Three-day forecast

PERFORMANCE

Opening REDCAT

dumb type, the Japanese media and performance collective founded in 1987 in Kyoto, opens the inaugural season of REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater) with the Los Angeles debut of “Memorandum,” an interdisciplinary work exploring sensory overload and the mechanisms that control perceptions in a technology-driven society, followed by the U.S. premiere of “Voyage,” using sonic environments and a large-scale reflective installation to examine the unsettling effect of contemporary life’s shifting realities.

REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 2nd and Hope Streets, L.A. “Memorandum,” Tuesday-Sunday, 8:30 p.m. “Voyage,” Nov. 5-8, 8:30 p.m.; ends Nov. 8. $36 each. (213) 237-2800.

JAZZ

Starting from scratch

Steve Tyrell built a successful career as a record producer and songwriter starting in the 1960s, but his singing career took a fortuitous detour in 1991 when his vocals were featured on the end titles music for the Steve Martin picture, “Father of the Bride.” Tyrell produced the instrumental tracks for the Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields pop classic, “The Way You Look Tonight,” and the film’s producers liked Tyrell’s scratch vocal so much they decided to use it in the final cut. And the rest is show biz history. Tyrell’s latest CD, “This Guy’s In Love” is scheduled to be in stores later this month.

Steve Tyrell, Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Friday, 8 p.m. $35. (310) 506-4522.

POP MUSIC

Quick tour of the U.S.

Portishead singer Beth Gibbons’ collaboration with ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb, a.k.a. Rustin Man, “Out of Season,” earned them some flat-out raves when it came out in Europe last year. Only now is this emotionally dark, sparsely acoustic work being released stateside, and Gibbons and Webb are on a quick U.S. tour with members of both groups backing them.

Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man, Avalon, 1735 N. Vine St., Hollywood. Sunday, 8 p.m. $25. (213) 467-4571.

DESIGN

A container to call home

Housing costs in Southern California may be spiraling, but New York-based architects Giuseppe Lignano and Ada Tolla may have found a solution in their “Mobile Dwelling Unit (MDU).” The partnership, known as LOT-EK, has transformed a standard shipping container into a functioning living space that can be easily transported by truck, rail or cargo ship. Animation, films, research data and construction drawings leading to the finished product are also on display.

LOT-EK: Mobile Dwelling Unit (MDU), University Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara. Noon-5 p.m. Also, Wednesday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Ends Dec. 7. (805) 893-7564.

MUSIC

Kissin at Disney Hall

Russian superstar pianist Evgeny Kissin opens the Colburn Celebrity Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall with a demanding program of music by Schubert and Liszt. The recital will include Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat, four Schubert lieder, as arranged for piano solo by Liszt, and Liszt’s “Petrarch’s Sonnet No. 104” and “Mephisto” Waltz, No. 1.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. $30 to $75. (323) 850-2000.

MOVIES

Old-school French

In rural villages throughout France, there still exist schools where one teacher instructs one class of students, from 3 to 11 years old, in all subjects. Nicolas Philibert’s engaging documentary “To Be and to Have,” shot in the region of Aurergne, focuses on one such institution, its dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, and his dozen students as they navigate education in a distinctly “old school”-style.

“To Be and to Have,” unrated, opens Friday exclusively at the Landmark Westside Pavilion Cinemas, Pico Boulevard, between Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue, West L.A. (310) 281-8223.

DANCE

Letting it flow freely

A Buddhist proverb about the moon reflected in water, and the tai chi admonition that energy should flow organically like water, inspired visionary choreographer Lin Hwai-min to create the distinctively liquid “Moon Water,” for his 30-year-old contemporary company, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Premiered in 1998, the full-evening work is danced to selections from Bach’s six suites for solo cello: a marriage of Eastern sensibilities and Western accompaniment performed by a 24-dancer ensemble that the London Times called “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theatre.”

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in “Moon Water,” Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. $20 (students) to $45. (310) 825-2101.

FESTIVAL

Behind the masks

The Craft and Folk Art Museum presents its 26th annual International Festival of Masks on Sunday at the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. The annual event brings together cultural organizations, other museums and community groups to celebrate the cultural diversity of Los Angeles through the theme of the mask. The festival will begin and end with a parade of masks, plus there will be mask-making workshops, international music and dance performances and a wide variety of ethnic food and craft booths.

International Festival of Masks, Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. (323) 937-4230.

PHOTO

Masterful focus

The large-scale nudes created of a muted palette of translucent flesh and the bluish tracings of veins suggests, in lighting and composition, the old masters. Annie Leibovitz: Nudes, the artistry of a camera lens and its operator’s incomparable eye for portraits, accomplishes with photography what Lucien Freud and Pierre Bonnard did with their paintings.

Annie Leibovitz: Nudes, Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 N. La Brea Ave., L.A. (323) 934-2550. Opening reception tonight, 7. Also, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Ends Dec. 6. (323) 934-2250.

THEATER

Mexico’s Chaplin

Culture Clash’s Herbert Siguenza performs in the Southern California premiere of his play, “Cantinflas,” based on the life and career of legendary comic film actor Mario Moreno, the Charlie Chaplin of Mexico.

Cerritos Center, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. Opens Wednesday. Runs Wednesday

-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; ends Nov. 2. $25. (562) 916-8501.

JAZZ

Trumpeter sounds off

Trumpeter Tom Harrell brings his quintet to the Jazz Bakery this weekend. Harrell has achieved a singular notoriety for being one of jazz’s premiere trumpeters while battling against paranoid schizophrenia. He started his career working with such greats as Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Horace Silver, Gil Evans, Lee Konitz and Charlie Haden. Harrell started leading his own ensembles in 1989 and was named jazz trumpeter of the year by Downbeat Readers Poll twice in the 1990s. His latest CD, “Wise Children” was released last month and it features guest performances by Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Claudia Acuna, Jane Monheit, Howard Johnson and others. Harrell’s quintet includes saxman Jimmy Greene, pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Quincy Davis.

Tom Harrell Quintet, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Today-Sunday, 8 and 9:30 p.m. $25. Information: (310) 271-9039.