BOOKS & TALKS

Linework NW
Noon–8 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Norse Hall, FREE
Not to be confused with a superhero-mobbed comic con, the third annual festival celebrates the illustrators and graphic artists creating boundary-pushing work across fields—in comic books, graphic novels, and as original art.

COMEDY

Myq Kaplan
9:30 p.m. Friday, Revolution Hall
Comedian Myq Kaplan’s unique brand of cerebral humor cleverly explores topics ranging from Buddhism and feminism to math. The Small, Dork, and Handsome star has also appeared on Conan and David Letterman.

DANCE

Now Then: A Prologue
8 p.m. Friday–Sunday, Siren Theater
Innovative dancer-choreographer Allie Hankins offers up the first half of a two-part solo (the next installment arrives this fall), in which she "ponders the illogical and sordid practices of love and sex." Expect monologuing, clever costumes, and curious props.

CLOSING X-Posed
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday, Polaris Dance Theatre
The omnivorous company—which mixes contemporary, ballet, jazz, African, and hip-hop—puts on new and in-progress work from artistic director Robert Guitron as well as several guest choreographers.

FILM

QDoc
Various times Thursday–Sunday, Hollywood Theatre
In its 10th year, QDoc returns with a packed slate of documentaries about the LGBTQ community, touching on everything from drag balls and voguing to gay elders.

MUSIC

Charles Bradley
9 p.m. Thursday, Crystal Ballroom
To say Bradley’s fame was a long time coming is an understatement: the soul singer, now 67, was working as a James Brown impersonator when he was discovered by Daptone Records and didn’t release his first album, the raw and aching No Time for Dreaming, until 2011. Onstage, he shimmies and gyrates like nobody’s business.

Colleen Raney
7:30 p.m. Friday, Walters Cultural Arts Center, Hillsboro
This is something of a farewell show for the traditional Celtic singer—after seven years in our Portland, she's moved to the other Portland (as in, the one in Maine) to be closer to Ireland. Hailed by the Boston Irish Reporter for her "rich, hearty, and inviting voice," Raney will be joined tonight by acoustic guitarist Cary Novotny and Irish flute player Hans Araki.

Deep Sea Diver
9 p.m. Friday, Mississippi Studios
Former Shins and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Jessica Dobson now shreds as front woman of this Seattle rock band, whose sound is textured, urgent, and catchy.

Mahler's Symphony No. 3
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Oregon Symphony presents Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, an opus the composer hoped would be like nothing the world had heard before.

Friends of Noise Launch Party
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Los Prados Event Hall
Will Portland finally get an all-ages music space? That's precisely what a new nonprofit called Friends of Noise aims to accomplish. Tonight, they kick off their efforts with a (duh) all-ages show in St. Johns featuring the Doo Doo Funk Allstars, Neo G Yo, Drex Porter, and GEM Dynasty. For more, read our Q&A with Friends of Noise board members.

THEATER

OPENING Francesca, Isabella & Margarita on a Cloud
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Imago Theatre
In this original, semi-linear work, Imago’s Carol Triffle throws us into the weird and wobbly world of Bridget, a brilliant but adrift young woman. Expect surprises—Triffle’s work has a way of swinging from hallucinatory campiness to sinister absurdity.

OPENING A Streetcar Named Desire
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Gerding Theater
Demetrius Grosse and Deidrie Henry, both from NBC's Game of Silence, star in Tennessee Williams’s Southern potboiler.

OPENING The Skin of Our Teeth
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Artists Repertory Theatre
Thornton Wilder’s millennium-spanning family saga starts with all-American Cain throwing rocks, then lasts a few ice ages.

Into the Beautiful North
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Milagro Theatre
In this world premiere, playwright Karen Zacarías adapts Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel about a group of young Mexican women who—fearing narcos and bandits, and just having watched The Magnificent Seven—cross the US border in an attempt to repatriate the men who’ve left.

Annie
7:30 p.m. Thursday–Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Keller Auditorium
Lil' orphan Annie returns! The Tony-winning musical features a timeless score, including “It’s the Hard Knock Life” and that earworm of optimism, “Tomorrow.”

SPECIAL EVENTS

Red Dress Party
7 p.m. Saturday, The Old Freeman Factory
Since 2001, this slinky annual soirée has raised serious cash to help in the fight against AIDS. (FYI, all attendees must say yes to the dress.)

VISUAL ARTS

Elise Wagner
11 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Butters Gallery, FREE
For the encaustic paintings in Genesis, Wagner layers wax colors with near-geologic depth. Lines crisscross the works, sometimes creating gridlike formations. 

Next Level Fucked Up
10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thursday–Friday and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Portland Art Museum
For Vanessa Renwick’s multi-channel video and sound installation is an alternately horrifying and humorous look at the ways humans screw with the natural world. For more, read our story about Renwick and the exhibit.

Ellen George
11 a.m.–6 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, PDX Contemporary Art, FREE
George, based in Vancouver, Wash., makes abstract sculptures from vibrant, hand-tinted polymer clay—long, vertical pieces that evoke vines or twigs.