Art and Jazz returns to Delray, local muralists make their marks, and Alice falls down a cirque rabbit hole. Plus, a groundbreaking LGBTQ play, an awards show for the UFO set and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY
What: Art & Jazz on the Avenue
When: 6 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: The Ave neighborhood, Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/243-1077, downtowndelraybeach.com
The latest iteration of this cherished downtown Delray tradition returns with another nearly four-hour program of live music, live art, children’s activities and food and craft vendors—this time at the Ave neighborhood, on East Atlantic from Swinton to Northeast Fifth Street. Four visual artists will be painting murals in real time, and there will be no less than five musical artists performing on four stages to satisfy sundry tastes. Groove merchants Spider Cherry will perform at Tin Roof; the Mylon Shambles Quartet will play R&B/pop at the intersection of Northeast and Southeast Second Avenue; rockers the Flyers will take the stage at Johnnie Brown’s; and the Wine Room Kitchen & Bar will welcome the classic jazz/swing revue Ginetta’s Vendetta followed by the funky jazz of Derek Mac 4 Piece. Our advice? Become an Art & Jazz nomad and try to see a little of everybody.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: The Foundry, 2306 Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors
Cost: $37.50
Contact: 954/826-8790, ronnielarsen.com
The time is long overdue for a professional production of this landmark work by Jane Chambers, the first mainstream play to explore the lives of lesbians with nuance, compassion and three-dimensionality. It’s set in the titular lesbian colony, where eight women—among them a groundbreaking feminist writer, a wealthy blueblood, a sculptor and a second-wave feminist—spent a momentous summer together, alongside a woman with a shattering health secret, and another who, at the play’s outset, is ostensibly straight and has just left her husband. Chambers premiered “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove” at the inaugural Gay American Arts Festival in 1980, and it has since achieved cult status. This production, part of Wilton Theatre Factory’s new “Women of Wilton” offshoot, is directed by Nicole Stodard, and runs through Aug. 20.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
What: Delray Walls Mural Fest
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Park at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/243-1077, downtowndelraybeach.com
The Delray Beach DDA isn’t just hiring artists to create beautiful new murals for the city—it’s turning the very act of their making into an illuminating and entertaining family-friendly event. On Friday and Saturday, a dozen muralists will transform blank wooden canvases at Old School Square Park into vibrant, eye-catching creations that will later be moved to various locations throughout the city. A tribute to the pioneering graffiti art of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the two-day event will also feature spotlight talks from the Amphitheater stage and children’s activities, and South Florida reggae rockers the Resolvers will play a free concert at the Amphitheater on Friday night. Attendees can explore more of the muralists’ work at the “Delray Walls Artist Showcase,” opening Friday at the Cornell Art Museum and running through November.
What: “Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Cirque Adventure”
When: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscyane Blvd., Miami
Cost: $39-$100
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
Nobody ever accused Lewis Carrol’s “The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland” is not being adventurous or out there enough. And yet here we have an adaptation of the psych-literature classic that does, indeed, go further down the creative rabbit hole, reimagining the title girl’s odyssey as a theatrical cirque spectacular. You’ll get to experience all your favorite supporting characters, from the White Rabbit and Mad Hatter to the Cheshire Cat, Blue Caterpillar and Queen of Hearts, only this time they’ll be played by acrobats, aerialists, dancers, contortionists and jugglers. If anyone can pull off this ambitious concept, it’s the pros behind this production, whose credits include Cirque du Soleil, “America’s Got Talent” and films such as “The Greatest Showman.” The show also features a live original score by Grammy-winning composer LC Powell.
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Screenings of “Afire”
When: 6 p.m. Friday, 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
Cost: $9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.org
At first blush, this latest feature from the great German director Christian Petzold (“Phoenix,” “Transit”) almost passes for a conventional romantic comedy—but as always with Petzold, there is more going on than meets the eye. It takes place in a holiday home on the Baltic Sea, where strangers meet amid a hot and dry summer: writer Leon, struggling with an unsuccessful novel; his photographer friend Felix; Nadja, a mysterious an unexpected tenant in the guest house; and Nadja’s apparent lifeguard paramour. As an attraction between Leon and Nadja grows, the action plays out against raging forest fires, seemingly just outside their property line, that threaten to entrap the home’s denizens and force them to confront unsavory truths and roiling libidos. “Afire” is the second in Petzold’s latest series of films loosely inspired by the four classical elements; his previously feature “Undine” centered on a water nymph.
SUNDAY
What: 4Bidden Conscious Awards
When: 5 p.m.
Where: Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscyane Blvd., Miami
Cost: $99 and up
Contact: 305/949-6722, arshtcenter.org
Broward County’s Billy Carson is an entrepreneur in the wide tent of all things woo-woo. A contributor to Rolling Stone who has been featured in Forbes and Entrepreneur magazines, Carson is an expert in ancient civilizations, alternative space technology and other arcane areas, and he created 4Bidden Knowledge TV to spread his insights. But his inaugural event at the Arsht Center isn’t so much to celebrate Carson’s own work as to honor fellow change-makers in the conscious-life space. Twelve honorees, from categories such as “health and wellness,” “space anomaly hunter” and “field researchers/archaeologists,” will receive awards, with Jimmy Church, host of the nation’s preeminent UFO radio show, Fade to Black, presenting the awards in a red-carpet, black-tie fete. The evening also features live music from Havoc of rap duo Mobb Deep and others.
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