Opening Night

GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann on Friday predicted California would side with Republicans in 2012, a distinct improbability given voting registration trends and recent history in the Golden State. "I'm here to announce to you tonight, we will take our country back in 2012 and together we will make Barack Obama a one-term president," Bachmann told about 400 people at a dinner at the California Republican Party convention. "President Obama's numbers are the lowest they have ever been and I'm just here to say they haven't hit rock bottom yet. I think Election Day in 2012 will probably be the lowest they are yet, that's why I know … that we have got a message and we have got a winning streak," she said.

"I'm in a play called 'This.' " "OK, what is it called?" "No, no, it's called 'This.' " "Yes? What? It's called what?" With a lighthearted laugh, Eisa Davis says she often encounters this response when revealing that she is in a new production of "This," which recently opened at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The perplexity may be fitting for the universe playwright Melissa James Gibson has created: a world of confusion in which close friends enter a vulnerable time of unforeseen circumstances testing their expectations -- a time also known as middle age. Davis' work as an actor and a playwright has contributed to a textured career.

Reporting from Encinitas, Calif. ? On opening night of Alison Saar's exhibition and residency at the Lux Art Institute in Encinitas, sculptures stood on the floor and on pedestals, hung from the ceiling and were mounted on the wall, much like any of her gallery installations. But in one corner lay a dozen planks of Douglas fir, laminated into a solid block and held together by furniture clamps. By the end of Saar's monthlong working retreat, which concludeded last week, that lumber had come to life, and in place of the artist's materials and a cartful of tools stood a figure of compelling presence: a woman, slightly larger than life-size, carved in wood and clad in patches of copper.

Acting on the assumption that it is better to release its schedule before the season actually begins, Major League Soccer did just that Thursday. Better late than never. For Chivas USA, the newly minted seven-month regular-season schedule includes a stern challenge ? a nine-game stretch beginning July 31 that includes seven road games. "We have a tough stretch in the middle of the season, toward the middle and end of the summer, when the guys generally in this league start to get worn down a little bit," said Greg Vanney, Chivas assistant coach.

For the Dodgers, opening day is coming earlier ? and will be more like opening night. Their season opener against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium has been moved up a day, from April 1 to March 31, to accommodate ESPN, which wanted the defending World Series champions to play in the last of the three games it will televise nationally that day. The game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m., later than the traditional opening-day contest....

Where else but Los Angeles could the names in the audience be as familiar as those onstage? Witness the Nov. 28 opening for "Next to Normal," the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical at the Ahmanson Theatre . The guests included Keely and Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Camryn Manheim, Sarah Silverman, Rob Corddry, Tracie Thoms of "Cold Case," Adam Brody of "The O.C.," Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Sarah Hyland of "Modern Family" and Billie...

What: Mercury Insurance Open Where: La Costa resort, Carlsbad Monday night schedule Not before 7 p.m. Alona Bondarenko, Ukraine, vs. Dinara Safina, Russia; Su-Wei Hsieh, Taipei, and Meghann Shaughnessy vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, and Vera Zvonareva, Russia.

MOVIES Open Projector Night The Sklar Brothers host an evening of short films (less than 10 minutes each) by novice auteurs in a wide range of genres and formats. Per the museum, filmmakers should think "showdown" rather than "showcase." Submissions accepted at 7 p.m.; screenings at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Free. (310) 443-7000. hammer.ucla.edu. JAZZ Terence Blanchard The jazz composer scored many of Spike Lee's best films, but the hard bop artist first cut his teeth as a player with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

The After-School All-Stars — a tax-exempt group founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 1990s to provide tutoring, recreation and other programs for poor children — has now grown to provide after-school programs for 81,000 middle and high school students at 450 campuses around the country. And Schwarzenegger continues to support the organization. Speaking at the Feb. 18 "Reaching for the Stars" gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, he said, "I will always be part of raising the money … organizing and helping the committee and promoting it nationwide."

If ever a show could be said to beggar description, it is "An Oak Tree," now in its Los Angeles premiere at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. A British import that received an Obie Special Citation during its off-Broadway run, the play was written by theater artist Tim Crouch, who co-directed it with a smit and Karl James. The premise of Crouch's two-person piece sounds deceptively simple: A stage hypnotist (Crouch) solicits a volunteer from the audience, initially unaware that the individual is the father of the 12-year-old girl he ran over and killed three months ago. Here's the wrinkle.