The Rotunda (4014 Walnut Street) will host three afternoons of children’s musical play “Becky Butterfly and the Story of the Wayward Wasp.” The first one is today at 3 p.m. The show is produced by Fantasy Weavers, a production company affiliated with the musical’s author, Philly composer Kate Quinn.

The play focuses on a wasp named Kevin who has been born a male worker in the female workers’ world (and gets bullied because of that by other wasps) and Becky the butterfly whose family Kevin bullies in turn. Basically, the message is: it’s okay to be different and bullying is not acceptable.

The show is free for kids under 10 years old. Adult tickets are $7 and $5 for students, seniors, and children over 10. Other shows are scheduled for Oct. 9 and 16. To buy tickets online click here.

High school students ages 14-21 are invited to participate in the auditions for the high school version of the popular musical RENT to be staged in West Philly. The auditions will take place at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) on Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11, from 8 a.m. to noon, and Saturday, Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (call backs are from 1:30 to 5 p.m.).

The audition requires two songs of approximately three minutes in length, preferably from the RENT soundtrack. Musical accompaniment can be provided. To make arrangements in advance email: projecttheaterproject [at] gmail.com.

Prior theater experience is not necessary, but parental permission is required. Students that are cast for roles in RENT will be required to attend sixteen three-hour rehearsals in September, October, and November. The shows are scheduled for December.

Local community theater group PROJECT THEATER PROJECT is working on this production. For more information on the production, auditions and rehearsals go here.

If you dig all things alternative, indy, fringe and so on, then pencil the Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con into this Sunday’s agenda.

The P.A.C.C. returns to The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) in West Philly on August 14 from noon to 7. The event will feature tons of exhibitors and vendors dealing in the weirdly wonderful world of off-the-beaten-path comics and zines. West Philly’s own comic genius, Box Brown, will be in the house along with a ton of other artists.

A full list of vendors and exhibitors is available here. Admission is FREE.

Mariposa Food Co-op is hosting a screening of the documentary Queen of the Sun tomorrow, June 23, at 7 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.). All proceeds will go toward the co-op’s expansion.

The film, directed by Taggart Siegel, offers an insightful look at the global bee crisis. It explores the disappearance of bees and bee colony collapse disorder, which has dramatically increased since 2006. The authors try to find explanations and solutions to the crisis by interviewing beekeepers, scientists and philosophers and venturing into a wonderful and mysterious world of the beehive.

Here’s the thing; bees are directly responsible for producing a whole lot of the food we eat through pollination. They’re disappearing and we need to figure out why so we can help bring them back. This film goes a long way to highlighting this issue.

In addition to the Queen of the Sun screening, “West Philly Grown,” a short documentary about Mill Creek Farm will be shown.

Admission is on a sliding scale, from $5 to $20.

Here’s the Queen of the Sun preview:

The Rita Jones Dance Company will present A Tribute To Billie Holiday concert tonight at 7:30 p.m. at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.). Proceeds from the event will go to Pancreatic Cancer Research program at Jefferson Hospital. General admission tickets: $10.

With its classic tiled roof and soaring, arched windows, The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) sticks out amid the polished metal and stone that has become the west side of the intersection of 40th and Walnut Streets.

Built in 1911, the one-time Christian Science church turned neighborhood arts and culture venue is 100 years old this year. It’s celebrating with three days of performances by the wonderful Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Co., which has designed a production specifically for The Rotunda’s sanctuary space.

Most events at The Rotunda are held in a black-box theater in the rear part of the building that once served as a Sunday school when the building was a church. Occasionally, a performance warrants opening the much bigger sanctuary space, which sits under the buildings distinctive round roof.

This weekend’s unique performance, entitled Le Dada Va Gaga Dans 2011, is part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which continues through May 1.

This description of the performance comes from the dance company’s website:

The program consists of a dozen short theatrical vignettes, dances and art installations inspired by the architecture of the space and the festival theme, Paris in 1911 moving towards 2011. Highlights include video projections on walls juxtaposed with live performance, a 2011 installation inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s notorious Etant Donnes, dancers clinging to doorways and walls, a pew dance, characters such as the lighted-hat lady who drops Kleenexs from the choir loft, a re-imagined version of Mulgrew’s 1992’s Earthborne featuring a woman on a ladder watching a stick dance, carousel like-dances using the fallen chandelier as a
sculpture, unexpected scenarios and audience interaction.

Performances on Friday and Saturday begin at 7:11 p.m. Sunday’s performance begins at 3:11 p.m. If you arrive 11 minutes before the show, you can watch a “pre-show” performance outside The Rotunda. There will also be refreshments and discussion in the black-box theater following the show.

Tickets are $15 General Admission, $10 Students/Seniors/DancePass holders. Tickets can be purchased on the PIFA website www.pifa.org, in person at the Kimmel Center Box Office, or by phone at 215-546-PIFA or 215-790-5800.

Below is an interview with The Rotunda’s director, Gina Renzi, about the building and this weekend’s performance.