MAY
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Now that Metropolis Performing Arts Centre has been reinvented as a nonprofit, it’s doing what it couldn’t do when it had moneymaking aspirations: throwing a fund-raiser. Encore 2003! is Metropolis’s first attempt at a gala. It starts at 6:30 tonight with cocktails, tours, a silent auction, and a gourmet dinner, followed by entertainment in the theater at 111 W. Campbell in Arlington Heights. Neophytes at the benefit game, they’ve priced the tickets at a mere $50, $45 for members. Call 847-577-5982, ext. 242. On Thursday, May 29, Metropolis and Bog Theatre open their coproduction of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic South Pacific, with a cast of 30 directed by Sheldon Patinkin and a ten-piece orchestra conducted by Jonathan Mastro. This’ll be Bog’s last stand; the program notes include a farewell from founder Dan Tomko, who says the ten-year-old troupe is folding. Performances start at 8 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and at 3 on Sunday through June 29. Tickets are $34; call 847-577-2121.
24 SATURDAY
For the past 20 or so years, the members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War have held their annual Memorial Day Ceremonies at the Vietnam Memorial Fountain at State and Wacker in Chicago. But the monument was moved during the Wacker Drive reconstruction, and it hasn’t been returned. “The Revolutionary War statue [of George Washington, Robert Morris, and Hyam Salomon] is gone too,” says VVAW national coordinator Barry Romo. “Now there are just a bunch of potted plants.” The group–which is already up in arms over the federal government’s plans to close the Lakeside VA Hospital on the Gold Coast and cut veterans’ benefits by as much as $25 billion over the next ten years–will meet today at 11 at the Eternal Flame Memorial at Daley Plaza, Dearborn and Washington. Speakers include former Vietnam infantry sergeant Paul Wisovaty, VVAW national coordinator John Zutz, Illinois Disciples Foundation director Jen Tayabji, retired air force technical sergeant Meg Miner, and Doug Rokke, a veteran of Vietnam and the first gulf war who’s suffering from depleted-uranium poisoning. Call 773-327-5756 for more information.
Seven-year-old local drummer Jamiah Rogers started hitting the skins when he was just three and joined his father’s group, the Tony Rogers Band, two years later. He recently told the Web site Guideposts for Kids that he’s not sure whether he wants to be a drummer or an ambulance driver when he grows up; in the meantime, he’s taking lessons and learning to read music. The band will play an all-ages show tonight at 8:30 at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln, Chicago. It’s part of AfroFolk Live, a free 12-week concert series of music from the African diaspora that runs through July 23; tonight’s show follows Spin Night with bluesman Otis Taylor, who’ll DJ and discuss his favorite music from 7 to 8:30. For more information call 773-728-6000 or go to www.oldtownschool.org.
