BEST BETS Thursday 6/1

IRVINE

8pm

Dance

For the first time in its 17-year history, the St. Joseph Ballet has invited a guest choreographer to create works for the inner-city Santa Ana-based youth company. Melanie Rios, a Kennedy Center Latin American Fellow, has choreographed “Embraceable You” and “All Heaven Broke Loose,” to be premiered at this spring concert. Completing the program will be “Uh-Huh!” and “A Seed,” created by company founder, Beth Burns.

* St. Joseph Ballet, Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive. 8 p.m. Also Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. $10-$30. (949) 854-4646.

IRVINE

8:30pm

Comedy

Comic-ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who plays straight man to a cast of colorful characters, is known for his quick wit and interaction with audiences. His onstage pals are known for their colorful personalities. There’s the endearingly lovable terror, Peanut, a fuzzy purple “Woozle”; Jose, the self-belittling jalapeno; and Walter, the grumpy old man everyone loves to hate. How grumpy is Walter? After returning from his second honeymoon at Disneyland, he grumbled that “They should turn ‘It’s a Small World’ into an international shooting gallery.”

* Jeff Dunham and friends, Irvine Improv, 71 Fortune Drive. 8:30 p.m. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7, 9 and 11 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. $15-$17. (949) 854-5455.

IRVINE

8pm

Theater

The better and worse angels of our nature have done battle since the dawn of humanity. “The Castle of Perseverance,” first performed around 1400, is one of the earliest works in English to give that struggle theatrical shape. The UC Irvine drama department presents what is billed as the American premiere of this allegorical oldie in a verse adaptation by Edgar Schell, a UCI English professor. Like its younger and better-known cousin, “Everyman,” “The Castle of Perseverance” is a morality play that traces the rocky path to salvation.

* “The Castle of Perseverance,” adapted by Edgar Schell, at Claire Trevor Bren Theatre Stage, West Peltason Drive and Mesa Road, UC Irvine. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturday, June 10, 2 p.m. $6 to $10. Ends June 10. (949) 824-2787 or artstix@uci.edu.