Calendar

BY PAUL FRISWOLD

THURSDAY 03/05

California Scheming

Scott Phillips has written a slew of tough-guy crime novels that feature desperate characters involved in some greasy business. Douglas Rigby is his latest antihero, a financially and morally bankrupt attorney who just lost almost a quarter-million dollars on a coke deal gone belly-up. Rigby’s next swing for the fences is art forgery, and all he has to do is keep his hand-picked forger, his girlfriend, the painting owner’s nurse and a couple of other people from screwing it all up. That Left Turn at Albuquerque is laced with black humor, violence and middlemen, all crowded together under the dying sun of Southern California. Phillips reads from and signs copies of his book as part of the old Noir at the Bar series. Festivities start at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at Meshuggah Café (6269 Delmar Boulevard, University City; www. subbooks.com). Admission is free, and copies of Phillips’ book will be available to purchase. FRIDAY 03/06 Piecemeal Play In 2015, the Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble produced a sensational production of Liz Duffy Adams’ Or, a Restoration comedy/thriller with actual Restoration playwright/spy Aphra Behn as a character. Behn was a pioneering woman who wrote, loved freely and gave men as good as she got. In her memory, SATE began the Aphra Behn Festival, a showcase of new short plays written, directed, acted, designed, costumed and photographed by women. This year, the company switches gears and instead presents selected scenes from The Rover, Behn’s most enduring play (it was so popular in her lifetime she wrote a sequel). Set in Naples during Carnival, the play charts the romantic adventures between a group of English cavaliers and various Neapolitan women. The show starts at 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday (March 6 to 8) at the Centene Center for the Arts (3547 Olive Street; www. slightlyoff.org). Tickets are $15. Go? Go. King Basilius has been given an ominous four-part prophecy that comes with dire consequences; if all four parts are fulfilled, the Ningdom will lose the famous “beat” that maintains its health and fortune. As if he didn’t have enough problems. His oldest daughter, Pamela, is incredibly beautiful but will not select a husband from her many suitors. Basilius’ younger daughter Philoclea is in love with her childhood friend Musidorus, a shepherd with no real prospects. If all of this seems like strange source material for a musical, you’d be right; but throw in the songs and music of the Go-Go’s and you’re on to something. Jeff Whitty and James Magruder’s Head Over Heels loosely adapts the sixteenthcentury novel The Countess of Floral designer Maurice Harris will speak at Art in Bloom. | COURTESY OF SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM e artists participating in the 2020 Aphra Behn Festival. | JOEY RUMPELL PHOTOGRAPHY

Pembroke’s Arcadia into a modern story of gender politics, identity and the need to progress from the old ways to the new. New Line Theatre presents Head Over Heels at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (March 5 to 28) at the Marcelle Theatre (3310 Samuel Shepard Drive; www.newlinetheatre.com). Tickets are $20 to $30.

SATURDAY 03/07

’Scope the Walls

Artscope’s largest fundraiser of the year is Wall Ball, which helps the arts education organization continue to provide a creative outlet for kids. Wall Ball gathers together local artists such as Maribel Ramirez, Chauncey Gholston, Cbabi Bayoc and Dr. Amber Johnson for an evening of creation and libations. The artists handle the creation, as each one makes a new work of art during the evening, with patrons placing silent bids as the piece approaches completion. The libations (soda, beer and wine) are included in the $60 to $70 ticket price, and there’s a cash bar for the cocktail crowd. You get drinks and a new artwork for your walls, and the kids get to pursue their artistic dreams — everybody wins. Wall Ball takes place from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at Third Degree Glass Factory (5200 Delmar Boulevard; www.artscopestl.org/wall-ball).

In Full Bloom

The Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive; www.slam.org) once again welcomes the impending spring with Art in Bloom, its annual celebration of ȵowers and fine art. 7his )riday, 6aturday and Sunday (March 6 to 8) is packed with seminars, lectures, happy hours and presentations by ȵoral experts and enthusiasts from across the globe. ,n 6ugarȵowers and the Artistry of the Dutch Old Masters, Amsterdam-based designer Natasja Sadi will demonstrate how she creates sustainable, lifeliNe sugar ȵowers and then arranges them with actual ȵowers in the style of Dutch still-life painting. A trio of local experts — Cindy O’Hare, La’Crassia Wilderness and

WEEK OF MARCH 5-11

Lisa Govro — will discuss innovatiYe ways to use ȵowers in your eYeryday life, and 6t. /ouis ȵorist Jessica Douglass offers advice on creating hyperlocal arrangements of blooms and weeds. In addition to the seminars, the galleries of the museum will feature pairings of paintings with ȵoral arrangements crafted by many of the city’s finest botanical artisans. *eneral admission is free, but seminars require a moderate fee.

SUNDAY 03/08

Horse Opera

The California Gold Rush of 1849 is in full swing, and the tired and thirsty miners all congregate at the Polka Saloon at the end of the day. The owner, Minnie, reads to the men from her Bible and fends off the advances of various lovestruck miners. But when Dick Johnson, late of Sacramento, enters the Polka, she feels as if he’s a man she could love. Unfortunately for everyone, Dick is really Ramerrez, a bandit currently being hunted by Sheriff Rance (who also wants Minnie for his own). There’s gold in them thar hills, and also in Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West). The opera eschews Puccini’s usual showstopping arias

A baby brings together an unconventional family in Tokyo Godfathers. | COURTESY OF FATHOM EVENTS e cast of Head Over Heels. | JILL RITTER LINDBERG

for a more melodically complete score than his earlier works. Now rarely produced, Winter Opera St. Louis presents La Fanciulla del West in Italian (with English supertitles) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday (March 6 and 8) at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts (425 South Lindbergh Boulevard; www.winteroperastl.org). Tickets are $35 to $55.

MONDAY 03/09

Family Ties

2n first glance, 6atoshi .on’s anime Tokyo Godfathers is an unlikely Christmas movie. Three homeless people find a baby girl in the trash on Christmas Eve. Gin is an old drunk, Hana is a former drag queen and Miyuki is a teenager. Together, the trio track down the child’s mother, which leads to entanglements with mobsters and assassins. Along the way, they’re each forced to confront something from their pasts. There’s some pain, some humor and some excitement before the night is through, and by the end these very normal people are shown to be exceptional human beings. Together, they’re a family, which is what Christmas is all about. Tokyo Godfathers has a wealth of detail buried in its backgrounds, which maNes it one of those films worth seeing on the largest screen you can find. )athom (Yents presents a nationwide showing of the recently restored film at  p.m. Monday and Wednesday (March 9 and 11). Monday’s version is subtitled, and Wednesday’s is dubbed into English. Catch it at Marcus Ronnies 20 Cine (5320 South Lindbergh Boulevard; www.fathomevents.com); tickets are $13.47.

WEDNESDAY 03/11

High School Hockey Champs at Enterprise

It’s March, and we’re quickly running out of hockey (barring another long post-season for the Blues, of course). If you want to double up on games while the gettin’ is good, the Mid States Hockey Tournament offers a double header of high school hocNey. 7he semifinals are still underway at the time of writing, but in the Wickenheiser Cup game you’ll watch the winner of the game between Westminster and Oakville play the winner of the Fox vs. Duschene game at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 11. Following that game, the winner of Kirkwood vs. CBC takes on the eventual victor of Vianney and Lafayette tilt for the Challenge Cup. Both games are played at the Enterprise Center (1401 Clark Avenue; www.enterprisecenter.com). Tickets for both games are $9. n