhythm sections: Brian Blade and Larry Grenadier, or Gregory Hutchinson and Reuben Rogers. Tomorrow (Friday), Redman will appeal to both sides of the aisle when he brings both ensembles—that’s right, two separate trios—to the Egg. If his new release Compass is any indication of what’s to come (and it should be, as this show is one of only four in which Redman will present both groups), the configuration isn’t going to make for a mere either/or performance; rather, the two trios will function as a ready-for-anything two-headed beast of a backing band.

Bring two of your best friends to the Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany) Friday (Jan. 23) at 8 PM. Tickets are $28. Call 473-1845 for more information.