Thursday, Nov. 8
• From Anam Cara Theatre Company, “This Improvisational Theatre class will blow your mind. Class time will be spent learning group warm-ups that align the mind with your fun, creative and playful spirit. We will then responsibly dive into the shallow end of the improv pool with character development and then make the big plunge to stage games. Improv is the art of being who you are, regardless of the circumstances. Actors are welcome, as well as people who get paid to perform onstage. We are all actors; all are welcome. We will focus on doing, so please be prepared to play. Arrive limber and with 100 percent stoked-ness for having a blast and learning about yourself in a supportive team environment.” 203 Haywood Road. Free.
• The UNCA music department presents a chamber music performance, featuring a student string quartet and percussion ensemble under the direction of Matthew Richmond. Held in the university’s Lipinsky Auditorium. $5/students free. Info: 251-6432.
***UPDATE: This show has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict *** • Blackout Effectors, 98 N. Lexington Ave., hosts a night of loud and heavy rock and roll, featuring Baltimore’s Hume, along with local openers Curtains and That’s a Thing. From a refreshingly straightforward event page, “Hume: psych rock from Baltimore; CURTAINS: local experimental; THAT’S A THING: local post rock/no wave.”
Friday, Nov. 9
• UNCA presents Everybody Can-Can, an eclectic evening of dance featuring more than 70 local performers and a visual collaboration with the university’s New Media Department. From a press release, “The evening will feature premiere performances showcasing the rich variety of dance at UNC Asheville in technique, composition and repertory. More than 70 dancers from the university and community will perform in many genres, including contemporary, Middle Eastern, ballet and jazz. Among the highlights will be a jazz piece created by recent UNC Asheville graduate Rabia Foreman and a modern dance work by Cornelius Heard, a graduate of the UNC School of the Arts. The program will also feature collaboration with students from UNC Asheville’s New Media Department, adding fresh aesthetics and new technologies. The performance is suitable for all ages.” Held in the university’s Lipinsky Auditorium. 7:30 p.m. $5 or four cans of food for MANNA FoodBank.
• The Juniper Bends Reading Series, a “quarterly literary reading series seeking to create a space for hard-working local writers to share their work with the world,” continues this weekend at Downtown Books and News, 67 N. Lexington Ave., featuring readings by Katherine Min, John Crutchfield, Katey Schultz, Chett Tiller and Jesse Rice-Evans. Free to attend; wine by donation. Info: jessericeevans@gmail.com.
• The moving and shaking resumes Saturday with a show at Apothecary, 39 N. Market St., featuring the awesomely-weird, wonderfully-dancey electronica of Sensual Harassment. From an event page, “Another evening of moving around to sounds … This week we are bringing in our buds from Brooklyn, Sensual Harassment! Their new music video is screening in Wilmington before they stop by the shake it all off. Also, here come the Morbids! Fresh to it all, love and hate co-exist with these boys. Lastly, Date Night will wine and dine and dance and die.” 9 p.m. $5.
Saturday, Nov. 10
• The Asheville Art Museum celebrates the centennial of artist, filmmaker, writer, musician and activist Gordon Parks with a screening of Half Past Autumn, a “biographical film which explores his prodigious artistic output.” 2 p.m. An additional screening will be held Sun., Nov. 11. Free with membership or $8 museum admission.
• Join the Ashe-Bots FIRST high school robotics team at Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company, 675 Merrimon Ave., for a fundraiser featuring demonstrations and an opportunity to “drive” a robot. Free to attend. Donations requested to drive robots. 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
• The River Arts District Second Saturday studio stroll resumes this weekend with dozens of artist studios hosting events for a “full weekend of art, creations, demonstrations and fun.” Free. Info and locations: www.riverartsdistrict.com.
• Family dancing at the YMCA includes instruction, so whether you’re a regular or a first-timer, there’s no excuse not to get out and shake a leg to live local music and callers in a family-friendly environment. Experienced dancers and beginners welcome. Instruction from 7:30-8pm. Main dance to immediately follow. 30 Woodfin St. Info: jhart@ymcawnc.org.
• From Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café, “In David Madden’s stunningly original novel London Bridge in Plague and Fire, Old London Bridge is as much a living, breathing character as its architect, the priest Peter de Colechurch, who began work on it in 1176, partly to honor Archbishop Thomas à Becket, murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Madden is the author of ten novels — including most recently Abducted by Circumstance and Sharpshooter. Ron Rash has called London Bridge in Plague and Fire “a brilliant cleaving of historical fact and Blakeian imagination. David Madden has written his masterpiece.” Join us as Madden reads from and signs the most ambitious and imaginative work of his distinguished career.” 55 Haywood St. 7 p.m. Free.
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