What to do? What to see? Our top recommendation this week is the world premiere of Steve Yockey’s “Blackberry Winter” at Actor’s Express, staged in partnership with Out of Hand Theater. Pictured: Carolyn Cook. Also in the cast: Maia Knispel and Joe Sykes. Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus
Recommended
Blackberry Winter. IN PREVIEWS | OPENS FRIDAY. Years of success and meticulous planning have not prepared Vivienne Avery for her mother’s dementia. This National New Play Network rolling world premiere by onetime Atlantan Steve Yockey is at Actor’s Express. Carolyn Cook, who is dealing with her own mother’s dementia, plays Vivienne. Also in the cast: Maia Knispel and Joe Sykes. A co-production with Out of Hand Theater. Ariel Fristoe directs. In repertory with Yockey’s The Thrush & the Woodpecker. $21.60-$30.24 plus fees. Yockey ticket packages available. 8 tonight-Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Rest of run: 8 p.m. Nov. 12-13; 2 p.m. Nov. 14; 7 p.m. Nov. 15; 8 p.m. Nov. 18-21; and 2 p.m. Nov. 22. King Plow Arts Center, 887 West Marietta St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. For more on Yockey, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
Fetch Clay, Make Man. THROUGH NOV. 22. In the days leading to one of Cassius Clay’s most anticipated fights, the heavyweight boxing champ forms an unlikely friendship with out-of-favor Hollywood actor Stepin Fetchit. Fetch Clay, Make Man gets inside the improbable bond between these two cultural touchstones. By Will Power. Eric J. Little directs for True Colors Theatre. Rob Demery is Clay, Brad Raymond is Stepin Fetchit. $20-$50. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2:30 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road. Details, tickets HERE or at 877.725.8849. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com.
The Thrush & the Woodpecker. THROUGH NOV. 15. Danger and vicious humor collide in his revenge thriller about an estranged mother and son, and the surprise visitor who may blow their world apart. This National New Play Network rolling world premiere by Steve Yockey is at Actor’s Express. Melissa Foulger directs. Cast: Matthew Busch, Stacy Melich and Kathleen Wattis Kettrey. In repertory with Yockey’s Blackberry Winter. Yockey ticket packages available. $21.60-$33.48 plus fees. Remaining performances: 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday; 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Nov. 14; and 2 p.m. Nov. 15. King Plow Arts Center, 887 West Marietta St. N.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.607.7469 Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. For more on Yockey, see this ENCORE FEATURE.
This weekend only
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Spano
ASO: Spano conducts world premiere. TONIGHT + SATURDAY. American composer Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 2, inspired by the book Innerspace by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, explores the wonders of Jewish mysticism. Music director Robert Spano also leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. $20-$89. 8 nightly. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Closing this weekend
Informed Consent. CLOSES SUNDAY. Southeastern premiere. At Horizon Theatre. This very recent off-Broadway hit by Deborah Zoe Laufer follows one woman’s quest to answer the mysteries of science and her own life, inspired by a landmark court case between a large university and a Native American tribe. $25 and up. 8 tonight-Friday; 3 + 8:30 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. 1083 Austin Ave. N.E. (at Euclid Avenue). Details, tickets HERE or at 404.584.7450.
Opening this weekend
Brothers of Affliction. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH NOV. 22. Rising Sage Theatre ends its three-show 2015 season with a reprise of this drama about three troubled siblings and their secrets. The script is by Atlanta playwright Paris Crayton III. Cast: Anthony Goolsby, Carlus Houston and Kerwin Thompson. $17-$50. West End Performing Arts Center, 945 Ralph D. Abernathy Blvd. S.W. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.500.7243.
Romeo & Juliet. OPENS TONIGHT | THROUGH NOV. 22. Georgia Ensemble Theatre stages Shakespeare for the first time in its 23-year history. Jonathan Horne (The Elephant Man) and Jennifer Alice Acker (Camelot) play the unlucky lovers in a cast that includes Heidi Cline-McKerley, Allan Edwards, Steve Hudson, Megan McFarland, Brandon Patrick, Chris Rushing and Kevin Stillwell. Tickets start at $26. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Also at 4 p.m. Nov. 14 + 21. Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Details, tickets HERE or at 770.641.1260. Discount tickets at PoshDealz.com. For more on director Crowe, see this ENCORE SNAPSHOT.
Last chance
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. THROUGH SUNDAY. This is a new version of the musical first written for TV in 1957. The story has been updated (diluted?) to make the Prince and Cinderella seem more real, and the score has been augmented in ways good and bad. Still here: “In My Own Little Corner,” “Ten Minutes Ago.” Presented by Broadway in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre. $30-$145. 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 + 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 + 6:30 p.m. Sunday. 660 Peachtree St. N.E. Details and tickets HERE or at 855.285.8499. For more, see this ENCORE FEATURE on Andy Huntington Jones, who plays the Prince.
Next week
ASO: Verdi’s Requiem. NOV. 12 + 14. Music director Robert Spano is on the podium leading the symphony, the ASO Chorus and soloists Jennifer Cano, Latonia Moore, Anthony Dean Griffey and Nathan Stark in the Verdi masterwork. $25-$104. 8 nightly. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.733.5000.
Soldier Songs. NOV. 11-15. Southeastern premiere. The Atlanta Opera presents this multimedia event that combines elements of theater, opera, concert music and animation. American composer David T. Little adapted interviews with veterans of five wars to create the piece. $44-$72. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday + Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Rialto Center for the Arts, 80 Forsyth St. N.E. Details, tickets HERE or at 404.413.9849.
