Betty, Buffy, Craig Jessup, Shocktoberfest, Terror-Rama onstage Oct. 20-23

Here are a few offerings of what’s onstage this weekend:

Amateurs: Notre Dame de Namur’s Department of Theatre stages Tom Griffin’s quirky comedy about the desires and hopes of guests at an opening night party of a New England community theater group. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20-22, free. 1500 Ralston Ave., Belmont, (650) 508-3456

Betty Buckley: The Tony Award-winning Broadway legend appears in her new show “Story Songs,” an eclectic set including music by Radiohead, Stephen Schwartz and Jason Robert Brown. 8 p.m. Oct. 21, $75-$95. Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St., S.F., www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Buffy the Vampire Slayer LIVE!: D’Arcy Drollinger and company present the satirical drag makeover of one of the biggest cult sci-fi sensations of all time. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 7 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, through Oct. 31, $21. Oasis, 298 11th St., S.F., www.sfoasis.com

Craig Jessup: In “Taking a Chance on Love,” the Bay Area cabaret singer performs tunes by some the greatest songwriters from the Great American Songbook — Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Burton Lane and Vernon Duke. 8 p.m. Oct. 21, $20-$35. 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, www.throckmortontheatre.org

David Ford: The Bay Area’s “dean of solo performance” appears in a talk called “The Land Of Somebody Cares: A Practical Hermeneutics Of Meaning As It Applies To The Artist.” 1 p.m. Oct. 22, $20-$100. Marsh, 1062 Valencia St., S.F., www.themarsh.org

The Hard Problem: Carey Perloff directs Tom Stoppard’s latest play, which takes on genetics, academia and the very nature of the soul. Oct. 19-Nov. 13, $10-$105. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., S.F. www.act-sf.org

Every 28 Hours: The series of one-minute plays, featuring contributions by dozens of Bay Area artists, is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Opens Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. most Thursdays-Saturdays, through Nov. 12, $5-$50. PianoFight, 144 Taylor St., S.F., www.pianofight.com

On the Verge (Or the Geography of Yearning): Dragon Theatre presents the play by Eric Overmyer about three Victorian female explorers who adventure in Africa and the Himalayas. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 6, $25-$30. 2120 Broadway, Redwood City, www.dragonproductions.net

Shocktoberfest 17: Pyramid of Freaks: Thrillpeddlers, the wildly fun and inventive troupe known for staging Grand Guignol thrillers, presents its annual fall “extravaganza of terror and titillation. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, plus Oct. 30-31, through Nov. 19. $30-$35. Hypnodrome, 575 10th St., S.F., www.hypnodrome.org

Terror-Rama 2-Prom Night: Awesome Theatre serves up a “hilarious, bloody” double bill of world-premiere horror plays: “Purity” by Claire Ann Rice and “Sexy Vampire Academy” by Anthony R. Miller. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, through Oct. 29, $20-$25. PianoFight, 144 Taylor St., S.F. www.pianofight.com

Trouble Bubbles at the Hot Springs: San Leandro Players present the “rollicking musical melodrama” in which professor Thaddeus Snavely Mack returns to do dastardly deeds with colorful characters in San Leandro’s Estudillo House Hotel in 1898. 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 20, $15-$20. San Leandro Museum/Auditorium, 320 West Estudillo Ave, San Leandro, www.slplayers.org

Buffy the Vampire Slayer LIVE!Calendar Craig Jessup David Ford Hard Problem On the Verge (Or the Geography of Yearning San Leandro Players Shocktoberfest 17: Pyramid of Freaks Theater

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