Regional arts and entertainment events
Capote and Baldwin The adventurous Mauckingbird Theatre Company looks at the lives of two of the best American writers in a repertory bill of Jay Presson Allen's Tru, a biography of Truman Capote set in 1975, after he had been banned from Manhattan societ
Sunday
Capote and Baldwin The adventurous Mauckingbird Theatre Company looks at the lives of two of the best American writers in a repertory bill of Jay Presson Allen's Tru, a biography of Truman Capote set in 1975, after he had been banned from Manhattan society for writing about his friends, and James Ijames' The Threshing Floor, about the life of the novelist and activist James Baldwin. The shows go on at 2 (Tru) and 7 p.m. (The Threshing Floor) at the Adrienne's Second Stage, 2030 Sansom St., and continue on a Wednesday-through- Sunday schedule to Jan. 31. Tickets for each show are $20; $18 seniors; $15 students. Call 215-923-8909.
Cool country Playing pure old-time country straight and true, the Dixie Bee-Liners make it hip to be square. The virtuoso bluegrass combo plays at 7 p.m. at Yards Brewing Company, 901 N. Delaware Ave. Tickets are $10. Call 215-247-1300.
Teens dance The first Choreographers Project program of the decade features new work by the dynamite triple bill of Megan Mazarick, Meg Foley, and Erin Foreman-Murray at 7:30 p.m. at Susan Hess Modern Dance Studio, 2030 Sansom St. Tickets are $12. Call 215-925-5350.
Monday
Tribute to greatness The Philadelphia Orchestra marks the 81st birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Thomas Wilkins conducting works by John Williams, William Grant Still, Samuel Barber, Duke Ellington, Morton Gould, Andrea Clearfield, and John Rosamund Johnson, with guests Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator, and the Philadelphia All City Choir. The 20th annual orchestral celebration takes place at 3 p.m. at Martin Luther King High School, 6100 Stenton Ave. Admission is free; tickets required. Call 215-276-3934.
Tuesday
Wondering why Novelist and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein has always run straight at the big ideas. In her new book, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, she tells the tale of an atheist whose beliefs are upended by success. She reads at 7:30 p.m. at the Free Library's Montgomery Auditorium, 19th and Vine Streets. Admission is free. Call 215-567-4341.
Wednesday
What it is A giant of photography, Edward Weston used the camera to reveal new facets of land and objects. An exhibit of his work is at the Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, to March 28. Admission is $10; $9 seniors; $7.50 students. Call 215-340-9800.. . . Photographer Lynn Rosenthal began documenting the life cycle of her Colocasia esculenta (elephant ear) plants in 2005, using her lens to show the tactile and geometric as well as the chronological. A show of her work is at St. Joseph's University Gallery, Boland Hall, Lapsley Lane off City Avenue, Lower Merion, to Feb. 12. Admission is free. Call 610-660-1840.
Thursday
Mix takes We like bands that mash up styles into something new. For example, Oklahoma City sextet the Uglysuit plays a laconic Beatlesque psychedelic chamber-pop. They open for local fractured-pop specialists Goodnight Lights at 8 p.m. at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. Tickets are $13 and $18. Call 215-222-1400.. . . Powered by Joe Deninzon's electric violin, New York's Stratospheerius calls their sound "psychojazz trip funk" - a mélange of rock, fusion, and Middle Eastern rhythms. It's a grand jam. They play on a three-band bill at 9:30 p.m. at Blinkin Lincoln, 473 Leverington Ave. Tickets are $5. Call 215-482-7500.
Friday & Saturday
Surrealist loop The theater of the absurd gets a workout when BRAT Productions stages A 24-hour "Bald Soprano" - a day's worth of repeated staging of Eugene Ionesco's one-hour play - at the Annenberg Center's Harold Prince Theater, 3680 Walnut St., from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25. Call 215-898-3900.
With strings The intrepid JACK Quartet has drawn acclaim for its enthusiastic performances of contemporary compositions. The ensemble plays works by Jeff Myers, Matthias Pintscher, Aaron Cassidy, and Wolfgang Rihm at the Kimmel Center's Innovation Studio, Broad and Spruce Streets, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10. Call 215-893-1999.
Super team-ups Two double bills of note: Divine folk-rocker Nanci Griffith and local fave Susan Werner (lately revisiting 1960s standards on her new CD, Classics) share the stage at the Media Theatre, State and Monroe Streets, Media, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $38 and $48. Call 610-891-0900.. . . In a match made in hippie heaven, blues guitarists and 1960s icons David Bromberg & Jorma Kaukonen join forces at the Keswick Theatre, Easton Road and Keswick Avenue, Glenside, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25 and $29.50. Call 215-572-7650.