Go Out! Fun events this week

On the sidelines of the Folk Alliance International conference, Dan Montgomery hosts a series of public showcases beginning Thursday at Otherlands. Ebet Roberts

FRIDAY

B.B.'s back

Before he heads to the White House next week to co-headline a tribute to the blues with Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger, the music's undisputed king, B.B. King, returns to his Delta roots with a show at Gold Strike Casino's Millennium Theater.

9 p.m. 1010 Casino Center Drive., Tunica Resorts, Miss. Tickets: $69.95 and $79.95, available at (888) 747-7711 and through Ticketmaster. For more information, visit goldstrike.com.

College crossing

There will be a reception Friday for the exhibition "Cross Currents" at Memphis College of Art's Main Gallery. The show was organized by MCA's Jennifer Sargent and includes work by Kendall Carter, Orly Cogan, Margaret Evangeline and Mark Newport. It will be displayed through March 25.

5 to 7 p.m. 1930 Poplar in Overton Park. Call (901) 272-5100, or visit mca.edu.

Photo by The Commercial Appeal files

On his way to a show next week at the White House, B.B. King performs tonight at Millennium Theater at Gold Strike Casino in Tunica.

Country singer Gary Allan ("Watching Airplanes") performs at 8 p.m. Saturday at Bluesville at Horseshoe Casino.

Emotional Theater

When five small-town Vermonters enroll in a community acting class, they get far more than they bargained for. "Circle Mirror Transformation," the 2010 Obie Award winner for best play, opening this weekend at Theatre Memphis, explores the value of theater as a way of opening up new emotional pathways.

7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Ext. Tickets: $23 adults, $15 students. Call (901) 682-8323.

'Axis' in motion

Modern dance collective Project: Motion continues its 25th anniversary celebration with a concert of genre-crossing dances. Guest artists Amy O'Neil (from Seattle), jhon r. storks (Houston) and Robin Sanders with Out Loud Artistry in Memphis help fuse hip-hop, improvisation and contemporary dance into Friday evening of dance called "AXIS: Long Distance Affairs."

8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Evergreen Theatre, 1705 Poplar. Tickets are $20 adults, $15 seniors. Call (901) 214-5327.

Young talent

The Four Seasons & Mozart features young prodigy Randall Goosby on violin with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra at Wiener Theater at Hutchison School. Goosby, a student at Arlington High School, performs works by Vivaldi, and the MSO adds some Mozart and Milhaud.

7:30 p.m. at Hutchison, 1740 Ridgeway. Tickets are $39 and nearly sold out.

After the Apocalypse

Henry Murray's disturbing new drama for mature audiences takes place after a series of ecological and biological disasters decimates the world's population, leaving a few survivors to to rebuild civilization. In "Treefall," opening at Rhodes College's McCoy Theatre, three teenage boys must not only survive, but also question their world and themselves.

7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Feb. 23-25, and 2 p.m. Feb. 26 at the McCoy Theater on the Rhodes campus, 2000 North Parkway. Tickets: $10 general admission, $7 seniors and $5 students. Call (901) 843-3839.

SATURDAY

The Nominees are ...

"A neurotic inventor creates a time machine and gets lost traveling around yesterday." That's the premise of Andrew Bowler's "Time Freak," one of five shorts that will be screened in a special program at this year's "Oscar Nominated Live Action Films" at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Films from Ireland, India, Norway and the U.S. are featured in this showcase for the often-neglected "little" brothers and sisters of the highly publicized Oscar-nominated feature films.

2 p.m. Tickets: $8, or $6 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org.

Watching Gary

Country singer Gary Allan, currently working on his ninth studio album, was recently pegged to headline the third edition of the best-selling "Country Throwdown" tour this summer. Fans won't have to wait that long as the "Watching Airplanes" crooner comes to Horseshoe Casino's Bluesville.

8 p.m. 1021 Casino Center Drive, Tunica Resorts, Miss. Tickets: $50 and $100; available at the box office and through Ticketmaster. For more information, call (800) 745-3000, or visit horseshoetunica.com.

Rock that punk

Memphis girl punk duo The Vignettes and local singer-songwriter William Stull join Atlanta rock band Turf War for a show at Earnestine & Hazel's on South Main.

10 p.m. 531 S. Main. Cover: $5. For more information, call (901) 529-9754.

SUNDAY

Hi times

It's a busy Sunday at the Hi-Tone Café as the Midtown venue hosts Citizens To Preserve Overton Park's free "Thank You Jamboree" with music by the Bluff City Backsliders beginning at 4 p.m. Then at 9 p.m., St. Louis' Pokey LaFarge and his South City Three play their old-timey "Riverboat soul."

Pokey LaFarge: $7 at the door; advance tickets available online at hitonememphis.com. Call (901) 278-8663.

TUESDAY

The Last Dance

After more than a dozen years, producers of the Irish dance phenomenon "Riverdance" are retiring the show from the road. The farewell tour continues with a stop at Southaven's Landers Center, formerly the DeSoto Civic Center.

7:30 p.m. 4560 Venture Drive, Southaven. Tickets: $35, $45 and $65. Tickets available at the box office and through Ticketmaster. For more information, call (888) 280-9120, or visit landerscenter.com.

WEDNESDAY

Farewell to Folk

Folk Alliance International, based in Memphis since 2007, bids adieu to the city this week. Though most conference activities are closed to nonregistrants, the nonprofit organization's last Memphis conference starts Wednesday with a public night at the Memphis Downtown Marriott where more than three dozens artists perform -- representing everything from the blues to singer-songwriters to Latin music. Locals can also catch some of the artists at a series of showcases at Otherlands that kicks off Thursday with a lineup hosted by Dan Montgomery.

For more information on the public night, visit folk.org. The Marriott is at 250 N. Main. Otherlands is at 641 S. Cooper; (901) 278-4994. 8 p.m.; cover, $8. Visit otherlandscoffeebar.com.

THURSDAY

Marital Murder

Opera composer Leonard Kastle only directed one movie before he died May 18 at age 82, but it's a doozy: "The Honeymoon Killers" (1970) is a macabre masterpiece of marital murder and sardonic mirth, inspired by a real-life pair of "lonely hearts killers" who seduced, swindled and slew a dozen women in the 1940s. A milestone of independent filmmaking, the movie stars Tony Lo Bianca and plus-size Shirley Stoler as the title lovers-gone-wrong.

7 p.m., Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Tickets: $8, or $6 for museum or Indie Memphis members. Visit brooksmuseum.org.

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