THEATER
Don’t make the mistake of thinking puppets are for children only — visit the Center for Puppetry Arts Thursday through Sunday to watch the annual XPT Adult Showcase. Featuring traditional puppets as well as installation and film, the XPT Showcase, now celebrating 36 years, will offer an array of artists, stories and styles, curated for an audience ages 16 and older. Tickets start at $18 and depend on seating.
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On Monday, May 8, True Colors Theatre will hold the national finals for its second annual Next Narrative Monologue Competition for high school students at New York’s Apollo Theater. A total of 16 students from different cities are expected to participate in the competition, featuring original monologues from more than 30 Black playwrights. True Colors Artistic Director Jamil Jude and Actor and Producer Marcel Spears will host the event. Audiences can watch from home on the livestream.
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Visit The Henry Players this weekend in McDonough to see Once on This Island, winner of the 2018 Tony award for best revival of a musical. Following the sweeping tale of Ti Moune, a brave peasant in search of her place in the world, this musical shows what it means to risk everything for love. Tickets are $20 each with discounts available. 136 Hood Street, McDonough, Georgia.
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MUSIC
One of the few remaining major music festivals in Atlanta, the Shaky Knees Festival returns Friday through Sunday at Central Park. Headliners this year include The Killers, Muse and The Lumineers. Among the other artists scheduled to perform are Cypress Hill, Suzi Waterhouse, Greta Van Fleet, The Flaming Lips and Tenacious D. The shows are all sold out, although verified resale tickets are available through the Shaky Knees website.
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Sir Donald Runnicles closes out his 20-plus years as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s principal guest conductor with a program Saturday at Symphony Hall that is entirely in his sweet spot: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The piece was the plot centerpiece in the Cate Blanchett film Tár, and Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan once said, “A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath.” Runnicles is known as a master interpreter of Mahler’s music, and it is expected to be one of the ASO’s best concerts of the season. The ASO also has plans to celebrate Runnicles’ tenure with the orchestra. Tickets start at $30.
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DANCE
Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre will perform the evening-length Long Ago and Only Once at Kennesaw State University Dance Theater in Marietta this weekend. The work has been available as a dance film since 2020, but this is the first time it will be performed live. Choreographed by Ana Maria Lucaciu, the comedic, contemporary dance features a sound score by T.M. Rives. Check out dance editor Gillian Anne Renault’s story about the ballet in ArtsATL this week. Saturday at 8 p.m. Sunday at 2 p.m. $40 general admission. $15 for students and children.
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Dance maker Nadya Zeitlin is best known for site-specific works performed in parks and venues around Atlanta. On Saturday, her company Bautanzt Here will perform Hollow Bones: Signals at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve on Roswell Road. Installations and sculptures will be available to view in the parking lot at 11 a.m. The performance will follow at 11:30 a.m. Free.
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ART+DESIGN
Head over to Whitespace Gallery Saturday to see Ashley Benton’s bronze sculpture Odile realized she had the key all along.The Reveal Party takes place between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Also at the gallery is Jered Sprecher’s exhibit Wonder & Dread. Free.
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Célia Rakotondrainy is the second artist to have an exhibit in the new UTA Artist Space Atlanta in Midtown. From one shore to another, my name might not be the same features oil paintings that the French Malagasy artist created by digitally editing, manipulating and deconstructing photographs that Izzy Dempsey took of floral artist Carolin Ruggaber. For each painting, Ruggaber created floral arrangements retracing the immigration journey of artist and model Daniela Suleymanova. Yes, it’s multi-layered, but think of it this way: four women artists, working together to create. We understand there will be actual flowers and a soundscape as well. Check it out at the opening Friday 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Through June 3.
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Now is the Day: A Life Well Lived celebrates the life and art of Dr. Doris Derby, a Civil Rights era photographer who worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Andrew Young and many other Civil Rights icons. The archival exhibit is curated by Courtney Brooks and includes Derby’s personal collections, photos, documentaries, writings and personal accounts. A co-founder of the Free Southern Theater, Derby was also the founding director of the African American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State University and an adjunct associate professor of cultural anthropology. Jack Sinclair Gallery at the ArtsXchange. Opening reception Saturday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free. Registration recommended.
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BOOKS
Atlanta native (and Asheville resident) Pete Candler comes home Sunday at 2 p.m. to discuss his new book of photography, The Road to Unforgetting, as part of the Atlanta History Center’s Author Talks series. Candler’s book gathers 175 black-and-white photographs from road trips “off the main drag” across the South. Candler’s work has been published in The Bitter Southerner, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and other publications. Tickets for members start at $5.
