Want to get your culture on this weekend? Our top pick is “Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet” by the prodigiously talented playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. It’s in previews now and opens Saturday at Actor’s Express with Terry Guest (left) as Marcus and Shon Middlebrooks as Shua. Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus.
RECOMMENDED
Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. IN PREVIEWS | OPENS SATURDAY. THROUGH APRIL 26. Multi-award-winner Tarell Alvin McCraney (Choir Boy, In the Red and Brown Water), a MacArthur “genius” fellow and Alliance/Kendeda alum, 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 is Marcus. Kennesaw State’s Karen Robinson directs. Through April 26. 8 p.m. Previews $20. Opening $40, includes post-show reception. 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.
OPENING THIS WEEKEND
The Explorer’s Club. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH APRIL 19. Aurora Theatre goes madcap with this romp juxtaposing feminine ideals and the strait-laced backdrop of 19th-century Britain. Courtney Patterson, a Georgia Shakespeare and Alliance Theatre regular, plays Phyllida-Spotte Hume, leading a nine-person cast that includes Steve Hudson, Chris Kayser, Tony Larkin, Al Stilo and Jacob York. $20-$40. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional show at 10 a.m. April 15 ($16). 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. Free, covered, lighted parking in city deck at 153 E. Crogan St., Lawrenceville. Details, tickets HERE or at 678.226.6222. (Pictured, from left: Stilo, Patterson and Kayser. Photo by Chris Bartelski)
Grand Concourse. OPENS FRIDAY | THROUGH APRIL 26. At Horizon Theatre. This comic-drama, set in an urban soup kitchen, is described as “insightful, with a moving, even shocking epiphany” by the Huffington Post. The cast: Horizon regular Maria Rodriguez-Sager, Allan Edwards, Alexandra Ficken and Evan Cleaver. Playwright Heidi Schreck (TV’s “Nurse Jackie”) is also a two-time Obie Award-winning actor. $20-$30. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 3 + 8:30 p.m. Saturday; and 5 p.m. Sunday. 1083 Austin Ave. N.E. Details, tickets at HERE or at 404.584.7450. (Pictured, from left: Cleaver, Edwards, Ficken and Sager)
Man of La Mancha. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH APRIL 11. Serenbe Playhouse tells the tale of Don Quixote, that famous fighter of windmills and defender of virtuous women. Performed outdoors. 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.
THIS WEEKEND ONLY
ASO: Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. TODAY-FRIDAY. 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.
FINAL WEEKEND.
James and the Giant Peach. THROUGH SUNDAY. Enter a young boy’s wild and surreal world of magic and adventure in this Broadway-style musicedal by Tony Award-nominated composer-lyricists Pasek and Paul (A Christmas Story). James, an English orphan, begins to imagine a bright future as he begins 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: Benjamin Harding as James, far right, and some of his buggy friends. Photo by Greg Mooney)
NOW PLAYING
Edward Foote. IN PREVIEWS | OPENS APRIL 1. The Alliance Theatre stages the world premiere of this Gothic murder mystery set to Appalachian folk songs and Shape Note singing by award-winning Atlanta writer Phillip DePoy. The cast: Jeremy Aggers (The Whipping Man); Lowery Brown (The Wizard of Oz); Steve Coulter (Aurora’s Underneath the Lintel, among many other credits); Ann Marie Gideon (The Geller Girls); Trevor Goble; Bethany Anne Lind (Carapace); and Hayley Platt (The Tall Girls). Chris Coleman, artistic director of Portland Center Stage in Oregon and co-founder of Atlanta’s Actor’s Express, directs. Through April 19. $25 and up. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2:30 + 7:30 p.m. Sunday (no matinee on March 28). Hertz Stage, Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000. (Pictured: Director Chris Coleman, center, in rehearsal. Photo by Alliance Theatre)
Stellaluna. THROUGH 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 Janell Cannon’s children’s book. Told with rod and kite puppets. Recommended for ages 4 and up. $16.50; $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.
::
Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, working in or writing about the performing arts for most of her life. Please email: kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
