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
