11 things to do in Philly this weekend

THEATER

‘The R&J Project: Romeo and Juliet Re-Imagined’
Friday through Sunday
Brian Sanders’ Junk
2040 Christian St.
$10-$15
madnessmostdiscreettheatre.ticketleap.com
The new local theater company Madness Most Discreet presents this experimental production of “Romeo and Juliet”. Shakespeare can have a stuffy, stiff reputation, which is ironic, since in his own time theater was much more spontaneous and improvised. That’s the tack Madness Most Discrete takes, making each show unique a unique experience—the audience even gets to choose who plays which characters!

‘The Matchmaker’
Through April 4
Tomlinson Theater, Temple University
1301 W. Norris St.
$10-$25, 215-204-1122
www.temple.edu/theater
Temple University presents Thornton Wilder’s play, which found the playwright, most famous for the melancholic “Our Town,” in a farcical mode. The matchmaker of the title is Dolly Levi, a window who brokers marriages. When a shopkeeper hires her to find him a wife, the zealous Dolly gets far more involved than he imagined, leading to an amusing series of romantic complications.

Corps Exquis: Daniel Wohl featuring Transit
Friday, 8 p.m.
FringeArts
140 N. Columbus Blvd.
$15, 215-413-1318
www.fringearts.org
“Corps Exiquis” is a multimedia show integrating experimental film, classical, rock and electronic music, video art and — most important of all — serendipity. Each person involved had to make their contribution knowing only a bit of the previous part, leading to plenty of accidental invention. It’s a working method composer Daniel Wohl borrowed from the surrealists of 1920s Paris.

ART

Growth and Form: Glass and Silk Sculptures
Friday through April 24
University City Arts League
4226 Spruce St.
Free, 215-382-7811
www.ucartsleague.org
Sara Bakken creates pseudo-organic forms with glass and silk organza, many of which look like sea creatures frozen by some weird magic spell or natural phenomenon, calling to mind the otherworldly diversity of that parallel Earth that exists beneath the ocean’s surface. They give the enchanting impression that they were not made, but collected from some far-off beach.

MUSIC

The African Children’s Choir
Friday
Zellerbach Theatre at the Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut St.
$20 to $60
215-898-3900

www.annenbergcenter.org
The African Children’s Choir is visiting Philly for a one-night performance of traditional spirituals, children’s songs, and contemporary songs. The choir is made up of kids age 7 to 10 who have survived war, famine and diseases, and many of them are orphans. But this isn’t just a charity concert you can feel good about supporting — versions of the choir have been travelling around the world impressing audiences for 20 years.

Myths and Magic: Voice of Storytelling
Friday and Saturday
Temple Performing Arts Center
1837 N. Broad St.
$10-$40, 215-751-9494
www.philadelphiasingers.org
The Philadelphia Singers will perform Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore,” a piece about a poet with a rather unusual series of pets, and the East Coast premiere of “The Radio Hour” by Jake Heggie, which features a solo dancer and a small instrumental ensemble as well as the choir.

Regina Carter
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Annenberg Center
3680 Walnut St.
$20-$60, 215-898-3900
www.annenbergcenter.org
On her most recent project, “Southern Comfort”, MacArthur Fellow and violin virtuosa Regina Carter explores a wide variety of Southern musical strains, attempting to connect with her family history. From blues to funk to ballads that sound like they came off Ken Burns’ “Civil War” soundtrack, she proves a deft and evocative interpreter, assimilating a myriad of voices into her own idiom.

DANCE

Tamagawa Taiko Drum and Dance Troupe
Saturday, 4 and 8 p.m.
Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine St.
$25-$30, 215-925-9914
www.paintedbride.org
This Japanese troupe, which has won accolades both at home and abroad, return to Philadelphia for another thunderous performance, combining tightly choreographed moves with a spontaneous, infectious energy. According to Japanese legend, taiko was invented to lure a sullen goddess from her cave — the original drum was an empty bottle of sake. The technology’s improved since, but it can still wake the gods.

MOVIES

‘Sophie Scholl: The Final Days’
Sunday, 6:30 p.m.
A-Space Community Center
4722 Baltimore Ave.
$5, 215-821-6877
www.facebook.com
This 2005 film tells the story of Sophie Scholl, a nonviolent student activist from Germany who was executed in 1943 for protesting the Nazi regime along with her compatriots in the pamphleteering group White Rose, who included her brother. Like fellow martyr and contemporary Dietrich Bonhoeffer, she based her opposition the Nazis on deeply rooted Christian faith.

‘It Follows’
Friday through April 2
PFS Theater at the Roxy
2030 Sansom St.
$9-$10, 267-639-9508
www.filmadelphia.org
This new thriller deconstructs the tropes of ’80s teen horror flicks, making explicit what those movies tended to shrug off with campy dialogue and over-the-top deaths. The monster here isn’t some snarky slasher like Freddie Kreuger: It’s an invisible, creeping presence, able to take whatever form most terrifies its victim, and it’s contracted like a disease from — what else? — sexual contact.

COMEDY

Five Dollar Comedy Week
Through Sunday
Plays and Players Theater
1714 Delancey St.
$5-$25, 215-735-0630
www.fivefollarcomedyweek.com
This epic weeklong comedy festival features experimental comedy, weird late-night fare, phony workshops and other entertaining strangeness. Each show is $5, and $25 will get you a pass for all of them. It kicked off earlier this week, but there are still 20 remaining to choose from, with intriguing titles like “The Tinder Show,” “Eat Your Beats” and “Unlocking Your Superpower.”