BOOKS & TALKS

Rick Bass
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Powell's City of Books
Raymond Carver with a green thumb: Montana’s famed eco-writer (a former petroleum engineer) collates some of his finest short fiction in new anthology For a Little While.

DANCE

Kidd Pivot
8 pm Thursday–Saturday, Newmark Theatre
Following a residency in Frankfurt, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite cocreated Betroffenheit (“speechlessness” in German), a work of hybrid theater and dance the Globe and Mail called “rare and staggering.”

Agnieszka Laska Dancers
7:30 pm Friday–Sunday, Studio [email protected]
The Agnieszka Laska Dancers present Bieguni, a multimedia performance based on Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk’s novel of the same name. In Bieguni, evil rises from stagnation—explosive movement is the only redemption.

MUSIC

San Fermin with Esmé Patterson
8 p.m. Thursday, Mississippi Studios
Ellis Ludwig-Leone is a Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and a classically trained composer—he studied at Yale—and the brains behind baroque-pop outfit San Fermin. NPR called the band’s 2015 album Jackrabbit “a nearly hour-long feast of gorgeous chamber-pop storytelling.” Denver-based singer-songwriter Esmé Patterson, formerly of Paper Bird, opens.

Prince Rama
9 p.m. Friday, Doug Fir
The Brooklyn psych rock duo (sisters Taraka and Nimai Larson) rocks a wild ’80s glam look equal parts Daryl Hannah and David Bowie. New album Xtreme Now riffs on extreme sports and Tron-like landscapes: the sisters cite such influences as amateur Go-Pro videos, Monster Energy Drink, and a stint living communally on the Estonian island of Vormsi. (For real.) According to Interview magazine, they’re the “heir apparent to the art-rock throne.”

Dark Star Orchestra
8 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Crystal Ballroom 
Deadheads, take note: the long-running Grateful Dead tribute band is in town for two straight nights of jamming.

The Sinatra Century
7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Fly us to the moon! Vocalist Curtis Stigers honors Ol’ Blue Eyes, who would have turned 100 last fall.

THEATER

CLOSING Davita's Harp
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Milagro Theatre
Jewish Theatre Collaborative presents an original adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel about a girl growing up in New York City in the 1930s, grappling with questions about Judaism, atheism, and communism. 

OPENING Road House: The Play
8 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Siren Theater
Bad Reputation Productions revives its ridiculously popular, very funny stage rendition of the 1989 action flick—you know, the one starring Patrick Swayze as a bouncer with feelings. It’s a bang-up cast, featuring—among others—Shelley McLendon, Jed Arkley, Paul Glazier, Ted Douglass, and Courtenay Hameister.

We Are Proud to Present...
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Artists Repertory Theatre
Jackie Drury’s six-actor cast aims to tell the story of 20th century colonial genocide, but in the process they get a bit a bit, um, distracted. (Full title: We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915.

VISUAL ARTS

OPENING Prison Obscura
6–9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Newspace Center for Photography
Eight artists from across the country contribute to this curated meditation on US incarceration rates, from Alyse Emdar’s visiting room portraits to Josh Begley’s code-based take on surveillance. Plus, check out our slideshow and interview with curator Pete Brooke.

OPENING Objectus
6–9 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, Eutectic Gallery
“Objects of conveniences”—mass-produced, disposable—are recast in clay permanence by artists Chris Dufala, Shalene Valenzuela, and Mitchell Spain.

OPENING On Coloring
6–8 p.m. Friday, Pushdot Studio
Artist and author Catherine Haley Epstein curates On Coloring, with work from local and international artists inspired by creative icons ranging from Diane Arbus to Donald Judd to Eva Hesse. The tracings are drawn from Epstein’s coloring book: In a True Democracy the Many are Obligated to the Few. Proceeds go to Da Vinci Arts Middle School.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Umbrella Festival
Thursday–Sunday, Alberta Rose Theatre
Rubberboy! Ninja Acrobaticalists! Artis the Spoonman! Carla Rossi and the Wanderlust Circus Orchestra! This annual multi-day spectacular is loud, louche, and locally sourced.