Two new series — American Heritage music, leading off with Bo Diddley, and a lineup of "provocative" speakers — exemplify how Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts is building on its strengths and moving in new directions, too, for its recently announced fifth season, center officials say.

"We are continuing to do the things we do really well, and trying to explore some new ways to connect to the campus and community," spokesman Joe Martin said during an interview to promote the 2006-07 season, which begins in September.

Mondavi Center planned a media event and members reception earlier this week to showcase the new season and its 108 performances by 73 artists, groups and speakers. They include:

• "Don't Worry, Be Happy" vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the exuberant Lang Lang on piano.
• The Philadelphia Orchestra and the SFJAZZ Collective.
• Batsheva's Deca Dance and the Limon Dance Company.
• Former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, and undersea adventurer Robert Ballard.
• Presentations of Romeo and Juliet and The Pirates of Penzance.
• The "scrumptious" Willy Wonka stage show and MOMIX dancers and illusionists, with a program titled Lunar Sea.

The season also includes a nighttime show and two matinees by Cirque Éloize, which plans to reprise the Rain production that sold out three times at Mondavi a year ago. Tap dancer Savion Glover also is scheduled to return, but not with the funk music that he danced to in 2003; this time he plans to tap to the classics, including music by Vivaldi, Bach and Mendelssohn, performed with a live orchestra.

New and unique this season is SUPER VISION, which combines video, digital animation, an architectural set, electronic music and a live performance "to explore living in a post-private society," the Mondavi brochure states.

Several pre-performance and post-performance lectures are once again part of the schedule, along with The Forum@MC, a series of free panel discussions with some of the artists and speakers coming to Mondavi. The season also includes 16 school matinees.

The American Heritage series, dedicated to the country's musical roots, will focus on the blues in 2006-07, Martin said. Diddley comes first, Sept. 22, and is the first of the new Mondavi season.

Also in the American Heritage series: Taj Mahal and Los Lobos on the same bill; guitarist John Scofield with a tribute to Ray Charles; and singer Shemekia Copeland.

"We do have Bo Diddley, but that doesn't mean we're not going to do orchestras too," said Martin, noting the Classics lineup of three U.S. symphonies — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati — and two from Russia.

Other musical offerings are in these series: Improvisations, Studio Jazz, Concert, New Music, Global Beat, Mozart and Debut, Mozart, Jazz, Global Beat, New Music and Debut.

Provocations is the new speaker series, set to debut Nov. 13 with Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay.

Mondavi already presents Distinguished Speakers, the longest-running and most successful such series in the region, according to Martin. The Distinguished Speakers series started at UC Davis 17 years ago and moved to Mondavi when it opened in 2001.

Martin said many of Mondavi's speaking engagements are the result of campus partnerships: "We turned to faculty and asked, 'Who would you love to see, what have you got?' "

The Provocations series also includes a joint presentation by New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America), with a program titled "The Theatre of Politics and the Politics of Theatre."

The third speaker is Mira Nair, an Indian film director-writer-producer, best known for Monsoon Wedding.

The Distinguished Speakers series includes Kim Phuc, the focus of a Pulitzer prize-winning photograph from the Vietnam War: She is the girl seen screaming and running, naked, after having been hit by napalm. Her program is titled "Learning to Forgive" and will be accompanied by a War and Photojournalism exhibition at the Nelson Gallery from Jan. 4 to March 18.

Ticket information

Mondavi Center announced that it will start processing members' subscription requests at 9 a.m. today and other subscription requests at 2 p.m. today.

The deadline to submit subscription renewal forms is June 10; after that, seating arrangements from previous seasons cannot be guaranteed.

Nonsubscription ticket sales are set to begin Aug. 20.

Subscribers receive a 15 percent discount for all series except Global Beat, and can add other events for the same discount. A 10 percent discount is offered for choose-your-own series of five or more events; Global Beat subscriptions are sold on the choose-your-own plan.

Membership and subscription information is available at www.mondaviarts.org. Box office: (530) 754-2787 or toll-free (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org