Playhouse Village Association

Monopole Wine by RX: Yacht Rock Sing-Along
2024-12-19 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Monopole Wine By RX, 21 S. El Molino Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Join Monopole by Wine RX for a smooth evening of classic Yacht Rock hits, featuring Tim Kobza on guitar and vocals, with Nina Lares adding her soulful voice to the mix. Sing along to your favorite easy-listening tunes while enjoying a glass (or two!) of fine wine in a cozy, relaxed atmosphere. There’s no cover charge, but a two-glass minimum is required to keep the good vibes flowing! Follow Monopole on Instagram for more events.

Third@First: Christmas Joy Concert
2024-12-21 16:00 - 17:00 | First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
The First UMC choirs and instrumental ensembles team up for this annual celebration of seasonal music. Carols old and new will be performed by the Chancel Choir, handbells, pipe organ, piano ensembles and more. Enjoy a few “Sing-Alongs” for the whole audience!

Vroman's Bookstore: Vroman’s and PJ Library present Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story by Naomi Howland
2024-12-22 11:00 - 12:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Vroman’s is celebrating Hanukkah by partnering with PJ Library to present a very special Storytime featuring Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story by Naomi Howland.
Sadie and her four little brothers are very poor and always hungry. On the first night of Chanukah, Sadie performs a generous act, and in turn receives a frying pan that cooks up sizzling hot, golden latkes on command. Sadie tells her brothers never to use the magic pan, but when she goes out one afternoon, the mischievous boys can’t resist. They remember the words to start the pan cooking . . . but what were the words to make it stop? This humorous tale of generosity and greed is accompanied by bright, cheerful illustrations depicting a traditional Russian village. An author’s note and a recipe for Sadie’s latkes are included.
PJ Library sends free high-quality Jewish children’s books to families every month. These stories spark conversations that inspire the whole family to explore and celebrate what they love about Jewish life.
The program was created by the nonprofit Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) in keeping with its mission to help people connect to Jewish values, traditions, and culture while building vibrant Jewish communities. The HGF partners with local Jewish organizations to fund PJ Library and make it available in their community.

Vroman's Bookstore: Storytime with Mr. Steve and Miss Marie!
2025-01-08 11:00 - 11:45 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Mr. Steve and the gang host story time every Wednesday at 11 AM in the upstairs children’s section of Vroman’s Bookstore.

Vroman’s Ed – Romance Writing Class with Amy Spalding (8 weeks)
2025-01-09 18:30 - 20:30 | Atrium Building, 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Have you always wanted to write your own HEA (that’s a happily-ever-after)? This class is for anyone interested in writing a romance novel—or who’s started one but feels like they need some help getting to that happy ending! In this 8-week course, bestselling author Amy Spalding will teach you the fundamentals of romance novels.
(Please note: this 8 week class will be held on Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm – *1/9, 1/16, 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, and 3/6, with no class on 2/27)

The Mixx Pasadena: BOWIE BALL - The Ultimate Live David Bowie Experience
2025-01-10 20:00 | The Mixx, 443 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
The Mixx Pasadena invites music lovers to the 2nd Annual Bowie Ball, a glamorous celebration of the life and legacy of David Bowie. Guests are encouraged to embrace their inner starman with dazzling costumes, dance the night away to iconic Bowie hits, and enjoy an unforgettable evening of live music and creative energy.

Pasadena Heritage: The Art Deco Architecture of the Playhouse Village
2025-01-11 12:00 | Pasadena Heritage, The Blinn House 160 N Oakland Ave, Pasadena, 91101, United States
Tickets: $22 members | $25 nonmembers
The Pasadena Playhouse Historic District contains approximately 34 buildings, which represent the eastward growth of the City’s urban core during the 1920s and 1930s, after Pasadena’s economy had changed from agriculture to tourism. During this period of development, Art Deco architecture was gaining popularity and was the chosen style for several commercial buildings in the District. This walking tour includes some notable landmarks designed in the style, including the Scottish Rite Temple, the United Artist Theater, and the Warner Building plus many other notable buildings of the period that are on the route. Join us as we explore Art Deco in this historic district (both old and new!), learn about the prominent architects behind their design, and hear about Pasadena Heritage’s involvement in the preservation and development of these buildings!
Tours last approximately 1.5 hours with a walking distance of approximately 1 mile. For the comfort of all our guests, dogs are not permitted on Pasadena Heritage walking tours.
* PASADENA HERITAGE MEMBERS: To redeem your membership discount, click the orange “Get Tickets” button and type the discount code MEMBER in the promo code field at the top of the ticket window. If you have difficulty purchasing your member tickets, please contact Bridget Lawlor at bridget@pasadenaheritage.org or 626-441-6333 x.102.

Vroman's Bookstore: Robert Crais discusses The Big Empty
2025-01-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, race to find a terrifying, unidentified killer in this twisting, unpredictable thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.
Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now, ten years later, Traci is a high-profile influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire the best detective she can find: Elvis Cole.
Elvis heads to Rancha where an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a gang of vicious criminals, the missing persons cold case becomes far more sinister.
Elvis calls his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, for help, and they follow Tommy Beller’s trail into the depths of a monstrous, hidden evil. The case flips on its head, victims become predators, predators become prey, and the question becomes: Can Elvis Cole save them all from this nightmare?

Vroman's Bookstore: Matthew Kennedy discusses On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide
2025-01-14 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
In the oceans of ink devoted to the monumental movie star/businesswoman/political activist Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (1932-2011), her beauty and not-so-private life frequently overshadowed her movies. While she knew how to generate publicity like no other, her personal life is set aside in this volume in favor of her professional oeuvre and unique screen dynamism. In On Elizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide, her marriages, illnesses, media firestorms, perfume empire, violet eyes, and AIDS advocacy take a back seat to Elizabeth Taylor, the actress.

Vroman's Bookstore: Gayle Forman discusses After Life
2025-01-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It’s just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber’s mom sees her, she screams. Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle, she’s inexplicably riding now.
This return doesn’t only impact Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber’s estranged parents are battling over her. And the changes ripple farther and farther out: Amber’s friends, boyfriend, and even people she met only once have been deeply affected by her life and death. In the midst of everyone’s turmoil, Amber is struggling with herself. What kind of person was she? How and why was she given this second chance?
This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.

Vroman's Bookstore: Jami Attenberg, in conversation with Maggie Shipstead, discuss A Reason to See You Again
2025-01-16 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn.
Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of twenty-one to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her.
But they each learn in different ways that running from the past can’t save you—and then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward.
Beginning in the 1970s and spanning forty years, A Reason to See You Again takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through motherhood, the American workforce, the tech industry, the self-help movement, inherited trauma, the ever-evolving ways we communicate with one another, and the many unexpected forms that love can take.

Vroman's Bookstore: Deb Miller Landau discusses A Devil Went Down to Georgia
2025-01-17 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
A riveting narrative that pieces together the life and murder of Black socialite Lita McClinton Sullivan—and the journey to bring her true killer to justice.
In A Devil Went Down to Georgia, award-winning writer Deb Miller Landau details the shocking events that followed Lita’s murder in 1987, including the surprising lack of evidence, racial bias in the justice system, and the international manhunt for Lita’s killer. Full of twists and turns, legal battles, and the McClinton family’s unrelenting dedication to justice, Landau’s rigorous investigation is the first complete account of this tragic American crime.

Ice House Comedy Club: Eric Schwartz Fire Relief Benefit Show
2025-01-17 19:45 - 21:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Eric Schwartz Fire Relief Benefit Show. The show starts at 7:45 p.m. 21+ and has a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Sean Porter and Friends
2025-01-17 21:45 - 23:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice Comedy presents Sean Porter and Friends. Ice House doors open at 6:30pm Seating in the showroom begins 30 minutes before showtime. Show starts at 9:45pm. 21+ only with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Vroman's Bookstore: Christine Mari discusses Halfway There
2025-01-18 14:00 - 15:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
A poignant young adult graphic memoir that follows one teen’s year abroad in Japan, as she seeks to reconcile both sides of her biracial identity.
Christine has always felt she is just half: Half American, half Japanese. As a biracial Japanese American who was born in Tokyo but raised in the US, she knows all too well what it’s like to be a part of two different worlds but never feeling as though you belong to either.
Now on the brink of adulthood, Christine decides it’s time to return to the place she once called home. So she sets forth on a year abroad in Tokyo, believing that this is where she truly belongs. After years of feeling like an outsider, now she will finally be complete.
Except…Tokyo isn’t the answer she thought it would be. Instead of fitting in, Christine finds herself a fish out of water, as being half of two cultures isolates her in ways she’d never imagined. All she can do is try to stay afloat for the rest of the year—still figuring out who she is, what she wants in life, and whether she’ll ever truly be more than halfway there.

Ice House Comedy: Deez Nutz
2025-01-18 16:30 - 18:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Deez Nutz! Young stand-up comedians in SoCal gather to perform at the renowned IceHouse of Pasadena! Don’t miss the chance to see the rising stars of the comedy scene. Live in the California Room! 21+ only with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Orny Adams
2025-01-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Orny Adams. LIVE IN THE LEGENDARY ROOM! The show starts at 7:00pm. 21+ with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Home by 9 Comedy Show
2025-01-18 19:30 - 21:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Home by 9 Comedy Show. The show starts at 7:30pm. 21+ only with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Shindig Show & Frankie Quinones: Benefit Show for Eaton Fire
2025-01-18 21:00 - 22:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
This Shindig Show with Frankie Quinones and Paul Rodriguez headlining will go to benefit the Eaton Fire Relief Fund. If you would like to donate directly to help victims of the Eaton Fire go to: www.PasadenaCF.Org

Ice House Comedy: Jerry Garcia, Jonathan Kite, Dean Delray
2025-01-18 21:30 - 23:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Jerry Garcia, Jonathan Kite, Dean Delray. The show starts at 9:30pm. 21+ only with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House: New World Disorder
2025-01-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents New World Disorder with Francesca Fiorentini! LIVE IN THE CALIFORNIA ROOM! Ice House doors open at 7:00pm. Seating in sthe howroom begins 30 minutes prior to showtime. The show Starts at 8:00pm. 21+ with a 2-item minimum per seat.
Help kiss Democracy buh-bye with comedian and podcast host Francesca Fiorentini & her hand-picked crop of powerhouse comics. Come laugh to not cry as we mark Trump’s ascension to power and all our jokes might soon be illegal! Remember, laughter is the best form of solidarity.

Vroman's Bookstore: Jessica Graham discusses Being (Sick) Enough: Thoughts on Invisible Illness, Childhood Trauma, and Living Well When Surviving Is Hard
2025-01-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Wise and witty essays on navigating pain, sex, trauma, spirituality, addiction, recovery, and grief from queer neurodivergent trauma resolution guide Jessica Graham. In an unapologetic look at living well with chronic illness, writer and meditation teacher Jessica Graham offers smart, funny, raw, and mindful insights on untangling—and embracing—the messy realities of being a human alive on this planet today.
Graham gives us permission to accept care—and accept that it’s ok to want care. They weave together personal stories and practical wisdom, grounded in their queer, chronically ill, and neurodivergent identities. They offer their take on managing symptoms, getting creative, setting boundaries, and healing from ableist tropes like “you don’t look that sick” and “we’re all a little ADHD.”
Graham also shares vulnerable personal history: the adverse childhood experiences that rewired their body and brain. The workaholism and addictions that kept their pain lying just below the surface. How illness and trauma intersect to obscure the knowledge that we’re each enough, wholly as we are.
Graham explores the parts of chronic illness life that don’t get enough airtime: how can we center sex and pleasure when pain gets in the way? How can we live well…while living through late-stage capitalist hell? How can we come into relationship with our pain without falling prey to self-blame, magical thinking, or toxic positivity?
Wise and embodied, fearless and necessary, Being (Sick) Enough is both a wild awakening and a love letter to your whole self: the pains and suffering, joys and brightness, and vital connections that hold each of us as we navigate what it means to be here, like this, right now.

Vroman's Bookstore: Whodunnit Wednesday: Kemper Donovan and Nicholas George discuss Loose Lips and A Lethal Walk in Lakeland
2025-01-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Loose Lips
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. So goes the adage, but sometimes, even a first-rate ghostwriter and successful mystery author needs to make a buck. Even if that means setting foot on a cruise ship, something she vowed she’d never do. To top it off, the “Get Lit Cruise” is being organized by Payton Garrett, a very popular, bestselling author—and the ghostwriter’s long-time frenemy from back in their MFA days.
Over the years, Payton has reinvented herself. She gained a wife while ditching her journalist husband—who is also on board. And she’s acquired a rabid following who eagerly snapped up the invitations sent to a select few of her newsletter subscribers. The guests, all female, will receive personalized instruction from experts in five different writing genres, while basking in Payton’s reflected glow.
Between mentoring guests, flirting with Payton’s ex, and taking bets on how long before someone performs a reenactment of Titanic’s “I’m flying!” scene (answer: not long enough), there’s plenty to keep a ghostwriter occupied. But there’s one activity nobody expected: solving a murder.
When an attendee is found dead under suspicious circumstances and several others suffer symptoms of poisoning, there are numerous motives and suspects to choose from. But could it be that the victim wasn’t even the intended target? As the body count rises along with onboard tensions, no one is safe—except, perhaps, for a killer whose scruples have long abandoned ship. And of course, like every well-plotted mystery, this one has an extra twist . . .

A Lethal Walk in Lakeland
Chase has two compelling reasons for returning to England—a group walk along the famed Coast to Coast trail in the picturesque Lake District, and a chance to further his relationship with Mike, the handsome Devonshire doctor he met on his last trip. The walkers, including Chase’s dear friend and fellow Anglophile Billie Mondreau, assemble at a Whitehaven hotel and begin their adventure with the traditional “baptism of the boots” in St. Bee’s Bay. But they’ve barely begun traveling eastward with their genial guide than the group dynamics turns unexpectedly rocky.
The problem is the Uptons—a wealthy family who have arrived from Texas, and whose squabbling antics continually overshadow the bucolic surroundings. Brock Upton, tall and commanding, is traveling with his pint-sized wife and his three siblings, along with a family friend. Every member of the party cites a different reason for joining the tour, and Chase’s instincts tell him they’re all lying.
Brock’s heart condition hinders their progress through the Lake District’s hills and dales. But that proves the least of their problems when one of the Uptons is fatally poisoned. Years of secrets and grudges emerge, along with a decades-old family mystery. And only Chase’s investigative expertise can find the answers—and uncover a killer in their midst before tragedy befalls the tour again . . .

Ice House Comedy: New World Disorder w/Francesca Fiorentini
2025-01-22 19:30 - 21:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Help kiss Democracy buh-bye with comedian and podcast host Francesca Fiorentini & her hand-picked crop of powerhouse comics. Come laugh to not cry as we mark Trump’s ascension to power and all our jokes might soon be illegal! Remember, laughter is the best form of solidarity. Featuring: Francesca Fiorentini Host of The Bitchuation Room Podcast
As seen on MSNBC, AJ+, The Young Turks, Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Ice House Comedy: Wednesday's at the DL w/ DL Hughley & friends
2025-01-22 20:00 - 21:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Famed comedian DL Hughley is bringing a one-of-a-kind residency to the Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena, CA this summer. Billed as “Wednesdays at the DL with DL Hughley and Friends”, the show will be a weekly show every Wednesday night at 8:00pm. The show Starts at 8pm. 21+ with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Mas Locos w/Willie Barcena & friends
2025-01-23 20:00 - 21:30 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Mas Locos is a show featuring some of the most successful and talented Latino comedians in the world. It also introduces you to the next generation of Latino comics stepping into the spotlight of comedy. The show is hosted by the hilarious Willie Barcena.

Ice House Comedy: TJ (Tanael Joachim)
2025-01-24 19:45 - 21:15 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
TJ (Tanael Joachim) is a Haitian-born stand-up comedian currently based in New York City. TJ has a very laid-back, smooth, and conversational style. He jokes about race, society’s idiosyncrasies, and the inherent contrast between life in Haiti and America. He has appeared on Gotham Comedy Live (AXS TV) and Good Day New York (FOX). The show starts at 7:45pm. 21+ only with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Ice House Comedy: Auguste Derose-Jones & Jokers: Eaton Fire Show
2025-01-24 21:30 - 23:00 | Ice House Comedy Club, 24 N Mentor Ave, Pasadena, CA, 91106
Ice House Comedy presents Auguste Derose-Jones & Jokers. The show Starts at 9:30pm. 21+ with a 2-item minimum per seat.

Vroman's Ed - Fiction Writing Class with Diana Wagman (8 weeks)
2025-01-25 10:30 - 12:00 | Atrium Building, 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
(This 8-week class will be held on Saturdays from 10:30am-12:30pm except for 2/1 & 3/1, which will be from 9:30am-11:30am. Class meets on the following dates: 1/25, 2/1, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 3/1, 3/8, and 3/15.)
This Fiction Writing Class is for writers interested in working on short stories or a novel. There will be an optional weekly exercise and suggested readings, but it is predominately a workshop to discuss and advance each other’s work, concentrating on the elements that make fiction compelling: character, point of view, setting and description, conflict and resolution. Each writer will share work twice, the ultimate goal being a complete short story or a novel chapter.
Diana Wagman is the author of six novels. Her second, Spontaneous, won the 2001 PEN West Award for Fiction. Her fourth, The Care & Feeding of Exotic Pets, was very briefly a best seller. She has had many short stories and essays published, most recently in Conjunctions and Prairie Schooner, and is an occasional contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has taught as adjunct faculty across southern California, from Loyola Marymount to CalArts to Cal State San Bernardino.
TO SIGN UP FOR THIS WRITING CLASS, PLEASE CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE AT (626)449-5320 BY 1/24/25.
*This class will be held on the following dates – 1/25, 2/1, 2/8, 2/15, 2/22, 3/1, 3/8, and 3/15. All classes will take place in the Vroman’s Meeting Room located next door to Vroman’s Main Store in the Atrium at 709 E. Colorado Blvd. Suite 120.
If for any reason you cannot attend this set of classes you have signed up for, please give 24 hour notice, before the first class, of your cancelation in order to receive a refund.

Vroman's Bookstore: Wendy Little presents A Frog Named Toulouse
2025-01-25 11:00 - 12:00 | Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91101, United States
Toulouse has a hunch Chef might want him for lunch! Toulouse the Frog is hopping along when he encounters a chef who wants to use his legs for a stew. Oh dear! See what happens when Toulouse tries to convince Chef not to use him as an ingredient in his dish. A delightfully fun book to read aloud!
