The Ten

Don’t-miss picks for September 13 through September 19, 2018

1 Lagrime di San Pietro

Classical:Peter Sellars, a stage director well known for his collaborations with composer John Adams, creates a staging of Orlando di Lasso’s 20-madrigal collection about Peter’s denial of Jesus. Sellars makes the story more about ordinary people than superhuman figures by supertitling the work with modern-language translations and directing the singers (from the excellent Los Angeles Master Chorale) to move around onstage.
9/13 at 8 p.m. $10–$45. Ravinia. ravinia.org

2 Is/land

Dance:Three dancers of East Asian heritage join forces for That We Walk, which explores various narratives about home. Tourism videos sponsored by the U.S. government play in the background, a commentary on the complicated identities of the performers. Completing the program is Burrow, Tousle, two side-by-side solo improvisations from Lucky Plush’s Kara Brody and Amanda Maraist of Khecari.
9/13–14. $15–$40. Links Hall. linkshall.org

3 David Hockney

Art:The British master of pop art, perhaps best known for his cool depictions of nude men in Los Angeles swimming pools, brings his paintings to life with digital videos. A wall of high-definition TV screens blazes with vivid colors showing the seasonal changes of the woods near Hockney’s Yorkshire studio.
FREE 9/13–11/21. Richard Gray Warehouse. richardgraygallery.com

4 The Time Is Now! Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960–1980

Art:This major exhibit reassesses the South Side as a hotbed for artistic innovation during the 1960s and ’70s. Here, the Black Arts movement emerged in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights era, Black Panther demonstrations, and the local radical jazz scene. Murals, prints, posters, photographs, and sculpture collectively tell a story of how concerted creativity animated a community during a period that changed Chicago art forever.
FREE 9/13–12/30. Smart Museum of Art. smartmuseum.uchicago.edu

5 Fulton Market Harvest Fest

Festival:Now in its third year, the Harvest Fest features an extensive selection of food, drink, events, and music, including appearances from your favorite chefs (Stephanie Izard, Erling Wu-Bower), favorite restaurants (City Mouse, Monteverde), and a smattering of well-respected musicians (Poliça, Lee Fields).
9/14–16. $25–$75. Fulton Market. fultonmarketharvestfest.com

6 Reboot

Dance:Margi Cole, Colleen Halloran, and Peter Carpenter — three Columbia College professors with serious choreographic chops — team up for an evening produced by Cole’s company, the Dance Colective. With his laughter-inducing, eyebrow-raising political bent, Carpenter constructs a new solo set for Cole that draws from current discourse surrounding truth, deception, and “alternative facts.” Halloran surveys similar territory in a rare new work.
9/14–16. $15–$20. Dovetail Studios. margicole.com

7 Edie Fake

Art:Art collectors make a mad dash to any exhibit of new work by Fake, who rose to prominence memorializing Chicago’s gay and lesbian architecture in dazzling ink and gouache. For his second solo show at Western Exhibitions, he returns with jewel-like drawings that imagine the spaces where transgender people feel safe and thrive as a result.
FREE 9/14–10/27. Western Exhibitions. westernexhibitions.com

8 We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time

Theater:In David Cale’s one-man autobiographical show, British singer Petula Clark (among others) and a backyard bird sanctuary provide a young boy respite from a troubled family and a bleak industrial town. Violence and beauty coexist in a monologue that fuses music with words and memories.
9/15–10/21. $20–$70. Goodman Theatre. goodmantheatre.org

9 Bethany Collins: Undersong

Art:This rising multidisciplinary artist is known for altering printed text, whether by erasing specific words so that sentences take new meanings or creating small sculptures from scraps of sliced paper. For Undersong, her second solo exhibit at Patron, Collins explores rootlessness by modifying Homer’s Odyssey as well as old classified ads from former slaves looking for their lost family members.
FREE 9/15–10/27. Patron Gallery. patrongallery.com

10 Up Is Down: Mid-century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio

Design:This show celebrates the golden age of advertising through the lens of a homegrown design giant. In the 1950s, Chicago was a hub for modernist graphic design, with Goldsholl and Associates being one of the best-known firms, churning out iconic logos for Motorola, 7-Up, and Vienna Beef. It even produced many of the era’s then-groovy, now-nostalgic educational short films.
FREE 9/18–12/9. Block Museum of Art. blockmuseum.northwestern.edu