FILM

FANTASTIC FUNGI

Louie Schwartzberg’s entertaining documentary shines a light on the many ways mycelium and mushrooms can heal and save the planet, as responses to pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges. Narrated by actress Brie Larson, the film features insights and observations from bestselling authors and journalists Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eugenia Bone (Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms), medicinal fungi advocate Paul Stramets, and best-selling author and alternative medicine doctor Andrew Weil (Spontaneous Healing). The AFI Silver Theatre offers a special engagement of Fantastic Fungi, picking it as one of only three films to survive the COVID-19 crisis, which brought down all the others planned for the Environmental Film Festival before organizers canceled that 10-day series earlier this week. Chalk it up as a sign that mushrooms really are the answer to the planet’s survival. Tuesday, March 17, at 7:15 p.m. AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $11 to $13. Call 301-495-6720 or visit www.afi.com/Silver.

FIRST COW

Kelly Reichardt’s latest western drama focuses on two male drifters who steal their way into a lucrative business during the 19th century gold rush in the Oregon Territory. John Magaro and Orion Lee star in the haunting film, which lingers on the lush scenery and unsettling quietude of the rural Pacific Northwest, before the suspense mounts. Reichardt co-wrote the screenplay with Jonathan Raymond, who adapted it from his novel The Half Life. Opens Friday, March 13. Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th St. NW. Call 202-452-7672 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com. Also at Landmark’s Bethesda Row Cinema, 7235 Woodmont Ave. Call 301-652-7273 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com.

KING KONG

Fathom Events returns the original monster horror flick to big screens, the 1933 classic featuring one of the most iconic creatures and remarkable special effects that forever changed the game. Fay Wray stars as the apple of the giant gorilla’s eye in the black-and-white drama directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with groundbreaking stop-motion animation by Willis O’Brien and a musical score by Max Steiner. Wednesday, March 15, at 1 and 4 p.m. Area theaters including Regal venues at Gallery Place (701 7th St. NW), Potomac Yards Stadium (3575 Jefferson Davis Highway), and Majestic Stadium (900 Ellsworth Dr., Silver Spring). Tickets are $15. Visit www.fathomevents.com.

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LEONA

A young Jewish woman from Mexico City finds herself torn between her conservative family and forbidden love with a non-Jewish man. Textured with the unrelenting drama of a Jane Austen novel, director Isaac Cherem’s debut film ratchets up the tension as she juggles familial pressure, precedent, and love and desire. The Edlavitch DCJCC returns Leona, a Spanish-language film presented with English subtitles, for another week of daily screenings after its initial hit run at JxJ 2019. Opens Saturday, March 14. To March 26. Cafritz Hall, 1529 16th St. NW. Tickets are $9 to $13. Call 202-777-3210 or visit www.jxjdc.org.

THE RUINS OF LIFTA

Voices from the Holy Land series, now in its sixth season and sponsored by an interfaith coalition of more than 40 area organizations, screen documentaries focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict. This weekend’s offering focuses on an Arab village whose residents were driven out during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and to this day remains relatively untouched. Most other such villages have either been destroyed or repopulated by Israelis, and in fact, there has been a plan in the works to redevelop Lifta as an upscale neighborhood. Yet an ad-hoc Israeli-Palestinian coalition in favor of preserving the site as an Arab village has helped to stymie such plans. Sunday March 15, at 2 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, 4444 Arlington Blvd. Free. Call 703-892-2565 or visit www.voicesfromtheholyhland.org.

THE WIZARD OF OZ

Victor Fleming’s 1939 adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel has been called the most-watched motion picture in history. Certainly it’s long captivated gay viewers, by virtue of its star and gay icon Judy Garland as well as its story of a mythical Oz where all misfits are accepted. And then there’s the timeless score by Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg. Also starring Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, and Margaret Hamilton, The Wizard of Oz returns to Landmark’s West End Cinema more than two years after it helped kick off the venue’s hump-day film series “Capital Classics.” Wednesday, March 18, at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 p.m. 2301 M St. NW. Tickets are $12.50. Call 202-534-1907 or visit landmarktheatres.com.

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STAGE

ADA AND THE ENGINE

Playwright Lauren Gunderson (Shakespeare Theatre’s Peter Pan and Wendy) offers a whimsical and inspirational scientific history lesson about Ada Lovelace, best known as the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and also as wife to Charles Babbage, called “the father of the computer.” In fact, Gunderson’s tale posits that Babbage may have invented the hardware, or “analytic engine” of the machine, but Lovelace is responsible for inventing “the language, the song, the soul of the thing, the programming.” Ada and the Engine rotates dates with Suddenly Last Summer. To April 5. Gunston Arts Center, Theater Two, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $40. Call 703-418-4804 or visit www.wscavantbard.org.

HEAD OVER HEELS

Promoted as a show offering “all the drama of a 16th-century romance with a queer twist,” Head Over Heels is most easily described as a jukebox musical featuring the hits of the Go-Gos. Tony-winning writer Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) first got the notion to blend the female quartet’s fun and effervescent pop with Philip Sidney’s sprawling, sensational Renaissance prose poem The Arcadia for an upbeat celebration of love and identity, and all those, you might say, who’ve got the beat. Head Over Heels features numerous characters questioning their sexuality, experimenting with their gender identity, and pursuing queer relationships, all while taking heed (or not) of the gender-fluid, nonbinary oracle, Pythio (Topher Williams). Monumental Theatre Company kicks off its new season with the company’s Jimmy Mavrikes directing. To March 23. Ainslie Arts Center in Episcopal High School, 3900 W. Braddock Rd., Alexandria. Tickets are $40. Call 703-933-3000 or visit www.monumentaltheatre.org.

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QUEENS GIRL: BLACK IN THE GREEN MOUNTAINS

With this world-premiere production at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre, playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings completes the Queens Girl trilogy she launched in 2015 with Queens Girl in the World at Theater J. Chronicling the adventures of bright-eyed, brown-skinned Jacqueline Marie Butler, the first play explored the young girl’s dawning sense of self as a young black girl in the Civil Rights era. It was followed by last year’s Queens Girl in Africa, exploring her family’s move to Nigeria in the wake of the assassination of Malcolm X. Now, Butler returns to the U.S. for college in Vermont in the era of a raging Vietnam War and heightened tensions on college campuses after the Kent State killings. Felicia Curry stars and Paige Hernandez directs. The play christens a new, 211-seat performance space in Everyman’s complex. To April 12. Upstairs Theatre, 315 West Fayette St. Baltimore. Tickets are $59 to $69. Call 410-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org.

RASHEEDA SPEAKING

Two co-workers — one black, one white — are driven apart by the machinations of their boss in a tense workplace thriller by playwright Joel Drake Johnson. The situation spins wildly out of control in this incisive, even incendiary, dark comedy that examines the prevalence of ingrained racism in America, even in a time, and a place, some claim to be “post-racial.” The Ally Theatre Company’s Ty Hallmark directs the show to close out the third season of her young but already Helen Hayes Award-winning organization, one focused on producing theater intended to acknowledge and confront systemic oppression in America. To March 22. Joe’s Movement Emporium, 3309 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Md. Tickets are $15 to $25. Call 301-699-1819 or visit www.joesmovement.org.

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

This one-act play Tennessee Williams has all the hallmarks you’d expect from the playwright: exotic locales, tortured psyches, lyrical language, and Williams’ knack for creating vivid, unforgettable characters. The focus is on an elderly New Orleans socialite mourning the death of her poet son while trying to squelch details about his mysterious death. Of course, it doesn’t exactly work, although the truth of what exactly happened remains vague. The prevailing theory, and certainly most sensational, suggests that her son’s homosexuality was a factor. Christopher Henley directs. In rep with Ada and the Engine. To April 5. Gunston Arts Center, Theater Two, 2700 South Lang St. Arlington. Tickets are $40. Call 703-418-4804 or visit www.wscavantbard.org.

THE 39 STEPS

Actors cast in this comedic adaptation of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s early works certainly can’t phone in their performance — particularly not those, such as Gwen Grastorf and Christopher Walker, cast in Constellation Theatre Company’s new production as what the program simply lists as a “Cast of Dozens” (there are over 100 roles in all). Constellation’s production stars Drew Kopas as a British everyman who gets ensnared in a spy ring, then proceeds to have romantic dalliances along the way to clearing his name. Patricia Hurley does triple duty as his three paramours. Extended to March 15. Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW. Tickets are $19 to $55. Call 202-204-7741 or visit www.constellationtheatre.org.

THE AMATEURS

Up-and-coming gay playwright Jordan Harrison (Marjorie Prime) offers a mind-bending journey from the 14th Century to the present day — or, in plague terms, from the Black Death to the AIDS crisis by focusing on a troupe of bumbling actors staging “Noah’s Ark.” Unexpectedly timely, we know. Olney’s production stars Emily Townley, Michael Russotto, Evan Casey, Rachel Zampelli, John Keabler, and James Konicek. To April 5. Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. Tickets are $59 to $64. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.

WEEP

Nu Sass Productions, the female-focused local theater company, presents a modern retelling of the Latin folktale “La Llorona,” or “The Weeping Woman,” centered on a woman accused of drowning her two children and the public defense attorney assigned to her high-profile case. Boneza Valdez Hanchock and Carolyn Kashner play the two women who form an unlikely friendship in this psychological thriller, written by D.C. playwright Amanda Zeitler, that touches on hot-button issues of racism, abortion, immigration, and misogyny. Bess Kaye directs. To March 14. Caos on F, 923 F St. NW. Tickets are $20. Call 202-215-6993 or visit www.nusass.com.

MUSIC

BERNARD/EBB SONGWRITING AWARDS CONCERT

Some of the area’s best and most original music artists will perform at this 6th annual competition created by Cathy Bernard in honor of her late uncle Fred Ebb, the legendary lyricist responsible, with his writing partner John Kander, for an abundance of major Broadway musicals, including Cabaret and Chicago. The Bernard/Ebb trophy is open to songwriters working in various genres, all drawn from a local pool of applicants (more than 160 entries were received this year). Produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, the 2020 finalists are Hayley Fahey of Derwood, Md., Genna Matthew of Charlottesville, Eric Scott of North Beach, Md., Maimouna Youssef of Baltimore, and DuPont Brass, a D.C. ensemble. A three-person jury of music industry veterans will give feedback throughout the show and then select the Grand Prize Winner and recipient of $10,000 plus 25 hours of recording studio time. Friday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $15 to $20, plus a recommended $20 minimum purchase per person. Call 240-330-4500 or visit www.bethesdabluesjazz.com.

BILLY WINN’S SENSORYOVERLOAD

A homegrown D.C. R&B/dance artist and veteran performer at Capital Pride, Billy Winn next performs at another installment of the monthly LGBTQ+ Music Residency at Red Bear Brewing Co. that started at the top of 2020. Winn is a performer and host at this third-Thursday showcase featuring other queer musical acts from the area, plus prizes and giveaways for the audience. The March edition puts a spotlight on DJ Honey, an increasingly prominent DJ at bars and clubs around town. Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. 209 M St. NE. Call 202-849-6130 or visit www.redbear.beer.

BLUE DOT JAZZ TROUPE

Rooted in the music of New Orleans, this modern rhythmic jazz ensemble mixes in blues, funk, Afro-Cuban, and pop to bring the signature American music genre to life in new and dynamic ways, with the intention of getting audiences moving and dancing. And since this past summer, they’ve been doing it three nights a week, performing live at Kramerbooks’ Afterwords Café, in the back of the venue, where patrons can enjoy late-night food as well as a host of literary-inspired cocktails and over 20 craft beers on tap. Thursdays from 9 to 11 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to midnight. 1517 Connecticut Ave. NW. Call 202-387-3825 or visit www.kramers.com.

CARSIE BLANTON

A feminist, socialist cabaret artist who composes her own smart, catchy, genre-defying music, tours in support of the strong set Buck Up, the title track of which Rolling Stone Country has called “a bright, John Prine-worthy folk song about maintaining a bright disposition in dark times.” With natural appeal to Americana/folk fans, the New Orleans-based artist’s music is steeped in the American Songbook, making her worth seeking out for anyone with a penchant for jazz and pop and progressive politics. Chris Kasper opens. Friday, March 20. Doors at 6:30 p.m. The Hamilton, 600 14th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $35. Call 202-787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com.

CONGRESSIONAL CHORUS: VOGUE: RETURN TO THE ’90S

This year’s Spring cabaret takes a trip to the musical era of the 1990s, a decade that launched with Madonna’s ballroom culture-appropriating hit “Vogue.” But that’s only the jumping-off point, not the focus, of an energetic concert with hits veering from a boy band with the right stuff to a Latin heartthrob living the crazy (closeted) life, from a coquetish, baby Britney Spears to a dramatic, all-woman Celine Dion — not to mention a dream-seeking Billy Joel and a friendly, beer-chasing Garth Brooks. Interim Artistic Director Chris Urquiaga directs. Saturday, March 21, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 22, at 4:30 p.m. Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G St. NW. Tickets are $39 to $49. Call 202-347-2635 or visit www.congressionalchorus.org.

FXCK SXSW: A LOCAL SHOWCASE

Every year for a week in mid-March, local concert venues and the overall live music scene in D.C. becomes just a wee bit darker and quieter — just enough to make you remember that, indeed, the country’s biggest music festival is now getting underway in Austin. Well, every year until this year anyway. (Organizers last week cancelled South By Southwest due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19.) But this year as in previous years, the Black Cat presents a special showcase of local acts, including The OSYX (pronounced “06”), a post-punk, all-female supergroup consisting of Erin Frisby, Ara Casey, Selena Benally, Robzie Trulove, and Maya Renfro, all of whom are also principals in This Could Go Boom!, a record label and presenting organization specifically geared to fellow “womxn and non-binary musicians.” The lineup also includes Too Free, the experimental, improvisational electronic pop trio of Awad Bilal, Don Godwin, and Carson Cox; and Nice Breeze, featuring the “abstract poet punks” Andy Fox, John Howard, and Martha Hamilton. Friday, March 13. Doors at 8 p.m. Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. Tickets are $12 to $15. Call 202-667-4490 or visit www.blackcatdc.com.

GAY MEN’S CHORUS OF WASHINGTON: GENDEROSITY

For its fourth concert of the season, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington offers a glam-rock spectacle celebrating gender and self-expression. Naturally, the program includes over-the-top costumes, dancers, and drag queens to go well beyond the music. GMCW’s Thea Kano will direct the concert with choreography by Craig Cipollini, James Ellzy, and Danny Aldous. The song list ranges from “Dancing Queen” to “Vogue,” “Changes” to “Born This Way,” along with musical numbers from La Cage Aux Folles (“A Little More Mascara”), The Wiz (“Home”), and Aida (“My Strongest Suit”). Joining the chorus on stage as the program’s special guest will be Batalá, D.C.’s diverse, all-women percussion group. Saturday, March 14, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 15, at 3 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $25 to $65. Call 202-328-6000 or visit www.thelincolndc.com.

GUDELL JAZZ SYNDICATE

A once-familiar presence performing in musical productions around town, Tony Gudell has altered course slowly but surely over the last decade, restyling himself as an increasingly in-demand nightclub singer and jazz vocalist. Case in point: Gudell has spent the past year as a monthly performer with a backing band at Logan Circle’s the Crown & Crow. And with the advent of March, that swanky Victorian-styled venue decided it wants more, inviting Gudell and company to become the “official house band” with performances twice monthly. As before, the exact lineup accompanying Gudell varies, although it usually consists of either Oren Levine or Terry Marshall on piano, Mark Saltman or Gerhard Graml on bass, and Christian Clark on percussion. What doesn’t change is the focus on swinging, crooning classics from the first half of the 20th Century, a golden era for jazz and pop. The repertoire ranges from hits by the Rat Pack to American Songbook standards, and all intended to “evoke a mid-century Vegas vibe.” Saturday, March 14 and March 28, from 9 p.m. to midnight. 1317 14th St. NW. No cover or minimum purchase required. Call 202-763-7552 or visit www.thecrownandcrow.com, or www.tonygudell.com for more details and additional dates.

LIVE FROM HERE WITH CHRIS THILE

Thile, the progressive bluegrass musician who is also a member of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers, replaced the retiring Garrison Keillor in the fall of 2016 as host of this popular public radio variety show, formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion. The current show has a more youthful energy to it under the direction of the 39-year-old Thile, but otherwise it’s still as folksy and familiar as ever. This weekend, the show will broadcast live from the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, where Thile and his five-piece house band will be joined by an all-female lineup of guests: acclaimed Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, young pop-soul singer-songwriter Emily King, Rachael Price, lead singer of folk-rock band Lake Street Dive, comedian and author Negin Farsad, and Marion Winik of NPR’s All Things Considered. Saturday, March 14, at 5:45 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $49 to $125. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC: MOZART’S REQUIEM

Two of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s very last works, iconic masterpieces each, are the focus of the next concert by Strathmore’s resident orchestra. Piotr Gajewski conducts the National Philharmonic and soloist Jon Manasse to kick off the program with the elegant Clarinet Concerto in A Major, the German composer’s last completed instrumental work, dating to October 1791. That’s followed by the powerful Requiem Mass, which remained unfinished upon Mozart’s death in December 1791. Joining the orchestra and chorale to perform this beautifully anguished choral masterpiece are four vocal soloists: Suzanne Karpov, soprano, Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano, Norman Shankle, tenor ,and Kevin Deas, bass. Saturday, March 21, at 8 p.m, with a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, Md. Tickets are $40.95 to $93.45. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.

WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA: DON GIOVANNI

The protagonist in Mozart’s anti-hero classic Don Giovanni fashions himself a real Don Juan, aiming to seduce and conquer all of the beautiful women he encounters, whatever it takes. Eventually, however, “time’s up” for Giovanni in this celebrated tragicomedy. Ryan McKinny takes on the title role in a Washington National Opera production directed by E. Loren Meeker and choreographed by Eric Sean Fogel. WNO Principal Conductor Evan Rogister leads the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. In Italian with English surtitles. To March 22. Opera House. Tickets are $45 to $299. Call 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

DANCE

DANCE PLACE’S NEW RELEASES SHOWCASE

Some of the best new works by the best new or emerging choreographers in the region get the spotlight at this curated annual event. An array of genres and compelling voices emerge in the six works by six artists chosen for this year’s showcase include Bre Seals, the 2019 New Releases Commission recipient who debuts a deeply intersectional piece focused on the act of removing negative energy and replacing it with light from within. Also on tap is Anastasia Johnson’s Sometimes Y, exploring the anxiety and fear often faced by those new to the dance world; Madeline Maxine Gorman’s Me Time, a solo work examining the struggles and stress of being an aspiring corporate woman; Madeline Cantor’s Hidden Stories, a solo memoir work in which the artist richocets between an old family story and a related, recent personal experience; Stephen Lyons II’s Untitled, a physical theater urban dance work about five roommates vying for love; and a Faryn Kelly’s To The Last, exploring the feeling of knowing someone across non-linear time. Saturday, March 21, at 8 p.m. Dance Place, 3225 8th St. NE. Tickets are $15 to $30. Call 202-269-1600 or visit www.danceplace.org.

COMEDY

COMEDY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

A show President Trump doesn’t want you to see, Maryland’s Improbable Comedy continues to enlist more immigrants and first-generation comics for another stand-up showcase. Taking the stage at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre are Pedro Gonzalez, Rahmein Mostafavi, Shelley Kim, and Sofia Javed. Saturday, March 14, at 8 p.m. 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. Tickets are $20 to $30. Call 301-588-8270 or visit www.improbablecomedy.com.

JANE AUSTEN COMEDY SHOW

In honor of Women’s History Month, Novel Comedy presents an evening poking fun and paying tribute to one of the world’s most popular novelists. A roster of area comedians will riff on her famed works, including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma through stand-up routines, of course, but also funny discussions and presentations a la PowerPoint, and audience games. “It’s like your book club, but run by comedians,” goes the event’s tagline. Better still, host venue Solid State Books in the H Street Corridor will feature a bar open during the show. Saturday, March 21, at 8 p.m. 600 H St. NE. Tickets are $7 (plus fee), with seating on a first come, first serve basis. Call 897-4201 or visit www.solidstatebooksdc.com.

THE QUEER QUEENS OF QOMEDY

Hard-working veteran comedienne Poppy Champlin — named “America’s Funniest Real Woman” on The Joan Rivers Show — has organized a “high octane, high caliber” all-lesbian standup show for a decade now. This year’s lineup, sponsored by Sapphire Books Publishing, also includes Paris Sashay, a D.C. comic recently transplanted to New York who featured in her own episode of the Wanda Sykes-produced standup docu-series Unprotected Sets on ePIX, and Jen Kober, who played Officer Lafayette on RuPaul’s sitcom AJ and the Queen and can be heard regularly spinning stories on NPR’s Snap Judgment. The queen’s return to Magooby’s Joke House in Baltimore, where some proceeds will benefit the Pride Center of Maryland. Sunday, March 22, at 5 p.m. 9603 Deereco Rd., Timonium, Md. Tickets are $30, or $40 for VIP including preferred seating and a meet-and-greet with the queens and wine and cheese before the show. Call 410-252-2727 or visit www.magoobysjokehouse.com.

ART & EXHIBITS

CREATING ICONS: HOW WE REMEMBER WOMAN SUFFRAGE

The National Museum of American History offers its commemorative take on the efforts of the women’s suffrage movement, which culminated in ratification of the 19th Amendment, with a display of items donated 100 years ago by what is now the League of Women Voters, along with materials related to three of the movement’s leaders, Susan B. Anthony, Adelaide Johnson, and Alice Paul. But recent developments in women’s history are also reflected, with items from the 2017 Women’s March and a gavel used by the most powerful women in all of American history (thus far), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Now to March 7, 2021. 14th St. and Constitution Ave. NW. Call 202-633-1000 or visit www.americanhistory.si.edu.

HILL CENTER GALLERIES: REGIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION

Over the years, this exhibition, featuring works in various mediums and subjects, has grown to include 85 artists from D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. This year’s juror is Myrtis Bedolla, owner of Baltimore’s Galerie Myrtis. Bedolla selected 94 pieces of original hanging work, in any medium, submitted by 85 artists, including Kasse Andrews-Weller, Olga Bauer, Katherine Becker, Julie Byrne, Sally Canzoneri, Sam Dixon, Sean Dudley, Christopher Fowler, Charles Gaynor, M. Alexander Gray, Tara Hamilton, Wan Lee, Joey Manlapaz,Khanh Nguyen, Felicia Reed, Robert Weinstein, and Alla Zareva. On display to April 18. At the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. Call 202-549-4172 or visit www.HillCenterDC.org.

HANAMI: BEYOND THE BLOOMS

The innovative, experiential gallery ArTecHouse continues its annual tradition of celebrating springtime and cherry blossoms through several interactive installations spread out in a multi-room experience offering a kind of journey of springtime renewal. This year’s Hanami: Beyond the Blooms features vivid, handmade ink illustrations by New York-based artist Yuko Shimizu that get transformed digitally to follow vibrant cherry blossom flowers on an exciting and interactive journey through land, sea, and air. Shimizu draws on her childhood memories of cherry blossom trees in Japan with the installation In Rapture, while Awakening explores the sound of traditional Japanese taiko drums, reimagined with cutting-edge technology. The exhibition also includes the installations Walking with Petals, which guides guests down a surreal path of cherry trees made entirely out of hand-illustrated elements, and Hana Saku Biome, which engages all five senses, with the scent of cherry blossoms filling the air as you learn what exactly makes a cherry tree grow. As always, the experience ends with a visit to the bar where augmented-reality cocktails and other beverages are available to purchase. Opens Friday, March 13. To May 25. 1238 Maryland Ave. SW. Tickets for 60-minute, timed-entry sessions are $13 to $20. visit www.dc.artechouse.com.

MIGRATIONS & MEANING(S) IN ART

A new exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art features a diverse range of local, national, and international visual artists exploring the timely topic of migration, many of them drawing on historical reference points, from slavery and emancipation, to the Great Migration, to migrant communities in the Caribbean, the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Scholar and artist Deborah Willis of New York University curated the show per her role as the visiting chair of photography at MICA. Willis selected works across various media — photography, prints, video, animation, and sculpture — touching on “how identities are realized, rejected, performed, and desired,” as well as to the urgency of the present time. Artists and collectives included in the exhibition are Leslie King-Hammond, Albert Chong, Renée Cox, Carrie Mae Weems, Danny Wilcox Frasier, Tsedaye Makonnen, Nate Larson, Ana Teresa Fernandez, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Hank Willis Thomas. To March 15. Meyerhoff Gallery in the Fox Building, 1303 W. Mount Royal Ave., Baltimore. Call 410-669-9200 or visit www.mica.edu/galleries.

TARGET GALLERY’S MARCH150 ANNUAL EXHIBITION AND ART SALE

The contemporary exhibitions space of Old Town Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Art Center presents its 10th annual all-media fundraising exhibition. Rughly 200 original works by area artists are featured, essentially only limited by size and prize: with all works created on gallery-supplied 10″ X 10″ panels and priced at a reasonable $150 (a price that drops to $100 for all unsold artwork the last weekend of March.) Beyond that, the works exhibit a diversity of topics and media, including painting, photography, etching, mixed-media, and fiber. Opening Art Party, including hors d’oeuvres, drinks for purchase, live art demonstrations, and a dance party, is Saturday, March 14, from 7 to 10 p.m. On display until March 31. Target Gallery, 105 North Union St. Tickets to the Art Party are $30, or $50 to $200 for VIP allowing early access to art sales as well as the party. Call 703-838-4565 or visit www.torpedofactory.org.

WHICH YESTERDAY IS TOMORROW?

Artists Dahlia Elsayed and Andrew Demirjian reimagine the Silk Road caravanserai, or central courtyard, as a potential site for exchanging ideas and culture in their immersive, site-specific installation at the Logan Circle gallery Transformer. Dubbed “a rest stop for the future based on the past,” this multi-sensory installation completely transforms the gallery’s space, embellishing the walls, floors, and ceilings with vibrant textiles, rugs, and furnishings, while a spatialized soundtrack of deconstructed folk instruments is heard throughout, and fragrant mists and Turkish coffee perfume the air. The artists have also curated a group of designers, painters, sculptors, and poets to create mementos to contribute to the experience. And very Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m., they welcome guests in the space for a “Pre-Sunset Pause,” an opportunity to meditate and reflect on the week. Opening Reception is Saturday, March 14, from 5 to 8 p.m. On display to April 25. Transformer, 1404 P St. NW. Call 202-483-1102 or visit www.transformerdc.org.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

ERTH’S PREHISTORIC AQUARIUM ADVENTURE: THE MYSTERY OF THE DINOSAURS OF THE DEEP

Dive into the prehistoric world of underwater dinosaurs on stage at Frederick’s Weinberg Center for the Arts from the Australian creators of Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live. The new show, produced by Red Tail Entertainment, is another puppetry-based theatrical display brought to life by Erth Visual & Physical Inc.’s team of creators, makers, and performers, all with an eye toward being entertaining for the whole family while staying true to the real science of paleontology. Children can watch and learn and also interact with the inanimate, inflatable, and flying creatures in a fun, educational, immersive manner. Friday, March 20, at 8 p.m. 20 W. Patrick St. Frederick, Md. Tickets are $26 to $36. Call 301-600-2828 or visit www.weinbergcenter.org.

LA TI DO: THE MUSIC OF NEAL LEARNER

Anya Randall Nebel and Larry Grey co-host the next D.C. iteration of the musical variety cabaret La Ti Do. The March edition presents an evening of original music from Neal Learner, co-creator of the musical Soul Redeemer, which debuted at last year’s Capital Fringe. Guest performers include Jessica Jellish, Cathy McCoskey, Paige Washington, Anthony Williams, and Fernando Luciano Delgado, with music direction by Josh Cleveland. The program also offers spoken word from C. Thomas, the local queer poet of color. Monday, March 16, at 8 p.m. Le Mirch, 1736 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tickets are $20 at the door. Call 202-629-3577 or visit www.latidoproductions.com.

POETRY & PASTIES

Every second Saturday of the month, the Anacostia location of Busboys and Poets plays host to a diverse open mike/burlesque event over brunch explicitly designed as a “#queer-affirming, #POC-centered, #femme-focused space.” Poetry & Pasties (@poetryandpasties on social media) is hosted by poet and sex educator Jennifer Eden, who identifies as a Black queer femme. Saturday, March 14, at 1 p.m. 2004 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE. Call 202-889-1374 or visit www.busboysandpoets.com.