This weekend’s events list includes an outdoor music concert (free and family-friendly), a tool sale, a flea market, and more awesome events. Our roundup is below.

This Friday, local indie band The Chairman Dances (Facebook page) is inviting folks to a release show for their new record, Samantha Says. The show will be held at The Rotunda (40th and Walnut), from 8 to 9:30 p.m. (doors open at 7:30 p.m.). Tickets at the door are $10. Click here for more information.

This Friday and Saturday are the last two days when you can see Curio Theatre‘s comedy Noises Off before the theater closes its 2014-2015 season. Shows begin at 8 p.m. For more information and tickets ($25) go here.

University City District’s 40th Street Summer Series returns this Saturday, at 6 p.m., with a free outdoor concert by Philadelphia’s experimental cabaret group The Bearded Ladies. In addition, local group Tapestry Tribal will present Middle Eastern music and belly dancing. The popular concert series takes place on the last Saturday of every month, from May to September, on the green space behind Walnut Street West Library at 40th and Walnut and also includes family-friendly activities: balloon art, face painting, jugglers and more. This Saturday, you can also enjoy free ice cream served by Ben & Jerry’s.

Also on Saturday, West Philly Tool Library invites neighbors to their Spring Tool Sale. The sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will include a wide selection of hand and power tools at affordable prices, as well as West Philly Tool Library T-Shirts, bibs, and carpenter’s pencils. Tax-deductible donations are also encouraged. Coffee Market (AKA Earth Cup) will be serving their delicious cold brew coffee. West Philly Tool Library is located at 1314 S. 47th St. (between Woodland and Grays Ferry). For more information, visit: www.westphillytools.org.

On Saturday at 7 p.m., FloByFaith Productions and local Boy Scout troop 152 will present The Soul of a Woman, a musical that tackles various issues such as homelessness, mental health and self worth. Proceeds will benefit the troop’s scholarship fund, helping create young leaders from West Philadelphia. Tickets: $35 in advance and $40 at the door (St. Francis de Sales Auditorium, 917 S. 47th St.).

For more upcoming events, including West Philly Flea Market, Women’s Day of Wellness, and film screenings at International House Philadelphia, visit our Events Calendar.

(Foodinjars.com)

There will be a couple of great and FREE events today in the area.

• Food in Jars founder and canning expert Marisa McClellan presents a pickling workshop at Walnut Street West Library (40th and Walnut) beginning at 5:30 p.m. Other free events scheduled at Walnut St West Library this month include: May 13, 20 & 27 – Yoga For Kids!; May 16 – Plant Workshop; May 22 & 29 – Vinyasa Yoga for Adults. For more events (through July 14, 2015) and to RSVP, click here.

• Curio Theatre Company and Philadelphia Dramatists Center (PDC) have partnered for the second year in a row to produce the PDC@Curio Plays In Progress. PDC and Curio will bring two plays to life in professional staged readings, featuring actors from Curio’s professional company and directors from Philadlephia’s vibrant theatre scene. The first reading, Robin Rodriguez’s Flotsam, will be presented tonight, at 7:30 p.m., at Curio (4740 Baltimore Avenue). Flotsam is an eerie drama about a brother, a sister, and a storage unit. It will be directed by Jessica Schwartz (MAD BLOOD & other beauties, Fringe 2014; Modern Playground, Fringe 2013). Admission is free, and light refreshments will be provided. For more details about both readings, visit Curio Theatre’s website.

The Curio Theatre is closing out its season with the rollicking comedy Noises Off, a Michael Frayn play about a play, which previews on April 30 – May 7 and opens on May 8.

Noises Off introduces the audience to the epically incompetent cast of Nothing On – the play within the play – and their travails in everything from dress rehearsals to close of the play’s 10-week run. The play takes its title from the theatrical stage direction indicating sounds coming from offstage.

Peter Reynolds is directing the Curio production, Paul Kuhn designed the set and Tim Martis designed the lighting. The costume designer is Aetna Gallagher, and Kathleen Soltan is the stage manager.

The cast includes Kyra Baker, Newton Buchanan, Steve Carpenter, Isabella Fehlandt, Rachel Gluck and Andrew Carroll.

Tickets for the performances range from $15 to $25 and are available here.

Oh, and here’s an added bonus: If you show up to opening night dressed in 80’s attire (the production is set in the 80’s) you have a chance to win two passes for next season.

Ninth graders at The Workshop School, a new city high school that emphasizes a hands-on problem-solving curriculum, have made Antigone their own.

They have been working on a production of the timeless Theban play since February and announced that they will stage the play on Friday, March 27 at the Curio Theatre Company (4740 Baltimore Ave). The production has been student-led from start to finish.

“This project shows how unique and creative we can be and that teenagers can use their great minds to create great things,” said 9th grader Casirae Hayward-Gaymon. “We worked really hard and for us being young adults we feel inspired by our work and are excited to show people what we accomplished.”

The students have worked on the finer points with theater professionals from Philadelphia Young Playwrights and Curio and have attended some performances to learn more. They divided themselves into five groups to produce the play: Arts Administration, Lighting and Sound, Costume and Makeup, Acting, and Set Design.

“I have never been prouder of a group of students. I think that this play is so powerful because it comes from their lives and their work,” said Theater teacher Kathleen Melville.

Two performances are scheduled for Friday; one at 10 a.m. and another at 6 p.m. Tickets are sliding scale: $5 to $10. No tickets will be sold at the door, so to get them you have to contact Helen Rowe at helen.rowe@workshopschool.org to reserve. 

“This performance will help start a tradition of 9th graders doing this project each year in our school,” said 9th grader Sadia Upshur.

– Mike Lyons

Shakespeare in Clark Park is looking for young performers for this summer’s production of The Winter’s Tale. The production requires young singers, dancers, puppeteers and actors (ages 5 to 15). An information session will be held Wednesday, March 11 at the University City Arts League’s second floor meeting room (4226 Spruce St.) at 6:30 p.m. Attendance at the meeting is not required to audition.

Speaking of auditions … those will be held this Saturday, March 14, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Curio Theatre (48th and Baltimore). “Bring a song if you sing, or your instrument if you play,” the audition call reads. “Or just bring yourself and come tell us a joke! No experience necessary — just the willingness to play.”

For more information, check out the Shakespeare in Clark Park website.

Well-known Philadelphia actor Steve Wright is playing the title character in Curio’s Othello. (Photo by Kyle Cassidy)

Yes, the Curio Theatre Company is staging William Shakespeare’s Othello. But this is billed as an “intimate and in-your-face” version of the tale of one of the most famous Moors of them all.

“This version of Othello will be raw,” according to correspondences from Curio leading up to Friday, Feb. 20’s opening night. Dan Hodge, the co-founding director of The Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, will direct. Well-known Philadelphia actor Steve Wright will play the title character.

“Doing Othello in a smaller space is a gift, because it allows us to strip away the sense of grandeur that can distance us from the play and we can engage with the characters as people,” Hodge said. “This is Shakespeare’s most domestic tragedy, and it is a true pleasure to invest in the subtle human elements that make it resonate with us today.”

And those humans are pretty delicious, including the enchanting Desdemona (Isa St. Clair) and the dastardly Iago (Brian McCann). Othello is about power and love and suspicion – the grist of any good drama. The cast also includes Steve Carpenter, Rachel Gluck, Colleen Hughes, Paul Kuhn, Eric Scotolati and Bob Weick.

The show runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from Feb. 20 through March 14 on Curio’s Corner Stage. There are previews on Feb. 12, 13, 14 and 19. Ticket information is available here.

– Mike Lyons