Join us for a talk and signing with Arjun Alva. Arjun is a 6th Grader at Forsythe Middle School here in Ann Arbor. Arjun has always loved writing. It took him around 6 months to write “Adventures of Jimmy Hailbuster”. He is presently writing his second book.
Feb. 14, 16, 22, & 23 (different programs). U-M students and faculty perform staged readings of works by this acclaimed English playwright in honor of her 80th birthday. Today: the 2017 play Escaped Alone (3 p.m.),a brisk 55-minute surrealist set piece in which 4 British women share tea in a tranquil garden and discuss the end of the world. Also: The 1979 play Cloud Nine (7 p.m.), a racy, merrily merciless spoof of the moral pretensions of imperial Britain. Set in colonial Africa in 1880, the first act is a nonstop flurry of sexual liaisons involving a British functionary, his wife, his son and daughter, an explorer, a woman dressed in a riding habit, and an all-knowing black servant. The second act is set in 1980s London (though the characters have aged a mere 25 years) and blends farce and pathos in a surprising denouement. The 2009 play Seven Jewish Children (10:30 p.m.) is a 10-minute drama where 7 unnamed characters discuss how to teach their children about complex events in Jewish history, from the Holocaust to the creation of Israel to violence in Gaza. Also today, U-M theater studies professor Leigh Woods gives a lecture on “Caryl Churchill at 80” (5 p.m.) at Mendelssohn Theatre.
Various times, U-M Walgreen Drama Center Newman Studio, 1226 Murfin. Free.. 764-5350
Feb. 23 & 24 (different programs). Performances for adults (Sat.) & families (Sun.) by 3 top storytellers from around the country. Headliner is Hand Christian Andersen Storytelling Center (NYC) director Laura Simms, an internationally celebrated veteran storyteller whose repertoire includes both traditional tales and personal narratives. Also, playwright and performance artist Edgar Oliver, a celebrated NYC raconteur best known for his mesmerizing one-man show about his childhood in Savannah with his songster and his mentally ill mother, and Ivory D. Williams, a veteran Detroit storyteller known for his engaging, interactive renditions of traditional African and African American tales.
7:30 p.m. (Sat.) & 1 p.m. (Sun.), The Ark, 316 S. Main. Tickets $20 (Sat.) & $10 (Sun. family concert) in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (mutotix.com) & theark.org, and at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS.
Feb. 23 & 24 (different programs). Performances for adults (Sat.) & families (Sun.) by 3 top storytellers from around the country. Headliner is Hand Christian Andersen Storytelling Center (NYC) director Laura Simms, an internationally celebrated veteran storyteller whose repertoire includes both traditional tales and personal narratives. Also, playwright and performance artist Edgar Oliver, a celebrated NYC raconteur best known for his mesmerizing one-man show about his childhood in Savannah with his songster and his mentally ill mother, and Ivory D. Williams, a veteran Detroit storyteller known for his engaging, interactive renditions of traditional African and African American tales.
7:30 p.m. (Sat.) & 1 p.m. (Sun.), The Ark, 316 S. Main. Tickets $20 (Sat.) & $10 (Sun. family concert) in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (mutotix.com) & theark.org, and at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS.
Kate Mendeloff directs U-M drama students in Aristophanes’ bawdy masterpiece of classical Greek comedy about war-weary Athenian wives who decide to withhold their favors from their husbands until the warring ceases. Both sides suffer from the sexual strike, and the dramatic question becomes which side will give in first, and on what terms.
7:30 p.m., Keene Theatre, East Quad, 701 East University. Free. 647-4354.
This lecture is on Victim/Persecutor with Gillian Eaton, award-winning actress, director, and Prof. U-M School of Theatre, Music and Dance.
Room 1423, East Quadrangle, 701 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Free. rc.communications@umich.edu https://lsa.umich.edu/rc/news-events/all-events.detail.html/59958-14803944.html
Reading by Mike Zhai, founder of One Pause Poetry Salon. The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663.
YDL is honored to welcome Holocaust survivor, professor, and author Irene Butter. Her memoir, Shores Beyond Shores, details her journey during the Holocaust and explores how the heart keeps its humanity during inhumane times. Dr. Butter has inspired students from across the country with her message of the importance of caring for one another, regardless of our color, religion, or race. Book sale and signing to follow. Youth welcome.
The Ypsilanti District Library- Whittaker Branch, 5577 Whittaker Road, Ypsilanti. Free. 734-482-4110.info@ypsilibrary.org https://www.ypsilibrary.org/event/an-evening-with-irene-butter/
Tom Brzezina has had work in Chiron, Rusty Truck, Red Fez, Third Wednesday, Peninsula Poets, and The 5-2. His poems draw heavily upon drug experiences of his youth, the underbelly of society, and growing up in Detroit. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, dog, and way too many books.
Lynn Gilbert is a founding editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and currently associate editor of Third Wednesday in Ann Arbor. Her poems have been published in The Texas Observer, Kansas Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Southwestern American Literature, Peninsula Poets, and Water Music: The Great Lakes State Poetry Anthology, which she co-edited.
Crazy Wisdomn Bookstore and Tea Room, 114 S. Main St. Free. 7346652757.info@crazywisdom.net www.crazywisdom.net
Every Wed. Members read and discuss poems around themes TBA. Followed by collaborative writing games and exercises. Attendees invited to read their poems. Snacks & socializing.
8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.
