Calendar of Events
Friday, November 13, 2009
"Whitmore Lake Coffee Break": Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society.
Every Fri. Slow-paced 20-mile ride to Gloria's Restaurant in Whitmore Lake.
meet at Olson Park, Dhu Varren at Pontiac Tr. Free. 663-4498.
Annual Christmas Bazaar and Luncheon: Ladies' Literary Club of Ypsilanti.
Ladies' Literary Club, 218 N. Washington St., Ypsilanti. Wheelchair-accessible. Free admission; lunch, $12.50. 483-1453, 426-4759.
22nd Annual Jewish Book Festival: Jewish Community Center.
Nov. 3-6, 8-13, & 15. Display and sale (at retail prices) of more than 2,000 new books by Jewish authors, ranging from cookbooks, expensive gift books, children's books, and reference books to books by local authors and new titles hot off the presses. (Publishers plan their releases for November, which is Jewish Book Month.) The fair also includes a number of talks and performances by various Jewish authors. Today: Nick Dubin discusses his practical guide Asperger Syndrome and Anxiety: A Guide to Successful Stress Management (noon).
Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Dr. (off Stone School Rd. south of Packard). Lunch available at the daily noon programs for $12 ($10 in advance). Free. 971-0990.
"Music and Motion": Ann Arbor District Library.
All kids from babies through age 5 (accompanied by an adult) invited to learn about conducting from Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra music director Arie Lipsky, hear a story from local early childhood educator Gari Stein, and dance to live music by local pianist Kathryn Goodson.
AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-8301
"Tiny Tot Time": Leslie Science and Nature Center.
A program of hikes, storytelling, songs, puppets, and crafts for kids ages 1-3 (accompanied by a caregiver). Snacks provided; dress for the outdoors.
LSNC, 1831 Traver Rd. $7. 997-1553.
20th Annual Gaming Convention: UCon.
Nov. 13-15. 400-600 competitors are expected to turn out to play a wide spectrum of tabletop games, from board games of all kinds (including European family-oriented board games) and role-playing games (including some RPGA-sanctioned events) to collectible card games and miniaturized simulations of historical and fictional battlefields. A "Kid UCon" area features a variety of games and activities for kids. Participants also are invited to bring in games to play in an open gaming area. Representatives of game design companies are on hand to discuss and demonstrate their games. Also, a dealers' room with sale and demos of games. Registration begins tonight at 5 p.m. Note: People not affiliated with the U-M must arrive before 9 p.m.
various Michigan Union locations. Weekend pass $20 in advance, $25 at the door; $10 (Fri.) & $15 (Sat. & Sun.) daily admission at the door only. Also, $3 to play most games. Advance registration available on-line at ucon-gaming.org and by mail to UCon Gaming Convention, P.O. Box 4491, Ann Arbor 48106-4491. 930-6363.
Annual Fall Bazaar: Bethlehem United Church of Christ.
Lunch available (11:30 a.m., $9).
Bethlehem UCC, 423 S. Fourth Ave. Free admission. 665-6149.
Storytime: Waters Place Borders.
Every Wed.-Fri. Borders staff read from books for infants, babies, and toddlers.
Borders, 3140 Lohr Rd. Free. 997-8884.
Storytime: Arborland Borders.
Every Wed. & Fri. A Borders staffer reads stories and leads a craft project for toddlers. Raffle.
Borders, 3527 Washtenaw. Free. 677-6948.
Noon Lecture Series: U-M Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Nov. 6 & 13. Talks by visiting scholars. Today's topic: "Peranakan Musical Cultures in Singapore" (Nov. 6) and "Explaining the 2009 Parliamentary and Presidential Votes in Indonesia" (Nov. 13).
1636 SSWB, 1080 South University. Free. 764-0352.
Movie Matinee: Ann Arbor Senior Center.
Every Fri. Screening of a film TBA. Lunch available ($2.50), 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Ann Arbor Senior Center, 1320 Baldwin. Free. 769-5911.
Bridge: U-M Turner Senior Resource Center.
Every Mon. & Fri. All seniors invited to play bridge. Refreshments.
Turner, 2401 Plymouth Rd. Free. 998-9353.
ESL Conversation Group: Ann Arbor District Library.
Every Mon. & Fri. All levels of English speakers invited for conversation.
AADL Malletts Creek Branch, 3090 E. Eisenhower between Stone School & Packard. Free. 327-4200.
Magic: The Gathering Tournament: Get Your Game On.
Every Sun.-Fri., except Nov. 26. All invited to compete in tournaments of this popular collectible card game using standard constructed (Sun. & Thurs.), vintage (Mon.), Elder Dragon Highlander (Tues.), Legacy (Wed.), and booster draft (Fri.) decks. Prizes. Bring your own cards Sun.-Thurs.
Get Your Game On, 709 Packard. $5 (Tues., free; Fri., $15 includes cards). 786-3746.
"Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition Ride Around Town": Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society.
All invited to join a bike ride in a figure-8 loop around downtown.
Liberty Plaza, Liberty at Division. Free. 975-1989.
Gaming Tournaments: Ann Arbor District Library.
Nov. 13-15. Video game tournaments. Today: Rock Revolution Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution for all ages.
AADL multipurpose room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-8301.
Food Talks: Cranbrook Whole Foods Market.
Nov. 3, 5, 12, & 13. Talks and demos by Whole Foods staffers. Today: "Roasting Turkey 101."
Whole Foods, 990 W. Eisenhower Pkwy. Cranbrook Village shopping center. Free. Preregistration required. 997-7500.
"2nd Annual Lights Out Invitational": A-Square Fight Club.
Nov. 13-15. Tournament featuring top amateur boxers from the U.S. and Canada in various age divisions, from bantams (ages 9 & 10) to adult (age 17 & over).
138 Jackson Plaza (off eastbound Jackson just west of Wagner). $10. 585-8823.
"17th Annual Save a Heart Celebration of Wine and Food": U-M Mott Children's Hospital.
Food from local restaurants and over 100 wines. Also, a silent auction and live jazz by a band TBA. A benefit for the Mott Congenital Heart Center.
Michigan League. $60 in advance at umsaveaheart.org, $75 at the door. 936-9134.
AXIS Coffeehouse: Ann Arbor District Library.
Nov, 6 & 13. All youth in grades 6-12 invited to perform their own poetry or monologue or a favorite by another writer, or just to sip a hot drink and listen.
AADL Malletts Creek Branch, 3090 E. Eisenhower (between Stone School & Packard). Free. 327-4200.
"Savor and Sip": Ann Arbor Art Center Benefit.
A wine tasting with many wines and gourmet food.
Ann Arbor Art Center, 117 W. Liberty. Tickets $36 in advance only. 663-7848.
Window Display Contest: Main Street Area Association.
Sidewalk entertainment TBA to kick off an MSAA contest in which businesses decorate their display windows to compete for prizes.
downtown area bounded by Main, Liberty, Washington, and Fourth Ave. Free. 669-7112.
FEAR: Neutral Zone.
Display of artwork by teen artists and freaky music spun by teen DJs.
Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington. Free. 214-9995.
Student Songwriter Showcase: The Ark.
Performances by U-M student singer-songwriters.
UMMA, 525 S. State. Free. 761-1451.
Crazy Wisdom Reading Circle: Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tea Room.
All invited to join a discussion of James Howard Kunstler's Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century.
Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757.
Signe Karlstrom Festival of Nordic Arts 2009: U-M Scandinavian Studies/Residential College Players.
Nov. 13-15 (different locations). Three days of music, theater, and dance from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. Today: "Nordic Myths." U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs U-M students in scenes, with musical accompaniment, from Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, a drama about a woman who must choose between her husband and a man to whom she was once engaged. Also, Finnish choreographer Silva Laukkanen and local dancer Suzanne Willets Brooks, accompanied by vocalist Amy McKenna and Laurel Premo on the Nordic folk fiddle, perform Kolme Kuuta, Laukkanen's dance inspired by the Finnish epic The Kalevala. Tonight's program is preceded at 6 p.m. by a talk on Ibsen by U-M English lecturer Kirsten Herold.
RC Keene Theater, East Quad, 701 East University. $5 (students, $3). 276-4906.
"All Childish Things, Episodes I-III": EMU Theater Department.
Nov. 13-15. Shannon Ferrante directs a staged reading of local playwright Joseph Zettelmaier's 2009 New American Play Award-winning trilogy of drama about 3 lifelong friends, linked by a mutual obsession with Star Wars, who are still struggling with the nature and meaning of adulthood as they enter middle age. Each night is a different play in the trilogy. Adult language.
Sponberg Theater, Ford St. (off Lowell from Huron River Dr.), EMU campus, Ypsilanti. Tickets $7 in advance and at the door. 487-1221.
"Frozen": U-M Basement Arts.
Nov. 12-14. Rebecca Spooner directs U-M students in Bryony Lavery's drama about a meeting between a psychiatrist, a serial killer, and the mother of a child he murdered 25 years earlier. Lavery "knows how to light up the darkest places without trivializing or undermining her subject," says a Guardian review.
Walgreen Drama Center Studio One, 1226 Murfin, North Campus. Free. basement.studentorgs.umich.edu
The Falconaires: EMU Music Department
7 p.m., Pease Auditorium, EMU campus, W. Cross at College Place, Ypsilanti.
Free, but ticket (available at the EMU Ticket Office) required. 487-2282.
Big band jazz by the U.S. Air Force Academy band. Also, a performance by the
EMU Jazz Ensemble.
U-M Women's Volleyball vs. Purdue.
Cliff Keen Varsity Arena, S. State at Hoover. $5 (age 17 & under, $3). 763-2159.
U-M Women's Basketball vs. Ball St.
Crisler Arena. $3 (youths under age 18, $1; U-M students with ID, free). 764-0247.
Laura Kasischke: Waters Place Borders.
This nationally acclaimed local poet and novelist discusses In a Perfect World, her new novel about domestic difficulties set against a backdrop of a pandemic flu. "From its haunting opening image to its riveting end, this is a tale of beauty, resilience, love, sacrifice, and even grace found in the most unlikely of places," says writer Katrina Kittle. Signing.
Borders, 3140 Lohr Rd. Free. 997-8884.
"Race and Reconciliation in Our Community: A Community-Based Contribution to the National Conversation on Race": Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.
Talk by human rights activist Nontombi Naomi Tutu, Desmond Tutu's daughter. On Nov. 14, Tutu is part of a panel discussion following a free screening of Long Night's Journey Into Day (7:30 p.m., WCC Towsley Auditorium, 4800 E. Huron River Dr.), a 2000 documentary about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa.
Rackham Auditorium. Free. 663-0401.
U-M Ice Hockey vs. MSU.
Yost Ice Arena, 1016 S. State at McKinley. $19-$25. 764-0247.
"Music Therapy": Older Lesbians Organizing.
All lesbians invited to hear a talk by a speaker TBA.
WRAP office (upstairs), 319 Braun Ct. Free. 995-9867.
Ensemble Chaconne: Concordia University.
This noted Massachusetts-based trio--Renaissance flutist Peter Bloom, viola da gambist Carol Lewis, and Renaissance lutenist Olav Chris Henriksen--is joined by acclaimed mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal in "Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare's Plays," a program of English Renaissance music. The music is preceded at 2:30 p.m. by a lecture-demo on the program.
Concordia University Chapel of the Holy Trinity, 4090 Geddes Rd. $15 (students & seniors, $10) 995-4612.
Cultural Show: U-M Indian American Students Association.
U-M students present an evening of old and new Indian culture, with Indian dances performed in traditional regalia. Also, a performance by U-M coed a cappella ensemble 58 Greene. This very popular show usually sells out in advance.
Hill Auditorium. Tickets $10 in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office & all other Ticketmaster outlets, and (if available) at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS.
"Annie Get Your Gun": Skyline High School.
Nov. 13-15, 20, & 21. Anne-Marie Roberts directs Skyline students in the popular Irving Berlin musical, a fictionalization of the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, a country girl and crack shot who joins the traveling Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and falls in love with a fellow entertainer who's intimidated by her superior shooting skills. Berlin's score is one of his finest and includes "There`s No Business like Show Business," "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun," and the humorous competitive duet "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)."
Skyline High School, 2552 N. Maple. Tickets $8 (students, $6) in advance at showtix4u.com and at the door. 994-6515.
"The Man Who Came to Dinner": Huron High School Players.
Nov. 13, 14, 20, & 21. Huron High School students present George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's enduring 1939 comedy about an egomaniacal celebrity who moves in with a Midwestern family after he falls and breaks his leg on their doorstep. His oversize personality and the ensuing publicity as he prolongs his stay end up upsetting not only the household, but the entire town.
Huron High School New Theater, 2727 Fuller Rd. Tickets $8 (students & seniors, $6) in advance and at the door. 994-2095.
"Oklahoma!": Pioneer High School Theatre Guild.
Nov. 7 & 8 and 13-15. U-M theater student Mary-Michael Patterson directs Pioneer High School students in the landmark Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, a sentimental love story set in the Oklahoma Territory on the eve of statehood. The show's many well-known songs include "I Cain't Say No," "People Will Say We're in Love," "Surrey with the Fringe on Top," and the rousing title chorus.
Pioneer High School Schreiber Auditorium, 601 W. Stadium at Main. Tickets $12 (seniors age 65 & over and students, $9) in advance at Morgan & York (1928 Packard) and at the door. 994-2191.
"Dido and Aeneas": Greenhills School.
Greenhills Upper School Chorus and Chamber Orchestra present a semistaged performance of Henry Purcell's one-act opera based on Virgil's mythical story about the torrid, tragic love affair between the Carthaginian queen and the Trojan exile destined to found Rome.
U-M Walgreen Drama Center Stamps Auditorium, 1226 Murfin, North Campus. Free. 205-4065.
2nd Friday Advanced English Dance: Ann Arbor Community of Traditional Music and Dance.
With live music. For experienced dancers.
Pittsfield Grange, 3337 Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. $10. (248) 288-4737.
Bobby Tessel: Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase.
Nov. 12-14. Local debut of this West Coast comic whose act features a steady barrage of off-the-wall jokes about ordinary life delivered in a laid-back style. Preceded by 2 opening acts. Alcohol is served; all Fri. & Sat. early shows are nonsmoking.
314 E. Liberty (below Seva restaurant). $7 (Thurs.) & $10 (Fri. & Sat.) reserved seating in advance, $9 (Thurs.) & $12 (Fri. & Sat.) general admission at the door. 996-9080.
"The Marriage of Figaro": U-M Opera Theatre.
Nov. 12-15. Robert Swedberg directs U-M opera students in Mozart's popular opera buffa noted for its stirring, lovely melodies. Bored by his wife, Count Almaviva eyes her maid Susanna, who is engaged to his valet Figaro. When the count decides to exercise his feudal rights, Figaro, Susanna, and others are thrown into frenzied attempts to thwart his lecherous scheme. Italian, supertitles. Kenneth Kiesler conducts the University Symphony Orchestra.
Power Center. $18 & $24 (students, $9) in advance at the Michigan League Ticket Office and at the door. 764-2538.
"Escanaba": Purple Rose Theatre Company.
Every Wed.-Sun. (except Nov. 26) Sept. 17-Dec. 19. See review. Guy Sanville directs the world premiere of Jeff Daniels' comedy, the third in his deer-hunting Yooper trilogy that includes the hugely successful Escanaba in da Moonlight and Escanaba in Love. This installment reveals the origins of some of the Soady family's time-honored deer camp traditions. Stars Julian Gant, Wayne David Parker, and Tom Whalen.
Purple Rose, 137 Park St., Chelsea. $25 (Sun. eves., Wed. & Thurs.), $33 (Sat. & Sun. matinees), & $38 (Fri. & Sat. eves.) in advance and at the door. 433-7673.
"The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee": Dynamic Stage Productions.
Nov. 12-15. This area theater company presents William Finn's Tony-winning musical comedy about 6 teenage outsiders who vie for the county spelling bee championship. Most performances involve audience volunteers who join in the spelling bee on stage.
Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti. Tickets $15 at dynamicstageproductions.com and at the door. 480-2787.
"Romeo and Juliet": Blackbird Theatre Academy.
Jamie Weeder directs area teen actors in a staged reading of Shakespeare's vividly poetic love story, a romantic tragedy about 2 impetuous young lovers destroyed by the intransigence of their feuding families, their own mistakes, and some incredibly bad timing.
Blackbird Theatre, 1600 Pauline (at Kay Pkwy. east of Stadium). $20 (seniors, $15; students, $10) in advance at blackbirdtheatre.org and at the door. 332-3848.
Mary McCaslin: Green Wood Coffee House Series (First United Methodist Church).
This veteran folksinger specializes in songs that evoke the romance of the American Dream or comment on its decline, including "The Bramble and the Rose," a song she cowrote with her late husband, Jim Ringer. Her performances and recordings also feature arresting acoustic interpretations of pop classics like "The Wayward Wind," Sam Cooke's "Cupid," and the Beatles' sublime "Things We Said Today."
FUMC Green Wood Church, 1001 Green Rd. at Glazier Way. $12 (kids 10 & under, 2 for the price of 1) in advance and at the door. 662-4536, 665-8558.
Los Guitarristas: Kerrytown Concert House.
This Chicago-based guitar quartet, led by Chilean guitarist Alfonso Chacon, plays original arrangements of classic Latin American folkloric and popular music.
KCH, 415 N. Fourth Ave. $15-$30 (students, $10). Reservations recommended. 769-2999.
"Swing Dance Party": Ann Arbor Swing Dance Association.
Every Fri. Lindy hop, East Coast swing, Charleston, blues, and Balboa dancing to prerecorded music. No partner needed. Bring hard-sole shoes. Preceded at 8 p.m. by beginning lessons.
Dakota Bldg., 1785 W. Stadium. $5 (includes lessons; students, $3). 417-9857.
