This week, Stanford Live features a new look at "Frankenstein," JoVia Armstrong and Eunoia Society return to Earthwise Productions, Sitkovetsky Trio comes to Music@Menlo to help launch a statewide classical festival, Alec Lytle & Them Rounders headline a "locals night" at The Guild, visitors can get hands-on with art activities at Cubberley open studios and "Sweeney Todd" sets up shop in Sunnyvale.

Manual Cinema’s ‘Frankenstein’

Performance collective Manual Cinema visits Stanford to present its version of the sci-fi horror classic "Frankenstein.” The show incorporates puppetry, live music and cinematic techniques while interweaving the biography of author Mary Shelley in with the gothic tale. “The real-life and fictional narratives of Shelley, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster expose how family, community and education shape personhood – or destroy it by their absence,” according to Stanford Live. The show is recommended for ages 8 and up. After the performance, audiences are invited to come up on stage, ask the cast questions about their work and take a closer look at the puppets.

Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 5 at 2:30 p.m. at Bing Concert Hall, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford. Tickets start at $32. live.stanford.edu.

JoVia Armstrong and Eunoia Society

Percussionist, composer and bandleader JoVia Armstrong's current project, Eunoia Society, offers a dreamy place to reside for an evening. The experimental trio's contemplative, mellow-but-energized improvisational songs are grounded in jazz but soar off to touch many other sonic planes, with a heavy use of effects bringing an otherworldly ambience to the music. Armstrong returns to Earthwise Productions with Eunoia Society, following an appearance this spring, for a CD release party. Eunoia Society released its sophomore album, "Inception," this summer.

Nov. 3, 8 p.m. Tickets are $18. Palo Alto Art Center, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto. eventbrite.com.

Sitkovetsky Trio at Music@Menlo

Music@Menlo's flagship event may be a three-week summer festival, but the chamber music organization presents concerts and other programming throughout the year. Case in point: Music@Menlo is hosting a performance that's part of a festival taking place statewide. A joint creation of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and San Diego Symphony, the inaugural California Festival brings together over 50 organizations from around the state to celebrate new music. As part of the festival, the Sitkovetsky Trio returns to Music@Menlo on Nov. 3 for a program highlighting "Etched in Smoke and Light," a new work they commissioned from composer Julia Adolphe in 2022. "The rest of the program features the Great Romantics; Edvard Grieg, Cecile Chaminade; a trailblazer for female composers in the 19th Century; and we finish the program with Felix Mendelssohn‘s 2nd Piano Trio, undoubtedly one of his finest and most dramatic works," according to notes from the trio on the Music@Menlo website.

Nov. 3, 7 p.m. at St. Bede's Church, Menlo Park. $30-$65. music@menlo.org.

Alec Lytle & Them Rounders

Indie folk/Americana artist Alec Lytle and his band Them Rounders will be joined by Bay Area rock‘n’roll duo Effie Zilch and singer-songwriter Megan Keely for what the Guild Theatre is billing as a “locals night” event. According to his website, Lytle lives with his family in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in a house he designed and built, and takes inspiration from the redwood forest surrounding him. His video for “The Mountain” was filmed at The Mountain House restaurant in Woodside. Effie Zilch is a rootsy collaboration between longtime friends (Grammy winner Steve Wyreman and Evanne Barcenas) and San Francisco artist Keely has released multiple albums over the years, including 2022’s gentle “Companion,” recorded entirely from her home.

Nov. 3, 8 p.m. at The Guild Theatre, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park. Tickets are $28. guildtheatre.com.

Cubberley open studios

Palo Alto’s Cubberley Artist Studio Program (CASP) welcomes the public to take a peek into its art studios to meet more than 20 participating artists and check out their work. The first 200 visitors can score free Risograph prints during ArtUp Palo Alto. Free prints are also available at the Rinconada Library and Palo Alto Art Center, among other community locations, leading up to the event. Two of the participating CASP artists – Darryl Dieckman and Robin Mullery – will host a “FrankenStuffie” workshop in Studio F5 from 2 to 4 p.m. Attendees can nab a donated stuffed animal (or bring along one of their own) to dissect and then reassemble it into a one-of-a-kind fuzzy creation. CASP is a city-sponsored program that offers local artists rent-subsidized studio space in exchange for community service and programming.

Nov. 4, 1-5 p.m., at Cubberley Community Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto (studios located in the E, F and U wings). Free. cityofpaloalto.org.

Sweeney Todd

Perfectly timed for this spooky season, the Sunnyvale Community Players are bringing the Demon Barber of Fleet Street to the local stage. The company is staging the Stephen Sondheim musical about a barber in Victorian London whose bloodthirsty quest for vengeance against a corrupt judge ends up piling up a number of bodies and stocking the larder of his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, a meat-pie baker by trade. The show, with its, ahem, razor-sharp dark humor, has become a classic, and is known for standout songs such as "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "Johanna" and "Pretty Women."

Thursdays-Sundays through Nov. 12 at the Sunnyvale Theatre, 550 E. Remington Drive, Sunnyvale. Tickets are $28.50-$47.50. sunnyvaleplayers.org.