Robert Israel

San Diego will be the only Southern California stop for El Teatro de la Esperanza's production of "Hijos: Once a Family." The show, which will be performed partly in English and partly in Spanish, tells the story of a Texas family who moves to Los Angeles in the hope of "making it," only to have the children grow ashamed of their roots. Staging is scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday at Chula Vista Junior High School Auditorium.

In a tribute to the 100th anniversary of Hollywood, the silent film, "The Vanishing American" will be screened at Paramount Ranch in Agoura next Friday. The 1926 film will be shown at 8 p.m. in the open-air pavilion on the 300-acre ranch whose standing set of a typical old Western town is often used for filming. The showing is sponsored jointly by the National Park Service and the Silent Society, an organization that preserves historical films that are educational and entertaining.

Each year in the United States, 650,000 women undergo hysterectomies. When performed in the conventional manner, a hysterectomy usually requires three to five days of hospitalization and a month or more recuperation time. But a newer technique using a laparoscope (a special telescope-like viewing instrument inserted through the abdominal wall) can minimize hospitalization and recovery time. Here, two experts comment on conventional versus laparoscopic hysterectomies: Dr.

Historians estimate that one-half to two-thirds of the films made before 1950 have disappeared. For animation from the silent era, the toll is probably even higher--which makes tonight's program of animated shorts in the "Fourth Annual Festival of Preservation" at UCLA such a treat for anyone interested the medium: The Academy Foundation staff has assembled a group of early animated films that have long been unavailable or existed only in worn, faded prints.

"Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928) considered one of Buster Keaton's finest comedies, will be shown Saturday night at the Yorba Linda Forum, accompanied by an original score written and played by noted silent film organist Robert Israel. The movie, made just two years after Keaton's recognized masterpiece "The General," was his last independent feature. Despite critical raves, "Steamboat Bill, Jr."

Nine years after its world premiere in Rotterdam, and following U.S. stagings in New York, Chicago and Seattle, Philip Glass' controversial and haunting "Satyagraha" finally reached California this week, courtesy of San Francisco Opera. David Pountney's original production (re-staged here by Harry Silverstein) and Robert Israel's designs occupy the War Memorial Opera House handsomely. The performance, conducted once again by Bruce Ferden, puts across Glass' extended meditation on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi in an aura of compelling visual and musical images.

Trained as an artist, with extensive experience in European avant-garde theater, Marsha Ginsberg, 35, describes her work as "a cross between architecture and art installations, not traditional theater design."

Hugo Ekback, Moorpark College humanities and English professor, figures that just about everyone could use a good laugh. And what better way to elicit that response than through some of the funniest silent films. That's what he'll be doing when he takes his turn in the Moorpark College Faculty Lecture Series on Wednesday. But be forewarned, Ekback won't be lecturing.

One thing's for sure with "Frank Loesser's Hans Christian Andersen": You will believe a Dane can fly. For in truth we have here "Martha Clarke's Frank Loesser's Hans Christian Andersen," and everyone in this half-crazy, elegant misfire spends 50% of their stage time above the stage, not on it--floating figments of its subject's tortured romantic imagination.

Robert Brustein, the esteemed critic and artistic director at the American Repertory Theatre, has many talents. Comedy is not chief among them. His idea for a klezmer musical based on a play by Isaac Bashevis Singer (which in turn was based on Singer's stories for children) resulted in "Shlemiel the First," which opened Wednesday night at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood.