If you're looking to take in a little culture with friends and family, the Bay Area offers up a plethora of choices this holiday season. 

Berkeley's Black Rep extends latest show

This weekend only - Nov. 25-27 - Berkeley Black Repertory Group extends its 48th season opening show "Tamborines to Glory" by Langston Hughes - a classic musical, following the efforts of two women from Harlem, street preachers who start a storefront church.

Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets or by phoning the box office at (510) 652-2120. 

Bay Area Children's Theater adapts books to plays

Many Americans are familiar with the entertaining Pippi Longstocking books, penned by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Myles Nye and the cast of "Emil of Lonneberga" introduce us to another of Lingren's creations about a clever, 5-year-old lad who just can't keep out of trouble. The company also performs "Rudolph the Ugly Ducking" in San Ramon this December and at Children's Fairyland when weather improves.

Berkeley's Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse hosts 2 p.m. shows of "Emil ... " throughout December. Check the site for exact dates.

Family-friendly 'World's Funniest Bubble Show' continues at Berkeley Marsh 

Featuring "The Amazing Bubble Man" (aka Louis Pearl), this show features all kinds of bubblicious fun including flying saucer bubbles, square bubbles filled with fog, universe bubbles with orbiting planets and bubble chains that look like centipedes. There’s lots of audience participation and some lucky kids will find themselves inside bubbles, while others will even get to eat them.

All shows are at The Marsh TheaterStage, 2120 Allston Way, in Berkeley. Discounts are available for children and parties of four or more.

Shows are at 11 a.m. Sundays through Dec. 31, as well as a special holiday show TODAY, Saturday, Nov. 26.

Marsh San Francisco extends Don Reed's new show, 'The Kipling Hotel'

The play chronicles the true story of Reed’s collegiate and Tinseltown misadventures in the electric-pink '80s. As the awkward son of a pimp struggling with college and a merciless Hollywood, Reed tried being a stripper and a gigolo – but ended up as a live-in waiter at an unforgettable retirement hotel, breakfast-sandwiched between the elderly, employee drifters and drug-addicted dreamers.

Reed, a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Nominee and NAACP Double Nominee for Best Actor & Best Playwright, is the writer, director and playwright of one of the longest running solo shows in Bay Area History – the highly regarded "EAST 14th," which closed at The Marsh after a two-and-a-half year run earlier this year. Reed has performed, written and directed for film, television and theater. He is currently the opening act/warm-up comedian for "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and just closed a deal with a new FOX television comedy.

San Francisco's Lorraine Hainsbury Theater holiday shows are a perennial favorite

This year, it will premiere an original play by Ron Stacker Thompson - "Rejoice," a musical retelling of the biblical nativity story. Previews will be held on Dec 8-9, then performances will continue from the Dec. 10 to the end of the month, at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, with afternoon matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and 4 p.m and Sundays.

Thompson is an award-winning writer and producer, who's work includes "Hoodlum," "Sister Act 2," "To Sleep with Anger," "Grand Canyon" and many others. He founded the Oakland Ensemble Theater and taught at Lake Merritt College for 12 years. His latest play features music and lyrics by Nolan Shaheed who has worked with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Phil Collins. 

Director Margo Hall is a founding member of Campo Santo, a resident theater company at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, dedicated to producing new plays by people of color. She also was featured in Chinaka Hodges' play "Mirrors in Every Corner." 

Tickets going fast for touring NY musical 'Fela!'

His story inspired a nation. His music inspires the world. "FELA!" tells the true story of the legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation. Motivated by his mother, a civil rights champion, he defied a corrupt and oppressive military government and devoted his life and music to the struggle for freedom and human dignity.

The show is running at the Curran Theatre through Dec. 11. Shows are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Saturdays, and tickets are available online and are sure to sell out soon. 

'The Chalk Boy' is a twisted comedy for men, women to enjoy

Impact Theatre shows of "The Chalk Boy" are at 8pm, Thursdays through Saturdays until Dec. 10 at La Val's Subterranean in Berkeley. 

If you miss pizza and a beer while watching a movie at the Parkway, this may be the perfect show for you. The play follows four local high school girls who are struggling with the disappearance of a male classmate. (Note: This location is not accessible for people in wheelchairs or for whom a flight of stairs is prohibitive.) 

Support an Oakland company while getting your funny bone tickled

Oakland's improv company, the Pan Theater is dark for Thanksgiving week, but returns to it's regular show schedule during the first week of December. Friday tickets are sold only at the door, but every Saturday's improv show can be bought in advance here.