Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, film, theater, visual arts, author readings, and dance that’s coming up in the next week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Dance

Dance for World Community
June 13-15
Old Cambridge Baptist Church
Cambridge, MA

Expect 20,000 people to take in the free entertainment and meetings with some of the region’s most appealing nonprofit cultural, environmental and social justice organizations as Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre hosts the sixth year of Dance for World Community. On Friday, Talk About Dance is a series of discussions and workshops about the role of dance in creating and maintaining community connections. Saturday’s showcase features more than 75 dance troupes performing on four Harvard Square stages in styles ranging from ballet to salsa and hip hop. There’s a ticketed evening benefit party Saturday with DJ Steve. Sunday rounds out the festivities with a screening of dance on camera by international, national and local filmmakers.

‎Third Life Studios Choreographer Series
June 14
Third Life Studio
Somerville, MA

Once again, Kelley Donovan hosts a combination of experienced and novice dancemakers presenting their work in this pleasantly informal studio setting.

… and further afield

Bessie Schönberg Mentorship Residency Performances
June 13-14
The Yard
Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

Under the mentorship of Philadelphian David Brick of HEADLONG Dance Theater, New York choreographers Cori Marquis and Luke Murphy, and Portland, Oregonian Eric Skinner (with partner Daniel Kirk) have been creating new work as The Yard’s artists in residence. This weekend, check out their dances-in-progress dealing with topics ranging from quantum theory to Ireland’s Easter Rising of 1916 and the natural sounds of shore life.

— Debra Cash

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Rock

Damon Albarn
June 9
Royale, Boston, MA

There have been few musicians of the ‘90s era more prolific than Damon Albarn. Not that you’d ever know it, as most of the time he releases music under names like The Good, the Bad & the Queen, or (a bit more famously) Gorillaz. And of course, he was (and technically still is) in Blur. His solo album Everyday Robots was released this past April under his own name and to critical acclaim. Not too shabby after all these years.

Parquet Courts
June 10
TT the Bear’s Place, Cambridge, MA

The first time I heard Parquet Courts, I thought “This is what I thought the Strokes were going to sound like!” That is to say, the band’s music sounds like it was written at 3 a.m. and recorded at 4 a.m. with all the other hours of the day spent listening to the Velvet Underground. Rock and roll!

James Blake
June 10
Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA

As British music fans know, James Blake’s second album Overgrown won the 2013 Mercury Music Prize. This puts the album in the company of Screamadelica, Suede, and Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Blake’s music isn’t easy to categorize. It’s electronic and soulful all at once. So if that’s your thing, Blake is your guy.

Peter Murphy
June 12
Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA

This month saw the release of the Bauhaus frontman and “Godfather of Goth” Peter Murphy’s tenth solo studio album, Lion. As that album’s single “Hang Up” illustrates, the postpunk icon hasn’t lost his touch or his intensity.

Terry Kitchen
June 12
Jamaica Plain Branch Library, Jamaica Plain, MA

Terry Kitchen’s debut novel Next Big Thing is a fantastic (and fictional) look at the 1980’s Boston music scene. Of course, writing books isn’t Kitchen’s “day job”; writing and performing music is. Kitchen will be showcasing all of his talents at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library as he reads from his novel and then performs the songs he wrote for it.

Eagulls
June 17
Iron Horse, Northampton, MA
June 18
Great Scott, Boston, MA

If Peter Murphy represents the beginning of postpunk, then Eagulls are the future. In some ways, the Leeds-based band sound like they could be the little brothers of the magnificent Savages, and like all little brothers, they have just a little bit more spunk than their older siblings. Their self-titled debut, released earlier this year, is full of well-crafted songs with a touch of atmosphere and more than a hint of energy. One of 2014’s finest debuts.

Upcoming and On Sale…

Beyonce and Jay Z (7/1/2014, Gillette Stadium); The Kills (7/8/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Queens of the Stone Age (7/14/2014, Providence Performing Arts Center); Queen + Adam Lambert (7/19/2014, Mohegan Sun Arena); Sidewalk Driver (7/19/2014, The Sinclair); Queen + Adam Lambert (7/22/2014, TD Garden); Nine Inch Nails & Soundgarden (7/29/2014, Xfinity Center); Echo & the Bunnymen (8/14/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Arcade Fire (8/19/2014, Comcast Center); Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (8/30/2014, Fenway Park); Boston Calling Music Festival feat. The National, Lorde, The Replacements (9/5-7/2014, City Hall Plaza); Bombino (9/5/2014, The Sinclair); Bob Mould (9/12/2014, Paradise Rock Club); The Black Keys (9/21/2014, TD Garden); Kasabian (9/26/2014, Paradise Rock Club); The Orwells (10/9/2014, Brighton Music Hall); Temples (10/24/2014, Paradise Rock Club); Peter Hook & the Light (11/8/2014, Royale)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Visual Arts

Dorothy Simpson Krause: Handcrafting Artist Books, at Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, June 14 through November 2.

Professor Emerita at Massachusetts College of Art, Dorothy Simpson Krause is especially well known for her work in digital printmaking. At Mass Art, she founded the Computer Arts Center and she has received awards for her digital art-making innovations from Kodak and the Smithsonian. Her show at the Fuller Craft Museum focuses explicitly on a hands-on part of her oeuvre: her artists books, collaged from digital images, found objects, and other media and based on travels throughout the world.

The Shakers: From Mount Lebanon to the World, at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, through June 14 through January 4, 2015.

Never large in numbers, the Shakers survive in just one tiny, active community in Sabbathday Lake in the town of New Glouchester, Maine. The Maine-connected Farnsworth Art Museum makes a natural setting for a major exhibition of some 200 Shaker pieces: these are ordinary, everyday objects that, because of the Shaker commitment to simplicity, craftsmanship, and aesthetic purity, have become universally admired works of art. The show is a collaboration among the Shaker Museum and Library, Mount Lebanon, NY, site of the first American Shaker settlement, the Sabbathday Lake Village Museum, and the Sabbathday Lake community.

Bread and Puppet Museum Opening Celebration, Glover, Vermont, through November 1.

Founded in 1963 on New York City’s Lower East Side, the radical political theatre group, Bread and Puppet, escaped Manhattan in 1974 for the far distant hills of Vermont. The group’s leader and guru, Peter Schumann, eventually settled on a donated farm in the tiny town of Glover in the Northeast Kingdom. The farm became the center for Bread and Puppet activities and festivals, its puppet and performance workshops, and the jumping off point for its annual tours. The farm’s 140 year-old hay barn was transformed into a museum for “veteran puppets,” which spill out into several adjacent spaces including a recycled bus across the street. Here, clustered together in waves and herds, live hundreds of characters from dozens of productions, tiny and gigantic, from towering evil capitalists and etherial animals to humble housekeepers, seamstresses, and janitors, all awaiting a possible resurrection in a future show or else “graceful and inevitable de-terioration.” The overall effect is dense and stunning, like no other museum on earth, plus the place has one of the most delightful and reasonably priced museum shops anywhere.

The annual Museum Open House is Sunday, June 8, starting at 2 p.m., with a ceremonial Opening of the Museum Door, music, performances, and a Community Volunteer Meeting to discuss opportunities for Bread and Puppet’s 39th Vermont season. Afternoon performances start the following Sunday, June 15, and run through the 29th, at 3 pm (check calendar for schedule changes). Glover is all that not easy to find but the pilgrimage to Bread and Puppet is always well worth the effort.

— Peter Walsh

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Classical Music

Verdi’s Un giorno del regno
Presented by Odyssey Opera
June 11 and 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Boston University Theater, Boston, MA

Mascagni’s Zanetto and Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segretto di Susanna
Presented by Odyssey Opera
June 12 and 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Boston University Theater, Boston, MA

Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera return to action, nine months after a largely triumphant concert performance of Wagner’s Rienzi. Their Verdi, Mascagni, and Wolf-Ferrari performances mark the group’s first staged productions and feature some familiar voices (James Maddalena, David Kravitz) alongside newcomers (including Michael Chioldi, Jessica Medoff, and Eve Gigliotti).

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Cellist David Finckel and Pianist Wu Han
Sunday, June 8 at 5 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performances Center, 37 Main St., Rockport, MA

Rockport Music presents the celebrated pair in a program of sonatas by Debussy, Mendelssohn, Britten, Beethoven, and Bach.

Innovation and Transformation
June 12 at 8 p.m.
New England Conservatory’s Williams Hall, Boston, MA

New England Conservatory and Music for Food present cellist Emmanuel Feldman and pianist Lois Shapiro playing works of Gershwin, Shostakovich, and Debussy.

Borromeo Quartet
June 12 at 8 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport MA

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival presents the Borromeo Quartet and Cellist Laurence Lesser playing Ravel and Bartok Quartets and the Schubert String Quintet.

Il re Pastore
June 13 at 7:30 p.m.
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, Harvard, MA
(Contact Harvard Box Office for tickets)

The Harvard University Department of Music presents Mozart’s opera Il re Pastore in a concert performance (with period instruments) conducted by Edward Elwun Jones. The stellar cast includes singers Dominque Labelle, Zachary Wilder, Amanda Forsyth, Terisa Wakim, and Jonas Budris.

Charlie Albright
June 13 at 8 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport MA

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival presents pianist Charlie Albright, with a Pre-Concert talk at 7 p.m. On the program: Schubert (Impromptus, Op. 90, No. 3 in G-flat major, No. 2 in E-flat major), Janaček (Sonata I.X. 1095), Schulz-Evler/Strauss (Concert Arabesques on Themes from “On the Beautiful Blue Danube”), Chopin (Etudes, Op. 25), and Mozart/Volodos (Rondo alla Turca, K. 331).

Pianist Denis Matsuev
June 14 at 8 p.m.
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA

Maestro Artist Management presents Matsuev in a program that includes the music of Haydn, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky.

Parker Quartet
June 15 at 5 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street, Rockport MA

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival presents the Parker Quartet and BSO bassist Tom van Dyke in Dvorak’s Bass Quintet and quartets by Haydn and Dutilleux.

— Susan Miron

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Theater

Doubles, Demons, and Dreamers, “A live art festival of comedy, drag, and solo performance” presented by Sleeping Weazel. At the Plaza Black Box Theatre in Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA, June 12 through 21.

The Weazel is awake! The troupe concludes its second season with “a four-part live art festival featuring two world premieres in repertory by Kenneth Prestininzi and Adara Meyers.” Prestininzi’s Ugmo and Eenie Go Down the Ruski Hole explores “the joys of homosexual attraction and the dark underpinnings of war.” Meyers’ comedy Talk To At Me “hones in on a spoiled millennial yuppie suffering from sofa malaise.”

Pattern of Life, by Walt McGough. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary.
Co-presented by New Repertory Theatre and the Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP) at the Boston University Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210, Boston, MA, June 14 through 29.

The final play in the inaugural Next Rep Black Box Festival is the world premiere of a script by McGough, one New Rep’s Playwriting Fellows. The focus is on war and its aftermath: “the mistaken death of a young boy links two men thousands of miles apart. The first, a drone pilot, tries to fight through a haze of guilt and anxiety and find something human to hold on to. The second, a Pakistani villager, struggles to comprehend the tragedy and put a face on a faceless enemy.”

Apt. 4D, written and performed by Beau Jest Moving Theatre at the Charlestown Working Theater, Charlestown, MA, June 12 through 21.

The ever imaginative Beau Jest turns 30 this year and brings to town its latest production, a noir-inspired “comic mystery with lots of movement and detailed observations of human behavior.” See the Arts Fuse interview with Beau Jest honcho Davis Robinson.

— Bill Marx

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Jazz

Mike Pope & the House of Cardinals
June 10, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA

Bassist Mike Pope is probably best known for his work in Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. On the new Cold Truth, Warm Heart he plays both acoustic bass and electric bass guitar in a mix of jazz swing, proggy rock-beat fusion, a couple of lovely ballads, and Chopin’s “Prelude in E minor, Opus 28 No. 4.” The last is arranged as a kind of bossa nova for bass guitar — and it succeeds in spite of itself. Pope comes to the Regattabar with vibist Joe Locke and drummer Maurice Zottarelli from the album as well as young piano phenom Eldar Djangirov and saxophonist Bob Franceschini.

Luther Gray Group
June 12, 8 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA

The redoubtable drummer Luther Gray has two new CDs — Drums and Horns, Horns and Drums, and Lawnmower II — but tonight’s band features players from neither: pianist Steve Lantner, violinist Mimi Rabson, and bassist Keala Kaumeheia. It’s an impressive group nonetheless, enough to make you wonder if Gray (who plays weekly with Jerry Bergonzi’s band at Cambridge’s Lily Pad) has yet another disc in mind.

Danny Fox Trio
June 13, 7:30 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

The Danny Fox Trio has been together since 2008, and their new Wide Eyed (Hot Cup) has been making some waves. Fox (a Harvard grad), bassist Chris van Voorst van Beest, and drummer Max Goldman play with form, texture, and the very concept of the jazz piano trio.

Dave Bryant Quintet
June 14, 8 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Ornette Coleman Prime Time keyboardist Dave Bryant assembles saxophonist Tsuyoshi Honjo, violinist Gabriel Solomon, bassist Brian Race, and drummer Rick Landwehr.

— Jon Garelick

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Author Events

Agni Magazine Event
Wednesday June 11 at 7 p.m.
Newtonville Books, Newton, MA
Free

Come to Newtonville Books to celebrate the latest issue of the venerable Boston literary magazine with Bill Pearce, managing editor, and contributor Jill McDonagh.

Dan Mazur and Alexander Danner
Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present
The Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Friday June 13 at 7 p.m.
Free

There’s no denying it- comics aren’t lowbrow or greasy kid’s stuff any more. A lot of great work has been done in recent years to give comics their rightful place within the literary world. With Boston Comicon right around the corner, authors Dan Mazur and Alexander Denner (a professor of the graphic novel at Emerson College) come to Cambridge to discuss the history of comics worldwide, including manga, fumetti, bandes dessinees, just to name a few. Come celebrate the glory of the printed panel with one-syllable exclamations and bright explosive colors! ‘Nuff said.

Fiction Fridays
Friday, June 13
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Fridays this summer

Fridays this summer The Harvard Book Store will be offering 15% off of fiction titles from their in-store collection. Get your Hawthorne, Henry James and/or your Molly Ringwald prose fix at a fraction of the price all summer long.

John Waters
Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
Book Signing at The Harvard Book Store
Saturday June 14 at 2 p.m.
Free

The auteur they call “The Pope of Trash” comes to the Harvard Book Store to read from his latest novel, which recounts his epic trip thumbing his way across America. The reading went up and sold out in a mustache-thin length of time, but there will be an in-store signing at 2 pm and the bookstore is taking requests for signed books.

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hard Choices
Book Signing at The Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Monday June 16 at 7 p.m.
$38 tickets on sale online only Monday, June 9, at 9am
Price includes cost of book, Mass sales tax, and Harvard Book Store Handling fee

Hillary Rodham Clinton comes to the Harvard Book Store to sign copies of her latest tome, detailing her time as Secretary of State. Hillary will sign books for her legions of fans, no word yet on the possibility of a Liza Minelli-esque dance medley. Some choices shouldn’t be hard at all! C’mon, Hillary – you want to be President or what?

Small Press Book Club
Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA
Thursday June 19
Free

Small Press Book Club is an opportunity for book lovers to read something off the beaten path! This week, the club will meet to discuss A Cure Upon Dostoevsky by Atiq Rahimi. The event is free and open to the public, especially for anyone who might be interested by the title alone.

— Matt Hanson

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Film

Enchanting New Cinema from Hong Kong
June 12-22
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Hong Kong Cinema is much more than fight films, horror, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, and John Woo. Over the next few weeks the MFA gives audiences a chance to see another side of this important center for film. Screenings include Unbeatable, a Chinese mixed-martial arts sports drama by Dante Lam, which was a huge box-office hit, and The Blind Detective by the prolific and unpredictable Johnnie To (Life Without Principle). See schedule for days and times.

The 47 Ronin, Parts I & II
June 14 7 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA

In 2013, Keanu Reeves starred in Ronin 47 to dismal reviews. The original version plays for the final weekend of the Mizoguchi festival at the Harvard Film Archives. It was released just after the invasion of Pearl Harbor and is rarely screened. The movie is described as a “tale of the retainers to an 18th century lord who patiently wait for years to avenge a impetuous breach in protocol that forces their master to commit seppuku and transforms them into drifting ronin destined to die by their own swords after their final task is done.”

The Sacrament
June 13 – 19
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

Popular up and coming young horror film director Ti West (House of the Devil and V/H/S) looks at the insidious nature of cults via a faux-documentary style. Two journalists dig deeper into a commune named Eden Parish to find that this utopia isn’t all it seems to be — think Jim Jones and the People’s Temple.

Ping Pong Summer
June 8-12
Apple Cinemas, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, MA

Michael Tully has been on the on independent and fringe cinema scene for years as a director, actor, and a prolific writer. He finally makes it into the multiplex with this film, which played in April at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Tully is a quirky director, and Ping Pong Summer feels almost like a parody of ’80s coming-of-age films, an tongue-in-cheek ode to teen sports movies. The story centers on a socially awkward, dim-but-likable kid who spends most of his time perfecting his Michael Jackson dance moves and playing ping-pong in his garage. It is encouraging to see a genuine independent filmmaker step into the commercial arena and (hopefully) garner a new audience.

— Tim Jackson

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Roots and World Music

Mary Gauthier
Wednesday, June 11
Johnny D’s, Somerville, MA.

If you bought Mary Gauthier’s first self-released CD, don’t bother trying to redeem the coupon inserted in the liner notes that offered a free piece of pie at the Dixie Kitchen. The Mass. Ave. eatery closed years ago when Gauthier left to pursue a full-time career as a Nashville singer/songwriter. During that time she’s made her mark as one of the most brutally honest tunesmiths around, as proven by her new Trouble and Love (no coupon included).

The Revelers
Saturday, June 14
Toad, Cambridge, MA.

One of the least known treasures of American roots music is called swamp pop. It started in the 1950’s when Cajun musicians tried to play New Orleans-style R&B. They failed at their attempt to duplicate the Crescent City sound; instead, they created a glorious legacy of swamp country soul. Many swamp pop successes, such as “Sea of Love,” became huge hits, and there’s still a vibrant swamp pop circuit in Southwest Louisiana. But the music, with its English lyrics and anglicized artist names, became somewhat politically incorrect when the Cajun pride movement revived traditional French-language Cajun music. Now swamp pop is finally getting its due and younger Cajun musicians happily play it. Take The Revelers, a young band that arose from the ashes of the Cajun swing Red Stick Ramblers and play both swamp pop originals and classics. Their appearance here is perhaps the first swamp pop show in Boston since Lil’ Band o’ Gold played the old House of Blues in 1999.

Rance Allen with the Canton Spirituals
Strand Theater, Dorchester, MA

Jay Caldwell and the Gospel Ambassadors
Victory Chapel, 301 Columbia Ave, Dorchester, MA

Sunday, June 15

Father’s Day has long meant gospel in Boston. The charismatic Delaware-based singer Jay Caldwell is returning for his annual appearance, but frustratingly another promoter has chosen on the same day to mount a bigger competing show, even though the local traditional gospel fan base is far too small to properly support both events.

Strand headliner Rance Allen is perhaps best known to secular fans for his recordings for Stax, but since the iconic Memphis soul label folded he’s stayed busy writing and recording contemporary hits and delivering powerful performances in both secular and church venues. He’ll be joined by the Canton Spirituals, a popular quartet who aren’t shy about including a heavy dose of preaching along with their singing.

— Noah Schaffer