VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : SATURDAY

GUITAR CONCERT

Classical Concerts will open a four-part performance series at the Civic Arts Plaza Forum Theatre with The Falla Guitar Trio taking the stage at 8 p.m. Terry Graves, Kenton Youngstrom and Dusan Bogdanovic will present a program that includes original works, plus pieces by Bach, Granados, Bartok and others.

Tickets are $22 and available at the theater box office, Classical Concerts, 371-1652, or Ticketmaster, 583-8700. Series tickets, $80. Other concerts include pianist Lisa Spector (Feb. 10), Russian baritone Nicolai Massenkoff (March 23) and the Classical Concerts Chamber Orchestra (April 13). For more information, call Classical Concerts at the number mentioned above.

SUNDAY

OJAI FILM SOCIETY

Mikhail Kalatozov’s acclaimed poetic epic “I Am Cuba” (1964) will open the Ojai Film Society’s new season of weekly screenings at the Ojai Playhouse, 145 E. Ojai Ave. Co-written by Cuban novelist Enrique Pineda Barnet and renowned poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko--author of the poem that gives the film its title--the movie had not been shown outside the Soviet Union or Cuba until it was presented at the Telluride Film Festival in 1992.

Set in 1958 during the reign of dictator Fulgencio Batista, the film was commissioned by the Soviet government to honor Fidel Castro’s revolution. Told in four parts, each episode illustrates a different aspect of Cuba’s transition from capitalist decadence to Marxist purity. Tickets: $6.50. Information: 646-8946.

AT THE CIRCUS

In the New Pickle Family Circus audience-participation performance “Jump Cuts, the Circus Goes to the Movies,” the hapless clown Razz and his pint-size partner Pino embark on a burlesque odyssey through a movie studio, where clowns and acrobats wreak havoc, and reels of film come to life.

Presented by the Ventura County Children’s Festival at the Civic Arts Plaza Auditorium at 7 p.m., the acclaimed touring circus theater is replete with acrobats, Asian-style daredevil balancing acts, theater, live jazz music and more. Tickets: adults $24 and $19, children $15 and $9. Tickets are available at the theater box office and Ticketmaster, 583-8700. Information: 646-6997.

UP THE COAST

* The Lobero and Cielo foundations will present “Peter and the Wolf” at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara. Prokofiev’s 1936 musical tale about a little boy, his grumpy grandfather, three animal friends and a fierce wolf has been used for decades to teach kids the sounds of orchestra instruments. Here, storyteller Michael Katz and gang, and the West Coast Symphony preside. Tickets: $20, $15 senior citizens and students, $10 children. Information: 963-0761.

* When UC Santa Barbara professor Ted Hatlen went to Tokyo in 1950 to set up University of California courses for United States military forces, he discovered the work of a fledgling artist named Kiyoshi Saito. In the more than four decades since Hatlen’s visit, Saito has become one of the world’s foremost woodblock artists, recalling his homeland in views of Japanese gardens, temples and its people. An exhibit of Saito’s work, featuring 20 pieces from Hatlen’s personal collection, will open Monday and continue through February at Westmont College’s Reynolds Gallery in Santa Barbara. Gallery hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Information: 565-6051.