Want to get your culture on this weekend? Our top pick is the world premiere of Atlanta Ballet’s “Camino Real” — four performances only — at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. It’s created by Atlanta Ballet resident choreographer Helen Pickett and based on the Tennessee Williams’ play from 1953. Pictured: Heath Gill as Kilroy. Photo by Charlie McCullers.
THIS WEEKEND ONLY
Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project. SATURDAY ONLY. Take part in developing this new play written by Atlanta playwright Lee Nowell and commissioned by Synchronicity Theatre. It digs into the case of Davis, convicted of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail and executed by lethal injection in September 2011. Davis maintained his innocence until his death and his case became a cause celebre among death penalty opponents. This reading follows a weeklong workshop. Talkback follows. Partners include Emory’s Ethics & Arts Program, the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Ben Marion Institute for Social Justice, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College. $10. 7:30 p.m. Synchronicity Theatre at Peachtree Pointe, 1545 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.484.8636.
Camino Real. FRIDAY-SUNDAY. World premiere. Atlanta Ballet dances a full-evening piece inspired by the 1953 Tennessee Williams play and told from the perspective of Kilroy, a character based on patriotic iconography from World War II. The ballet, choreographed by Atlanta Ballet resident choreographer Helen Pickett, deals with mortality, the desire to connect and the will to live. $23-$124. 8 p.m. Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. Details, tickets HERE or 404.892.3303. Venue info at 770.916.2852. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. For more, see this VIDEO CONVERSATION with Pickett and Encore Atlanta.
CELTIC SHORTS: A Four-Play Festival. SATURDAY-SUNDAY. A fundraiser. Aris Theatre presents four short plays, one each from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England, promising work from some of Atlanta’s top actors and directors. $50. 8 p.m. Saturday (doors open at 7:30 p.m. for drinks and hors d’oeuvres. A reception with the directors and casts follows). 5:30 p.m. Sunday (doors open at 5 p.m. for drinks and hors’ d’oeuvres. Reception follows. Studio B, Georgia Public Broadcasting, 260 14th St. N.W. Tickets, details HERE or at 404.692.0053.
Classical Guitar With Milos Karadaglic. TONIGHT + SATURDAY. Montenegro guitarist Milos Karadaglic returns to Atlanta Symphony Hall for Fantasia para un gentilhombre, Rodrigo’s second concerto for guitar and orchestra, first written for Andres Segovia. Guest conductor Jacomo Rafael Bairos, music director of the Amarillo Symphony in Texas, also leads the Atlanta Symphony in Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat Suite No. 2 and Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky and Ravel. $20-$99. 8 tonight; 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Tickets, details HERE or at 404.733.5000.
The Leopard Tale. TONIGHT-SUNDAY. This piece, one of Ballethnic Dance Company‘s signature ballets, revisits the jungle in dramatic, imaginative and athletic ways. It follows the leopard’s struggle for survival in the jungle amid other beasts as well as his most feared predator — man. Ballethnic is in its 25th year. $42. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.W. Details HERE, tickets HERE or at 404.413.9849.
NOW PLAYING
James and the Giant Peach. THROUGH MARCH 29. Enter a young boy’s wild and surreal world of magic and adventure in this jazzy Broadway-style musical by Tony Award-nominated composer-lyricists Pasek and Paul (A Christmas Story). James, an English orphan, begins to imagine a bright future as he embarks on a journey in a larger-than-life enchanted peach. Rosemary Newcott directs. $20-$35. 1 + 3:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Alliance Theatre mainstage, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. (Pictured, from left: Jeremy Varner, Benjamin Harding as James, Molly Coyne, Julissa Sabino and Googie Uterhardt. Photo by Greg Mooney)
NEXT WEEK
ASO: Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. MARCH 26-27. American cellist Lynn Harrell joins maestro Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, written to express the composer’s grief over the loss of his sister-in-law, Josefina, with whom he was deeply in love (despite being married to her sister). Also on the program: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. 8 nightly. $24-$99. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. BEGINS MARCH 25 | THROUGH APRIL 26. Tarell Alvin McCraney (Choir Boy, In the Red and Brown Water) is one of the best playwrights working in America today. In Marcus, part of his Brothers/Sisters trilogy, a young African-American discovers his sexual identity in the Louisiana bayou. Terry Guest plays Marcus. Kennesaw State’s Karen Robinson directs. 8 p.m. March 25 (Director’s Rough Cut, pay what you can at the door). Previews at 8 p.m. March 26-27 ($20). Opens at 8 p.m. March 28 ($40, includes post-show reception with the director and cast). Regularly $26-$45. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
Stellaluna. MARCH 24-APRIL 4. Tears of Joy Theatre from Portland, Ore., visits the Center for Puppetry Arts with a story of bats and birds, set off when a baby fruit bat falls into a bird’s nest. Adapted from the children’s book by Janell Cannon. Told with rod and kite puppets. Recommended for ages 4 and up. $16.50 age 2 and older; $9.25 members. 10 a.m. + 11:30 a.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m., 1 p.m. + 3 p.m. Saturday; 1 + 3 p.m. Sunday (no shows on Easter). Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.873.3391.
LOOKING AHEAD
Man of La Mancha. MARCH 26-APRIL 11. Serenbe Playhouse tells the tale of Don Quixote, that famous fighter of windmills and defender of virtuous women. Performed outdoors in Serenbe’s labyrinth. The Tony Award-winning 1965 musical features such songs as “I, Don Quixote,” “Dulcinea,” “Knight of the Woeful Countenance” and “The Impossible Dream.” Bryant Smith (Oklahoma!, Aurora Theatre’s Les Miserables) is Don Quixote. Laura Floyd Wood is Aldonza/Dulcinea. $30; $25 students. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Also at 2:30 p.m. March 29. 910 Selborne Lane in Chattahoochee Hills. Directions and parking HERE. Show details, tickets HERE or at 770.463.1110. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. (Pictured, from left, Will Skelton, Laura Floyd Wood, Bryant Smith. Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus)
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. Full disclosure: She is affiliated with Synchronicity Theatre listed above. Please email: kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
