The Five

Don’t-miss picks for Thursday, October 13 through October 18, 2016

1 Apollo’s Fire

Classical:Baroque performance generally inclines toward the buttoned-down: terraced dynamics, clock-like tempos, and proper cadences. Not so with the Cleveland-based orchestra Apollo’s Fire, aflicker with dramatic phrasing. Here, the group plays some of its core repertoire, including two of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.
10/14 at 7:30 p.m. $5–$36. Mandel Hall, U. of C., 1131 E. 57th. chicagopresents.uchicago.edu

2 Joffrey Ballet

Dance:The acclaimed ballet company’s fall program is a reprise of Krzysztof Pastor’s Romeo & Juliet, the classic Shakespearean tragedy set to Prokofiev’s transcendent score. In this version, the story is moved to 20th-century Italy; striking multimedia projections provide context and highlight the political unrest of the period.
10/13–23. $34–$174. Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress. joffrey.org

3 Zombie Broads

Theater:Get your Halloween on with Maxine and Marco, whose book club takes a turn for the flesh-eating thanks to a dim-witted scientist and an experiment gone wrong. Expect epic gushes of brains and blood from the playwrights Corrbette Pasko and Sara Sevigny in a saga of voraciously hungry undead.
10/14–12/3. $18–$25. The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard. thefactorytheater.com

4 The Seldoms

Dance:The complex dynamic between humans and cyberspace is at the heart of Philip Elson’s new choreographed piece, The Fifth, presented and performed by Chicago dance auteurs The Seldoms.
10/13–15. $15–$30. Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan. colum.edu/dance-center

5 Music Box of Horrors

Film:Once a year, the Music Box Theatre transforms into a slaughterhouse chock-full of frights. This marathon of monsters and gore gives you serious bang for your buck: One $35 ticket ($30 in advance) allows come-and-go access to 24 hours of scary movies, from classics (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) and forgotten gems (Eyes of Fire) to bloody slapstick (Popcorn) and straight-up comedy (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein).
10/15–16. $30–$35. Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport. musicboxtheatre.com

What I’m Doing This Weekend

Up next in our series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals: Garrett Karp, program manager of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House Chicago. The open house features more than 200 buildings through Chicago, Evanston, and Oak Park, and runs Saturday to Sunday, October 15 to 16.

“This is our sixth year of Open House Chicago, and while we may not have originated the idea of a citywide open house—that credit, I think, goes to London—we have one of the best-attended in the world. Our first year, we had 130 locations and around 20,000 visitors. Last year, we quadrupled the number of visitors with more than 85,000 to 200 sites. Now we’ve got 215, and we’re rotating into some new neighborhoods that I’m really excited about.

“Among the newcomers, we’re thrilled to have Oak Park presenting some homes, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. We also added Englewood to our map—no one, including people who live in Englewood, expected to find such great architecture there. Namely, there’s the Yale Building, on South Yale Avenue in Englewood, which has sort of been the cover-image for this year’s Open House. Its atrium is definitely a must-see. The wild thing is, no one had photographed it until some of us went and knocked on the door—basically snuck in—last year.

“I’ll be spending most of the weekend at the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s offices at the Railway Exchange Building on South Michigan. It’s a great place to start a day of architectural exploration, because there are three Open House sites in the building: architectural firms Goettsch Partners, Stantec, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. From there—as needed, and as time allows—I’ll be checking in with some of most popular sites around downtown. Last year, we included the Aon Center for the first time—the 71st floor is vacant, and they’ll be letting visitors up for some stunning views of downtown. The Kemper Building on East Wacker also has some upper-floor views of downtown that are well worth checking out.

“On Sunday, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll have some time off to visit a few personal favorite sites. I always love going to Elks National Memorial in Lincoln Park. It looks really cool from the outside, but the interior is just amazing—it makes the capitol rotunda in Springfield look wimpy by comparison. There are some beautiful churches, like St. John Cantius on North Carpenter and Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Lawndale that just really stand out. Also, new this year, we have the Colvin House in Edgewater. It’s a place that a lot of people—myself included—drive by on Sheridan Road all the time, but it hasn’t been open to the public in ages. We’re expecting a big turnout there.

“When I’m not running around for the sake of architecture, I’m a huge live music junkie. Most weekends, you could find me at Metro, Beat Kitchen, or Lincoln Hall, where I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bad show.” —As told to John Hardberger

Freebie of the Week

Open House Chicago

Architecture:If you’ve ever gazed at the façade of a majestic Chicago building and longed to know what lay on the other side, this citywide suite of free open houses from the Chicago Architecture Foundation is for you. Churches, concert halls, studios, and more open their doors, offering choice interior views. Don’t miss a rare free tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park and the vine-draped atrium of Englewood’s Yale Building, usually reserved for residents.
10/15–16. Free. Various locations. openhousechicago.org