The Five
Don’t-miss picks for March 15 through March 21, 2017
1 David McAninch
Reading:Chicago’s features editor reads from his new book, Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France’s Last Best Place, a culinary memoir chronicling his eight-month “baptism by duck fat” in the gastronomic heartland of rural southwestern France.
3/16 at 7 p.m. Free. Book Cellar. bookcellarinc.com
2 Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Classical:The pianist Mitsuko Uchida visits the CSO every year. Here, she collaborates with the CSO’s music director, Riccardo Muti, on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. A world premiere from CSO composer in residence, Samuel Adams, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 also lend sparkle.
3/16–21. $34–$222. Symphony Center. cso.org
3 Vince Staples
Hip-Hop:This Long Beach rapper has become known for divisive opinions on politics and pop culture (see the 2015 internet war that erupted after he snubbed ’90s hip-hop in an interview). The 23-year-old’s verses are just as daring as his public quips, and his debut album, Summertime ’06, was one of 2016’s best.
3/18 at 9 p.m. Sold out; see resellers. Metro. stubhub.com
4 Winifred Haun & Dancers
Dance/Circus Arts:Winifred Haun and Emma Serjeant premiere Trashed. Read more here.
3/18–19. $30. Aloft Loft. brownpapertickets.com
5 Chicago Flower & Garden Show
Garden:There’s no better place to get a jump on your spring garden than at this horticultural showcase. Stroll through more than 20 full-size garden displays and learn from the pros at workshops and seminars.
3/18–26. $5–$17. Navy Pier. chicagoflower.com
What I’m Doing This Weekend
Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know-locals: choreographer Winifred Haun, whose production Trashed premieres March 18 at Aloft Loft.
“Thursday night we’re loading into Aloft Loft and setting up lights. We’re going to transform a circus space into a semi-theater. Circus lighting is really different from dance lighting, so we’re trying to figure that out. Then Friday night we’re having dress rehearsal for the nine artists. There are six local artists and three circus artists from Australia. It’s a fun challenge trying get circus artists and dance artists to communicate effectively.
“On Saturday, we’re doing two shows, one at 5:30 and one at 8:30. We’re going to be doing a dance work of mine called Bento. It's based on the modern art concept of a box within a box. So I made dances within a dance by borrowing dance phrases and material from other choreographers with their permission.
“After that, one of the circus artists, Emma Serjeant, is going to do a solo hand-balancing act. It’s something that you would see in a circus show, where you do handstands and then balance on one hand and pick things up with the other hand. She walks on eggs as part of the performance. Then we have the main event, Trashed, which comes after intermission. We’ve been working for about six months figuring out ways to talk about clutter. In the piece, Emma actually balances on other people using one hand.
“In Australia, it never snows, so the three circus dancers have been super excited the past few days. They’ve been to the Art Institute, which they love. They’ve also been performing in a couple of different circus shows around town, like El Circo Cheapo. They recently went down to the lake, which they thought was beautiful, but freezing cold. I live in Oak Park, so we might go to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, which is right out here.” —As told to Jamison Pfeifer
Freebie of the Week
Production of an Escalating Crisis
Art:On Saturdays, artist Meg Duguid turns the Rogers Park gallery Roman Susan into a live film set. There, she performs in and films her own version of The Tramp’s New World, a 1949 stage show originally written for Charlie Chaplin.
3/18 from 12–3 p.m. Free. Roman Susan. romansusan.org