Weekend Events Around Town: 8/12 – 8/14

Need some ideas for what to do this weekend? Chicago Tonight knows what is going on!

Baby Wants Candy: The Rock Musical at Apollo Theater
Musical theater and improv combine in Baby Wants Candy: The Rock Musical. An Apollo Theater staple, Baby Wants Candy is the world’s premier musical improvisational theater company. The group began in Chicago, but now has performed over 1,700 different shows in theaters from Edinburgh to Singapore since 1997. Each performance begins with an audience suggestion for a title, after which follows an hour-long, one act original musical. Admission is $15.

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Apollo Theater
2540 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
Friday, August 12: 10:30 pm

Built Festival
Part festival, part art initiative—at Built Festival, artists construct a city out of shipping containers. These containers will then be given out as venues to artists and curators. Over 100 artists, projects, exhibitions and performances will be at the festival, all focusing on the theme of urban culture. Beat Kitchen and PBR + Old Style will provide food, and live bands such as The Black Tape and White Mystery will also perform. The festival is this Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $10.

1767 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647
Friday, August 12: 5:00 pm- 10:30 pm
Saturday, August 13: 12:00 pm- 10:30 pm

Chicago SummerDance Festival
Strap on your dancing shoes and enjoy the remaining summer nights at Chicago SummerDance Festival. A Chicago tradition for the past 15 years, SummerDance provides Chicagoans with live music and a chance to dance outdoors. Friday features “The Golden Voice of Belgium” Samba Django while Kimosha P. Murphy will provide free Senegalese Dance Lessons. On Saturday, learn the Traditional Eskista Shoulder Dance and other styles—particularly from the clubs of 1970s Ethiopia—with dance lessons by Fendika and Ethio-Funk music by Debo Band. Round off the weekend on Sunday with East Coast Swing, taught by Margot Toppen and Riley Wimes Jr. to the sounds of Vintage Ballroom music by the John Burnett Orchestra. SummerDance runs Friday through Sunday. Admission and lessons are free.

Spirit of Music Garden in Grant Park
601 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605
Friday, August 12 & Saturday, August 13: 6:00 pm- 9:30 pm
Sunday, August 14: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Edgar Miller at ArchiTech Gallery
Edgar Miller transformed Chicago houses with his handmade stained glass, wood carvings, paintings and more. This commercial exhibit displays and sells many of Miller’s designs created while working for Iannelli Studios. Items include Marshall Field advertisements, cosmetic packaging logos, stained glass window cartoons and Vaudeville poster ideas. Despite the range, all of these items have the signature Miller touch, and provide insight to the beginnings of Miller’s professional life. The exhibit runs Friday through Saturday.

ArchiTech Gallery
730 N. Franklin St., Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60654
Friday, August 12 & Saturday, August 13: 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The Interrupters
Director Steve James and author Alex Kotlowitz release their new film, The Interrupters (2011), this weekend. The documentary details a year in the lives of three Violence Interrupters as they work to stop Chicagoans from engaging in violence as they once did themselves. Ameena Matthews, daughter of gang leader Jeff Fort, Cobe Williams, a former prisoner whose father was murdered, and Eddie Bocanegra, who committed a murder himself at 17, all work for CeaseFire. Gary Slutkin founded the organization with the belief that the only way to stop violence was to go to its source. The Interrupters program—created and run by Tio Hardiman—seeks to do just that by defusing violence on the streets. Catch the Chicago premiere Friday through Sunday for $11.

The Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60601
Friday, August 12: 5:30 pm & 8:15 pm
Saturday, August 13: 2:30 pm, 5:15 pm, & 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 14: 2:30 pm & 5:15 pm

Uta Barth at The Art Institute of Chicago
Photographer Uta Barth looks at not the what but the how of photography, focusing on the process itself instead of the subject. Specifically, her work explores the differences between the eye and the lens and the accidental transformation of the incidental and atmospheric to the primary subject of a photo. Barth’s latest series—…and to draw a bright white line with light—is currently at The Art Institute of Chicago. In it, she zooms in on tiny details in domestic settings, creating somewhat abstract and effervescent images. The exhibit runs Friday through Sunday, and adult admission is $18.

The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603-6404
Friday, August 12, Saturday, August 13 & Sunday, August 14: 10:30 pm – 5:00 pm

We Live Here by Theater Seven
According to Nelson Algren, loving Chicago is like “loving a woman with a broken nose.” In a new show at Theater Seven, eight local storytellers share their own take on what it means to live in and love Chicago. Each cast member tells an autobiographical story from his or her life by the lake. In between their stories, the show uses video interviews with three dozen Chicagoans and the El train itself to continue defining Chicago from different perspectives. The play is Friday through Sunday, and admission is $15 to $25.

The Greenhouse Theater Center
Upstairs Mainstage
2257 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
Friday, August 12 & Saturday, August 13: 8:00 pm
Sunday, August 14: 3:00 pm

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