ART+DESIGN
The High Museum of Art has been presenting lots of interesting photography exhibits lately. The most recent one, Truth Told Slant, opens tomorrow. It features the work of five emerging photographers who have unique approaches to documentary photography. They consider issues such as race and inequality, identity, immigration, climate change and more with techniques and points of view that are both lyrical and engaged. Through August 11. Free for members. $18.50 for nonmembers.
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Whitespace Gallery has a new show opening this weekend. Half Light is an exhibit of works by Matt Haffner, a mixed-media artist whose gritty and aesthetically graphic artworks range from documentary-style photography to large-scale installations to diminutive works on paper. Haffner has won countless awards and grants, including a National Endowment for the Arts Projects Award, MOCA GA’s Working Artist Project Award and a Forward Arts Foundation Award. Opening reception Saturday at 6 p.m. Through April 13.
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New Works by Charles Keiger open at Tew Galleries on Friday. The Georgia artist says of his paintings: “If I can elicit a smile from an observer, or perhaps a sense of wonder, I have accomplished what I set out to do and also entertained myself in the process.” Through April 5.
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DANCE
Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre will launch its spring season this weekend with a mixed bill at the KSU Dance Theater. Body & Myth is a new work by emerging choreographer Nadine Barton (see Carson Mason’s interview with her in ArtsATL this week) and If Only is a new pas de deux by Frank Chaves. The program also features a reprise of Under the Olive Tree, a group work created by Terminus co-founder Tara Lee and set to a Baroque score. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets $18 to $50.
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On Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Gwinnett Ballet Theatre will perform its interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set to the music of Handel. The new evening-length work is choreographed by Diane Pitts. (It’s a Midsummer Night’s weekend: The Atlanta Opera is presenting the Benjamin Britten opera version of Shakespeare’s much-loved comedy the same night at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.) Gas South Theater, Duluth. Tickets $25 to $45.
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This Silly Little Game is the latest evening-length work from Atlanta Contemporary Dance Company. Directed by Lauren Overstreet, the ballet is about struggling with self-doubt and the societal pressures of being a woman. The 14-dancer cast explores in movement the question: “Who are we when we end up alone?” Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m. 7 Stages Theatre. Tickets start at $30.
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THEATER
Everybody’s Talking about Jamie, a co-production between Actor’s Express and Oglethorpe University, continues at Oglethorpe’s Conant Performing Arts Center. The cast includes both professional and student actors, with Noah Vega in the starring role. ArtsATL writer Benjamin Carr reviews the play as “presented with great enthusiasm and style by a cast relishing the opportunity to introduce the show to the region.” Tickets start at $36, with discounts available.
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Impact Theatre Atlanta’s production of A Lady and a Woman is onstage at Academy Theatre in Hapeville. The production stars Alia Shakira and Tracey Graves in the roles of Biddie and Flora, and ArtsATL writer Luke Evans’ recent review praises the duo’s acting: “From the moment Shakira comes on stage as Biddie, she swaggers and smirks like a true stud,” Evans writes. “Graves is far more reserved in her role as Flora, which makes it all the more impactful to see her come undone in Biddie’s presence.” Tickets start at $25.
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BOOKS
The Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature, now among the most prominent in North America, were established in honor of the late Emory Professor Richard Ellmann. This year’s lectures feature Natasha Trethewey, the 19th poet laureate of the United States, speaking on The House of Being: Why I Write (Sunday at 4 p.m.); Fintan O’Toole on Creating Marvels: Experience, Imagination and the Biographer’s Dilemma (Monday at 6:30 p.m.); and a Creativity Conversation between Trethewey, O’Toole and Geraldine Higgins, director of the Ellman Lectures (Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.). Book sales and signing will follow each event. Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Free.
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Politician and activist Beto O’Rourke will be in Atlanta on Friday to talk about his new book, We’ve Got To Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible. According to The Washington Post, “O’Rourke gets an A-plus on both the moral frisson of the long fight and the rightness of the cause . . . The happy warrior from Texas is inspiring.” Decatur Library. 7 p.m. Free.
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The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust is the topic of Atlanta History Center’s Livingston Lecture on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The book’s authors, Elizabeth E. White and Joanna Sliwa, are both professional historians and Holocaust experts. They will discuss the astonishing story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, a Jewish mathematician who masqueraded as a Polish aristocrat in order to save concentration camp prisoners and aid the Polish resistance. Members $25. Nonmembers $30. Ticket prices include admission and a copy of the book.
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MUSIC
The Atlanta Opera presents a four-performance run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, beginning this Saturday. Based on Shakespeare’s classic and adapted to opera by Benjamin Britten, this production welcomes home soprano Susanne Burgess. Mark Thomas Ketterson interviewed Burgess this week about the show and her role of Helena.
